FHC Community Gameplay?

[Claws]

What do you guys think of the idea of playing a game in such a way that we can all have the chance of contribute to the story without leaving the boundaries of our awesome forum? I'm certainly excited about it.

My idea was to take a game that cannot be solved in a single way and that differs as much as possible between gameplays to make the experience unique and share that same experience with you all... for that reason is that I thought that we should play a Harvest Moon game (we shall decide if we are going with the N64 version -which I'm eager to try- or the GBA version -which I have been playing with tons of fun-). Those are long games, but no-one said that we should play them to completion, let's just try to have some sane fun while we are at it

But how are we going to "play" on the forum? Well, that's the golden question, but it is also the easiest to answer. I'm going to start a new game on either game and I'm going to ask you guys what to do throughout the whole thing, setting a poll if necessary and majority would rule. It might sound silly, but it can be incredibly engaging as well, because pretty much every step you give in those games require you to take a decision that can influence the unfolding of the story ("should I get a chicken or focus on crops while money is still an issue?", "Should I sell eggs or save them to create more chickens?", "Should I upgrade my tools or buy more seeds instead? Which girl should I marry? Is it a good idea to buy livestock?...").

If you guys are up with the idea, I will set up a poll to decide which version we are playing. And trust me, if people on Twitch can do this by the thousands while on the chat, we can do it as well :P

[mistercynical]

Wouldn't this slow down the gameplay to a crawl if every decision has to be made by a poll on the forum?

Anyway, I would think a game along the lines of RollerCoaster Tycoon, or Cities: Skylines or the like might be better suited to this. A game that's more creative with infinite possibilities instead of a linear story. That way, instead of simply binary decisions, it's more of a debated planning session.

Instead of "Should I sell eggs or save them to create more chickens?", it'd be "How should we expand our city's industry?" and we'd lay out a plan and debate it accordingly and then the streamer (I guess that would be you) would execute the agreed-upon plan.

This could all be done through a Discord chat, in one streaming session, but the chat would be accessible only from this site...

What say you?

[Claws]

Wouldn't this slow down the gameplay to a crawl if every decision has to be made by a poll on the forum?

Not really, every given action you can perform on the game (even the smaller ones) do take a long time to complete, so a couple of votes can decide the course of action for the day (specially during the first part). We can all decide to clean up the field and that's pretty much all we would be doing for the first day (that's like 20 minutes in-game). A lot of the decisions are like that, because the game rewards patience. This gameplay would only differ from a solo one because of the involvement of other people.

Instead of "Should I sell eggs or save them to create more chickens?", it'd be "How should we expand our city's industry?" and we'd lay out a plan and debate it accordingly and then the streamer (I guess that would be you) would execute the agreed-upon plan.

This could all be done through a Discord chat, in one streaming session, but the chat would be accessible only from this site...

Well... that's the main thing, I don't think I could stream anything in a convenient-enough time for people to show up, that's why it was going to be a forum-based experience. Instead of seeing the whole thing on the screen, it was going to be cut-down to the very results of every decision in a screenshot-based journal a la Super Adventures in Gaming.

I know, I know... it sounds pretty shitty, but I have seen it work too many times to just let it slide without a try.

[mistercynical]

Alright, so we'll stick to the slow-paced forum decisions, that's fine with me. Then I guess it would be a thread, you'd propose questions, we've answer them, then you'd post an screenshot or an update on what happened. Rinse and repeat.

I can see that working out, but only for some games. It has to be a game that involves very little/none action or time-restricted elements, otherwise it's just down to you to decide the fate at that time. I've never played Harvest Moon, but if it lacks action/time-restricted elements, I could see it working.

There are a BUNCH of RPGs and other games that could work for this, but a significant amount of game that wouldn't work for this.

Well, I guess I'll wait for other members to add their input.

[Claws]

Just as a little side note: we don't have to play Harvest Moon nor I have to be the one in charge of the whole thing... if anyone else comes up with a better idea, I'll be happy to just take part of the resolution of the game

You do seem like you have some interesting ideas, mate (and I will be happy to listen to them). But yeah, let's hear the rest first

[Naylte]

A good idea, but I'm also thinking more along the lines of a live stream rather than the slow polling and screenshots. That said, that's likely because I'm having a hard time picturing how a game would be played like this otherwise. I'm aware that time zone differences would cause several problems with that method. My knowledge of different games is somewhat limited, so if you can come up with one and adequately demonstrate that it could work well, I will certainly take part.

[Claws]

Do you guys think that it would be a good idea to set some sort of "demo run" with my current game of Harvest Moon for us to see how it plays? I have some pretty big decisions ahead of me, so the timing is right.

[Chipster-roo]

This is an interesting idea, but wouldn't it take several hours for enough people to vote in the poll for you to be able to make a decision?

I'm not familiar with Harvest Moon 64, but I might still end up participating.

[Claws]

Yes it would, but it would also give people a fair chance to show up and take part on the decision.

I will create a demo run in a short while.