Idea - Herd

Co-opetitive, physical space, (hopefully) inherently social.


Herd


Herd is a parking wars style micromanagement game about sustainability and resource management. Players sign up online to live the relaxing lifestyle of a nomadic animal herder. Players are given money and can purchase different kind of livestock with it -- these livestock have different values and prices, a la parking wars. Players then place these livestock to graze in different areas around campus -- Prescott, FPH, Enfield etc. You can sell your livestock at any time, and they start out worth very little but eventually grow and reach the point where they are worth quite a lot (of course, different growth rates etc etc). Selling your livestock earns you points which are the victory condition and you can also use to buy/unlock more animals.

Physical, Social aspects: Different livestock have different synergistic and detrimental effects to the area where they graze. For example, when there are a lot of sheep and goats in the same area those animals help each other grow faster or gain more maximum points or something. Some animals also hate each other, and will have detrimental effects, while others will be parasitic (+ to one player, - to the other). Players looking to earn the most points will have to co-operate with their friends to raise beneficial livestock together or chase out parasitic livestock from their fields.

As far as physical goes, there will be many different kinds of random events -- the life of a nomadic herder isn't always so relaxing! Some beneficial events like rain or high nutrient soil will be desirable, and some like mudslides or plains fires will be harmful. The only way players can see these events coming is by visiting the location, where notices will be posted around.  Players can move their livestock once a day, or something.


Pros

• Web-based and therefore really scalable, can easily handle more people than expected.
• I like the theme.

Cons

• Not really that physical -- the physical aspect is sort of gimmicky.
• Not really that social. Will have to really play up the social aspect to make it cool. Maybe different "sections" of these areas so small groups of players can gather and be interrupted. 
• Doesn't really have a great hook.