Game Play Extentions

I think that an element that needs to be added onto games, is an interactive element that can be played at work.  I have not played the game, but Forza 2 seems to be in the right frame of mind.  While you are at work you can hit up auction houses and message boards.

That is a nice beginning.  I think it needs to go a lot more detailed.  Imagine a console style mmo, where you did the adventure at night, but you planned for it in the day.  Say over a break at work you log into a web based interface, you could equip your character, have him go to shops and buy his gear, do auction house stuff, and get to the nights meeting point.  That would rule.

I think the big element to all this is that it needs to happen in a way that it is playable over any pc.  No crazy flash or anything that will stop peoples work computers from accessing it.  No streaming video, or large data transfers that would trigger someones itchy IT department.  It maybe could have a stripped down version for work, and an enhanced version for those with less restrictive jobs.

What would be even cooler is, if in game people could see your character walking around and doing the tasks you told them to do.  Players in the game could maybe interact with you buy sending txts or some type of RSS feed that could give you options for your characters actions.  Like say a craftsman tells your character he has some good sale items and you get an email about it, or your web interface refreshes and you can read about it.

That is a game type I would love.  Then you can talk about it with people you work with, make plans for the evening, and when it is time to play at night there is no messing around.  You could even have your character waiting for you at a predetermined point.

Another thing I would like is the Real Life Happens feature.  RLH is when you planned on meeting with your group at 9:30 and you got stuck at work late.  Rather then put everyone off you could give people temporary permission to use your character as a bot.  Maybe you could even predefine your bots characteristics.  If he's a warrior you could input some types of preferences on how he fights, or if he's a cleric, you could shape the bots actions on how he healed and buffed.

It wouldn't be as nice as actually having you there, but your friends night wouldn't have to be ruined.  Then if you could join them an hour later you could just take over. 

These ideas are not just for MMO's however.  They could be implemented for any multiplayer game.  This kind of game element might be a generation or two away yet, but I hope that it is only a short time before we start seeing a lot of this type of game play element.