3pointD.com

TotalVideoGames.com has an interesting feature up today on Multiverse, the third-party development platform for massively multiplayer online games. While it doesn’t have all that much new to say, there is an interesting passage toward the end of the piece in which it’s pointed out that Multiverse’s flagship project, Kothuria (currently in closed beta), is planned as “the first moddable MMOG,” and will be available to developers for free. Users will be able to host their own versions of the game and tweak the mechanics — or anything else, for that matter — as they see fit. If this works, it should make the universe of MMOs a much more interesting place. MMO game design could arguably benefit from a more open-source approach, and releasing a moddable MMO is one way to spur thatkind of development. And from a gamer’s perspective (this gamer’s perspective, at any rate), Kothuria sounds like a pretty interesting game:

Players’ actions can change the ecology, borders, populations, economy, cultures, storyline and more. They are also developing some really cool quest technology that will generate meaningful, exciting quests based on the state of the world. And Kothuria offers a non-restrictive skill system, freeing players from dead-end character development paths.

That describes a more interesting world than is on offer in most MMOs. If the Multiverse team can pull it off, it could give rise to some very interesting developments going forward.