Survival Horror MMO?

Edeus

Would anyone be interested in a Survival Horror MMO if it was implemented properly?  Survival Horror games being a sub-genre of the action adventure and FPS games are still very popular.  With FPS wargames online like crazy, and of course our favorite Fantasy and Sci-Fi MMO's running amuck; horror games are an untapped online market.

 

To give you some ideas of how I think one could be implemented, have a large Silent Hill-esque world. 

-The playable characters could be anything from a lone-wife survivor to a STARS type soldier.  You could even have possible faction warfare between the undead/vampires/mutants/whatever against the humans.

-There would be tons of starting areas, from suburban areas to Mansion hallways to subway cars to Hospital basements.  The players would have to team up cosntantly or face imminent gruesome death. 

-Resources would be hard to come by, that is to say, they matter ALOT.  Try not to waste 10 rounds on one little zombie

 

Would you play a Survival Horror MMO?  What ideas do you have about a survival Horror MMO?

 

 

RefMinor

Originally posted by Edeus

Would anyone be interested in a Survival Horror MMO if it was implemented properly?  Survival Horror games being a sub-genre of the action adventure and FPS games are still very popular.  With FPS wargames online like crazy, and of course our favorite Fantasy and Sci-Fi MMO's running amuck; horror games are an untapped online market.
 
To give you some ideas of how I think one could be implemented, have a large Silent Hill-esque world. 
-The playable characters could be anything from a lone-wife survivor to a STARS type soldier.  You could even have possible faction warfare between the undead/vampires/mutants/whatever against the humans.
-There would be tons of starting areas, from suburban areas to Mansion hallways to subway cars to Hospital basements.  The players would have to team up cosntantly or face imminent gruesome death. 
-Resources would be hard to come by, that is to say, they matter ALOT.  Try not to waste 10 rounds on one little zombie
 
Would you play a Survival Horror MMO?  What ideas do you have about a survival Horror MMO?
 
 

 

Isn't fallen earth a bit like that.

alkarionlog

fallen earth is more like a crafting game with slow combat

 

check this one if you still have not

 

http://www.deadfrontier.com/

Kuro1n

Very hard to make because when you can hide together in a big group of players it doesn't become very scary.

BigHatLogan

I really like the concept but this is one concept that definitely needs permadeath.  I guarantee you people will be afraid when permadeath is a possiblity.  With permadeath you could actually gauge success by how long your character has survived, which is kinda the point of survival horror.

jazz.be

Doom online? :-)

I'm sorry but that doesn't sound like a good idea.

The horror effect mostly comes from solitude. You're alone and you have to survive, the only one who can help you is yourself. You're on your own.

And you will constantly need new content. It's new places, new monsters, new situations, new sounds that keeps putting the stress on the horror effect.

Well if anyone manage to make such a game I would off course try it out when I can. I'm always open to try new things.

Meltdown

I don't think it would fly. MMOs rely on repeated content quite a bit these days (instances, shared newbie zones, daily quests, battleground... you name it). Horror might get you the first time, maybe the second, but after the 5th time it's really just old news. 

 

There are things that WOULD work, but require some changes to your typical MMO-fare:

1. Need loads of dynamic content

2. Need forced first person view (think Amnesia the Dark Descent) 

3. Almost needs forced full-screen, although this doesn't really fly in games anymore. 

4. Might need perma-death as someone mentioned

Kuro1n

Originally posted by Meltdown

I don't think it would fly. MMOs rely on repeated content quite a bit these days (instances, shared newbie zones, daily quests, battleground... you name it). Horror might get you the first time, maybe the second, but after the 5th time it's really just old news. 

 

There are things that WOULD work, but require some changes to your typical MMO-fare:

1. Need loads of dynamic content

2. Need forced first person view (think Amnesia the Dark Descent) 

3. Almost needs forced full-screen, although this doesn't really fly in games anymore. 

4. Might need perma-death as someone mentioned

Here I disagree on some points.

 

1. Yes, agreed.

2. No, there is other solutions. Me and a few friends have been discussing this lately and with some kind of field of view + fog of war effect you could potentially make it scary still, Monsters could sneak up on you and with creepy sounds you would have people swinging the camera back and forth in order to not have a zombie or something sneak up on you.

3. Full screen would obviously increase the effect but it's kinda up to everyone how scary they wish to make it, some people might turn off the sound or crank up the gamma because they feel it's too scary anyway. You should however probably do like Amnesia does and tell the user how full screen will make immersion easier.

4. You could potentially make it scary by geardrop / skill loss or longer respawn times on death. The point is that you need to make dying something that hurts. Permadeath is taking it to an extreme which some people might not like, myself I'm quite fond of the idea yet it is my belief that the majority of players dislike this concept.

