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Horror Multiplayer/MMO
TheIllusive
Member Posts: 196
You all know Amnesia the dark descent and how insane scary it is. When I was playing I kept thinking how fun it must be to play this with someone else in an more open world where you and your friend have to solve mystery's for certain people. Yes the game will be a little less scary but the excitement factor would be insane. What do you think or maybe add/suggest?
Comments
An enormous part horror games is atmosphere and pacing.
Now, let's take a game like Dead Space for a moment, and throw griefers, gold farming spammers, trade chat, and pre-pubescent capslockers into the game.
Some things just don't really work. Though, I am interested to see how the Secret World and Undead Labs do.
Remember, it has to be fun to be a game. Grinding is a bedroom activity, and the point is definitely not to do my wife as fast as possible.
We should be seeing more of WoD next year and how it might play.
uhh Dead Space franchine horror games? not really ... you get scared some times, but that isnt real horror. Amnesia, that is real horror/excitement!
Insert whatever game you would like then, I don't see how it changes my point.
Remember, it has to be fun to be a game. Grinding is a bedroom activity, and the point is definitely not to do my wife as fast as possible.
Requiem is a game that bills itself as a horror MMO.
I believe it's F2P....so give it a shot.
http://www.playrequiem.com/
No you don't get my point. A massive world with millions of people doesnt work for a horror game (well it can, but than you need to work arround the things you pointed out yes, but it is certainly possible). But in my idea Im more talking about a Multiplayer based game. Think Oblivion meets Amnesia, and than with a mate.
I like the idea but, a huge part of a horror game is playing alone knowing your the only one in that part it vastly enhance how scary it is
I think it would be fun in gen chat to /yell Don't go in there!
Drop the next-gen marketing and people will argue if the game itself has merit.
You can't have a truly horrific environment with dozens of players running around minding their own business.
yes this is true. A 2 player coop will work the best in an open envirement like Fallout but than set in an extremely dark moody scary world. Just the travel between certain places is scary enough. Like in Amnesia you dont have any sort of a weapons arsenal, maybe a knife at max. You have to feel powerless, not powerfull like in most horror games.
TSW if Funcom doesn't screw up (I have to admit it looks awesome for the little info we got, 3 factions and all) and ofc WoD. Your best bets imo.
Co-op killed RE5
I'm a MUDder. I play MUDs.
Current: Dragonrealms
I think if you wanted a truly horrific MMO, it'd be pretty much necessary to have permadeath.
Swift, often and brutal.
People should spend more time on the character creation screen than they do playing the game, most of it panting and going 'Oh god, I don't want to go back there.'.
Yep... you can have single player horror games... or a few player (3-4) coop horror games... when you know you're pitted against a much larger force and with no way back... but it's harldly horrific when you have an entire player army steamrolling any supposedly horrific entities... O_o
You can't have a truly horrific environment with dozens of players running around minding their own business.
yes this is true. A 2 player coop will work the best in an open envirement like Fallout but than set in an extremely dark moody scary world. Just the travel between certain places is scary enough. Like in Amnesia you dont have any sort of a weapons arsenal, maybe a knife at max. You have to feel powerless, not powerfull like in most horror games.
What if you each have to go someplace different, and each have to complete something in order to escape from the haunted mansion/derelict ship/etc.? Or if the group gets separated a lot because everyone has to just run from something?
In Amnesia having to hide from monsters instead of being able to fight them, having to run away and not being able to see a lot of the activity makes it much scarier than it would be otherwise. This could be the same in a group setting, except you'd always have one idiot running out of lantern fuel, or not hiding or something like that and getting the whole group killed. In a way, the scary part of being in a group is knowing that the other people in the group can't save you. Even with the team you're pretty much on your own.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
You could have a horror MMORPG that keeps the scare factor. During group instances they can employ traps that seperate members from each other. Or have it start out scooby0do fashion where the group has to split up to solve the mystery.
In any case, the game would have to have a really toguh death penalty because that's the only way the players will be scared of dying.
Death penalties don't get any tougher than permadeath.
Seriously, most 'death penalties' just mean you have to spend more time grinding away on the same character. Hardly scary if you're grinding low level zombie mobs or something.
Killing the character off completely would definitely give you a fear of dying, and make people super cautious.
Seriously, most 'death penalties' just mean you have to spend more time grinding away on the same character. Hardly scary if you're grinding low level zombie mobs or something.
Killing the character off completely would definitely give you a fear of dying, and make people super cautious.
I think it would be more likely to make people not play the game if they had to repeat content. I get what you're saying, but there aren't too many people who want to start over on a new character because some guy in their group had to go AFK and feed the dogs.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Yes I agree. There are lot of options to play with, but it would be most fun/exciting/scary if you do not know where youd up against. I think 3 is a great number to play a game like this, will give you the idea of not being allone but still be insanely scary ha! Puzzling, searching, discovering, running! ... enough ideas from adventure/horror movies. Like Amnesia has shown us again, the most scary things are when there is nothing happening but you think something will. The power lies in your imagination. If there will be a game like this, it is up to the developers to find the right balance between horror/adventure/multiplayer/open world.
Btw, im glad that Valve said that Half Life 3/Ep 3 will focus more on atmosphere/scary parts.
I get actually scared really fast and have a tremendous imagination that haunted me since I was a kid. Still I want to play games like this. Why? Adrenaline ! : P I can't play Amnesia when im alone though haha.
Well I think when you make a horror multiplayer game it ruins the scary moments. If you play you pay more attention to the other players that you're not scared at all.
not true, it is the blend of excitement and teamwork that makes it an enjoyable experience. A game as scay as Amnesia wouldn't be a hit because it is simply to scary. Take a bit of the scare by teaming up in an open world? sign me and my buddy up :P
I think the biggest problem at least that i can see is you can really only run the content once. Unless its randomly generated, eventually you get to know the area, where the monsters jump and when.
After that it loses some of it's horror aspect it's running off of. Whenever i watch a horror movie it's the suspense of something going to happen. Will that person turn the corner and see nothing then turn back and see the ghost? or will she look under the bed and something attacks her. Once i've seen the movie i already know whats going to happen. 10 time less scary the second time around. The reason i say this is because MMOs are designed around the idea of repeating stuff.
Just my personal opinion of course.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
Sure I take your point. Well let's hope someone is developing it.
Ucansignmeupto.
Oh I think horror can be done in an MMO without having to go with perma death, or a super hefty death penalty. By super hefty, I mean heavier than original EQ's death penalty. Any harder and you'll drive players away.
I've played Requiem, and while it calls itself a horror MMO, all I ever saw were mutants and zombie like mutants. Nothing actually scary to call it horror. It's like calling the Twilight series Horror, or RE5 Horror. It just ain't actual horror.
Real horror games need:
1. Uncanny: Some things look normal, almost. The almost adds creepy. Over the top blood or malformations destroy uncanny creepy.
2. Unseen. Invisible things messing with players, always unsettling. Be it an invisible nosforatu or a poltergiest, WoD has unseen enemies that can mess you up.
3. Other worldly. This is a story and environment type mechanic. Having characters with opinions, and views totally alien to the player, makes the player unsettled in the strageness. It's why Japanese horror tends to be better than US horror. It's got other worldliness simply from being created in a different culture.
PvP would be hit or miss on being horror. But I would lean to NOT relying on PvP to scare people. Fear of death only goes so far till the player quits playing the game.
Amnesia was scary? You have to be kidding me. True horror comes from the imagination, not from the constant camera shaking, and overly dark rooms.
REALITY CHECK