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Has there been an MMORPG type attempt at some kind of open universe where you could host a server on your own if you wish and it would merely be added to the collective of possible places to travel within the MMO?

Two types come to mind, a DnD Neverwinter Nights type place or something like EVE online. Where there is a "universe" and each hosted space is a planet or solar system or galaxy and players can travel between them using the same characters/ships/portal system and each new server is than just a new adventure or place to go.

I would also assume there were dedicated/replicated servers that housed the characters/inventory themselves so that the environment was decentralized and always expandable.

Not sure thats clear but has there been any such attempts or WIP?

thanks

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-1 for off topic. Questions on this site are expected to relate to game development. Might be a more appropriate question for gaming.se? – Trevor Powell Dec 6 '12 at 1:33
I was told it didnt belong there. Its for sure more about game development than game play – Chris Valentine Dec 6 '12 at 1:40
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I suppose this question might fall into market research if you're planning on making such a game. Though I don't think market research is covered here. Even if market research were covered I'd say it's too localized. It's unlikely an answer to this would help any developers in the future. – Byte56 Dec 6 '12 at 2:09
In Ultima Online there is packet for sending characters to different servers, and on one emulator, there is a gate that could probably do that, never seen that working. And its probably impossible since server owner could just cheat and boost every character that comes to his server. – Kikaimaru Dec 6 '12 at 15:34

closed as off topic by Trevor Powell, Byte56, Tetrad♦ Dec 6 '12 at 16:43

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1 Answer

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The problem with that architecture is that it would make it too easy to cheat. One could easily set up a server where you instantly become maximum level and get all items you want as soon as you connect. A heuristic approach on the master server to reject unusually fast progress could reduce the efficiency of cheating, but it couldn't prevent it.

The only soulutions would be to a) have no progression at all and thus no reason to cheat (making the game mostly roleplaying-centered) or b) make each gameserver have an isolated progression, so that you can't transfer ill-gotten items and character progression from one server to another (making the central server not much more than an authorization provider and a directory of gameservers).

Second Life could be an example for this, with the notable difference that the worlds the players build and control are hosted on the server of the company who owns the game, not on player-owned servers. But that's a technical implementation detail unrelated to the concept itself.

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