Author Topic: Conceptualizing a 'Haunted' IT server  (Read 1447 times)

Offline eddiethehead

  • Forum Newcomer
  • *
  • Posts: 1
  • Floof-O-Meter: 1
    • View Profile
Conceptualizing a 'Haunted' IT server
« on: June 01, 2023, 09:20:03 pm »
fingers crossed this is the right place to post this, forums are not my strong suit and i wasn't sure what other website this could go on😅

hey peeps, so it's been on my mind lately how nostalgic i am for ye old days back in the mid 2010s where i played a lot of feral-heart and of course a few impressive title servers like impressive world, last moon, dragons den, etc. unfortunately as the internet ages, these games are either completely shut down or desolate, the only players that may be around on ones that are still up either being closely knit folks or people revisiting for the nostalgia.

revisiting some of these games always fills me with this sad yet unsettled feeling. it's very similar to when you go to a dead mall and there are supposed to be people there and once were, but there barely is anymore. there is tons of history and memories attached to these games that linger in very ghostly ways now, and coming across other people can sometimes feel like a miracle. and because it's so lonely and liminal, there's this dread at the back of my mind when i play them where something scary is gonna happen but i can't really say what scary thing it is exactly. i had always wanted to create an impressive title server when i was younger. i still want to create one, but in a different way;

what if there was an impressive title horror(ish) game where you explore the remnants of an old IT server? the game would be single player/offline with the illusion of it being multiplayer, just that you are the only person online. you could play on a pre made account where someone already has a character, items, bio, filled up friends list etc and as you explore you find ghosts of the past as well as strange things. certain maps are 'glitched' to have snippets of old chats involving the account you're playing on and its friends where you learn about what the game was like in its prime, what the account's friends were like such as why they quit likely involving depressing reasons that have to do with growing up and unexpected life events or just vanishing like online friends seem to do with only rumors left behind, and who the person was that had the account. maps are desolate and the creatures that would once spawn there in plentiful numbers seem to spawn less, furthering that feeling of isolation. the only other 'person' listed online besides you is a moderation bot that has always been there, but it seems to be degrading or perhaps becoming sentient where some maps where there aren't those old chat logs, it will randomly speak to itself or you in uncanny ways. maybe sometimes it asks a question and if the player has a keen eye they can answer it based on the logs they've read which will trigger an event where the music goes quiet and a severely glitched out avatar with the name of the bot chases you down and crashes your game.

maybe it's a little bit of an edgy idea, but i'm a huge fan of horror games/web series where an old game gets revisited and there's something off about it in the present and impressive title servers feel like a good medium for this kind of storytelling. even if this were never to become a real game (i want to make it so bad, it just seems like the source code is difficult to get ahold of these days and i have almost no coding experience, the usual issues so i have no expectation to make this a real game lol) its fun to play around with story wise. does anyone else have any thoughts about this or ideas? :)

Offline Oddonelynx

  • Tuesday is applesauce day, but I am also a Jovial Bobcat!(Not lynx)
  • Community Champion
  • ****
  • Posts: 1,944
  • Country: us
  • Floof-O-Meter: 110
  • Hyenas deserve less hate.
    • BOTOFan
    • channel/UC5lDa5s7GLRWQHoH70ne34Q
    • View Profile
Re: Conceptualizing a 'Haunted' IT server
« Reply #1 on: June 08, 2023, 01:49:42 am »
With an increase of interest in ARGs & Liminal Spaces in more recent years, this would flourish & spark interest for sure. I like your idea a lot!  ;D
Seeing empty online games doesn't feel eerie to me personally, it just makes me sad.
  :'(

Art by QuietMacaroni