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General: The List: 5 Studios That Should Do MMOs

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  • Death1942Death1942 Member UncommonPosts: 2,587

    anyone ever thought that maybe these studios you know...don't want to make MMO's?  Not everyone in the industry enjoys MMO's and i can guarentee plenty of devs fit that catagory too.

     

    oh and your definition of sandbox seems way off to me.  How is Age of Empires a sandbox game?  You have to follow a set path (depending on your civilisation) up the tech tree to the final stages using units that resemble many other factions.  To me thats exactly the same as say a WoW system where your limited by your talent points that the devs made for your class (same as the tech) and your abilities are very similar to other classes with maybe a different name and a different animation (similar units).  That is in no way anywhere near what a sandbox is in my books.

     

    anyway it's your opinion and i respect it.  Nice list too

    MMO wish list:

    -Changeable worlds
    -Solid non level based game
    -Sharks with lasers attached to their heads

  • AutonAuton Member Posts: 48
    Originally posted by Redtah


    Sure these games are good but their not great. If I can beat a game in 4 hours without knowing anything about it prior then why am I spending 60 dollars on it, when I can wait for a half decent RPG to come out spend the same 60 dollars and get an exponential amount more out of it?

    You spent $60 on Portal? Where? How? I've never even seen the Orange Box at a higher price than $45, myself, and that's Portal, HL2, HL2E1 and E2, AND Team Fortress 2... :-O

  • PunkrePunkre Member Posts: 92

    Honestly if their was a top 5 companies that Should not make MMOs it would be:

    5.Every game company that thinks it will be the new "WoW killer" of the month, you better have something that will revolutionise the MMO market in every single way imaginable if you think your game would actually kill WoW, this also includes all games that only have IPs to back them up. (couph matrix, couph final fantasy)

     

    4.New companies: New game companies need tfo stay out of the MMO market till they get their feet wet, and by wet i mean drenched in every game type other than a MMO before they even think about a MMO title, sadly this includes never before heard of Asian game companies that just decided to go from weird Dating games into the MMO market and drive just enough Hype to get their game created.

     

    3.Girly companies : Hello Kitty, Barbie, and Hannah montanna need to get out of video games altogether, when will game companies understand that girls dont play video games until they are older and roped into MMOs by their boyfriend / husband to heal them.

     

    2. SOE / EA: they need to stop making MMOs, they had their shots and as much fun as it is to try and make a MMO it might be best for everyone if you just let people that can actually maintain their MMOs. EA does get slightly a better rap only because they absorbed Bioware recently and Bioware cant be expected to take on the sins of the parent company.

     

    1. Nintendo based MMO: As much as it would be cool to play a serious Link, Mario, or Samus MMO Nintendo and the internet still dont get along, (go try and play Smash Bros Brawl online.) On top of this nintendos stuck in the world of the Wii controller(and every thing that comes with the Wii.) might force players of a class type to use the thing (or heaven forbid the new pulse regulator...lol)

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    "Freedom is just another name for nothing left to lose" - Janis Joplin
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  • AutonAuton Member Posts: 48
    Originally posted by Punkre  
    3.Girly companies : Hello Kitty, Barbie, and Hannah montanna need to get out of video games altogether, when will game companies understand that girls dont play video games until they are older and roped into MMOs by their boyfriend / husband to heal them.

    Um... My fiancée would like to give you a hearty cup of STFU. While she has no time for Hello Kitty or Barbie, she's been a gamer since she understood the concept of video games, pretty much. And there's plenty of games she's way the hell and gone better at than I ever will be. As well, what do you care if there's a Hannah Montana MMO? It's not like you'll be tied to a chair and forced to play it.

    So take your misogyny and shove it where the sun don't shine. I have no time for it, and neither does anyone else.

  • LeucrottaLeucrotta Member Posts: 679
    Originally posted by calibek


    I wish Sierra would create an MMO. I played their Quest for Glory Series. I started at QfG 5 and liked it so much I went out and bought the collection of 1-4 and played those. They have 1-3 on gametap and if anyone here is a member I suggest playing it. Quest for Glory 1 was great and they just got better as time went on with 5 being the absolute best IMO. Quest for Glory 4 was great also cause it had the whole tranylvania theme with vampires. I would love to see what Sierra could have done with an MMO.

     

    Funny that Sierra online is in the list for starting to make an mmo as they have worked on an some sort of mmo

    Larry 4 was supposed to be an online version of the leisure suit series.

