I was playing Uplink, the hacking type game, the other day, and a thought occured to me.
"This would make a brilliant MMO"
I had the opportunity then to think about it quite a bit, whilst washing test tubes in a job that i have now, mercifully, finished with. I think the whole thing could be done with php/mySQL. This has the double bonus of people being to play anywhere where they can get their hands on web-access, as well as making it feasable for me (and maybe a few helpfull volunteers
) to create and maintain without purchasing any expensive servers or going to the hassle of coding anything too difficult.Basic concept would be thus:
Set in "teh future", so factual bits of the hacking process can be kept nice and hazy. This is for two reasons: 1)Real hacking is dull dull dull. I know a real hacker, who got arrested by real police. Hes dull. What he does (did) is dull. 2)I dont know how to do "real" hacking, so simulating it would be a tad tricky.
Player would have a computer that he logs on to (this is all make believe, before people get confused). This computer would have stats, such as memory, clock speed etc, similar to a characters stats in an RPG. Instead of the characters skills and equipment, the player would have programs, such as password breakers, virus tools, programming tools (more on that later).
The aim of this would be to hack pretend systems, with thier own statistics and so on. Companies would post jobs on some kind of auto-generated BBS type thing, such as "steal X from company Y's servers" This, in turn, would generate more missions. "Hi, we are company Y. Find out who stole X from our servers" for example.
Thats the Quests/missions of the MMO taken care of, what about the spicy bits, such as resource gathering, crafting, or grouping?
Well...
Resource Gathering: hacking into companies servers and stealing source code/research data (that'll all come up as some kind of generic resource, like "Data" or something). Different Data would have different statistics; some would be worth loads on the open market, some would be worth more on the underground market. Some would be good for...
Crafting: No MMO could be without crafting, and this would be no exception. Get programming skills, and the required raw data, combine it with a bit of time and get shiney how spun programs out tother end! hurrah! Or, (and i really like this idea) hack into a manufacturing plants computer system, send it real world resources from a hauling company you hacked, and have it build computery goods for you, to be spirited away by hacked haulage companies and then "lost" due to "computer error"
Grouping: Maybe youve got a really good password breaker/firewall bypassing setup, but you cant clean your tracks well enough? Maybe you know someone who can get out without a trace, but cant get in? Team up and become Invincible!
oh, and PvP is fairly obvious: trace people actions, hack into their storage spaces and nick thier stuff, etc.
And theres all the other possibilities, such as creating fake identities to throw the fuzz off your trail, hacking banks for raw cash, being a hacker "good guy" who only traces and takes down "bad hackers", or being a morally devoid bastard who ruins peoples lives and causes banks to go out of buisness just for a quick buck.
Im fairly sure its a good plan, but was wondering if anyone else did?
Also, while im reasonable with the whole php/mySQL thing, this would be quite a big project, so i wouldnt say no to some help
Gods, thats got to be one of the biggest posts this forum's had so far.