BigHatLogan

Most people are only afraid of permadeath because they are conditioned by current mmorpgs.  If a game was designed around the concept of permadeath it isn't quite so off putting.  There was permadeath in Super Mario Brothers after all...  In a survival horror game, i think a big draw would be that leaderboard score of how many days each character has survived.  It could be a very brutal affair but it's not like you need to raid dungeons or anything for epic purples or whatnot.  You just need to find a baseball bat in someone's closet to be competetive. 

Mephster

Undead Labs zombie console mmo in the works.

 

Site - http://www.undeadlabs.com

waynejr2

Originally posted by Edeus

Would anyone be interested in a Survival Horror MMO if it was implemented properly?  Survival Horror games being a sub-genre of the action adventure and FPS games are still very popular.  With FPS wargames online like crazy, and of course our favorite Fantasy and Sci-Fi MMO's running amuck; horror games are an untapped online market.

 

To give you some ideas of how I think one could be implemented, have a large Silent Hill-esque world. 

-The playable characters could be anything from a lone-wife survivor to a STARS type soldier.  You could even have possible faction warfare between the undead/vampires/mutants/whatever against the humans.

-There would be tons of starting areas, from suburban areas to Mansion hallways to subway cars to Hospital basements.  The players would have to team up cosntantly or face imminent gruesome death. 

-Resources would be hard to come by, that is to say, they matter ALOT.  Try not to waste 10 rounds on one little zombie

 

Would you play a Survival Horror MMO?  What ideas do you have about a survival Horror MMO?

 

 

IF.  Well IF it was made into the perfect game for every player, then I would say yes.

nariusseldon

I will add to those who say it won't work.

There is no need to have lots of players in a survival horror game. it won't be very scary if you are surrounding by 50 or 100 other players.

This kind of game may work as a small group multiplayer game, but there is really no need to do a MMO for it.

PukeBucket

Think about it.
It'd need to be a game where abundance could not exist. Other than an abundance of something wanting to kill you.

With so many companies just giving in to the whims of all the "gimmie" crowd it'd never work.

I'd love to see it. Maybe even a modular massive game where people join up and it's pretty much promised you'll eventually die. But there's a leaderboard tracking the real survivors. LoL

Eh no market for it sadly.

Loke666

Something Cthulhu based would work for me... Where you would get madder and madder transforming your perception of the game into a nightmare... And where you must know when to fight and when to run or die horrible.

But there is a huge zombie survival MMO in the making, AAA with a great budget and some rather famous devs on the team (the lead designer did that work on Diablo, WC3 and guildwars as well). Keep the name "Class 4" and the company Undead labs in memory, it will be gigantic.

Lawlmonster

One already exsists, albeit web based and F2P (cash shop isn't necessary to use). Essentially, it's a zombie survival tale, and supposedly every individual building in the city can be barricaded by players and defended against hordes - I've just never done that before. Anyway, here's the link. It's fun for a bit, at least.

 

http://www.deadfrontier.com/

BigHatLogan

Originally posted by PukeBucket

Think about it.

It'd need to be a game where abundance could not exist. Other than an abundance of something wanting to kill you.

With so many companies just giving in to the whims of all the "gimmie" crowd it'd never work.

I'd love to see it. Maybe even a modular massive game where people join up and it's pretty much promised you'll eventually die. But there's a leaderboard tracking the real survivors. LoL

Eh no market for it sadly.

I could see a Japanese developer doing something like this, they tend to make challenging games.  Big name western developers would never go for it since they seem to think gamers are barely functional invalids.  A indie dev would probably go for it though.

Achyl

Requiem: Bloodymare (Requiem's former title before the "expansion"-esque patch) was pretty okay. It made you fear the enemies that you fought when night came, but it also implemented mobs that were extremely powerful in every area that were just as fearful. There were a lot of horror elements that it did right, but there were a lot of things within the game that felt incomplete or not rounded out enough. The calss system that it used was also pretty stereotypical. (Pick a base class that expanded into one of two others)

I would've liked to have seen a lot more doen with Requiem, but it was one of the few "horror" mmos that even seemed like it was attempting anyhting. The grotesque looking monsters and bosses were a nice touch, but there was so much walking and boring routine questing that the horror element of the game was kind of over looked.

The Secret World looks like it will have a slight horror kind of feel to it, so I am looking forward to that.

Blazer6992

"Resident Evil the MMO" I like that.

 

darkehawke

It was a shame the resi outbreak games never took off. They had potential. 

As a mmo I don't see it working too well. 

Unless they do away with levels and have it like a big dead rising style game, where you are literally free to do what you want! I'd play that.

