only if they can pull off TOR will ME2 be a good MMO..I agree that due to the story of the player being THE hero would hurt the game. but this is reflecting my doubts in TOR...
Would rather see a huge RTS the likes of which would rival Warhammer 40k... i think that would be a stronger off shoot of the ME universe..
But i still LOVE the mass effect world and cant wait for ME3
Now, before I get to the actual point of the article, I just want to say that The Old Republic is not a "star wars" game. It a "Knights of the old republic" game. That means that the combat and events all take place in the KOTOR time slot, which is several hundreds of years before any of the movies or *shivers* the show in the George Lucas universe. I'm not saying it's not star wars, I'm just saying that the movies and such don't have the same characters and sometimes don't even have the same technologies as the old republic games. The games have a particular way that the combat and conversations work in all the games. The only thing that would anger fans is if they did adopt a third person shooting mechanic or something similar because it is not in the spirit of the original games. So I disagree with you on those points.
But I think a Mass Effect MMO would be awesome! As long as they made it story driven and stuff...I think that a non-story driven game set i n the mass effect universe would be a horrible mistake and take away from all the games as a whole. Also, it would be cool to form little strike teams and whatnot. Not everyone is a Spectre, but everyone is in a team with one. That sorta thing. I think it would be very hard, but if done right, also very rewarding.
Should be easy enough for them to come up with a Great MMO as they have all the Races and Classes and Designs of the main storyline, planets and mostly Romancy.. However there is a limit on who we are fighting against, who's good who's evil.. Will we end up with a major Universal War? Will there be crafting or a form of trade?
Tabula Rasa would be a prime example for ME 2 MMO, Humans vs Everyone Else?
Not every world should be "MMO-ified". What makes ME1/ME2 work is the STORY, and it remains to be seen whether an MMO can pull off having an immersive story in an MMO environment. Only Guild Wars came close to achieving this, and this was ONLY because Guild Wars allowed players the option of playing either ALONE or in player GROUPS to complete all missions and dungeon content. SWTOR may also work; we'll have to wait and see. But if SWTOR *forces* me to group with other players to progress through the story, then it will be a major FAIL for me, anyway.
As anyone who has ever tried to RP on any WoW RP server knows, multiplayer is the absolute enemy of any degree of RP/immersion. All it takes is some moron running around with some really stupid name to ruin immersion for me.
I really wish LotRO had been designed as an online single-player RPG. I actually would still be playing it if they had, and I would have subscribed to it for much MUCH longer.
An ME MMO would only work for me if ALL of the multiplayer content was also single player accessible (as most of it was in Guild Wars) through the use of AI. Unless the multiplayer portions of an ME MMO are totally optional for them that want it that way, the ME franchise would be totally ruined, imo.
As long as I can take Garrus, Thane, Grunt, and Tali along with me instead of random player 2, 3, 4, and 5 to complete the group content, then I'd be OK with an ME MMO.
I freakin' love the Mass Effect games and universe. In fact, I'd be more excited to play an mmo in this setting than Star Wars. /quicklyhidesbehindcouch
Agreed.
Bioware has created some pretty deep lore, and I'd much rather explore this setting than yet another Jedi-fest. Of course, I'm sure 90% of the people in a Mass Effect mmo would be biotics because they're the closest thing to Jedi, but I'd still rather see an original IP than more Lucas-trash.
Agreed. Bioware has created some pretty deep lore, and I'd much rather explore this setting than yet another Jedi-fest. Of course, I'm sure 90% of the people in a Mass Effect mmo would be biotics because they're the closest thing to Jedi, but I'd still rather see an original IP than more Lucas-trash.
We know. ME's story only took up how much more of the first game than the actual action did? =P
In any case, I'd rather see a Mass Effect MMO as well, simply for the reason that Star Wars had its chance as an MMO and ultimately fell flat on its face.
I really think a Mass Effect mmo could work, but realistically it would be 7-10 years in the future. It will be another 2+ years before the final Mass Effect single player comes out and then add in 5+ years of conception and development time for an mmo.
All the things are there for a hugely successful mmorpg game no doubt about that.
What I really want to see from the Mass Effect series though is for it to hit the big screen in 3D Avatar style type of shooting, it would be f'ing amazing I think.
To transform this game into an MMO would tranish the best parts and ruin the whole charm of the game.
For me the best part of mass effect is the replayability, the different choices you can make through dialog and how that effects the overall game. That can't transfer over to a static open world mmo and would force the game to be very linear, with few choices, and that's really not what mass effect is all about..
