Idea Info Name: The ultimate Hackers Game Index: Primary Category: Simulation Submitted: 12/7/2002 1:41:27 AM Written By: CrashMasterH Game Architecture and Design: A New Edition Book Highly Recommended !

You play a hacker, you work freelance doing jobs for anyone who can afford you, you get to set the price of the job and the computer controlled players will decide if they are willing to pay it or not. You will have the chance to haggle with them so that you can
negotiate a fair price if they refuse your first offer. You find jobs by people sending you e-mails, but you can also pick up jobs in another way. You have the option of staying in your house and doing
everything online, but you will also have the option to take a break from your keyboard and go out into the real world.

You will start the game with a very basic computer system, with few tools at your disposal, but as your complete jobs you will recieve an increase in your hacker standing (as well as any money you get paid),
the more difficult the jobs the more sophisticated the system you will need. You can upgrade your system by purchhasing items online, or in the shops. Should you decide to purchase them online, only the software will be delivered immediatly (subject to modem abilities as you will be downloading it). If you order any hardware online you will have to wait for it as normal. If you decide not to order online you will be able to go to one of the many stores and purchase it over the counter, this allows for immediate use when you return to your house. However, not all stores will have what you are looking for, you may need to shop around.

There will be meeting places for you to get together with other hackers and discuss anything you might need help with, shops to buy things you need, and even the odd back ally where you might just be able to pick up a few bargains. If this game were to be made into an online game then the meeting places would be chat rooms where you would be able to talk to other players.  If the game were multi player this would add a new dimension as you would then be able to hack (in the game world of course) other players and steal the information from one of thier jobs and then you would be able to steal the job from them (assuming you managed to get all the details from their system)

The purpose of the game is to try and achive a high enough rating so that a master hacker will notice you and ask you to join his group.

In response to the comments by kinstner, the game hacking would be based on real-life hacking techniques this would give the game a much more realistic approach.  The game itself it not impossible, I have infact begun to code it myself, I am just having a bit of a problem with learning all of the ways to hack a computer and how to counter them.  The basic interface is simple enough, it is just a computer screen.  The difficulty comes when you want to leave the computer and venture out into the 'real world'

In response to the comments by Ceetheman, You could incorporate your ideas into the game very easily.  You could simply flip from using a 2d image of a computer screen to a 3d world whenever you choose to hack something.  This could be achived by the use of avatars, you could even turn the hacking section into and RPG type sub game, where you would have certain attributes (dependant on the system and software available to you) and if your 'life points' drop to zero then you would be traced and busted by the police.  If you were to use virii then you could embody these as the 'zombies' that you mentioned, this would allow you to command them to infect other systems, avatars etc.