Once again, the "Why!"
I realize it may not be openly obvious to why we would want to do such a thing.
On the surface level, everybody here is focusing on the gaming aspect - but we are not gamers! We are Model Railroaders and Operators! We like to build model railroads and then operate them in a prototypical manner! how on earth could #1 be related to #2??
Let us be frank; this hobby is expensive, and with all the EXCITING improvements in the pipes, it's getting more expensive. Clubs are in a precarious predicament where they can barely afford the right to existence - that is, the procurement of property, of buildings, of infrastructure that will keep them in place on a permanent basis, without all this new stuff!
Let us also be Honest: the Social fabric, being what it is, has changed. In the old days, if I had to move to San Antonio, I'd give up my friends in Tucson and make new fiends in San Antonio. My generation does not do this anymore; we maintain our friendships through things like Facebook, even if we're not as close as we were. I can be in San Antonio, and yet still be right along side the people in Tucson.
Go back to the Miniature Wonderland story. We have a model railroad layout that has accumulated 1 million visitors in the last year, at anywhere between $6 and $10 per visitor. The layout EMPLOYS 260 people. Any light bulbs going off yet? How would you like to make $30,000 or $50,000 a year PLAYING Toy Trains?!
Pull it all together: Our Clubs need better income statements in order to develop financial independence - and some of us at home would no doubt enjoy similar benefits if we were able to run a similar empire from our basements. It would be difficult to expect a second layout like Minature Wonderland to attract the same level of attention; the next layout must go one step further, and I believe the public would be Estatic if they knew they could get a chance to RUN the layout instead of just looking at it.
And of course, there are our Operators who have moved, but would still be a member of our clubs and participate in ops sessions if there was the means to do it without traveling. As model railroaders, we care more about our fellow operators than we do the general public. Hence, thus follows.
The main reason we'd be building this remote system is to allow our remote friends the opportunity to be a part of our operations sessions. And while some of you INSIST the only way you can be social is In-Person interaction, I dare say if you had a radio mic on, and you were n the radio network everybody else is on in the club, you'd be just as "social" as you'd be if you were physically In the club building! And as I percieve there'd be a number of people who'd just want to have a bull Session, there'd be a channel on that radio system where everybody can go and Chat about that crap if they wanted to! Now that I think about it, the "perfect" radio system would allow you to listen to more than one channel at once, but you'd only be able to talk on one channel at a time! And each channel would be specific about what voice traffic may be allowed on there. That'd keep the conversations nicely managed!
But we'd have to pay for it...and to be honest, it'd be nice to have the means to put DCC switches in, and a nice Signaling system, and such. If remote couplers came along, wouldn't we as a club want them too?! We could buy more, better locomotives - something my local club has only recently been able to enjoy because members have donated pieces to the layout. Financial Independence - that could REALLY make a club fun!!
As the club becomes big enough, we'd offer the general public admission to simply walk around and look at the layout. We'd charge them between $5 and $10 per person for this privilege, which Hamburg has already proven is possible. If they want to run the trains, they'd be able to buy time on the layout by purchasing a runon the Remote Ops board and using a terminal where the interior looks like the interior of a locomotive cab - because some people are in the hobby of replicating cab interiors, and their club membership dues are worth every bit as much as yours or mine!! - and run their train on the layout.
So here's how it works: M-F, "the Public" runs the club layout - remotely, from stations in the layout building, and from online. Club members, either paid or volunteer, manage the layout. I'd estimate there's about ten full time positions on a Remote Layout like this, including an Administrator, a couple Moderators, a Dispatcher, a yard operator, and at least two people on the floor managing derailments, stalls, switch moves and coupling [until remote switches and remote couplers become widespread]and then the maintenance crew [one track, one car, one locomotive] who could double as police and derailemnt crews.
Let us suppose the layout allows for 10 trains in an hour [this layout, then, would be only perhaps 800-1000 square feet], and we charge $5 for each run. It's a very nice layout, a well respected run, we can get away with this rate. That's $50 an hour, $400 a day, $2000 a week. How long does it take a traditional club to bring in $2000? It'd take a club of 20 people, each paying $15 a month in dues, 7 months to reach that level!
Now clearly the income isn't that well matched with the manpower it'd take to run the layout, so how do we reward volunteers for their time? Quite simply put, we pay them in "Future Space." In other words, as the club brings in money, they will have the ability to expand. As they expand, new space will become available. Who gets the space, and who gets to build in the space? If you have one guy who volunteers on the layout more than anybody else, he should have more say over more of that space! There'd be ground rules, of course, but I think this would keep things manageable. the other way would be to make Club Stock, and give out/sell Club Stock...but this side of the house needs more thought...I don't have ALL the answers!
Now one a month, or twice a month, we'd Lock Out the Public and have our private "Club Operating sessions." Remote Club members would use special pass codes to join these sessions.
And quite often, we'd have people working on the new sections of the layout, or working on structures and scenery in the operations sections, doing what they love to do: BUILDING model railroad layouts. They'd have a budget we can only DREAM of now!
Some of you may get caught on the eye candy that comes with the MMORPG - the experience points, the tokens, the coins, the awards, the ribbons, the prizes, even the demerits and the red Flags - but the main point to remember is that all of these details are there first and foremost for the Gamers. They are here for your Game, you are here for their Money so you can build a bigger, better, more functional layout!
Number one, the eye candy are carrots, missions, or goals; crack to keep the people playing the game.
Number two, they're there to establish reputation. Yes, I said demerits and red flags - and if you do something bad on my layout, it goes onto your permanent record. Demerits would slowly expire, but red flags would be permanent until annulled or expunged. I may set up my layout session so that in order to operate on my layout, you MUST have 50,000 experience points and NO MORE than 15 demerits and only ONE red flag at most. Hence, I've now limited my global operating pool to those who are experienced with running layouts, who have a fairly good operating record, and haven't had too many problems in the past. Someone with a bunch of expensive brass may limit their operators to those with 500,000 Global experience, 100,000 Local experience, NO MORE than 5 demerits, and NO red flags! In other words, these operators are hard nose, very stringent, and very well behaved - just the kind you'd want on such a layout!! The MMORPG Profile provides a very accurate means of screening potential engineers.
Ken, I've discovered there IS a place for your Virtual Railroad: Training! Each layout could have a virtual duplicate of their layout, and you and I may be required to earn so many Local Practice Experience Points on that virtual railroad before we're ever even allowed to operate on the Real One to earn Local Experience points [automatically added into our Global Experience Point Sum]. It'd be Free to practice on this virtual railroad, provided a train is available, but then it would be very cheap to set up these virtual environments.
So the whole point of the MMORPG, in the end, is to establish reputations and generate cashflow. The point of public operations is to generate more foot traffic through our physical display [because people are more enticed to come see something they Might be able to operate, versus something they only get to look at]. The point of our remote environment is to provide a controllable environment within which the public will be able to operate the layout in the first place. The point of getting more people operating is to generate more interest in Model Railroading. The point of getting people operating online is to expand our social community "beyond the walls" of the layout room. And finally, the point to doing all of this is to generate the cashflow that is necessary to develop strong Independent club organizations who actually have a fighting chance at buying and building large buildings and large layouts.
I hope this all makes sense. For those people who are uncomfortable with sharing, I can understand that they have absolutely no use for any of this. I for one, though, believe a lot of people would really enjoy the hobby if it were only more accessible to them,and in all reality, this is not the most accessible hobby!
