Billion Dollar Game Idea--yours free here! (I can't do it)

Community Off-Topic
,
1

Hello -

Am heavily in the ecology-sustainability-dream a new social dream for humanity-new economic engine-carrying capacity-save the biosphere crowd.

Here’s the problem. Solutions exist. Real solutions, not the carbon sequestration crap. Real solutions involve a new economic system not based on driving infinite GDP with infinite population. They do require humanity to evolve our thinking on what society should be like and how our interaction with Nature should look.

That’s where this game idea comes in. I’m a former computer scientist and software engineer, and know it would take me roughly 20 years to get the expertise to pull off the vision. Plus, my initial scouting suggests a key piece is not possible to do in Unreal Engine 5.1.1. (However, I suspect that really clever gurus can figure out a way.)

SO…I’m looking for someone to gift with this great idea in detail. I’ll give a synopsis here. It isn’t for everyone or even most…at this time. People want to defend the status quo and will. But for those with an open mind, I believe they would get pulled in by this game and find it AMAZING.

And guess what…? It is a simulator for how this new social dream would look and feel. In fact, they can actually live the new social dream in a virtual, pandemic, sort of way…inside this game.

One of the tenets of this new dream is that it be a high-tech/low-consumption/low-exploitation/high-quality-of-life culture.

Well, if you list the things that truly add to quality of life, you know what does not rank high at end of day? Prestige spending. Instead–ok to try this exercise at home, I’ll wait for you to make your list–instead, it includes things like: literature, music, art, socializing, spirituality, basic medicine [a lot of medicine is not $$$], science [a lot not $$$], philosophy, sports, [virtual] travel, etc.

This game would provide much of those things, if there is a way can be figured out [even with third-party solutions and workarounds] whereby players can upload files (.jpg, .mp3, .pdf) into the game and use them as at least one type of currency. That currency could then be converted into game currency through various mechanisms. [Yes, there are problems to manage, such as copyright protection and porn. Bonus points for a system that has structure for that management built in.]

The crux of the game is that its economic engine is not based on growth of a population. It is based on a growth of personal prosperity–per capita GDP instead of GDP. No, they are not as linked as you might think–for example, per capita GDP can grow in down-trending pop whereas GDP cannot.

It is a slight kung fu shift in focus that leads to dramatic changes. For example, the only ways for a country’s GDP to grow with a per capita GDP economic engine…? Is by reducing the avoidable non-producers [aka bureaucrats] and by enhancing the prosperity of individual producers based on their productivity. In other words, personal productivity is the currency of the realm. Even more subtle…? You want more good stuff…? Then you want to help your neighbor [the one who makes that good stuff] be more productive. Your prosperity and happiness is contingent on the prosperity and happiness of your community. It is exactly the opposite of our institutionalized (elites/govs/corporations) tacit narcissistic sociopathy where we exploit others for our personal win.

This is how we halt destruction of the biosphere.

Look, I know a bunch of flying monkeys are going to crap on this post from ten different directions. But…maybe you…? Maybe you read this and you get it. Maybe it sounds like an awesome idea. Maybe you have the expertise and experience not only to make it happen rapidly, but also to figure out the “using file products as currency” problem.

If so…know that I’d be happy to be a consultant and give creative direction to the project. You can reach me on Twitter: @SamRoseAuthor. It could be really awesome, though concede it would be a niche product…for a while.

When people realize they can actually enjoy awesome community and share their intellectual products with others in a meaningful way…? It could be quite addictive. It might even spill over into outside the game. It might make a difference.

3

Haha, well you are slightly correct. But you may want to re-read my post. Fun Fact: I was the first person to reduce augmented reality to practice, and know a bit about the next version of World Wide Web (I described it in a scenario document in 2007).

However, if you re-read post, you will see we are talking about a new economic engine not based on infinite GDP (rules not fully described in my synopsis) in a virtual reality game. There are other rules at play. So…the gist besides using intellectual property as currency has not been elaborated.

5

Can appreciate it as a type of NFT comprised of art, music, and documents, but you are missing the economic engine portion. Not sure you are understanding the posts? When I am talking about an engine, I am not talking about Unreal Engine.

There will be game logic that implements the economic rules and population dynamics, plus a virtual world with artifacts that can be bought and sold so people can build their own businesses and estates and communities.

It sounds like you have nothing to offer, except the criticism (which was expected; see post).

I’m hoping this does not put off people that can understand the vision and want to bring their expertise.

Not sure what people think they are accomplishing when they try to block people from attempting something. It’s ok to work on your own projects instead of blocking others. In this new economic engine, that would actually make you poorer.

1 Like
7

Oh, it’s a hard sell to offer up anything different from the status quo. Thank you. For the right person, they’ll see it as hugely fun project.

1 Like
8

Plus, my initial scouting suggests a key piece is not possible to do in Unreal Engine 5.1.1.

Hows that?

9

If that’s the point you’ve found to be impossible in 5.1, it is possible by using plugins from the marketplace. A project like that would need a professional server infrastructure with lots of Mebibytes and thus some heavy funding.

1 Like
10

Described it in the post. Need a way to upload a few file types into the game–some real-world products that people can convert into a game currency, based on some sort of exchange rate algorithm. However, hoping someone has a workaround to provide that functionality. [Note: is not file sharing between people in a chat or something like that, is actually a part of the game logic.]

