Proposal:Wiki-Games
Every proposal should be tied to one of the strategic priorities below.
Edit this page to help identify the priorities related to this proposal!
- Achieve continued growth in readership
- Focus on quality content
- Increase Participation
- Stabilize and improve the infrastructure
- Encourage Innovation
Summary
Let's define "Wiki Game" as a browser-based game, whose rules and definitions may be edited in a wiki-style.
Think of any browser-based game you like - Strategy, RPG, MUD or any other type. Imagine you could edit the map of the world or add new playable zones; edit the texts of the NPCs or add new NPCs; edit the rules or add new rules. Imagine that all those changes may be done as simply as editing a page in Wikipedia. Imagine that as soon as you click "save" your changes are visible to anyone playing the game.
That is what I call a "Wiki Game".
Proposal
Create infrastructure that will enable everyone with experience in MediaWiki to create wiki-games. Specifically:
- Create a standard game server that will be able to host many different wiki-games.
- Create a standard game-writing language, based on MediaWiki, which will enable people to write wiki-games easily.
Motivation
Take the idea of collaborative editing to a new and exciting domain - web-based games.
Key Questions
- Is it possible that a person who participates in creating the game will also enjoy playing the game? (answer: it depends on the game: if the game definition contains secrets and "spoilers", then of course, those that read the game definition will not enjoy playing the game; but if the game definition is general enough and the game includes a high random factor, then it is possible that even the game creator will enjoy playing it).
- What measures should be taken to prevent players from changing the game to give themselves unfair advantage over other players?
- What language, both simple and powerful, should be used to define wiki-games?
Potential Costs
Creating and hosting a game server is very expensive. But the game industry has ways of creating incomes from games, such as giving extra-features to paying users.
References
- A simple wiki-game is available in Hebrew Wikisource: Textia - a strategy wiki-game. Currently, Wikisource hosts only the game definition; the game itself is played on a private server.
- Towards a Wikipedia Game (rut jesus/ uni. Copenhagen). 2nd talk.
Community Discussion
Do you have a thought about this proposal? A suggestion? Discuss this proposal by going to Proposal talk:Wiki-Games.
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