    However at that time they probably wud have been the first and i think tech issues and money budget stopped the project

    They did however went online with some boardgames (not sure but thought in larry style)

    altough that didnt hold on long either coz of the steep price of playing if i remember correct

     

     

    found some info on Al Lowe's web site to refresh my memory

     

     

    Back then, no game had ever had more than three incarnations and I had no reason to think Larry would either. Ken and I started kicking around ideas for another project.

    We decided to invent Internet gaming.

    "No, wait," you're saying. "That was Al Gore, not Al Lowe!" Wrong, bit breath! We were so naive, so over-confident (so dumb?) that when Ken came up with the idea of adventure games where multiple-players could interact together via modems, we said, "Sure, Ken. Sounds great!" and actually sat down to do it.

    It was going to be Leisure Suit Larry 4, the first multi-player on-line adventure game.

    Jeff Stephenson had written much of the system code for the AGI and SCI languages. He was going to create the system. Matthew George would create the low-level communications code. I would be the designer and high-level applications programmer. The three of us grabbed an office and a coffee pot and started coding in January, 1991.

    We had a few basic questions:

    How will people connect up? The only way we knew was through dial-up modems, so we filled a computer with modems, then bought an expansion chassis and filled it with modems, then plugged in another chassis and kept daisy-chaining them together.

    Could we expect 2400-baud modems? We opted to "demand" 1200-baud minimum speed but "recommend" the speedier new technology, which was, at that time, still quite expensive.

    How do we handle the huge graphics files necessary? Easy. We planned to sell the game in a box, but require a modem. The game code, graphics, sounds, etc. would be on the floppies (no CD-ROMs either). Only minimum data would pass through the slow comm bottleneck.

    How would players decide who was in their game? I came up with the concept of a "waiting room" where newcomers hung out until they found others who wanted to play.

    How would I know what you were like? I created what we nicknamed "Facemaker," which let you decorate your avatar with various eyes, noses, mouths, and hair (including bald, of course).

    And on and on…

    After a month or so, we knew we were in trouble. I decided to write a checkers game as a simple test case to see if we could actually move objects and communicate. It worked. But we were still a long way from making characters walk and communicate and interact.

    So I wrote a backgammon game. Then chess. Still we had no system to support all the features needed for an adventure game. But we were having so much fun playing against each other, we decided to push what we had into a real product. Ken envisioned a product so simple that even his grandmother could use it. That became our goal.

    My wife, Margaret, came up with the first name Constant Companion, because we figured anyone could log on at any time, day or night, and find someone else to play with. Constant Companion became The Sierra Network. TSN was quite successful in its day, especially considering the small numbers of players who also had modems.

    Eventually, when TSN was losing 10 million dollars per year, Ken sold half of it to AT&T for 50 million dollars. I laughingly said Sierra was the only company to make money in on-line gaming: by selling out! Later AT&T would pay another 50 mil for the other half. They then sat on it for about a year before giving up and selling the whole thing to America On-Line for 10 million. AOL announced big plans, but never carried through and the whole thing withered up and died without ever seeing the light of day.

    taken from AL Lowe's website.

  • m240gulfm240gulf Member UncommonPosts: 460

    Leisure Suit Larry would have been a good MMO to have by Sierra.  There was a column last week by Dana Massey www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/loadFeature/3216/A-Comedy-MMO.html that would satisfy the Comedy missing in the vast amount of MMO genre's on the market today....and it has "Lounge Lizards!"

    I Reject your Reality and Substitute it with My Own!
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  • ThornrageThornrage Member UncommonPosts: 659
    Originally posted by Khalathwyr

    Originally posted by DarkRexx


    It's a pretty good list, but now let's see a counter-article about the five companies that should NOT make an MMORPG.

    My top 5.

    5. Company that takes the safe route (level based, quest hub to quest hub with an "end-game")

    4. Company that takes the safe route (level based, quest hub to quest hub with an "end-game")

    3. Company that takes the safe route (level based, quest hub to quest hub with an "end-game")

    2. Funcom

    1. Sony Online Entertainment

    Too bad you are way wrong with #2

    Ever heard of Anarchy Online?  And "GASP" Age of Conan is actually a fun MMO.

    "I don't give a sh*t what other people say. I play what I like and I'll pay to do it too!" - SerialMMOist

  • Did anyone besides my best friend and I play The Realm way back when? I'm pretty sure it was a Sierra-made MMORPG.