The name is Mass Effect after all, which implies the massive effect the player has on the game.
To transform this game into an MMO would tranish the best parts and ruin the whole charm of the game. For me the best part of mass effect is the replayability, the different choices you can make through dialog and how that effects the overall game. That can't transfer over to a static open world mmo and would force the game to be very linear, with few choices, and that's really not what mass effect is all about.. The name is Mass Effect after all, which implies the massive effect the player has on the game.
You sure you played the games? That's not what Mass Effect is :P
A ME mmo would be amazing, though since i have no idea what happens to shepard in the 3rd effect, the ability to play Salarians, Turians, Krogan, etc would be a welcome change to playing a human all the time, and of course we would be fighting reapers or each other (aka saren vs shepard, or allies{all aliens] vs the Rachni) or something like it and changing the mmo during updates and expansions while i will alsio TRY to play tOR. While having a story mmo would be good(if they coudl pull it off) i would suggest a NON-persistent ever-changing world for ME mmo as it hasnt been done that i've seen which would make playing more dangerous and realistic in an entire galaxy.
If they did one it would probably take place after the events of ME3. So they'd have a few years to decide on this.
Although the lore is rich enough to support an mmo, I'm not sure if the game mechanics are. Technically, there are only six classes, which would bore people quickly. Though they could mix it up by allowing other races besides human, say an asari adept has certain pros/cons vs a human adept.
Not to mention you'd have the pvp types coming out of the woodwork demanding "meaningful" pvp. Not sure how pvp would fit into the universe of ME, unless you could side with either Citadel Space or Terminus Systems.
I have to say that this spare opera is overly clichéd, but at the same time exceptionally fun IP. It would make a great MMORPG. All the elements are there.
"The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in."
It all depends on how well Bioware does in the MMO market. Not everything needs to be MMO'ed and in fact my wife and I are enjoying ME2 more than any MMO because of one simple fact: PAUSE. We have a 1 year old daughter so we are constantly being interupted so being able to stop the action and deal with reality is a real plus to our enjoyment of the game.
Minus that it would be nice to NOT be Shepard for a change. Though I would be really torn on what alien race to play though you know darn well my first toon would be a Krogan like Wrex.
Current Game: Asssasins Creed 2(PS3, Gamer Tag: Happy_Hubby) Current MMO: World of Warcraft and World of Tanks Former Subscribed MMO: Star Trek Online, Aion, WoW, Guild Wars, Eve Online, DAoC, City of Heroes, Shattered Galaxy, 10six. Tried: Too many to list
I know this is all wishful thinking and theoretical, but in all honesty it is ridiculous. Why would BioWare even be thinking of a Mass Effect MMO when they aren't even finished with SWTOR yet?
On top of that, why would they want to create two story-driven MMO's that would only be in competition for the same types of subscribers?
I think that SWTOR will be BioWare's one and only for quite a while, and if we did see another MMO from them in the future, I would be willing to bet that it would be at least 6-8 years down the road.
I love Mass Effect and the universe that bioware has created and frankly I have to agree with all the people saying it would ruin it if it became an mmo. The fun part about the games is the emersion in the great setting they have created and that would be ruined by the nature of mmo's. its all there in the MSRB warning online content may change the experience. I'd rather see them continue making single player games in the same setting with new charecters.
Seriously, if it's Star Wars they're making, they'd better not be focusing on anything else until it's perfect.
They were working on Dragon Age: Origins, TOR and Mass Effect 2 at the same time. Bioware isn't a couple of guys working in a garage, they have over 400 employees. Tey probably have major teams on DA:O (expansions, patches), ME2 (expansions, patchers), TOR (pre-release development), their Sonic game, and whatever else they have in the works that will be released 2-3 years from now.
Mass Effect would be a great IP to build an MMO around. The gameplay style is fresh and fast paced, the lore is compelling and immersive and the characters are interesting and well fleshed out. (My only disappointment being I never got to see Tali's face while we were doing the horizontal mambo.)
I don't agree that everyone would want to play Shepard. I've already played him, and most likely will play him again in ME3. I'd rather have a chance to play one of the other races, or have the chance to create my own.
There's just so much going on in that universe that could translate into an MMO. You could be a smuggler, a slave trader, a craftsman, a biotechnologist... You could work for Cerberus and try to make humans the dominate species in the galaxy, or you could work for the Alliance and try to maintain a good relationship between all species, or you could work for the reapers and try to conquer the universe or destroy it... etc.
