Yet Another Big Idea - The Entire Web As One Big RPG - Introducing Thwak

I was keeping this idea a relative secret, but I realized that that's a great way to kill it. I'd rather have the idea out in the world where folks can help make it a reality than keep it close to my chest and never have it see the light of day...

Here's the idea / link in a nutshell:

Basically Thwak is going to be a type of RPG where you will start off
as a no-name weakling and fight monsters to collect treasures and
experience. This seems on the face of it to be pretty standard stuff,
I know. However the platform for this will be a bit different.

Imagine taking a "Web 2.0" application and merge it with an RPG.
Instead of traversing "dungeons" you'll go from site to site as you
normally would and when you trigger the Thwak
(bookmarklet/extension/greasmonkey plugin) you'll see an overlay with
your character and a "monster" that is generated by the
characteristics of the site you are visiting. Say you visit a very
popular site that has a high google rank. This monster will be a bit
more powerful in some aspect, and the resulting treasure will be greater.

You will also be able (via "microcontent" or some method like a link
rel) to place a customized monster on your site.

Your character will grow in skill, and the data about your character
will persist across sites -- in whatever storage medium that seems
appropriate. I'm thinking about perhaps either AMASS or using
greasemonkey's storage.

You'll have bragging rights as well - say you defeat "google.com" 's
monster, you'll be able to generate a page that shows all your
wins/losses across that character's life span.

You'll also be able to post your own character up on your site for
others to "battle" - so you can see if your friends can defeat your
character. (Kinda like microcontent/blogroll - as a js include)

The battle system is a variant of "rock paper scissors" using "kungfu
(rock), magic (paper) , and sword (scissors)". You attack your
opponent with one of those three types of attacks and based on your
skill level in that attack - damage is assessed.


I have a working prototype here:

http://www.andrewwooldridge.com/myapps/thwak/index_202.html


However I crave your feedback and ideas. How can I make this something
better? The prototype doesnt have any of the hooks into a site yet,
nor stats, or much of anything except the bare battles.

z = sword (zword?)
x = magic (magix ?)
c = kungfu (cungfu ?)

Hitting the display button will show the overlay on the test page.
Reloading the page will give you another random monster.


So, the basic idea will be to have a way for people to use websites as
data generators for "monsters". There could be all kinds of ways to
create the attributes - such as standards compliance, pageweight, etc.
Let me know what you all think.

This is also a call for help - if you know php/mysql and/or pixel art/design and want to help out. please contact me.

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