RefMinor

Originally posted by Loke666

Something Cthulhu based would work for me... Where you would get madder and madder transforming your perception of the game into a nightmare... And where you must know when to fight and when to run or die horrible.
But there is a huge zombie survival MMO in the making, AAA with a great budget and some rather famous devs on the team (the lead designer did that work on Diablo, WC3 and guildwars as well). Keep the name "Class 4" and the company Undead labs in memory, it will be gigantic.

 

The perfect Lovecraft game would just have a black screen and a slight scratching sound.

PukeBucket

---

Originally posted by RefMinor
Originally posted by Loke666Something Cthulhu based would work for me... Where you would get madder and madder transforming your perception of the game into a nightmare... And where you must know when to fight and when to run or die horrible.
But there is a huge zombie survival MMO in the making, AAA with a great budget and some rather famous devs on the team (the lead designer did that work on Diablo, WC3 and guildwars as well). Keep the name "Class 4" and the company Undead labs in memory, it will be gigantic.

 
The perfect Lovecraft game would just have a black screen and a slight scratching sound.

---

My desktop is randomly possessed by Cthulhu?! Hell I just thought I needed a new heating fan.

Majestico

I would love a survival horror MMORPG. Rather than have it as a town as the main area, as i think that would limit the size of the game. You could still have a 'silent hill based zone' which would be more mysterious and spooky than the rest of the game, with areas within the town perfect for grouping, especially to tackle a chain linked quest, with the final boss encounter being dramatic, as well as gory. So instead I would go down the angle of some mutant virus having spread across the world. With it being set initially in some country, either based on, or the actual USA. Probably it would be best to make it a country, based on the US, so that lore could be created. However, it would be familiar enough, with cars, cell phones, modern day weaponry. Future expansions could add new countries, and more lore, expanding the mystery of what happened. It would have loads of possibilities. Instead of just grinding out xp by shooting zombies, you could have it rich in stories, with relevant quests. Ultimately, there would be plenty of rumour and conjecture as to what has occurred. Perhaps it could have been a virus being developed to create super warriors, which went wrong and created mutants out of the population, with varying degrees of power. Perhaps it was to fight a secret battle between the vampire lords, and the lycanthropes (which are not just werewolves, but werebears, wererats, weretigers, etc). Perhaps the vampire vrs werebeast war was ongoing for centuries, and only comes to light because of the virus. Either way, there could be three factions, plus a neutral one. Now, you might think that a world blighted by this virus would suddenly look odd with loads of players running around. Either the game begins several years after the original tragedy, and human players have learned to adapt. Having taken over certain cities and towns as their homes. You could actually do something with player housing. Being essential for storage, especially with weapons and ammo. You could buy various booby traps to protect against unwanted visitors, even ´pet ´ system which you could earn through quests . But a lot of home defence would be required for when either faction attacks took place, like a vampire blood raid, or non faction attacks like a massive, mutant attack. Just imagine how scary it would be if the air raid sirens were blaring, and through loud speakers you heard a voice constantly saying, 'warning, warning, we are under attack. Protect yourselves.' neutrals would stay and do their best to defend their house, or trailer. Seeing about a hundred or maybe more mutants approaching. If you were in a human guild, you would be classed as being a militia. Not only should your militia have a proper base, which would level up depending on guild/militia achievements, and length of time your militia was in creation. This would open up more powerful defences, and better bases. All of this would be classed as a starter area. Crafters in this game would have a crucial roll. Mods for weapons, farming and cooking for essential food. Hunting, which would be generic for all factions. Vampires would be the bad guys. They would have a reason for pvp, as you can actually get temporary skills on killing humans. Their guilds are based on bloodlines. I am going to post this just now as my battery is running out. I'd like to explain more about this game.

Achyl

^  I like how much thought you put into this.

Meltdown

Originally posted by Achyl

^  I like how much thought you put into this.

I wish I could read that giant block of text, what sort of super-eye-sight do you possess. 

Achyl

Originally posted by Meltdown

Originally posted by Achyl

^  I like how much thought you put into this.

I wish I could read that giant block of text, what sort of super-eye-sight do you possess. 

I don't possess any kind of super-eye-sight xD I just have patience to read, well maybe not patience. I tend to read kind of fast, or I'll skim over something and tend to understand the gist of what I read. Unless it happens to be Kafka-esque.

Boge

I would LOVE a zombie apocalypse MMO with permadeath.  The trick is you need a HUGE world and limit the number of players and communication so you aren't constantly bumping into other survivors.  It should be a chore to find another survivor just as it should be a chore to find shelter, water, food, medicine, clothing, and weapons.