    There were some nifty bits, like the magic crystals used for spellcasting also being the only form of currency (yeah it was possible to bankrupt your mage).  It was many years ago so I don't remember much, but it was fun for a while.

  • jkuempeljkuempel Member Posts: 12

    I remember The Realm, and was going to mention it.  Yes, it was made by Sierra.  It's actually still around although being run by another company now: http://www.realmserver.com/.

  • ste2000ste2000 Member EpicPosts: 6,194

    Not a very well done list IMO



    Where is Bethesda?

    If there is a studio which should make a MMO, that is the folks from Bethesda.



    Also I don't see why Valve should make a MMO, why not ID Software for instance?

    They make the same products but ID has much more experience than Valve.

  • StraddenStradden Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
    Originally posted by ste2000


    Not a very well done list IMO



    Where is Bethesda?

    If there is a studio which should make a MMO, that is the folks from Bethesda.



    Also I don't see why Valve should make a MMO, why not ID Software for instance?

    They make the same products but ID has much more experience than Valve.

     

    the Bethesda issue has been discussed previously within this very thread. As to the why not ID software questions, I think I pretty clearly mentioned why I felt that Valve would be a good choice. it wasn't just about experience, it was about the kinds of games made.

    You're allowed to disagree with my list. That's the point of them, but it may be helpful to read the accompanying text beyond just the headlines in order to get a sense of the substance of what was said.

    Cheers,
    Jon Wood
    Managing Editor
    MMORPG.com

  • SnarlingWolfSnarlingWolf Member Posts: 2,697

    Articles like this just annoy me. A company making games where <50 people connect to a server that the company doesn't host to play a game that doesn't require constant updates, expansions, numerous types of character classes/skill setups/playstyles that need balancing, doesn't show any indication of being able to make a huge virtual 24/7 world where thousand to tens of thousands of people interact at one time.

     

    Yes blizzard did it and they are a solid company, many companies have tried making MMOs and failed. The reason is how much more complex and intricate an MMO is then a one off game that people join a small internet game and frag people in.

     

    I don't want to be overly critical but first there is Sanya, or whatever her name is, who's articles are just ridiculous. And now this guy's articles are getting more ridiculous with each one as well. Guess it's time to just stay off of the article part of this site and leave it to what it's point is, reviews of actual games/forums.

     

    I don't want to sound harsh to the site overall.  Since on the main page you have information on a class in Free Realms, blogger review of DDO, information on changes to EVE, information on EQ 10th anniversary. All those are useful information and the type of reading that belongs here. But these columns that have sprung up in the last couple months are just ridiculous.

  • Seen_JusticeSeen_Justice Member Posts: 102

    5D Studios

    Nuff said :-)

    Creativity : The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods or interpretations; using originality, progressiveness, or imagination.

  • OrthelianOrthelian Member UncommonPosts: 1,034
    Originally posted by SaintViktor


    Left4Dead Online anyone ?

     

    Left∞Dead?

    Favorites: EQEVE | Playing: None. Mostly VR and strategy | Anticipating: CUPantheon
  • BoombadiLBoombadiL Member Posts: 50
    Originally posted by Vagrant_Zero


    The List needs more Id Software and Relic Entertainment. Homeworld MMO FTW.



     

    Totally agree homeworld was such an awesome game, I think the z-axis confused some though, but i loved it and is still my favorite game to date (hmm probably tied with the first metroid).. 

  • GorrexGorrex Member Posts: 20

    Unknown Worlds

     

    Take Natural Selection, add more weapons, vehicles, city/hive building over a large world. Territorial control, multiple marine/alien factions.. I would be in heaven.

     

    My dream game is a massive MMORPG/FPS/RTS. I've got the full design in my head, maybe one day I'll have the cash to pull it off.

  • KhalathwyrKhalathwyr Member UncommonPosts: 3,133
    Originally posted by Thornrage

    Originally posted by Khalathwyr

    Originally posted by DarkRexx


    It's a pretty good list, but now let's see a counter-article about the five companies that should NOT make an MMORPG.

    My top 5.

    5. Company that takes the safe route (level based, quest hub to quest hub with an "end-game")

    4. Company that takes the safe route (level based, quest hub to quest hub with an "end-game")

    3. Company that takes the safe route (level based, quest hub to quest hub with an "end-game")

    2. Funcom

    1. Sony Online Entertainment

    Too bad you are way wrong with #2

    Ever heard of Anarchy Online?  And "GASP" Age of Conan is actually a fun MMO.

