Farming != Boring

My train of thought as of late is in the direction of providing content systems in Skies of Psyberia. Systems that can be set into motion, and provide gameplay without requiring developer or designer involvement for long periods of time. My thoughts bring me to casual games, the ones that are implemented in flash or as web games. Let's see.... Mob wars and all of the variants (which as a concept predates the web, Drug Wars is the earliest I can think of). These games are basically spreadsheets with timers... no matter which variant you pick, they all work basically the same. Any one of these would translate easily to a 3D MMORPG, but after the translation you would have... an MMORPG. They represent an equivalent of the core gameplay of the genre. So lets look at another popular game type. We have the farming sim, examples include FarmTown, FarmVille, etc... With these they would also translate well to a 3D MMORPG, but they could easily be a sub game within the main game... or to use another word, a 'System'.

Lets break down your basic farm sim. You need a plot of land that you own or rent. it must be of a measurable and restricted size. You need the ability to designate and plow fields. purchase and plant seeds. Wait for a prescribed period of time. Harvest items, which just happen to be crops.

Several games have included harvesting, the one I initially thought of was SWG with it's automated mining equipment for extracting materials from the ground, and one of the variations of that equipment gathered crop-like materials rather than steel or copper. At their core, these are just replacements for the crafting of items. Some regulated way of introducing either raw materials or completed items into the game world. I just don't think that anyone has allowed for formal cultivation in a MMORPG yet, just randomized harvesting. I'm sure that I have missed an example of this, possibly in 'A Tale in the Desert'.

What I have begun to implement in the game is a farming system. Players can rent or buy a piece of land, designate plots (which snap to a grid so that fields can be made), and plant crops. There are really an infinite number of things that can happen, for example, as I mentioned in a previous post, rats could invade a field and eat crops. This would cause players to police their plot to keep the rodents from harming the growing crops, or perhaps hire other players to do it for them. As long as a system for creating quests is built there are many things that can break out from the basic farming system. Here are some other examples:

Plow my fields for x per plot (i have lots of other things to worry about, and you cant harm anything)
Harvest My crops for me (as long as it is set up that the crops go into some kind of barn or silo automatically, there is no danger to the hiring player)
Kill vermin within my fields (pretty self explanatory, a small bounty for vermin that die within the designated area)

The end results are crops. These crops can be sold, or perhaps used in manufacturing of other products that can be sold for more.

The idea is by no means revolutionary, but I think it could be very fun.

I'm rambling on, but I think you can get the idea...