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What Setting/Lore would you like to see in a MMORPG?
Vermillion_Raventhal
Member EpicPosts: 4,198
For me personally I would have to say that #1 is a Western. It seems like it needs to be done. Red Dead Redemption really makes the fact that this hasn't be done sad.
- Western: Red Dead Redemption style.
- Post Apocalypse Fantasy: A world setting where a technologically advanced civ based on magic goes backwards due to cataclysmic event. Mix of low magic tech and traditional fantasy.
- Steampunk
- Modern Fantasy
- Grimy Dark Ages with no magic
I would say those are my top 5 right now.
EDIT: Forgot an exploration game one huge server world with a lot of focus on trade, travel, resources and exploration. A sandbox like discovering the "New World."
Comments
Warhammer Fantasy done properly.
Steam Punk like the Warmahordes setting Iron Kingdoms.
American Wild West.
Any futuristic Sci-Fi, a mixture of Philip K Dick, Terminator, Robocop etc.. I saw Blade Runner again the other night and the atmosphere still draws me in after 34 years
This doom and gloom thread was brought to you by Chin Up the new ultra high caffeine soft drink for gamers who just need that boost of happiness after a long forum session.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
Like you mentioned, I'd like to see how a mid 1800's American Western MMO would do. I am not sure I would play it, as I see it being heavily PvP oriented, but it could be cool! Line up with other players as Oklahoma is opened up for settling. Grab a plot of land "sooner" than the next player and start homesteading. Gunfights would abound. Become part of community to survive. Ride (or rob) trains between major cities.
I smile when I suggest this, but it could be interesting: CAVEMAN MMO! No tech. Be the player who invents fire! Or the wheel! Band together to take down Wooly Mammoths and Sabre Tooth Tigers for furs and food. Bonk other cavemen (and cavewomen) over the head with big clubs
A medieval time period MMO with a fully functional feudal society. Castle life and battles would reign here. Be a farmer that runs inside the castle when another lord attacks. Be a huntsman for a lord to patrol the woods and forests. Play politics.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
I am playing Shadowrun Returns on the iOS. Great game. However, i don't see the need to make it into a MMORPG.
The other under/un used IP would be highlander... Immortals... Not sure how the game would work PvP but it'd be cool.
Or as another person suggested... Wild West setting, settling the North American frontier, dealing with bandits, etc...
A modern metropolis, where you can be a cop, drug dealer, thief, fireman, street vendor etc. All the buildings would be fully realizedno zones and all rooms can be entered. How would the gameplay work? Hell, I dunno.
IIRC this was asked only like two months ago or so, and as then my answer would be:
Sci-Fi, definitely.
B5 or Star Trek (not the crap they gave us with STO, but some true 3D "open world" universe).
Buck Rogers (the 80's TV series).
Shadowrun would be nice but atm i can't see it being implemented in a working way.
(unless it were missing core "features" like STO does)
But more important than the setting are the game's features imo.
- The Young Kingdoms from the Elric of Menilbone / Stormbringer books from Michael Moorcock.
- Westeros/Essos/Sothoros from A Song of Fire and Ice.
- A Dune (Frank Herbert) based MMORPG.
My computer is better than yours.
Real life.
No really. High fantasy is well over done. I'd rather have settings that mimic real life. There's something so much more thrilling about MMOs that have locations and characters that reference people that are either real, or were once believed to be real.
I am, as always, using DAoC as an example. Having places like Stonehenge, named Roman legions, Arthurian characters, added a realism to the game that other fantasy games did not have. It grounded it in a kind of reality. It also allowed the devs to use realistic armor and weapons, which further added to the atmosphere.
Another MMO called Roma Victor did something similar, but with absolutely NO mythology or magic. They modeled the world after ancient Britain, and styled everything accordingly. Running through a real forest following a real river to get to a real ancient fort... wow. Amazing feeling.
I would love to see an MMO set in Greece, or Egypt, using that Mythology, but not in an over the top way.
I'd second the call for a Babylon 5 setting. I've got my 'Fah' hotkey all ready programmed.
I'd be a lot more leery of a Buck Rogers setting, as the 80s version would almost have to have a Gary Coleman appearance. I'd go with Flash Gordon instead (either the 1936 serial or the 1980 film or the comic strip especially the early years 1934-40).
For myself, I'd love to see a version of Larry Niven's Ringworld made into an MMORPG. Even a pre-Ringworld setting in Known Space would be wonderful.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
The Crusades (holy land) would be a nice setting too, but I'm afraid it won't happen since no developer will dare hurting those precious religious zealot feelings many people still have nowadays.
