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Cowboy Bebop Universe MMORPG
seykaldiss
Member Posts: 18
Okay, I love Cowboy Bebop. Plain and simple I really enjoy the feel of the TV Series and I would love to play a MMORPG (we have to come up with an abbrev. for that abbrev. 
) with the same kinda feel. Space travel, trading, bounty hunting, physical combat, the works, huge amount of work for an awesome outcome.
Ideas, comments, anything anyone?
Y!PP:
Captain Drumunki
Screaming Eels
Lord of the Flag of Convenience
oRO:
Kahyr Swordsman LVL 40
No Guild
Y!PP:
Captain Drumunki
Screaming Eels
Lord of the Flag of Convenience
oRO:
Kahyr Swordsman LVL 50
No Guild
Comments
More episodes, sure. But I honestly wouldn't want Cowboy Bebop to be ruined by gaming.
That always happens.
Although it would be awesome, the chances that it just wouldn't come out right and be appreciated like it should are too great. Look at Star Wars Galaxies. I think CB is better kept as it is. A classic kick ass anime series that will always be a classic kick ass anime series, and no more.
Tallyn
What's a prickle? Just curious.
By the way, Cowboy Bebop is a great anime. It should not be degraded into what would most certainly be a poor excuse for an MMORPG.
___________ ___ __ _ _ _
Stealth - Ambush - Hemorrhage - Sinister Strike x2 - Cold Blood - Eviscerate - Vanish - Preparation - Cold Blood - Ambush - ... you're dead! :P
Good points Cowboy Bebop = great Anime, shouldn't be degraded. Sad thing is, why should it be classed as a degredation to convert something to an MMORPG? I think it would be great for a cross-media conversion to MMORPG would be greated with excitement.
Something I find about most games today both MMORPG and 1PRPG and other similar genres, is that they lack true originality and freshness. So many have the structure of Levels and Skills and variations on that theme but they just tend to drop into the old Level Grind and lack of Challenge and newness. But what can really be done that hasnt been done before in one way or another?
Another question: is it the players or the games that lack originality? So much flexibility to do things in different ways but so little variety. Example Mage/Healer stands 20 feet behind Tank, Puller bugs Nasty, lures Nasty to Tank, Tank bashes Nasty, Puller supports and Mage/Healer heals Tank and Puller... In terms of that situation is it just the players using tried and tested routines that have worked in the past? or is the fact that the same kinds of Classes/Races/Functions exist in too many MMORPGs?
I think one possible answer would be "Higher Game Play" like politics, and fame/reputation (which is touched on in a few games), Networking and in-game System construction (like building a village from the ground up by using the skills contained in a clan or guild, or trade routes that require more than just a guy/girl and a hand cart).
More to that would be perhaps something that reminds you that you are dealing with other people more than just NPC, sprites or avatars. To which I have no specific suggestions.
Further ideas and comments?
P.S. The last option is pretty much the same as the second last in poll. Me just being odd.
Y!PP:
Captain Drumunki
Screaming Eels
Lord of the Flag of Convenience
oRO:
Kahyr Swordsman LVL 40
No Guild
Y!PP:
Captain Drumunki
Screaming Eels
Lord of the Flag of Convenience
oRO:
Kahyr Swordsman LVL 50
No Guild
Well, my opinion comes from my inability to see any way to do the series true justice were it to be turned into an MMORPG, or any sort of game for that matter.
I just can't imagine anyone using current, or even future technologies, to make a game that would really live up to what a Cowboy Bebop game would and should be.
Although I love the idea, and would die to play a Cowboy Bebop themed game, it's just totally unfeasible in my mind to accomplish right now.
Give it another couple years, at least, I say.
Tallyn
there is already a cowboy bebop game for the ps2. it has to do with spike flying the swordfish. And cowboy bebop would make an awesome MMO.
I'm a huge fan of anime and Cowboy Bebop in particular. I don't think cowboy Bebop has the backgroud to make an MMO. There would be too many holes to fill, and with the filling comes the crap that would ruin th game. Looking through my personal collection no anime has enough backround to fill a single game with out making assumptions and filling in the blanks. That filler is why I'm afraid to say yes to making an MMO based on any anime. Sorry I'm going to have to say No. I would klove it if done well, but the chances are just too slim. Rather keep anime's integrity intact.
Reality is not all it's cracked up to be...That's why there are video games
Reality is not all it's cracked up to be...That's why there are video games
Yes, but no.
In order for a Cowboy Behbop universe to be viable for such a game you would need a lot of people to fill all sorts of "rolls" within the community, and you won't find many who will want to play certain roles...such as boring cops...or criminals that will be chase ddown by thousands of Spike clones...
The greatest game of all time will come when the entire game is populated and *run* by nothing but player characters. Unfortunately, due to mainstream growth, there will never be an audience willing to try that.
As far as "Cowboy Bebop Online," NO, I definitely think that Cowboy Bebop should not be taken directly to any sort of game...
BUT, a game INSPIRED by the Cowboy Bebop universe could be a great game. The thing with creating a "Cowboy Bebop" MMO rather than a "Cowboy Bebop Inspired" MMO is that with directly converting something from an anime to a MMO gives restrictions, like how SOE couldn't do whatever they wanted with SWG because of the universe already created by the movies and books.
But as far as an MMO in which you're a bounty hunter taking down bounties...that could be fun if a development team put a LOT of work into it. I think a big name company that has already established itself and has a lot of money with which to take an MMO risk would be required to make it successfully fun.
But also bounty hunting isn't a venue that hasn't been traveled already...usually with poor results. There's just the factor that in order to get a bounty on your head you have to do something illegal, and real life people that feel their lives are bad enough don't hesitate to take risks like that to improve their life. But in a MMO EVERY subscriber/player HAS to be equal; why be a downtrodden desparate smuggler when you could be a bounty hunter? Sure, some may find it fun to be the prey, but as far as the ratio of hunters [bounty hunters] to hunted [smugglers], the hunted will always be vastly outnumbered in an MMO; complete opposite of real life.
Also, another choice may be bounty hunters to hunt NPC bounties. But the truth is that unless it's some phenominal AI in which human kind has not seen yet to date, bounties would eventually get boring and repetitive and common. All it takes is a randomly name generated NPC and put them in a bar in some planet, and boom, got a bounty to hunt. Technically bounty hunting, but is it fun?
So...I guess my feelings is that a MMO like Cowboy Bebop would be awesome, but it's pie in the sky, and I don't think anyone at this point in time (with the limitations of technology as well) could pull it off.
-Et
________________________________
"I hope you're dyslexic and not just lazy."
"Who am I to blow against the wind?"
"Who am I to blow against the wind?"
Pretty much exactly my thinking.
Cowboy Bebop was groovy in the way it treated the solar system. Semi-terraformed/colonised planets etc. and I thought that it would be cool to have something that was familiar and yet rather different, eg. our happy home system. I was thinking more inspired by that taken directly from. Cowboy bebop put together a structure that could be worked off; space highways (which was ripped off in MS's "Freelancer"), conventional propulsion space flight, funky battles. Also melee combat and skill. That I would say is a pretty awesome basis.
Playing SW Battlegrounds recently has brought into focus for me how vehicle interface can, at this moment, co-exist with FPS genre. Perhaps the same or similar can be done with RPG's. Have space combat, person to person combat. Perhaps have engagements for melee run in a tekken style format so it's not just the awesome power-ups you have acquired but the your skill coming into the confrontation. This would add a dimension of randomness and freshness to the encounters.
Yohoho Puzzle Pirates by Three Rings has the unique technique of changing the AI for it's NPC encounters regularly. This means that you get and good variety of tactics in the bots and you're never quite sure if your moves are the best in the situtation. This at least gives the illusion of an awesome AI
Yohoho puzzle pirates up until it's latest patch did have an economy that was based entirely on the players. All the shops are player run and there are transactions you can make with NPCs aside from ordering them around or getting tips from them. All the commodities were harvested with player "labour" hours and sold to crafting shops to be manufactured into second tier comodities which could then sometimes be used to create third tier commods or were themselves consumables. This has changed with NPC merchant ships and the like, but it was a reality for a while
Y!PP:
Captain Drumunki
Screaming Eels
Lord of the Flag of Convenience
oRO:
Kahyr Swordsman LVL 40
No Guild
Y!PP:
Captain Drumunki
Screaming Eels
Lord of the Flag of Convenience
oRO:
Kahyr Swordsman LVL 50
No Guild
Being a fan of Cowboy Bebop, owning the entire series and having loved the movie; I consider myself a bit of a fan authority on the subject of the setting of Cowboy Bebop. Any bias and negativity aside, I don't forsee any "boring cops" or any such professions. GREAT IDEA. Cowboys aka Bounty Hunters in Cowboy Bebop, would not be anything like those found in Star Wars Galaxies.
