Which One and How Did this Happen?

Xix13

I've been wondering for a long time why there are so many fantasy MMOs out there and so few Sci Fi.  I know.  I've heard the same reasons as given for Sci Fi shows on TV.  They tell us they don't sell.  OK.  Maybe those millions of ST, Firefly and etc. fans are all just RL Alts of the same 10 guys.  Dunno.

But what I really find strange now is this.  Have you looked at the upcoming games releases lately?  If you have, you may have noticed something interesting.  There are 3 (not 1, not even 2, but THREE) Pirate MMOs all being scheduled for release within the first half of 2007.  THREE MMOs on a subject which, to date, hasn't even been touched.  THREE sailing MMOs in a genre where water travel has been almost universally ignored.  Remember UO's "sailing"?  Yikes!!  Sci Fi games treat water pretty much like land.  You pass over via jet or hovercraft or swim thru.  Fantasies usually use the rivers as choke points with bridges or fords.  But, suddenly, out of nowhere, we have THREE sailing MMOs all out within 6 months of one another.

So, what happened?  Did three entirely separate groups of people suddenly think "Hey, let's do a Pirates MMO," build 3 entirely different business plans, and submit to three entirely separate venture capitalists who suddently thought "Yeah, a Pirate MMO would make us money" all AT THE SAME TIME??  I find that possibility incredible.  Yes, call me a conspiracy theorist, but I'm starting to truly believe we're all being horribly manipulated.

Which of these 3 will be a real MMO and which will be schlock slapped together for a quick buck off a possible new craze?  One safe bet is that it will cost a bunch of gamers some cash to find out.

Personally, I've no stake in this one.  I don't like the whole Pirate Thang.  Never did, so none of the three will be getting my buck.  My problem will come when 3 or 4 after-the-apoc MMOs or Second Generation SWGs hit the net.  Man, that year's gonna cost me a heapload of monthly cash before I settle on one.  But, maybe it'll never happen, 'cause, as we all know, Sci Fi doesn't sell.  Aargh.  Parrots Rulz! 

 

TheJurojin

Well, as I understand it, the reason for more fantasy mmo's existing than sci-fi mmo's is more related to literature than tv/movies.  For sci-fi to be "good" it needs to be something that is plausible.  And by plausible I mean that if you take technology today and stretch what we already have to the very limits of your imagination what do you have?  If it breaks out of this theorem it stops being sci-fi and becomes fantasy whether it has electricity or neorons or not.

Fantasy on the other hand doesn't need to be plausible at all.  You can do anything you want with it at all to your hearts content and it would still be fantasy.   Which of course is why it's called fantasy in the first place.

Another reason that jumps to mind is the difficulty of having sci-fi battles in a medium where you will invariably be fighting up close and personal with something with some sort of ranged laser/blaster/gun/thingy in your hand.  It just looks retarded when that happens and it daunts developers when they try to overcome things like that.

Mordacai

I would say more coincidence then anything. POTBS will be the real mmorpg though IMHO. I think it should've been out already but they've delayed and worked and delayed and worked and all that normal routine now for about a year I think from their projections. When I look at POTC I think its just going to be a get rich quick make a buck off a movie mmorpg that's most likely going to be dumbed down quite well so that a "younger" audience will be more keen to play it (i.e. 6-12yr), not to say adults won't try it for fun but I think it'll be geared more towards that target audience. And the other....ugh, eastern grindfest is the first thing that comes to mind.

irishsausage

Yes just how its hard for developers, when melee classes have to fight spellcasters, who just cant fight close range and look pathetic doing it!!   Besides sci-fi stands for science fiction, fiction meaning made-up.



On the earlier point sci-fi is a really good seller, look at star wars, star trek, x-files etc, the problem is developers have to make sci-fi games and they tend to include off planet action and multiple planets which is hard to code for and design into the game.

TheJurojin

Originally posted by irishsausage

Yes just how its hard for developers, when melee classes have to fight spellcasters, who just cant fight close range and look pathetic doing it!!   Besides sci-fi stands for science fiction, fiction meaning made-up.



On the earlier point sci-fi is a really good seller, look at star wars, star trek, x-files etc, the problem is developers have to make sci-fi games and they tend to include off planet action and multiple planets which is hard to code for and design into the game.

Melee classes fighting spell casters doesn't look nearly as rediculous as someone with a rifle shooting someone at point blank range and missing.  Also, in fantasy games spell casters usually have staves or daggers to poke at the melee fighter with to make it look better as well.

Fiction = made up, which is true.  But science fiction is made up science and if an author or developer makes up science that is completely unbelievable then it becomes fantasy.  It's how literature is classified.   For example, Dune and Star Wars are fantasy with science fiction aspects (look it up if you don't believe me), while Star Trek is science fiction because they try to make the science in the stories plausible. 

Of course, you could go even further and get into the sub genres of sci-fi such as "hard sci-fi" and the like, but that gets tedious.

ste2000

For me it s quite simple, I don't like Pirates games so I won't try any of them.



I think there is only room for 1 Pirates MMO anyway, I don't think many people will be interested.

But I might be wrong

gillvane1

Don't know about the Pirate thing, but more than one survey has shown players like the fantasy genre over any other genre in MMORPGs. That doesn't mean that lots of players don't like Sci Fi, because they do. But fantasy is the most popular, for whatever reason, so most MMORPGs will be fantasy to take advantage of the large number of players that prefer this genre over any other.



For every MMORPG player that posts "I'm sick of elves. When are they going to make a decent sci fi game?" There are 10 other players that will be happy as clams playing an elf, one more time.



MMORPG Maker

Bernoully

Personally I feel it happened this way: Uncharted Waters Online came out first, then Voyage Century pulls a copycat for several years, while across the world PotBS realized the potential of the genre one fateful day and PotC happens to be planning phase only until the former takes off and threatens its plans.



But yea, planetary dropships are just not as popular and scantily dressed elves, which is a waste. It took forever for BattleTech and Fallout to have clues of being online (probably never in its full glory for BT), yet we get truckloads of Eastern and Western fantasies. Maybe pure fantasy is much easier than technical brains.



.... I think PotBS will win the current race too, but if UWO ever comes over to the West it's much a harder to say.

Vanillatea

I thought it was because of the Pirates of the Carribean movies.  There's a pirate craze going around and MMO's are trying to cash in on it.

trillah

well the same goes for spy mmo genre.Never heard of them until now, 3 compagnies are developping one on their own.

SomebodyOverThere

I agree with you Xix13. Although I don't think its companies getting together and saying "ok lets make several of this kind of game now", but I do 100% believe that companies are hearing about other companies developing new games, and instantly trying to copycat them before they are even released. Remember about a month or so ago? Sony announced a spy-themed MMORPG, then about a week later another company announced the same thing, then the very next day a third company announced the exact same thing again. Its obvious these companies are attempting to copycat without their own innovation//creativity/vision.