Another nice setting would be England at the time of Robin Hood, with all the factions it would be a base for good, meaningful PvP I think.
My computer is better than yours.
Shadowrun
Nuff said.
Raquelis in various games
Played: Everything
Playing: Nioh 2, Civ6
Wants: The World
Anticipating: Everquest Next Crowfall, Pantheon, Elden Ring
These threads pop up periodically, and my answers are always the same.
Turn of the century America, inspired or based off of H.P. Lovecraft's work and some historical knowledge of the time, possibly including WWI.
Victorian/Wild West Steam Punk, including both frontier settings and urban settings.
The Victorian/Wild West setting, but add in Lovecraft.
Something similar to, or based on Hugh Howey's Silo series of books. Though, this might be better suited to a single player or multiplayer game.
Michelle Sagara's Chronicles of Elantra series of novels. The main city setting seems ideally suited to some sort of RPG or MMORPG.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Closest to any of that on the market right now is Salem, and its an aamzing game.
First and foremost: The Witcher -setting. Just don't let players actually be witchers or have their powers.
Second: Forgotten Realms. Old Forgotten Realms, Faerûn, not this 4th edition Spellplague crap and so on.
Third: Ashan. The new setting of Might & Magic series, presented in the style of Dark Messiah.
Fourth: Iron age europe. Fall of Rome and all that. Celts, saxons, Englaland - barbarian love.
Fifth: As Quirhid above said, Warhammer. But only with every player having their own squad. Wether that squad would be controlled from third person or traditional RTS style, it dosn't matter. Fantasy or 40k? Both work.
Sixth: Proper LOTR adaptation. None of this Turbine stuff. Any age works.
We?re all dead, just say it.
Picts! (thinks movie "Centurion"). Bloody slaugher! Yay!
Actually, a MMORPG based on a mix of "Centurion" and "King Arthur" (two badly underrated movies, sadly) would definitely be very interesting. Both happen around the "Hadrian's Wall".
Indeed, that would be nice. When Turbine dropped "MEO" (Middle-Earth Online) to switch to "WoW clone" mode renaming the game "LOTRO" (Lord of the Rings Online), I was really, really pissed.
My computer is better than yours.
Dragonlance during the War of the Lance would make an amazing MMO if they stuck to the stories and didn't go for the a typical PvP centered crap we end up with today that always messes with lore. Allow the players to only play the free races fighting against the over whelming dragon forces.
For a western style MMO, The Dark Tower series would be the one to go with. Deep and has just enough magic to make it fantasy.
Personally I would love to see an MMO take place during the age of Rome done right and kept historically accurate. Having it right around the time of the Roman civil wars right after Nero would allow players to play from virtually any nation as well as Rome giving plenty of opportunity to set up wars trying to overthrow Rome...or defend it.
GOOD CHOICES!! I'd be behind those, The Elric setting would be especially great choice because you have his whole fantastic mulit-verse as expansion possibilities (I'd love some of his other settings like the Dark Empire of Granbretan, which has both magic and technology)
- Dark Sun
- Steampunk (1889)
I'd be a lot more leery of a Buck Rogers setting, as the 80s version would almost have to have a Gary Coleman appearance. I'd go with Flash Gordon instead (either the 1936 serial or the 1980 film or the comic strip especially the early years 1934-40).
For myself, I'd love to see a version of Larry Niven's Ringworld made into an MMORPG. Even a pre-Ringworld setting in Known Space would be wonderful.
I would love a classic (the old comics) Flash Gordon, not campy, it could be great fun. The various races of Mongo, and the technology, robots and ray-guns! (even possible magic, or magic-like technology) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongo_(planet)
i think focusing on a specific lore, with very specific characters in it, in the end just does not work out well for devs or players of an mmo.
also, why would you want to play in any medieval setting (early or late) without magic? there's a reason we don't continue to live that way when given the opportunity.
however, i understand the desire to break from the high fantasy trope.
im really looking forward to Cyberpunk 2077 the single player rpg. so perhaps a cyberpunk mmo would be pretty cool. it provides its own explanation as to how almost *everyone* ends up with special abilities without relying on another trope: everyone's a hero. (i found DCUOs handling of that quite good actually.)
but again, as much as i loved Deus Ex, i dont think i would want to see a game based on that storyline/timeline. just create a cyberpunk world. one that lives and breathes. and then let us explore and relate to it and in it.
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse