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Originally Posted by r.gun  I like the idea of having and AI take over your character when you're gone and just implementing you into the city/rural life. That would add a whole other dimension to the game - hell, put it one step further and allow people to set up their own quest(s) (chains). Type some dialog in, with a selected reward and if someone clicks on you they can go on your AI quest. That would be kinda sweet. |
I think the key here really is influencing offline behaviour by online actions, but the problem is how complex the game needs to become to seperate the average from the good from the great.
It's rather interesting to see how Eve attempted to solve this - naturally, this resulted in even some European and American players becoming farmers (I've spent a few years inside IGE among others) simply by becoming decent players and managing a ton of accounts (as opposed to focusing on 3-4, as manual WoW farmers do).
Thus, I feel that the economy itself should follow the model of traditional MMO's, and rather give character specific benefits from offline behaviour (ie you get a nicer garden if you collect seeds and buy gardening books or get training from a player Master Gardener).
The fact that you now have a lovely garden means you can get happiness bonuses allowing higher (temporary) skill in diplomacy, or you can get better long-term recovery by planting genetically modified herbs (product only works on you).