Tl;dr: In Time movie meets Eve Online, with some Monster Hunter and No Man's Sky vibes thrown in.

Idea came to me this morning as I randomly recalled the 2011 movie, In Time (and the subsequent iPad game). In the movie, people are able to see how much time is left before they die by looking at their arm, and can literally spend their time as currency, or take it from others.

My idea is to take that basic premise and turn it into a MMORPG game set in a futuristic, spacefaring society. There is no paper currency, no credits; only time, and how much of it you have left.

Your character can choose a major background as their "class": are they children of the working class, born into limited resources? Are they Peacekeepers, protecting the world from itself, and occasionally spearheading colonization efforts to other planets? Or are they members of high society, in charge of managing business, and offering pay to other players for specific tasks?

(Personally, I think there should be a limit, based on ratios, as to how many "born rich" players there can be; not everyone can be a tycoon, but anyone can certainly work towards that.)

Everyone can take missions, ranging from protection/assassination of a VIP, to exploring, to trading/conquering/colonizing new planets. Every mission grants more time, and every new resource brought in has a time price.

Every new planet has unique challenges: some are highly civilized, and offer weapons, sustenance, or even ships as commodities; some are barren of intelligent life, and ripe for building efforts or terraforming; and others are converted into hunting grounds, where you can hunt small creatures for food, or humongous animals that can be sold off to the highest bidder.

Thankfully, people can enter stasis whenever logging out instead of natural sleep: their characters are safe, their time doesn't decrease (unless their business is tanking), and they can re-enter the world whenever they feel like it. But stasis pods are not easily affordable, either...

I really want this game to have that "time attack" sense of urgency, and force players to be frugal. Bad business decisions can put a huge dent in even a rich player's time pool, but good ones can see anybody begin rising to the top. I want to maximize player agency, while also making sure that everyone understands and really feels the harsh penalties of literally betting with their life. I want the players to feel like they're in a realistic world, where they're actually making decisions to work with or against NPCs and other players, and exploring a universe they can make their own.

It's... a ridiculously ambitious idea, to put it mildly, but that's what this sub is for, right? But even Warframe went from a barebones loot game to having such a rich storyline and tons of customization options. Let me know your thoughts!