There are probably a number of MineCraft servers that achieve this. Back about 10 years ago there was the /r/CivCraft server. Not sure which ones are active now, but it did feel like a real world with a real economy, since there were even shops you could set up to sell materials for a price. You had to be careful who you piss off also, since people could be "jailed" in the ender world. There was a large element of alliance making / political process in the game since you have strength in numbers.
Minecraft is indeed a great example of a game pushing the envelope on player freedom - and allowing emergent gameplay.
Tip of the hat to you, good sir!
Still, Minecraft is pretty limited mechanically. The game doesn't actually recognize any of the stuff you mention. The games' mechanics - all the technological progression and stuff - work perfectly fine in single-player. Also the number of players per server isn't quite on MMO levels...
But yes, some elements of Minecraft would be great ingredients of the game I'm proposing.
> The game doesn't actually recognize any of the stuff you mention.
To be fair, neither does real life. Real life shops, jails, etc, are just collections of atoms with certain emergent properties resulting from how players have set them up.
Tell me, what town did you mainly reside in? I was over in Chiapas with the crazy leftists, one of whom erected a wool statue of himself. We were largely untouched by the HCF invasion, except for when their skirmishes with the World Police got close to our borders.
Mt Augusta was a little before my time. By the time I got into the server, it honestly felt like one of the most difficult places to get settled into. Crowded, property costs too high, chaotic.
Dirty Ancaps everywhere. </s>
I'm pretty sure it was somewhere between late 1.0 and early 2.0, but I ended up in Carson City for a bit when it was coming online. Where they made a hole in the ocean, and turned into a city. A fun place to hang out and talk shit.
I remember playing on towny servers years ago and holy crap that was fun. The kingdoms and roles, and wars managed to be more immersive than games based around that concept (cough bannerlord)
