Game Idea: Avatarus

The time for idle gameplay is behind us, it's time to move on to idol gameplay. Avatarus (a Fizzle Co. vision) would create a bifurcated gaming experience where players develop two characters simultaneously: a God and an Avatar. Rule the Immortal Realm above and then rule the miserable Mortal Realm below. This game need not be an MMO, but given my addiction to MMO ideas, I'm going to present it as one. Let's get into the possibilities I find particularly intriguing...

Two Characters, Same Rules

The God
The character creation screen pops up. What type of GOD do you want to be?

A warrior god? Very well sir, rippling muscles and horns are at your disposal. Rampage through the battlefields of the heavenly abodes at will. Oh, a great intellect are we? A Divinity of Divination you shall be. Hurl spells from hands and scathing repartees from yammering maw.

In essence, your God is the equivalent of your character in a standard MMO. The only meaningful difference would be the world around you, which would instead focus on heavenly/hellish themes. You would progress through the game and you would level up your character as one normally does (quests/grinds/etc.)

The Avatar
This is where the story gets interesting. The God would, at some reasonably early point in his development, gain the ability to create an Avatar (I will avoid talking about the ins and outs of this, but suffice to say, the ways and means of this process create intriguing possibilities in and of themselves, which I will likely discuss tomorrow). This Avatar would populate an entirely separate realm, namely the mortal coil. Since your God cannot interact with this realm, he will rely on his Avatar to conduct his earthly business. In the Same Rules framework, this would merely add an additional layer to the Immortal Realm content, and the Avatar would develop and operate very similarly to the God.

This framework would be decidedly easier to implement than the following idea.

Two Characters, Different Rules
Here the roles of the two characters will operate under different objectives. The God would continue an objective similar to that described above: leveling up to become more powerful/prominent in heaven. The Avatar would be created for the purpose of attracting followers to the God who created him. These two roles may interact in a variety of ways, but I like the interplay engendered by a feedback loop. Let's work through it with an example.

After reaching level 10, Goodward Godly gains the power to create an avatar. He elects to spawn this avatar. The Avatar enters the mortal coil and begins to recruit followers. This may occur any number of ways, such as heroic feats (battles), bribery (paying off recruits/donating money to causes), interaction (going around convincing people to follow you through dialogue) and so forth. As the Avatar grows successful in these endeavors, the God gains certain bonuses, such as items, experience multipliers, or unlocking new areas/quests.

Upon receiving these benefits, the God is thereby more effective at gaining experience, which he may employ to enhance his own skills or use to supplement the Avatar's repetoire. The Avatar himself doesn't gain levels so much as it gains new bodies and attributes that will assist him in his recruitment in the Mortal Realm.

Tomorrow I will likely take the time to discuss Avatars, mechanisms for their creation and their interaction with the Mortal Realm. I should note that I hacked out huge swaths of information in the interests of keeping this puppy manageable.