Mass Effect in scope is very similar to Star Wars. In fact, if you were to strip away the names and simply look at it from a plot and character perspective there are a lot of parallels.
Besides the draw of the Star Wars IP, Mass Effect would have been a better choice for an MMO imo. That said though the similarities may in fact be too close for both a Star Wars MMO and a Mass Effect MMO to coexist. Shepard is pretty much a Jedi. The reapers are pretty close to being the Sith. I'm looking forward to both SW:TOR and ME3. But unless SW:TOR fails pretty dramatically I can't see Bioware competing with itself and making another MMO that so closly resembles it.
Yes please! I am also hoping it keeps the fast paced combat system (which is fun!) and decryption mini games (which is fun, plus can be avoided with "omni gels" for those who aren't dexterious enough for it). Also here's hoping it has more storyline elements that your average mmo if it ever gets under developement. Haven't yet played ME2 to see if there are any changes.
Also count me into the group who would like to play aliens in addition to humans. I'm probably one of the few people who were seriously dissapointed when they announced their new mmo was about star wars and not mass effect (when swtor was announced).
Stick with what you know. In my opinion, Mass Effect Online (or whatever it's name ends up being) won't be a boom headshot because like someone said before, Its concept, Sci-Fi shooter/RPG is not unfamiliar territory. Unless BioWare really nailed it, which I doubt they will because they've perfect RPG's not MMORPG's, the game will just end up being more of the same maybe even less.
Character Creation would be interesting, seeing as how you could pick your race, race-specific classes, etc. People could spend hours in creation perfecting their Turian to somehow resemble William Shatner.
The questing is what really gets me. It would be extremely hard to have every quest and every action affect your story-line. then again, I'm not a game developer so I don't know what I'm talking about. It just seems that the quests would have to end up being linear, and linear= kill x of y to get z then go talk to v, rinse, and repeat.
I'd be interested in seeing how they would plan to make the game work as a persistent game world with each player influencing the game environment, but most likely I would not buy it.
Haha, this is awesome. Just on the 1st of February me and my buddy were wondering when a ME MMORPG would hit the shelves. Fair enough whe never considered if. I mean, every Jonny and Miranda has an MMO to their lore nowadays, the message of a CoD MMO merely shocked me, but it's nothing I would have considered as way out there. I'd love a ME MMO, for I can really agree that ME found a way to entangle you in its lore more than any other game every did (well I did also love Oni, an ancient game nobody probably every played) but besides that ME has its very own charme and attracts women and men alike. I probably won't play TOR, although having BioWare as the developing studio is a BIG HUGE argument to try it, I'm kind of stuck on the FFXIV and GW2 track, but who knows.
Comments
only if they can pull off TOR will ME2 be a good MMO..I agree that due to the story of the player being THE hero would hurt the game. but this is reflecting my doubts in TOR...
Would rather see a huge RTS the likes of which would rival Warhammer 40k... i think that would be a stronger off shoot of the ME universe..
But i still LOVE the mass effect world and cant wait for ME3
Now, before I get to the actual point of the article, I just want to say that The Old Republic is not a "star wars" game. It a "Knights of the old republic" game. That means that the combat and events all take place in the KOTOR time slot, which is several hundreds of years before any of the movies or *shivers* the show in the George Lucas universe. I'm not saying it's not star wars, I'm just saying that the movies and such don't have the same characters and sometimes don't even have the same technologies as the old republic games. The games have a particular way that the combat and conversations work in all the games. The only thing that would anger fans is if they did adopt a third person shooting mechanic or something similar because it is not in the spirit of the original games. So I disagree with you on those points.
But I think a Mass Effect MMO would be awesome! As long as they made it story driven and stuff...I think that a non-story driven game set i n the mass effect universe would be a horrible mistake and take away from all the games as a whole. Also, it would be cool to form little strike teams and whatnot. Not everyone is a Spectre, but everyone is in a team with one. That sorta thing. I think it would be very hard, but if done right, also very rewarding.
I freakin' love the Mass Effect games and universe. In fact, I'd be more excited to play an mmo in this setting than Star Wars.
/quicklyhidesbehindcouch
Should be easy enough for them to come up with a Great MMO as they have all the Races and Classes and Designs of the main storyline, planets and mostly Romancy.. However there is a limit on who we are fighting against, who's good who's evil.. Will we end up with a major Universal War? Will there be crafting or a form of trade?
