I was wondering if you could make like a VV multiplayer game,where people could make their own villagers,choose the hair and clothes and gender,make a username,buy a hut,decorate it,and chat.You could use the island from one of the VV games,or make a new one,and if people find this it could bring a LOT of new customers.

That wouldn't be a bad spinoff game, like PT and FT... But what to use for money?

The problem with multiplayer games is how much it costs to run them.

Look at this forum. Remember how the whole thing crashed several times right after VV3 came out? That's because the server that hosts the forum couldn't handle that many visitors.

I guess you could think of a multiplayer game as being similar to a forum. People have to login to the server, which hosts the multiplayer game, and that is how they connect to other players.

A multiplayer game requires many servers. One server couldn't hope to handle that kind of load.

Servers cost a lot of money both to purchase and to maintain. You can rent servers, but this generally is both expensive and unreliable. You are basically in the hands of another company, which owns the server, and if something goes wrong you can't do anything but wait for that company to handle it. To OWN a server you first need a place to put it. Those things are HUGE! Then there's the cost of purchasing one. A server costs several thousand dollars.

There's just no way this would be profitable for a small game company. Sometimes multiplayer games turn out to be either unprofitable or unmanageable even for huge game companies that can afford to take the loss.

Yes, I see your point, but the idea in VV4 about friend codes is mentioned, perhaps a better idea?

I don't see multiplayer happening, really. Tying all that together, as Tuna mentioned, is no small task. The money to get and maintain the server is the problem, and you may have to maintain that server long after the game is no longer profitable. If that happens, the multiplayer component is nothing but a financial drain. If you cut off the service early because of this, it only makes the company look less professional to gamers.

Unless multiplayer is a major component of the game (FPS, RTS, and MMO games, mostly, with some RPG's thrown in) then the potential gain is often just not worth the risk you're taking, especially if you're not a larger company, and/or you're without the resources to absorb losses like that.

PS: Even a 'friend code' component requires a server to link all the games together, and to store tribe data in case that friend isn't online.

Ok...

How about a multiplayer version that's played on a console, no internet required, system?

Um . . . . . I personally would be way too likely to slap the other person messing with the village in a way I didn't intend.

"Research NOW? You fool! Food is low! We must harvest what remains!"
"No, you're the fool! We must research BECAUSE food is low!"

Or something . . .

Umm I really do not see that happening ever...

Still needs servers. How do you think people connect to each other on consoles? It's all through servers.