I decided that the only way we were going to progress with the MMO project was to start inputting all our research, discussions, decisions and design documentation into a Wiki. I tried a few out and settled on Netcipia. It has the same problems as PBWiki - the WYSIWYG isn't, and the overall feel is cluttered and not customisable enough. But it's free, and it'll do for the time being. There are tools available for working on MMO design (e.g. Video Game Design Pro 2006 (http://www.thecorpament.com) ), but I'm not ready to invest in a commercial package at the moment.
I made a list of articles I wanted to write for the blog, but feeding the Wiki has taken up an immense amount of time. And that's the thing with a collaborative project; you have to write everything down. Topics on the Wiki cover our initial vision for the game, background reading on sandboxes, multiplayer game design, player psychology, combat systems, skills trees, and elements of world building, such as geography, climate, flora, fauna, transport, technology and politics. We also needed to think about marketing and finance, and there's a huge section on development tools, as we're working our way through, evaluating the available options.
It's a more than daunting task. We've been talking about it for six months, and the work is only just beginning.
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