Tabula Rasa would be a prime example for ME 2 MMO, Humans vs Everyone Else?
Ugh. No, please no.
Not every world should be "MMO-ified". What makes ME1/ME2 work is the STORY, and it remains to be seen whether an MMO can pull off having an immersive story in an MMO environment. Only Guild Wars came close to achieving this, and this was ONLY because Guild Wars allowed players the option of playing either ALONE or in player GROUPS to complete all missions and dungeon content. SWTOR may also work; we'll have to wait and see. But if SWTOR *forces* me to group with other players to progress through the story, then it will be a major FAIL for me, anyway.
As anyone who has ever tried to RP on any WoW RP server knows, multiplayer is the absolute enemy of any degree of RP/immersion. All it takes is some moron running around with some really stupid name to ruin immersion for me.
I really wish LotRO had been designed as an online single-player RPG. I actually would still be playing it if they had, and I would have subscribed to it for much MUCH longer.
An ME MMO would only work for me if ALL of the multiplayer content was also single player accessible (as most of it was in Guild Wars) through the use of AI. Unless the multiplayer portions of an ME MMO are totally optional for them that want it that way, the ME franchise would be totally ruined, imo.
As long as I can take Garrus, Thane, Grunt, and Tali along with me instead of random player 2, 3, 4, and 5 to complete the group content, then I'd be OK with an ME MMO.
Otherwise, no thanks.
Heh, I can see it now.
"MEO is a crappy ripoff of ToR!"
"They use the same engine you twat. Somehow, Bioware landed proprietary rights of their own engine!"
Check out the MUD I'm making!
Agreed.
Bioware has created some pretty deep lore, and I'd much rather explore this setting than yet another Jedi-fest. Of course, I'm sure 90% of the people in a Mass Effect mmo would be biotics because they're the closest thing to Jedi, but I'd still rather see an original IP than more Lucas-trash.
...
We know. ME's story only took up how much more of the first game than the actual action did? =P
In any case, I'd rather see a Mass Effect MMO as well, simply for the reason that Star Wars had its chance as an MMO and ultimately fell flat on its face.
Check out the MUD I'm making!
I really think a Mass Effect mmo could work, but realistically it would be 7-10 years in the future. It will be another 2+ years before the final Mass Effect single player comes out and then add in 5+ years of conception and development time for an mmo.
All the things are there for a hugely successful mmorpg game no doubt about that.
What I really want to see from the Mass Effect series though is for it to hit the big screen in 3D Avatar style type of shooting, it would be f'ing amazing I think.
To transform this game into an MMO would tranish the best parts and ruin the whole charm of the game.
For me the best part of mass effect is the replayability, the different choices you can make through dialog and how that effects the overall game. That can't transfer over to a static open world mmo and would force the game to be very linear, with few choices, and that's really not what mass effect is all about..
The name is Mass Effect after all, which implies the massive effect the player has on the game.
You sure you played the games? That's not what Mass Effect is :P
A ME mmo would be amazing, though since i have no idea what happens to shepard in the 3rd effect, the ability to play Salarians, Turians, Krogan, etc would be a welcome change to playing a human all the time, and of course we would be fighting reapers or each other (aka saren vs shepard, or allies{all aliens] vs the Rachni) or something like it and changing the mmo during updates and expansions while i will alsio TRY to play tOR. While having a story mmo would be good(if they coudl pull it off) i would suggest a NON-persistent ever-changing world for ME mmo as it hasnt been done that i've seen which would make playing more dangerous and realistic in an entire galaxy.
If they did one it would probably take place after the events of ME3. So they'd have a few years to decide on this.
Although the lore is rich enough to support an mmo, I'm not sure if the game mechanics are. Technically, there are only six classes, which would bore people quickly. Though they could mix it up by allowing other races besides human, say an asari adept has certain pros/cons vs a human adept.
Not to mention you'd have the pvp types coming out of the woodwork demanding "meaningful" pvp. Not sure how pvp would fit into the universe of ME, unless you could side with either Citadel Space or Terminus Systems.
I have to say that this spare opera is overly clichéd, but at the same time exceptionally fun IP. It would make a great MMORPG. All the elements are there.
"The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in."
