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Avatar Producer Jon Landau "Very Interested" In Creating An Avatar MMO
bronecar
Member Posts: 685
Source g4tv
If you'd love to spend your entire life in the universe created in James Cameron's Avatar, producer John Landau sees you.
We caught up with Landau at the recent 3D Gaming Summit in Los Angeles, and asked about the possibility of an online Avatar, Here's what he said:
"We've already been asked if we'd consider doing an Avatar MMO, and it's something we'd want to do; something we'd be very interested in doing, but we'd have to do it right," Landau said. "I think today, entertainment goes beyond any one medium, as we look to make a persistent world out of Avatar. we'll look to gaming, we'll look to publishing, we'll look to other opportunities in order to do that."
Check out the entire interview below;
Comments
Blue Pocahontas online, sounds great...
Done well it could make for an amazing MMO. I think the art style would have to be done just right though. It would have to be reasonable in system requirements, while at the same doing Pandora justice. I don't think that would be very simple to pull off.
Oh yeah, expect more than a few Avatar bashers in your thread, they seem to be quite vocal. Make no mistake though, they are really just closet Anti-environmentalists, and they always have to drop their 2 cents in whenever they get the chance. You'll see... they are so ugly that they are cute
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
"something we'd be very interested in doing, but we'd have to do it right,"
Interested in sitting on a military base fighting foot fungi?
...while 10 million "Avatars" (rare and expensive) run around the forest hunting and gathering?
It'll need a sequel if the war is going to last more than a week. Was there a sequel to Pocahontas that I missed?
(couldn't resist)
Oh yeah, expect more than a few people that miss the big picture in your thread, they seem to be quite vocal. Make no mistake though, they are really just tree hugging fools, and they always have to drop their 2 cents in whenever they get the chance. You'll see... they are so ugly that they are cute
M59, UO, EQ1, WWIIOL, PS, EnB, SL, SWG. MoM, EQ2, AO, SB, CoH, LOTRO, WoW, DDO+ f2p's, Demos & indie alpha's.
Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World... detailed her trip to England or something like that.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
Please dont spend your money by wasting it making an Avatar mmo, I could probably put up a better idea on a mmo that will make you atleast twice the amount of money in 5 min.
The cow is already milked, let it be.
Dances With Smurfs Online... heh. No thanks.
Oreally? please share your idea with us.
*puts hands out making a picture screen with the fingers to look through*
Ah, dieing earth, all green is gone, a fight for survival, food resources are all but exhausted, old people start to disappear, a new food is introduced, rationing commences, people are fed but just enough, they call it soilent green!
Ok, I'm not above admitting I were wrong, fire up the factories
M59, UO, EQ1, WWIIOL, PS, EnB, SL, SWG. MoM, EQ2, AO, SB, CoH, LOTRO, WoW, DDO+ f2p's, Demos & indie alpha's.
Took the words right out of my mouth.
done right any MMO is amazing
I challenge you to find one that has been made right though. As for avatar it's amazing commerical success would almost guarentee a WoW clone style of game in an attempt to milk the franchise.
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
I love peopels mentality, as if only 1 MMO is allowed to exist at a time an dtheyre forced to play that MMO and do nothing else in life, and so it better be the MMO that they want, or its a waste of time. Theres obvious fans of the movie, and those who would like to see an MMO made out of it, and they will be the ones playing it. Nobody said you have to play it, so if you dont like the idea, then just dont play the game, theres hundreds of other games out there. No need to constantly spew hate about every little thing that isnt exactly what you like. It's their money, and if they want to make it they will. You can cry about it all you want, still wont stop it. If anything, you should be saying what they should do to actually make it a good game, not "OMG WASTE OF MONEY I DIDNT LIKE THE MOVIE SO AN MMO WILL SUCK, YOU SUCK RAAAAAAAAAAWR NERD RAGE"
Just look at the opposite end of whats happened, and could possibly happen with other Movie IPs.
STO - lots of star trek fans, bad game that pretty much flopped after the first month
Star Wars - lots of fans, potential to be a good game, but could just as easily turn into STO
Avatar - if made into an MMO could either be great or horrible. Id much rather see it get done the rigth way and be a good game due to constructive feedback and criticism, rather than a game that fails due to nothing but nerd rage as feedback during development.
And before anyone even starts with some retarded crap like "fanboi", i actually havent even seen the movie, only about the first 30 minutes of it a couple weeks ago, never got around to finishing it, but like i said there is obviously a demand for this MMO or they wouldnt bother.
Watching pirated copy of Avatar, not cool.
So it'll have great graphics, awesome special effects and full voice overs but a thin, regurgitated plot with heavy environmental overtones?
DVD release last week, I think.
---
I know there have been many of these threads, and this is the second one here I've posted on, and another elsewhere, but no one has ever detailed how content would work out. And from seeing the movie, in light of the story and timeline compared to an mmo that runs for years with expansions, I see it hard to actually detail a working development document for it. An mmo must consist of more than a look-see forest environment and a week of warfare imo.
Keep in mind, development documents for AAA games run some 500+ pages. I've seen indie dev docs run 250 pages. Would there be even enough content for 100 pages with this?
M59, UO, EQ1, WWIIOL, PS, EnB, SL, SWG. MoM, EQ2, AO, SB, CoH, LOTRO, WoW, DDO+ f2p's, Demos & indie alpha's.
