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General: SOE, Virgin Comics Announce New MMO
Szark
News ManagerMember Posts: 4,420
SOE and Virgin Comics have announced that they are teaming up to create an MMO based on the Ramayan 3392 A.D. comic book universe.
SAN DIEGO, California & NEW YORK, New York (AUGUST 9, 2007) -- Through a deal that joins two of the world's most innovative entertainment brands, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), a global leader in the online gaming industry, is teaming up with Sir Richard Branson and Deepak Chopra's Virgin Comics to bring the popular, India-based Ramayan 3392 A.D. comic book universe to life as an MMO video game initially for the PC.
The deal was announced today by John Smedley, President of SOE and Sharad Devarajan, Co-Founder and CEO of Virgin Comics.
"Ramayan has inspired the lives of millions of people through the ages. The re-imagining of this great ancient epic through the creativity of a game platform re-affirms the fact that Ramayan is one of the greatest stories ever told," said Deepak Chopra. "The fact that the same creative team of young Indians that created the story will be involved in working with SOE's game development team, is a testament to the innovative and mythic minds of these gifted Indian creators who will take a new generation to new frontiers across the seas of consciousness into new realms of mystery, magic, adventure, and transformation."
Read the full release here.
Comments
Sounds like a COX knockoff....
Die with Honor
Did you even read the article? Not all comic books are about superheroes.
Sounds great but it will be a cold day in HELL before I ever play another SoE game.
I'll stick to my WAR and Tabula Rasa.
I knew nothing of the story of "Ramayana" by the poet Valmiki, so I looked it up.
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana
From Wikipedia:
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic attributed to the poet Valmiki (sometime between 500 B.C. - 100 B.C.) and is an important part of the Hindu canon. The name Ramayana is a tatpurusa compound of Rama and ayana "going, advancing", translating to "the travels of Rama".[1] The Ramayana consists of 24,000 verses[2] in seven cantos (kandas) and tells the story of a prince, Rama of Ayodhya, whose wife Sita is abducted by the demon (Rakshasa) king of Lanka, Ravana.
Rama, Laxman, Sita and Hanuman Valmiki composes the Ramayana
Wikipedia Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayan_3392_A.D.
Ramayan 3392 A.D.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From Wikipedia:
Ramayan 3392 A.D. (formerly called Ramayana Reborn) is a comic book series based upon the Indian epic called Ramayana. It is written by Shamik Dasgupta and the art is by Abhishek Singh, and it was created based on a story by Deepak Chopra and Shekhar Kapur. It features a re-imagining of the historical classic in a science fiction setting.
The story primarily deals with the battles between the last kingdom of humans with demons (called Asuras) in a post-Apocalyptic world. The series' prime protagonist is the human prince Rama who, alongside his brothers, aim to bring down the demon-lord Ravan.
Concept art of Ayodhya
Ravan is the principle antagonist of the Ramayana epic, and the product of nano-technology in this retelling
"Don't corpse-camp that idea. Its never gonna rez"
Bladezz (The Guild)
Yee-Haw!
Just what we need in the MMO Sector, another Fantasy based title, but wait, it is different from all of the others.
Its set in the future, and thus the title is of the Sci-Fi genre, but wait... there's more!
It is also a post-nuclear Earth title too, and friends we all know that is the next wave of MMO's.
So there we have it, a Sci-Fi, Post Nuke, Fantasy game, where you will never worry about destroying zombies and demons; with your spells, swords, guns and chainsaws.
However, you will need to worry about this title having an identity crisis with multiple personalities (I'm a fantasy game... no, today I'm a Sci-Fi game... well that was a few months ago, but now my parent has told me I'm a Mad-Max kind of game; really, this time I'm certain, Army of Darkness kind of thing, you get me? Chainsaws and zombies...), and having more than one parent company in control.
Disclaimer:
While I do respect Indian culture (both in India and North America) and their people, I see a quagmire going to happen with how this title will be managed by the hands of the companies involved.
