My MMO Ideas: Cartography, Exploration, & Religion Mechanics

There are few things in the world of MMORPGs that would generally get me excited, but when I think of systems or mechanics like cartography, exploration, and religion imputed into an MMORPG CORRECTLY mind you; I cant help but get excited. I say correctly cause many MMORPGs have these mechanics such as exploration, Guild Wars 2 comes to mind to many when they hear exploration & that's kinda what I mean by correctly imputed & also where I want to start.

Source: GuildWars2hub.com

During the launch of Guild Wars 2 we heard ALOT about "Exploration" from Arenanet on how exciting & rewarding it is, an although I'm a huge Guild Wars fan I wasn't impressed. Exploration in GW was more about looking on your map for little icons, Getting to the icon, & in the case of it being a vista; Clicking on said icon for a cut scene and some experience. And I don't believe that should be considered exploration, And if your going to argue that you need to "explore" to find hearts; Dont. The Exploration I'm talking about that should be implemented into an MMORPG is where the player's map is black, Not blurry. And not where the player will simply find icons to gain alittle experience but will actually have to draw the map, Hence where cartography comes from but I'll talk about that more later. Generally what I'm thinking is the player will start in his/her starting town and that would be the map. Not because it makes sense but because that's all he/or she should know. That is that characters world. The rest should be black cause the character has not experienced the rest.

To back up what I'm talking about think of it like a Civilization map as seen in the picture, The map only shows what you've encountered, And as you scout or EXPLORE your map starts to cover more land & grows. This is how exploration would work in my MMO. Cause it doesn't just give the player a sense of discovery but a chance to cheaply implement character development. How? If your character is questing, there by making relationships with NPCs; Lets say the hunter of your village, As your relationship with him grows he would start to tell you or hand you "Map Scrolls" informing you of small hunting locations or areas of danger near by. Giving the feeling that your character is not only developing in levels but with NPCs & their map. Simply put cheap character development.

This also brings us to Cartography. First I want to say, No it would not be a "profession" as every player would start with it and therefore; is not a crafting system. However, in a sense you would be crafting what I had said just before; "Map Scrolls." You would do this by "Mapping" an area other wise unknown to other players. What this would do is encourage players to go out into the world to discover things & map them, selling them to other players who other wise do not wish to explore the world but play the game as he/she normally would. And after awhile maps of certain kinds would be cheap to obtain not really making it a hassle for them non-adventures players. But that wouldn't be the end to Cartography, Although its been done to a point Cartography would also allow the player to customize there map. From circling points of interest to drawing pathways through mountains players would be given the freedom to do what they want with there map.

Now Religion! I really don't know why developers haven't explored this idea more. Most of the time you'll see developers just through in lore about peoples gods & kings or like in GW2 let you "follow" a god for your personal story but that's really as far as it goes. What I was think was almost a Guild System but with alot of stuff changed & added. But what do I mean? What I mean is religion like Cartography could be a mechanic to create huge depth into the MMORPG. Something players would benefit from participating in but wouldn't have to. Cutting to the chace religion would give the player buffs towards certain things that's follow that religion's beliefs, But would also give de-buffs toward things that don't aline. As an example: If a player following a religion perdominatly amde of people of trade (Merchants, Tax collecters) They would have small buffs in trading (selling or buying from NPCs) however that player would receive de-buffs towards (Finding loot/stealing) there for no religion would be unbalanced cause the de-buff would be just as bad as the the buff would be good. Things could also happen such as a party of players with the same religion receiving a small combat buff; or if players are facing each other with completely opposite faiths they would gain combat buffs toward each other.

Well, I know that was alot. Mostly it was just me trying to get out whats in my mind. If you agree or disagree with anything I've stating please comment below:) Thank you for reading & as always happy gaming!

-Brandon Losch