This would be an MMO that I would NOT want to play. Sorry, there is nothing there. Other then a lot of color, nothing else there.
Let's party like it is 1863!
Actually, it came out on DvD & Blu-Ray April 22nd, which would be.... you guessed it, a couple weeks ago. Nice try though.
The movie was okay ill admit and i went in to it expecting it to fail because my taste in movies is pretty open as i will watch anything i can stay awake during but usually i reserve the judgement for myself and not what others think.Ive rented many movies from Netflix or just went ahead and bought them without reading up on them and have been glad but i thought with the 2 billion + it made in the theatres that it was just going to be an over-hyped piece of trash.It was a good movie but why would they even consider making an mmo out of it?
They made an Avatar game but as far as i know it sucked...I wasnt reading multi page reports on it.It wasnt on any top list's ive seen and i frequently browse gaming sites for new and exciting games i may have missed or not heard much of.The game got a 4.0 on one site for crying out loud.Does this yell success? I think if i were looking for a game to make an mmo off of that hasnt been used id try my luck with Harry Potter(appeals to way more kids then a lot of movies out now days) or maybe even Underwold. The whole Vampire vs Werewolf thing with the humans thrown in as Neutral peace keeper's like in the move would and could play out well.Much better then say a movie that was decent but over hyped and made a couple billion in one market but failed miserably in another.
The pc/console game got such a low rating because as usual ubisoft after they release a game for the first month or 2 they release a patch here and there then poof nothing.
Some of the negative reviews shared that they didn't like the controls of the flying pterodactyl like monster.
Well, granted the game did seem like it sucked from what i saw, but it was also just the usual "oh we have a movie, lets pump out some quick crap ass generic game to consoles so we can make money off of it". Its almost standard nowadays that if theres a movie (well at least action/adventure type movies) that sees even mediocre success in theatres, theyre going to make a console game for it, which 9 out of 10 times is just terribad. Hell, half the time they even release games before the movie is out, or at the same time the movie comes out, without even waiting to see how the movie does.
Undertaking the making of an MMO based on the Avatar IP would be a whole different thing. There would be a hell of a lot mor ethey could do with it, including rather than basically playing through the same story you saw in the movie (which most movie-games are), youre simply in the world of Avatar but can play a very different story which you make for yourself.
Making a MMO out of a well known IP is rather tricky at times, and the story of Avatar is rather linear too so I don't see how this will succeed very much unless they retcon the story a bit or base the MMO on when the humans first discover pandora.
Hey look, there's one now!
Just a hint to all of the Sherlocks out there; this film's purpose wasn't to introduce some brand new spankingly fresh story to blow your fucking mind away. It was actually created to not only give you a new experience at the cinema, but to show you the beauty of an unspoiled and unmolested pristine world. Why the hell would we want that, eh?!
Didn't you hear, we actually used to have one.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
Im just saying ....just because it drew 2 billion in theatres doesnt mean its ready to jump into every other form of entertainment out there.
Gamepro gave it a 2 out 5
Gamespot gave its game a 4.0 out 10 PS3 and a 5.0 for both pc and xbox.
IGN gave it a 6.0 roughly on each platform which i guess could be considered an okay game
My post was primarily to prove a point.The movie was good enough to watch once and even buy a dvd because in honesty a lot of the new stuff we seen used to make this movie will be the norm in big budget movies to come.I just think its stupid to start talking MMO after the movie has only been out on dvd a few weeks.But like others said as long as loyal fans flock to it and it makes some money they will probably no doubt make it anyways
So, thinking about this in relation to Cryptic having a new MMO in the works, I'm curious if Avatar is the next IP they plan to murde.. *cough* sorry, I mean turn into a MMO?
Not beyond the realms of possibility, and the story of Avatar isn't what anyone would call deep, so they may be well suited to one another.
Personally I would ask Mr. Landau only 2 questions:
1: Do you want to make this a cash grab instance heavy WOW clone?
2: Do you want to make this a free-form open ended pure MMORPG and crate a world to live and play in with engaging mechanics and long term viability?
Yeah, pretty much the same thing i was trying to get at. People seem to just assume that an MMO base don teh IP would just be mor eof the same crap weve been playing, revolving completely around the story in the movie. They dont seem to realize that if they got the right company, and approache dit the right way, they could just use the setting and "lore" from the movie, expand upon it, introduce new side stories & characters/creatures, and a buttload of other things and end up giving us a really great experience. It doesnt HAVE to be an Avatar movie meets WoW and has a baby MMO.
Every IP has to start somewhere, wether it be 1 game, or book, or movie. Even WoW started with just plain old Warcraft, and expanded upon that until we had WoW. Avatar (as well as many other movies & books) could very easily start with just the movie, and expand into more areas.
LOTR originated from the books which developed into games an dmovies ove rthe years, and the end result was a pretty damn good MMO called LOTRO. Avatar would simply be doing things in a different order.
Hell, The Sword of Truth was one of my favorite book series, and ive always wanted a game based off of it, and then they cam eout with the show and i wa slike OMFG YES!!!!..... then they completely destroyed anything even remotely close to the story of what the book was and the show was just terribad.... so there goes my hopes for the game too. Terry Goodkind should have never sold the rights off to the jackasses that turned Legend of the Seeker into what it has become. Nothing even makes sense, nobody is who theyre supposed to be, timelines are all out of whack, etc.