Everyone’s most favorite Zero Player RPG (ZPG), Godville, just had its tenth anniversary. And I’ve been playing for most of that time.
Probably saying “playing” is a little inaccurate, as you don’t play, per se. Instead, you watch your hero or heroine play semi-autonomously and you interact mainly by reading their diary entries, and occasionally meting out divine aid or punishment depending on if you consider yourself a good or evil deity.
Over the years, the Godville team (two guys from Russia) have added various non-gameplay elements, most recently a mode where you can send the custom boss monsters you have grown in a lab from parts taken from other bosses by your hero, into a battle arena where they can fight other players’ bosses for bits. Bits in the computer memory sense. They are digital, after all.
Godville is a game where you can wake up one morning and think, “hey, wasn’t there this browser game I played, wow, must have been half a dozen years now, where you just read diary entries from an adventurer who was building you a temple out of gold bricks?”. And then you remember your log in details and find your adventurer is still plugging away, and has even built you an ark with two of every animal in it while you were away.
You can take a more active role in your hero’s journey by sending down words of encouragement, which they will enjoy, or tossing them into an arena or a randomly-generated dungeon, which they will enjoy less. Or even toss them into stormy seas for exciting ark-on-ark action versus other heroes.
And when you think it can’t get even more exciting… try the game in 3D. It will blow your mind.