Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

Dear Bethesda,

I’m happy to read that your parent company has created ZeniMax Online Studios with an industry veteran at the head. Shortly after I started playing Oblivion I knew the perfect formula for your next game. Your competitors can’t steal it, either, so it’s an absolute gift from the heavens. Pay attention, here it comes:

Oblivion + Diablo-style online instanced difficulty-scaling 4-player multiplayer = must-have game.

Kotaku calls ZeniMax Online Studios a company that will focus on MMOs, and with an MMO veteran at the head I imagine it could be one, but listen closely, ZOS: Your path to profitability is that formula. The offline game is a hit. The offline game’s GOTY Edition will be a hit. The online version will be an even bigger hit.

I know you think you’re busy with Fallout, so stick with my formula and you’ll be making the big money. Take the same exact Oblivion game, add the online multiplayer, test the stuffing out of it — open beta or closed, your choice — and then release it when it’s ready in mid 2008 before Fallout.

A game like this would be a true next-gen version of the great dungeon crawlers that haven’t yet made the jump successfully. Forget about Untold Legends. We would finally be able to put the severing of SOE’s relationship with Snowblind behind us. Oblivion Online would be the Potion of Dungeon Hacking, nay, the Ring Of Hack And Slash Camaraderie + 3 that I absolutely know I am not alone in lusting after.

Now don’t get excited and think you have to make this a MMO or subscription-based game. Let’s keep it simple to start with. Remember, think Diablo, not World of Warcraft. Players would run the game server. The publisher would run the server listing and matchmaking service. No need for auction houses, GMs, or accounting overhead. We just want to get our sword-and-sorcery skill-and-loot grind on in a beautiful, detailed world filled with creatures to conquer, stuff to buy and sell, lands to discover, and maybe a good story to boot with our friends.

I know for a fact just about everyone on my PSN friends list would buy this game the instant it was finished, and if anyone held out the rest of us would pile on and drag them to the store to buy it.

Here are a few feature suggestions to throw darts at:

- Before the server game starts, players vote on whose quest list is to be followed.
- When following someone else’s quest list, you get credit on your own quest list for what you complete.
- When the chosen quest list owner exits, the quest list stays with the rest of the team.
- Drop-in drop-out multiplayer.
- Players don’t share a common map. Someone who has mapped something can walk other players there as a guide.
- Allow safe trading, including trading gold for nothing. Not being able to do this in Champions of Norrath is quite an annoyance.

What do you think an online playable Oblivion game like this should have in it?