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The Wheel of Time
Trevorion
Member Posts: 63
Just thought to pop a new thought 
Ever heard of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time? It is a good read with lots of settings and cultures for a fantasy rp. I am very surprised that no one has tried to contact Robert to create an MMO for his world which is a good enough match to rival Tolkien's. Also the books offer new class ideas such as aes sedai, ashaman, seanchan suldam, ogiers ... all which could be something new and refreshing compared to the typical elves and orcs or mages and paladins based MMOs.
To wannabe or not to wannabe? Hey I know the answer and it is not 42!
Comments
The same reason why there aren't any Dragonlance MMORPG or Forgotten Realms MMORPG... there are many reasons on why a popular IP (intellectual property) cannot be easily translated to a good mmo. First, there's the issue of the IP itself since MMO games places the story in the games directly in the hands of the MMO developers the original author may or may not allow the story in the games to diverge from their original vision. Also many authors are very protective of their works and does not allow anyone to simply use their copyrighted works, characters and such or change events related to their canon works without their explicit permission.
Second, a popular IP with significant stuff already written and published about it are already written in stone and cannot be changed unless there's a major retcon.
Third, since the stories in a popular IP is a major source of livelihood of the author they will simply not allow some nameless writer to write new stories for them.
To wannabe or not to wannabe? Hey I know the answer and it is not 42!
For one thing, we'd have the same problem that SWG did with Jedi.
There are enough wielders of the one power in the Wheel of time world that players are going to be begging to be able to be one of them. Allowing it opens up a whole barrel of fun, from the Aes Sedai/Asha'man being able to literally turn entire parties of other classes inside out (pretty much the only way to take on a wielder is to shoot them in the back, while they aren't aware of danger and/or overwhelm them with sheer numbers, I'm talking hundreds to one ratios), to the Asha'man (male wielders) being stronger in its usage than their female counterparts, but doomed to go insane and literally begin to rot while still living. Of course, there are only maybe 10 thousand people trained in the use of the one power, a lot of whom have been accounted for and their roles set (possibly more depending on the Seanchan's slave reserves), so having several hundred thousand wielders pop up and begin doing whatever the hell they want isn't exactly canon.
Pretty much the only way it could work is if they stick with strictly mundane character abilities.
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Hemingway
Then there's the big issue of .... getting investors for the mmo. Well I am sure if there are enough interest someone will eventually make one for Wheel of Time. Getting an established IP into an mmo environment is extremely tricky business. Take a look at LOTRO, Turbine had to be very very careful not to step on any of Tolkien's established roles in the novels. So the MMO had this feel of not being you the player as the main hero but like someone who is watching a movie from afar while the "real" heroes go in their adventures to Mount Doom to save the world. Also luckily Tolkien's novel have a lot of stuff that were only mentioned in passing in one or two sentences and Turbine had to work from those in recreating the whole world of Middle-earth, there's plenty to leave in the reader/player's imagination. However the more established an IP is the harder it is to create a game out of it and sneak the player in as a hero.
I read those books up until book 9 or 10 I think. My main criticism with his work is that eventually it drags on to much. The first 6 books are great fun, but after that its starts to become boring and you keep wondering when it ends not sure if he finally managed to create an end to the story or if he’s still continuing with book after book, but I quit at book 9 or 10 myself.
Despite that, I agree his fantasy world is quite amazing and his books are great (aside from the fact he simply wrote to many of them in my opinion). I know that at one point a single player game was released based on his books, but if I remember right that game was very much below average. His world for an MMO would simply be fantastic and interesting. One interesting twist for example would be that only women can use magic in his worlds (with exception of “the dragon reborn” himself, but you can’t have thousand dragon reborns running trough the world). It would thus be very interesting to see how many of MMO’s community machismo’s would deal with the fact that only females can roll magic classes.
And yes there are male magic wielders in the Ashaman, but personally i'd not let players be able to roll those classes as they are to powerful. I don't know, it would feel wrong.
To wannabe or not to wannabe? Hey I know the answer and it is not 42!
The Wheel Of Time series is one of the dullest fantasy 'epics' i've had the misfortune to read. It's quite clear the series was only originally meant to be a 3 or 5 book series but once he realised he had a cash cow he decided to pad it and string it out as long as possible.
As for why no one has tried to contact him regarding the right, probably because he died last year.
There are some great fantasy worlds out there which would make interesting MMO settings but the Wheel Of Time is not one of them. Forgotten Realms is the obvious candidate after Neverwinter Nights and Baldur's Gate showed it certainly has the pedigree and scope to become an MMO. Westeros from George R Martin's books, Feist's Magician setting, Gemmells Drenai world, etc would all give any MMO a solid starting foundation.
One that I would be interested in though is James Barclay's setting. The books may be standard fantasy fodder and hardly literary or groundbreaking masterpieces but the world itself was quuite good. The way there are such different and varied factions incorporated would make it a good one to try.
