Challenger #001
25th April 2012, 11:12 AM
An idea struck me after I watched this excellent video (which you should all watch, these guys are amazing: http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/transgaming) about transgaming between different platforms and genres of story and started playing more 2048, and I think I may have stumbled onto a new idea for a tie-in to the WipEout series that goes along with this idea of transgaming.
The basic idea is to have a pair of games running in sync. One is a WipEout racing game we all know and love. Lets' take a version of 2048 as an example. The other is an investigative adventure game in the style of L.A. Noire or Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
So going back. What we have in 2048 is the same style of game as we have now, albeit perhaps a little more casual-friendly. There’s a campaign mode, single player racebox, multiplayer campaign, multiplayer racebox, but also a joint online-and-single-player ‘tournament’ mode. This would run similar to how I imagine events in Gran Turismo 5 are run. Every player on the globe can take part in a series of events over a race ‘weekend’. It would start say on Friday 00:00 GMT, with a track chosen by Studio Liverpool on a randomiser basis that changed it every two weeks. (Or not, as you’ll see. ;) )
As the player, you will be notified online, and asked if you want to participate in this global tournament. You will be asked to pick a speed class to enter, or you’d be forced to do a Zone event that would assign you a ‘rank’ and speed class for the event. Then on the Friday, all through the day, you can participate in online eliminators against other people on the internet who’ve picked the same class as you, always randomised, though always the same track, in the same style as a FPS deathmatch scrambler.
The player with the most points at the end of that day would be the ‘Eliminator king’ so to speak, and their name would get immortalised for the next two weeks until the next event. I doubt Sony would be willing to give away actual prizes for these victories, except maybe in PSHome but then who uses that any more? *cough*
Then on the Saturday, its’ an open day for Time Trials and Speed Laps. The Time Trials are simply to assign a leaderboard, however the Speed Laps are designed to assign ‘grids’ for the next day’s races.
On Sunday, all day, you can choose to join a race event. The grids will be arranged according to qualifying times, so while you will be randomly assigned rivals, depending on how you did on your Speed Lap, you’ll always be placed in a similar position on the grid (unless you end up in a room with many much slower or much faster than you). Then you are awarded points at the end of the race (8-6-5-4-3-2-1-0), and your total is tallied throughout the day.
At the end of the Sunday, again, the victor gets to proclaim their ability for a fortnight while everyone else complains about the AG-Systems Speed being OP.
Where does the transgaming come into this? Here’s where.
In the 10 days between the end of the races and the beginning of the next one, those playing the detective game will end up investigating some mysterious event that happened during the previous race weekend.
I mentioned that this would be an L.A. Noire esque detective game, perhaps I should elaborate. In my mind, the world in which the WipEout series are set is a fascinating one. It’s a future in which scientists have created a brand new form of propulsion and transport that doesn’t run on oil. The entire balance of power has shifted in the world. The pollution caused by fossil fuel burning is almost at an end, and yet those that held sway in this old world are bitter towards the enlightened like Pierre Belmondo, Delia Flaubert and even Holst McQueen.
Surely this set-up is a perfect place to set a crime drama of sorts - in a world which hinges on intellectual theft and ideas, money driving some people and research driving others.
After every race, there’s an enquiry. Is AG-Systems using unfair technology? Was Qirex trying to use too brutal tactics? What on earth is Piranha up to? In the real world, there are a panel of stewards after Formula One races to do much the same, but for the purposes of this world, we have private investigators hired by individual teams to either examine these claims or to prove them wrong.
I’m imagining after every race, the players in the detective game will have to pick an assignment (one of the five major teams, or the World AG Symposium) to investigate. I doubt this would focus on the run-and-gunning as in Deus Ex or L.A. Noire, but more take the investigative approach, perhaps with a dash of Phoenix Wright in presenting and comparing evidence. Perhaps even a possibility to play with rival investigators to try and outsmart them with evidence could be an interesting take on it.
In the end, the success rating of various investigators will be decided. Say for example there was a concern about a Qirex pilot being aggressive (perhaps a Qirex won the Eliminators that previous weekend), and the majority of prosecutors were successful in their case that there had been requests for the pilot to be particularly brutal - then the Qirex Combat ships would be disallowed for the previous weekend. Or if there was a worry about the safety of the missiles - no missiles would be available for the next weekend.