If anything, they would be less hardcorse "0wn3rz" 
that kill anything in cold blood for cash and would have more substance. In Cowboy Bebop the bounty hunters have personality and a personal style. They go by reputation largely for fame, which Bounty Hunters in Star Wars Galaxies are completely neglecting
. There is one famous bounty hunter in Star Wars and we all know who that is. In Cowboy Bebop, fame and fat cash 
are the primary reasons behind most people being Bounty Hunters.
Cowboy Bebop's bounty hunters have ethics, morals, or complete lack thereof for one personal reason or another. The ideals of the bounty hunter seem to guide what marks they will take, like whether they used to know the mark and whether they think the mark is really innocent or not. There is no Bounty Hunter's Code or any somesuch like that found in SWG.
There is a subplot involved in each mark, each mark is not a catch-and-kill, as it would involve the mark's friends and associates. You might have to deal with those harboring or protecting them first, in order to get to the mark. Most of Cowboy Bebop's bounty hunting only took place after the crew of the Bebop travelled to different cities and asked the right contacts questions, bribed, and talked to old friends from local lawforce. They also had an onboard computer genius crew member who hacked information about the marks from a government mainframe of criminals, so their entire file could be viewed by the bounty hunters. In a Coybow Bebop MMO, there would definitely be research involved in finding and/or killing a mark, most marks are turned in to the authorities. Also, marks sometimes were boosted on drugs that made them nearly invulnerable to pain or quick death and made them highly destructive. 
Some marks would therefore not be able to be handled immediately by the average bounty hunter, only by the ones who have experience in the field and know a street doctor who might know about the creation of illegal drugs, an NPC of course.
NPC's would respond differently based on your profession (if apparent), background, Knowledge, and whether you'd taken a mission to get a mark or not. There may be NPC's that have ways of knowing things and are protecting a mark you've come to question them about. They should react accordingly to what mission you have taken as to whether they know anything or not. A trail of NPC's should be questioned.
Therefore, a Cowboy Bebop MMO would highly involved persuasion, inventiveness, asking the right questions (multiple choice, one chance), and having the right team. It would be an excellent idea for player interraction and the right combination of professions would make an ideal crew for a ship or team.
Also, the bounty hunter ships were highly personalized, so personalizing your own ship would be excellent. Perhaps even packing some "hot" (stolen) cargo from time to time or 'spoils of war' from taking a mark's vessel's stocks, saying that you killed your mark onboard their ship (in which case it is only fair that you loot the ship), authorities should collect derelict ships. It would be ideal for a player economy that doesn't dominate the game, unlike in Star Wars Galaxies, because you would need to pay for a hacker's services if you don't have one in your crew, or to bribe the law or underworld organizations or individuals that traffic in information. Most money that would circulate would benefit all professions.
There should be a comm board in-game in which hints dropped by NPC's concerning certain subjects or marks (like information on the whereabouts of a particular mark, regular hangouts of an underworld thug who might know something about said mark, perhaps information on where to find an underworld rogue doctor, ex-government scientist type, who could tell you about a drug being used may be found, etc.) where you could buy the information for a price, call the boards The Black Net or Black Market.
Perhaps an in-game black market would therefore be in order to traffic said drugs (and we are talking science fiction drugs like those found in Shadowrun and outlandish films, nothing too related to reality that panic-lovers might go ape***t about, don't give 'em an excuse I say!) body augmentations for high prices from street doctors (some superficial, some functional) like nanobots that work only for a predetermined period of time, a crosshair false eye with zoom and NVG (Night Vision Goggle-like) capability, a cybernetic arm that has a higher strength than an average arm (sound familiar?) etc.
Stats would also be in order. I think they should have Persuasiveness, Subtlety (meaning you need experience to be subtle enough to be able to double-talk with the underworlders), Quickness (reactionary), Humanity (a rating that changes with body augmentations and affects your ability to interract reasonably with NPC's of a higher Humanity rating), Sanity (random table of effects out of the player's control if you make your sanity lower. After a certain rating, your character would become an NPC.) & Knowledge, which would affect how many contacts you have. This rating will change the more you contacts you meet .