And thanks Keogh for the link.
And that is why...
Conservatives' pessimism is conducive to their happiness in three ways. First, they are rarely surprised -- they are right more often than not about the course of events. Second, when they are wrong they are happy to be so. Third, because pessimistic conservatives put not their faith in princes -- government -- they accept that happiness is a function of fending for oneself. They believe that happiness is an activity -- it is inseparable from the pursuit of happiness.
I agree that that SOE is treading on thin ice on this one.
When you consider that the story is based on some revered writings of the Hindu culture and religion, and then you consider the types of behavior that can be seen in-game and on the forums of the MMO world, the fact that not all cultures and faiths get along well in India, let alone the international community that surf the web.
This game is going to no doubt have some race, culture, faith issues in their community to deal with down the road.
"Don't corpse-camp that idea. Its never gonna rez"
Bladezz (The Guild)
Whatever. I'll play it if it looks good, ignore it if it doesn't. Not that hard, is it? Not much else to discuss.
-SGC Special Ops
http://stargate.mgm.com/specialops/link.php?urlid=48&id=7871
http://stargate.mgm.com/specialops/link.php?urlid=49&id=7871
Someone had mentioned that because of where the source of the story comes that people may be offended. Right now 9 Dragons for Acclaim is based roughly on original Chinese Martial Art stories- there are no complaints that ive read (being an update member of their forums)
Nor is anyone mentioning the Roman MMOs out and about and the secret floors of the Roman Bath Houses. I think you are blind sided by the idea SoE is expressing in this story. I am not a friend of SoE and even still i think you under appreciate the player community.
And really its quite clever. They didnt need some creative writer to come up with a story- it was already written for them. If only Disney had the same cleverness. "Good artists copy, Great Artists steal." Knowing what SoE stands for im still waiting for that DC universe game that was announced in the Matrix Online take over. Like most of you, its "SoE" just boycott them or hurt their business whatever works.
How many emulated Everquests did it take before they finally created a progression server that had the classic areas?
"Tell me what your gamer plays.
Show me why you pay.
Teach me every single part. I'll be your guide.
You are a prisoner.
Cash-cowing slows you down.
You can change your game.
But can't change your mind.
No matter what they do."
I think it's nice to finally see SOE stepping out of the box a little and trying to do something a bit different than the "safe bets" of high-fantasy and established presence IPs. Perhaps they're taking a page out of NCSoft's book.
Considering the stoy is based on a comic book rather than directly on the Ramayana itself, I think it has a decently solid foundation, and that people won't be so quick to try calling it down based on the story's origins (or those that do will have to be pretty dumb).
Games that attempt to step out of the cookie-cutter set pattern in the MMO industry are never a bad thing.
"Because it's easier to nitpick something than to be constructive." -roach5000
Having read a few issues of the comic I've gotta say, nothing about Ramayan 3392 really struck me as being mmorpg worthy.
To set the stage, basically theres a continent in the north where the humans live, as well the anthropomorphic races like the bear-men and the ape-men (there seems to be alot of these beast races). They dont realy get along so well. To the south is the smaller continent controlled by the evil guy Ravan, who commands hordes of monsters and such and is waging war on the upper continent. There are some more details but thems the basics.
Its a struggle of good vs evil. Some would call it archetypal; I call it cliche.
Aside from the sci-fi/fantasy + Indian theme, I can't see why SOE would make this one into a game; not when there are so many other cool IP's that were practicaly born to be mmo's
oh well, like a poster above said, if its good I'll play it and if not then not.
Blurr, i must disagree persay..
"Games that attempt to step out of the cooker-cutter set pattern in the MMO industry are never a bad thing"
I completely understand what you say here but the fact is that SoE really has not coming out with something since Star Wars Galaxies. Everything else (Vanguard and Matrix) was obtained and re-enchanced (usually the combat system).