Every two weeks, the racing dictates the investigation to be carried out, and the investigation affects the following race.
What do you think, zoners?
The basic idea is to have a pair of games running in sync. One is a WipEout racing game we all know and love. Lets' take a version of 2048 as an example. The other is an investigative adventure game in the style of L.A. Noire or Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
So going back. What we have in 2048 is the same style of game as we have now, albeit perhaps a little more casual-friendly. There’s a campaign mode, single player racebox, multiplayer campaign, multiplayer racebox, but also a joint online-and-single-player ‘tournament’ mode. This would run similar to how I imagine events in Gran Turismo 5 are run. Every player on the globe can take part in a series of events over a race ‘weekend’. It would start say on Friday 00:00 GMT, with a track chosen by Studio Liverpool on a randomiser basis that changed it every two weeks. (Or not, as you’ll see. ;) )
As the player, you will be notified online, and asked if you want to participate in this global tournament. You will be asked to pick a speed class to enter, or you’d be forced to do a Zone event that would assign you a ‘rank’ and speed class for the event. Then on the Friday, all through the day, you can participate in online eliminators against other people on the internet who’ve picked the same class as you, always randomised, though always the same track, in the same style as a FPS deathmatch scrambler.
The player with the most points at the end of that day would be the ‘Eliminator king’ so to speak, and their name would get immortalised for the next two weeks until the next event. I doubt Sony would be willing to give away actual prizes for these victories, except maybe in PSHome but then who uses that any more? *cough*
Then on the Saturday, its’ an open day for Time Trials and Speed Laps. The Time Trials are simply to assign a leaderboard, however the Speed Laps are designed to assign ‘grids’ for the next day’s races.
On Sunday, all day, you can choose to join a race event. The grids will be arranged according to qualifying times, so while you will be randomly assigned rivals, depending on how you did on your Speed Lap, you’ll always be placed in a similar position on the grid (unless you end up in a room with many much slower or much faster than you). Then you are awarded points at the end of the race (8-6-5-4-3-2-1-0), and your total is tallied throughout the day.
At the end of the Sunday, again, the victor gets to proclaim their ability for a fortnight while everyone else complains about the AG-Systems Speed being OP.
Where does the transgaming come into this? Here’s where.
In the 10 days between the end of the races and the beginning of the next one, those playing the detective game will end up investigating some mysterious event that happened during the previous race weekend.
I mentioned that this would be an L.A. Noire esque detective game, perhaps I should elaborate. In my mind, the world in which the WipEout series are set is a fascinating one. It’s a future in which scientists have created a brand new form of propulsion and transport that doesn’t run on oil. The entire balance of power has shifted in the world. The pollution caused by fossil fuel burning is almost at an end, and yet those that held sway in this old world are bitter towards the enlightened like Pierre Belmondo, Delia Flaubert and even Holst McQueen.
Surely this set-up is a perfect place to set a crime drama of sorts - in a world which hinges on intellectual theft and ideas, money driving some people and research driving others.
After every race, there’s an enquiry. Is AG-Systems using unfair technology? Was Qirex trying to use too brutal tactics? What on earth is Piranha up to? In the real world, there are a panel of stewards after Formula One races to do much the same, but for the purposes of this world, we have private investigators hired by individual teams to either examine these claims or to prove them wrong.
I’m imagining after every race, the players in the detective game will have to pick an assignment (one of the five major teams, or the World AG Symposium) to investigate. I doubt this would focus on the run-and-gunning as in Deus Ex or L.A. Noire, but more take the investigative approach, perhaps with a dash of Phoenix Wright in presenting and comparing evidence. Perhaps even a possibility to play with rival investigators to try and outsmart them with evidence could be an interesting take on it.
In the end, the success rating of various investigators will be decided. Say for example there was a concern about a Qirex pilot being aggressive (perhaps a Qirex won the Eliminators that previous weekend), and the majority of prosecutors were successful in their case that there had been requests for the pilot to be particularly brutal - then the Qirex Combat ships would be disallowed for the previous weekend. Or if there was a worry about the safety of the missiles - no missiles would be available for the next weekend.
Every two weeks, the racing dictates the investigation to be carried out, and the investigation affects the following race.
What do you think, zoners?