The Greatest Game NEVER Made

I have always dreamed of an Xbox Live or PS3 multiplayer game that never slept. Imagine you turn on your Xbox or PS3 and enter the most expansive multiplayer map ever developed. It's a land made up of a dozen or so islands the size of those seen in Grand Theft Auto IV. But this isn't Grand Theft Auto IV, because in this game, every player who is playing the game is in this one single map. And, when players sign off and go to bed, their characters lie down where they left them on the map and fall asleep.

The game would be named after the rough, devastated world that all the players have to survive in called, Armaghetto. The object of the game would be for players to survive and gain a reputation. You could rob people in their sleep and take their money to buy food or weapons, or you could make friends with other players and form gangs to gain power in numbers. Perhaps more altruistic players could earn points for enforcing the law and protecting other players. Players could use their money to buy things they can use in the game or to start an in game business that sells weapons, food, or supplies to other players to help them survive.

The main selling point of Armaghetto would be that the game never sleeps. Sure, games like Modern Warfare can be played 24 hours a day, but in Modern Warfare and every other online game, you have the game's player population divided into many groups of 8-12 players. Armaghetto will bring all of the game's players together into one single, huge multiplayer map that they can never escape, even when they are not signed on. If a player doesn't sign on again after a certain amount of time, his character will die of starvation right where the player left him and he will have to start from scratch with a new character the next time he signs on to play. If a player knows he's going to be away for a few days or more, he can use his in-game earnings to pay to have his body cryogenically frozen until he returns to the game.

I realize that there are serious bandwidth and lag issues that this game would likely fall victim too, but come one, it's 2010. We were supposed to have flying cars like ten years ago. I think somebody can pull this off. If they do, it would be one of the best online multiplayer games of all time. I would even be willing to pay an additional monthly fee just to be able to play it if it was up to my standards of quality. There are tons of other facets of Armaghetto that I haven't shared here, if the idea catches on I just may.