Personally, moving away from the fantasy I'd like to see a full Shadowrun MMO(not a waste of the licence like the 360 FPS that's just come out). also, I loved the old Mechwarrior series on the PC and seeing some sort of PvP based MMO version of that along the lines of an Auto Assault/EvE hybrid would be pretty cool as well.
CoH/CoV - D-Zol/Kinslayer
Auto Assault - Slayer
WoW, LOTRO, DDO - Kinsul
Matrix Online - Tempest
I agree that in some cases he dragged a lot with the story especially in books 9 and 10. In book 11 however he does make it all worth while. Book 12 had to be the last one in the series. So if you read till 10 I would suggest you have a try at book 11, take my word, if you made it so far you will find it worh the while. I am very sad to know that he died. I hope his assistants pick up his notes and issue the last book for him. As to if the story is dull or not, it is all a matter of opinion and taste. I find his books to have had some interesting social perspectives which differ a lot from our real life.
To wannabe or not to wannabe? Hey I know the answer and it is not 42!
To wannabe or not to wannabe? Hey I know the answer and it is not 42!
2. They are discovering males and females who can channel every day. Peope are unaware they can channel until they are tested. This could be incorporated quite nicely into any mmo. So it makes perfect sense for thousands of characters to be able to channel the source. It would fit perfectly into the canon.
He has a blog that he posts on at this website:
dragonmount.com
He has a rare blood disease but he is getting treated and he isn't dead! Good lord.
To the OP.. Actually there is a WOT MPO game just not a MMO. The game allows for up to 16 players (8 v 8) but relisticly it is little more than a Doom match (where every one is running around using the BFG)
I can not see a MMO based on it being much fun.
Now if you want to go classics.... The I would perfer to walk the pattern...
An so it begins
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.[/CENTER]
Oh i didn't know he died, thats sad to hear. Maybe ill pick up the other books i haven't read yet.
As far as the Asha'man where i was in the storyline he was planning to cleanse the male half, but he hadn't found the way yet, but i assume he managed to in later books. That would allow men to participate in casting, assuming the game takes place in later time in history.
To wannabe or not to wannabe? Hey I know the answer and it is not 42!
Robert Jordan's blog:
dragonmount.com
HE IS NOT DEAD
lol calm down Lando I was actually replying in answer to your replies
Ty for the info Bob.
To wannabe or not to wannabe? Hey I know the answer and it is not 42!
However, IMO, an MMORPG isn't a great place for a story or the characters from a book. It's more about setting and game mechanics. Do I want to read a story in an MMORPG written by the author fo the Wheel of Time series? Absolutely not, especially with a bunch of other players, and especially if I'm trying to make a few levels or get some loot. If I want to read a good story, I'll sit down with the books, thank you very much.
The better course of action is to start from scratch, like EQ or DAoC, or use and existing game IP like WoW. Matrix, LoTRO, Star Wars Galaxies, etc., dont' make for superior MMORPGs even when they come from surperior IP's.
On the other hand, if Robert Jordan would like to write a story for a single player game, like KOTOR for example, that's something I might be interested in. IMO, reading stories is good for a book, or a single player game, but not a group effort which is what I expect in an MMORPG. Try reading the next Robert Jordan book with 5 friends at the same time and you'll see what I mean.
www.mmorpgmaker.com
To wannabe or not to wannabe? Hey I know the answer and it is not 42!
As The Wheel Weaves - As far as I know this is the oldest ROM based on WoT. BTW, for those that now MUD lingo, ROM is a derivative of Merc which was a variant of Diku. Diku is very similar to EQ and most of the EQ clones that most on this site will be familiar with.
Cuendillar MUSH - Being as this is a MUSH, it's more about role play than "phat l00tz."
Eye of the World - Straight up LPMUD so it's closer to the original MUD than any other game on this list.
Wheel of Time - This is a Circle MUD (Diku variant) and the oldest WoT MUD out there. Been up since 1993!
Personally, I like the setting but I found that Jordan pads entirely too much. The series didn't really gain an identity of it's own until about the third book and, even then, it was just a fantasy remake of Dune. In fact, The book were the Aiel were completely introduced (Fires of Heaven?) was basically a mutation of the first Dune book. It's a shame that it takes Jordan almost 800 pages to do what Herbert accomplished in a little over 300.
At any rate, it's a solid setting and it can be done. I'm just not sure if conventional game developers can do the property the same justice as many of these fan made games have.
I actually imagine a guild of ashaman linking together to defeat a dungeon boss, or a seanchan deathguard flying on a raken, or a sea mistress ready to set sail. Or the warder will gain special abilities when bonded to an aes sedai and others when she is online. Or perhaps the game dynamics can let you control more than one character like in sword of the new world. There is no limit to imagination.
To wannabe or not to wannabe? Hey I know the answer and it is not 42!