    When you grasp the concept of opinions and realize that others have different ones than you and that "wrong" has nothing to do with it, then we can have a grown up, mature conversation. *GASP* Fun for one group of people does not equate to fun for all.

    "Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."

    Chavez y Chavez

  • KhalathwyrKhalathwyr Member UncommonPosts: 3,133
    Originally posted by Vagrant_Zero


    The List needs more Id Software and Relic Entertainment. Homeworld MMO FTW.

    ID Software doesn't exist anymore, or is about to not really exist. Zenimax, parent company of Bethesda, just bought out (or got funds approved to the sum of $105 million) Id.

    Gamespot article

     

    Zenimax is currently working on an as yet unnamed MMO. Gamespot article 2

    "Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."

    Chavez y Chavez

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    "Freedom is just another name for nothing left to lose" - Janis Joplin
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  • The user and all related content has been deleted.

    "Freedom is just another name for nothing left to lose" - Janis Joplin
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  • fiontarfiontar Member UncommonPosts: 3,682

    That two of the five are defunct studios that were swallowed up by bigger publisher and destroyed in the process really points to the biggest threat to the gaming industry in this era: The truly innovative studios almost always get gobbled up by bigger competition and the aquisistion is almost always bad for gamers and the industry.

    SOE is largely a kiss of death for MMORPGs and EA has become the KoD for all sorts of software franchises.

    Sometimes the smaller studios sell out because the alternative is bankruptcy,  but far too often it's greed and the promise of a quick buck selling what is already a modestly successful, innovative venture.

    Stop selling out!

    Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
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  • KhalathwyrKhalathwyr Member UncommonPosts: 3,133
    Originally posted by solareus

    Originally posted by Khalathwyr

    Originally posted by Vagrant_Zero


    The List needs more Id Software and Relic Entertainment. Homeworld MMO FTW.

    ID Software doesn't exist anymore, or is about to not really exist. Zenimax, parent company of Bethesda, just bought out (or got funds approved to the sum of $105 million) Id.

    Gamespot article

     

    Zenimax is currently working on an as yet unnamed MMO. Gamespot article 2

    If you read the Article id will remain the same with John Carmack and company doing what they want. Having id and Bethesda under one roof, is emmense.

    Ahh. Still, in light of Zenimax's MMO project I don't see ID attempting an MMO. Course, that's looking at this thread's posed question through the glasses of companies that are in a position to attempt such and only have them not deciding to do so yet as the remaining barrier. I'd think Zenimax would want ID to push out the types of games it's known for (and has on it's current in progress list) to earn back some or all of that $105 million before risking an MMO attempt.

    But yeah, I guess I missed/ didn't comprehend where they'd still be autonomous.

    "Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."

    Chavez y Chavez

  • XoloXXoloX Member Posts: 83
    Originally posted by solareus


    id software with rehiring of John Romero to make "Doom Online : Hell is just the Beginning" :D

    Somehow my first thought on this was: Duke Nuke'em Online... ;-)

    On second thought, though...: *darn* maybe I just revealed the true nature of that prime example of absurdity of the term "when it's done".



    The company that first came to my mind even before reading the article was (also) Bethesda, indeed.


    ...activating morph from silent reader to active poster...
    ...pending...
    ...pending...
    ...pending...

  • KhalathwyrKhalathwyr Member UncommonPosts: 3,133
    Originally posted by XoloX

    Originally posted by solareus


    id software with rehiring of John Romero to make "Doom Online : Hell is just the Beginning" :D

    Somehow my first thought on this was: Duke Nuke'em Online... ;-)

    On second thought, though...: *darn* maybe I just revealed the true nature of that prime example of absurdity of the term "when it's done".



    The company that first came to my mind even before reading the article was (also) Bethesda, indeed.

    Unless I missed it, I don't htink John Romero will be coming back to Id. Here was his Twitter on Zenimax buying out Id:

    "ZENIMAX??????? Disgusting," he declared on his Twitter page, before going on to muse, "Fallout 3 bought DOOM. Wow."

     Course, he does go on to say his initial reaction was "harsh", so the bridge isn't totally burned. It's definetely charred and looking brittle, though.

    "Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."

    Chavez y Chavez

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