When it has come to SoE, it indeed was their consistent effort to making games identical as to - consistently disappointing content and disputes in game and always uprooting combat systems reseting everyone back down to 0.
To me, SoE has their own brand of Cookie Cutter. Essentially Slaying Lord Nagafen is the mirror of fighting a Rancor. everything beyond the pixels is the same.
Honestly to me, how the last guy posted this, this sounds pretty much like Vanguard Part 2. Tribal themed conflict.
in the end its all the same right? Quests? Some super duper secret diety hidden within a mountain etc etc. Instanced zones. Hold hands. Ravan is Mayong Mistmoore. The Sleeper is still alive. Game over. Server Merges. Free 10 Day Trial. Next Game.
"Tell me what your gamer plays.
Show me why you pay.
Teach me every single part. I'll be your guide.
You are a prisoner.
Cash-cowing slows you down.
You can change your game.
But can't change your mind.
No matter what they do."
It was not all that long ago that SOE said they would be very reluctant to do another game that involved any licensing after the SWG fiasco.
To me, SoE has their own brand of Cookie Cutter. Essentially Slaying Lord Nagafen is the mirror of fighting a Rancor. everything beyond the pixels is the same.
I would hardly fault only SOE for this. I looked at all the 100 or so games that are announced, in deve, on the drawing board, someone thinking of doing - and of those only about 2-3 look really different.
Do you realize that 99.734% of us are really really tired of hearing that same old "I hate SOE" crap for the 3,459,493 time?
i wonder if sir richard branson's wallet had anything to do with this. tbh, virgin comics havent really taken off dispite some ok titles (nothing really making a buzz from them except that book the dude from the eurithmics does). maybe he thihks this will help generate buzz for the comics brand.
wait a minute... now that i think about it, isnt the dude from rebel millionare running the comics division too?
Games i'm playing right now...
"In short, I thought NGE was a very bad idea" - Raph Koster talking about NGE on his blog at raphkoster.com
The artwork is beautiful, the story is ok, but there is just something about it that doesn't really scream Sony to me. Not that I am saying it is a bad idea or anything, it is a new direction for Sony. I am an access member, so let them add all the games that they want, wont cost me anymore that the cost of the game to give it a try.
You paid more for your access account after the addition of Vanguard -- get used to that pattern.
Do you think SOE didn't notice that most folks just paid the extra without complaint??
I love Ramayan noodles!
On a serious note, I really don't know what to think about this. I have never read or even heard of this comic, so I'll reserve judgment on the content. As far as the ideas go, this is an interesting one that could break the staleness affecting MMOs as of late. I think SOE has learned a lot from the SWG and early EQ2 mistakes and could make this into an interesting title.
sounds like crap. then again its soe, so crap it is
Everything Happens For A Reason! "Shadowziel"
Thanks for that riveting, helpful informative post.
Problem with announcing a title now, you are looking at 2010 or 2011 before it is out. That is too far in the future to even bother commenting on. Come back in 2 years and see how it is progressing.
This comes as no big suprise. Its no secret that SOE, EA, NC Soft and others all use the Indian outsource model to support their games as a way to save $$. A game for an up and coming powerhouse in the world stage of online gaming like India will be, is smart. The passion for games is there as much as any other country. Infrastructure maybe not yet but it will be much farther along in 2010/2011. An interesting irony in all this would be to actually do the support for the game in the US... :-).
Magnus
www.gamecentergroup.com
SOE .... I dont care who it is made by, if it plays well, it plays well.... It is too early to judge this game, though I don't like most Sci-Fi games, so I won't follow this title unless they show something worth while ... Anyway, for all you SOE haters out there... Stop whining about the company and start looking into the actual game.
The article didn't mention this but I think this may be the game that Virgin licensed the Hero Engine for. If so then it should be a great game. Bioware licensed the same engine for one of their new MMO's. But then again the engine won't mean anything if the devs aren't capable of getting the most out of it.