A Contacts List should be automated with each player character, a new one is added automatically when you successfully deal with a street/law enforcement/or underworld Contact.
The marks should be on a large random determination generator so we don't end up with repetitive missions like those found in Star Wars Galaxies. Instead of tracking droids, finding a mark would be determined by your Contacts' knowledge and your Knowledge rating. There is a lot of intrigue and plot involved in Cowboy Bebop, that could be implemented into an MMO version of the show if done properly.
The stage is set, the rest is entirely plausible. I wouldn't mind professions like Savant Hacker (Ed!), Rogue: Con Artist (Faye!), Rogue: Street Bio Surgeon (someone who could put implants in player characters and physically augment their appearance for unusual customizability), Rogue: Weapons Engineer (a black market profession that makes customized, illegal prototype weapons for ships and individuals of certain professions). Combat: Kung Fu Master (hmm, I wonder who that could be?) The possibilities are endless.
And why not have Backgrounds to further individualize characters? Like Ex-Cop, who would get a certain bonus to Law Enforcement Contacts subskills and players with Ex-Cop might get a different reaction from NPC's of different professions that might recognize them, from say, New Mars.
Ex-Cowboy for non-Bounty Hunter professions might mean you have a few Bounty Hunter subskills and a bonus to Knowledge. Only players who were once Bounty Hunters of course would be able to take this with any substantial benefits.
Why not? It could work, just have it policed like WoW so there won't be any retarded names, like those found on Star Wars Galaxies (G0kuuBuffyAlukarrD, BloodBlack`, etc.). Also, people that exploit and play to be munchkins would get the WoW tm boot to the head with a big fat ban. I think cussing should be limited, as it isn't a big deal. Naturally, some words should be deleted by the system and alternative spelling thereof. A permanent death system might back danger more imminent, so players may comport themselves better and their character's actions will be more significant. NPC's should have personality, like in Anarchy Online. Each belonging to a certain faction (authorities, corporations, underworld, bounty hunter rogue, etc.) to determine their attitudes.
All this would only involve some database management and anyone could really get onboard an anime-based MMORPG like Cowboy Bebop.
Marks should be able to be chased down by any number of bounty hunters, anyone should be able to become a bounty hunter, but whoever gets the kill is the prize winner. Mucho cash.
I don't think that nothing should happen when an mark is killed, I think having animations of authority ships, helicopters, cars, boats, etc. as they apply showing up at the scene of the capture or kill (some mission might be capture only and some might be dead or alive) would add a little more excitement to the sequence. And why not player hunting?
With all the fun possibilities, who could be so negative about such a great idea?
And a pets system, you could have a choice between a lifelike dog you would find today on Earth, or a cybernet pet like a little dragon that spouts flame or something 'chibi' people would keep around for security purposes. Talk about cool possibilities! I'm afraid Einstein the lab engineered cybernetic Corgi was a one-time deal though. I mean, if the instance of an escaped lab-engineered cybernetic genius Corgis went rampant and lots of players had one, it would just kill the fun, so no Eins; but I think we should be able to meet the crew of the Bebop, including Ein. Maybe a great theme of the MMO would be to compete against other Bounty Hunters heading for the same mark, maybe even the Bebop! I know there were a few episodes of Cowboy Bebop based on that.
The individual customization should be expansive beyond any other MMO, because in Cowboy Bebop, there were cowboys who emulated the Old West, punk, the crazed genius look, and so many colorful real world cultures were combined on New Mars. You could see Istanbul, Paris, Cairo, Delhi, L.A., New York, Germany, China, Japan, Australia, and Britain all together in a huge colonial melting pot. It would be really cool for those players that want their characters to look like they come from a certain country's culture and wear different and unusual clothing. Plus, with the punk and film-theme (Shaft, Jackie Brown) looks personalized by cowboys -it would be highly individual.
Come on people, I'm trying to be positive here, be open minded about the possibility because just about anything that could go wrong could be prevented pre-release if it is done right. I think it would be awesome if A.D.V. films or other anime companies started putting out expansive MMORPG's. If we show an interest, there will be a demand. And where there is a demand, there is a supply.
Looking forward to a bright future for anime MMORPG's.
"Define me by my personality, not my nationality or the politics related to any nation I may live in."
"...the enchantment of error that you put on me I must wear forever in your eyes. We are not always what we seem and hardly ever what we dream."