11

You make a good point. I would imagine these intellectual property products would be hosted on their own scalable servers. Not as huge as you might imagine. However, within the game, game currency would be used. There would be an exchange algorithm that converts the IP products into game currency, so that would be abstracted out with indirection.

12

What do you see as the reasons that nobody has already implemented this billion-dollar game idea?
Why is it not already available on Steam, given that people surely will want to make a billion dollars?
What’s the hold-up?

13

The problem I see currently with this concept is copyright. Users could upload anything they gathered from the web. The same type of problem that we currently have with NFTs. How would you tackle that?

1 Like
14

It’s disruptive. It codifies a new economic engine at the heart of a new society, plus a new vision of sustainable culture. Plus, I happen to be in a unique place to help design it–have been working for decades in this field of study to figure out how/why humans got in the rut we are in. That rut is the topic of a number of articles–won’t belabor it here. Part of the problem is global poverty => overpopulation => mass species extinction, death of biospheric mass, carbon build-up in atmosphere, etc. But…what ideologies led to the global poverty?

Working backwards, this game would demonstrate the solution to this holistic “rut”…and demonstrate an alternative vision for society. One that is sustainable.

At end of day, it is not rocket science. It just needs to be something that people can participate in and experience in order to “get it.” The alternative economic engine has always been an option…but…human nature.

So, partly why it hasn’t been done is it hasn’t been thought up before. Also, it is disruptive.

What makes it potentially a billion-dollar idea is that…it is AWESOME. What is awesome? Well, I’m older. It turns out what isn’t awesome is prestige consumption, being self-important, having clout, yada yada. Those are children’s toys. What actually adds value to life, has meaning, enriches the soul, are things like: literature, music, art, relationships, spirituality, philosophy, things I think listed in original post. This game can create a community and culture based on those very real things and an economic engine driven by their production. The economic engine is not “wealth funnel” driven nor is it “infinite population” driven. In other words, people don’t get wealthier by getting more people into the game, per se. They get wealthier by making the people already there more personally productive. It is based on a flavor of per capita GDP rather than GDP, and is optimized for a down-trending population living within carrying capacity.

So…the game rather than being fun escapism, is actually enriching and meaningful life, replete with the kinds of things that makes life awesome.

Bonus: If it takes off, it might influence that shared dream we call everyday society.

15

Think of it as social media performing the functions of Twitter, Meta, etc. but with these tweaks, to name a few:

  1. The conversation is free. But the IP products are the gold basis for the currency system.
  2. People build their communities and homes. They buy specialized tools, and elegant features, sure. They have outings and adventures and make memories. …That they can afford.
  3. They are made poorer by exploiting others or the environment and richer when their ecosystem thrives.
  4. Conceivably, they could even cash in and out the game currency–though, granted that sounds like a nightmare to make happen.
  5. It could eventually have an augmented reality interface.
16

None of this is an explanation of why the game hasn’t already been built. Unless you believe that nobody else has had this idea, ever.

Now, if that were the case, why would that be? There’s eight billion people on Earth. If only one person “gets it,” then how big is the market?

17

I don’t get what you’re after there. You could ask the same question regarding Facebook and such. The idea certainly wasn’t new back then.

1 Like
18

My point is that ideas are worth nothing, and execution is worth everything, to within a very small error margin.

2 Likes
19

Talking open minded about ideas may lead to their execution. Fighting people for their ideas doesn’t. I don’t get this type of behavior.

1 Like
20

I’m not saying “don’t share ideas,” I’m saying “it’s not a billion dollar idea.”
(I say this, having spent 15 years of my life trying to build the metaverse through four separate iterations, and finally realizing that, no, people don’t actually want to live online.)

But I’ve been wrong before! Find some investors who share your confidence and who will take a bet on your ability to execute, and get some funding. Despite the “doom and gloom” news, that’s still totally possible for something that has legs.

There’s a genre of “the sims” style games, as well as “sim city” style games, that are doing well. Largely as single-user experiences, though.

I wish you the best of luck!

2 Likes
21

Understood. But that’s just everyday marketing babble also in this OP case. I just don’t get why people in some cases can’t just look through and behind it while doing it in many other cases as their everyday routine in a capitalistic world.

22

So how would you enforce this? Just as I wrote before, this currently seems like a copyright nightmare, and it would need a huge team of people to enforce it or some automatic means that still have to be developed.

23

Yeah, I mentioned that in original post, I think. Well, first problem is way to upload assets into the game, which someone said may be possible with third-party add-ons. Hoping a guru could sort that piece out.

I don’t have polished answer to your question, but the main thing is that the uploaded materials are created by the uploader and exchanged with the recipient. So, all materials uploaded must be original materials created within the ecosystems of the game. Then, it would have a limited-use license to be sold between players in the game. So, clearly, anyone who violates that would get the boot. But as far as auto-detecting that, that would be some guru work–am sure some less-than-failproof frameworks already exist. It would be impossible to prevent entirely, but my belief is that it can be managed. Unless people try to do it en masse, then the game would become unviable.

Please appreciate that the abstract concept of “exploitation” is one of those failed ideologies we need to let go of. It’s the idea that my individual gaming of the system to “win” is a win. That is an illusion. It is actually a global loss because it adds unproductive bureaucracy onto everyone’s backs as a burden we then must all bear to prevent it in the future. This is something that will be encoded in the game. People are enriched by helping others succeed and impoverished by attempts to exploit.