It all depends on how well Bioware does in the MMO market. Not everything needs to be MMO'ed and in fact my wife and I are enjoying ME2 more than any MMO because of one simple fact: PAUSE. We have a 1 year old daughter so we are constantly being interupted so being able to stop the action and deal with reality is a real plus to our enjoyment of the game.
Minus that it would be nice to NOT be Shepard for a change. Though I would be really torn on what alien race to play though you know darn well my first toon would be a Krogan like Wrex.
Current Game: Asssasins Creed 2(PS3, Gamer Tag: Happy_Hubby)
Current MMO: World of Warcraft and World of Tanks
Former Subscribed MMO: Star Trek Online, Aion, WoW, Guild Wars, Eve Online, DAoC, City of Heroes, Shattered Galaxy, 10six.
Tried: Too many to list
I know this is all wishful thinking and theoretical, but in all honesty it is ridiculous. Why would BioWare even be thinking of a Mass Effect MMO when they aren't even finished with SWTOR yet?
On top of that, why would they want to create two story-driven MMO's that would only be in competition for the same types of subscribers?
I think that SWTOR will be BioWare's one and only for quite a while, and if we did see another MMO from them in the future, I would be willing to bet that it would be at least 6-8 years down the road.
I love Mass Effect and the universe that bioware has created and frankly I have to agree with all the people saying it would ruin it if it became an mmo. The fun part about the games is the emersion in the great setting they have created and that would be ruined by the nature of mmo's. its all there in the MSRB warning online content may change the experience. I'd rather see them continue making single player games in the same setting with new charecters.
After ME3 of course
Seriously, if it's Star Wars they're making, they'd better not be focusing on anything else until it's perfect.
They were working on Dragon Age: Origins, TOR and Mass Effect 2 at the same time. Bioware isn't a couple of guys working in a garage, they have over 400 employees. Tey probably have major teams on DA:O (expansions, patches), ME2 (expansions, patchers), TOR (pre-release development), their Sonic game, and whatever else they have in the works that will be released 2-3 years from now.
http://www.bioware.com/bioware_info/about/
Mass Effect would be a great IP to build an MMO around. The gameplay style is fresh and fast paced, the lore is compelling and immersive and the characters are interesting and well fleshed out. (My only disappointment being I never got to see Tali's face while we were doing the horizontal mambo.)
I don't agree that everyone would want to play Shepard. I've already played him, and most likely will play him again in ME3. I'd rather have a chance to play one of the other races, or have the chance to create my own.
There's just so much going on in that universe that could translate into an MMO. You could be a smuggler, a slave trader, a craftsman, a biotechnologist... You could work for Cerberus and try to make humans the dominate species in the galaxy, or you could work for the Alliance and try to maintain a good relationship between all species, or you could work for the reapers and try to conquer the universe or destroy it... etc.
Mass Effect in scope is very similar to Star Wars. In fact, if you were to strip away the names and simply look at it from a plot and character perspective there are a lot of parallels.
Besides the draw of the Star Wars IP, Mass Effect would have been a better choice for an MMO imo. That said though the similarities may in fact be too close for both a Star Wars MMO and a Mass Effect MMO to coexist. Shepard is pretty much a Jedi. The reapers are pretty close to being the Sith. I'm looking forward to both SW:TOR and ME3. But unless SW:TOR fails pretty dramatically I can't see Bioware competing with itself and making another MMO that so closly resembles it.
Yes please! I am also hoping it keeps the fast paced combat system (which is fun!) and decryption mini games (which is fun, plus can be avoided with "omni gels" for those who aren't dexterious enough for it). Also here's hoping it has more storyline elements that your average mmo if it ever gets under developement. Haven't yet played ME2 to see if there are any changes.
Also count me into the group who would like to play aliens in addition to humans. I'm probably one of the few people who were seriously dissapointed when they announced their new mmo was about star wars and not mass effect (when swtor was announced).
- Beregar
Bioware is far too busy with their current MMO to be even thinking about a project like this.
Way to go Bioware.
First We had KOTOR and its not-as-good sequel KOTOR II.
Then KOTOR III as canceled in favor of half-assed money grab MMORPG.
Now we had ME and its not-as-good sequel MEII.
Now they will cancel MEIII to go develop yet another crappy mmorpg no one wants.
to sum it up: no one wants "tor mmo" or "me mmo". Give us the part IIIs of both franchises and gtfo.
# A GRIM, ODD, ARCANE SKY
# ANY GOD, I MARK SACRED
# A MASKED CRY ADORING
# A DREAMY, SICK DRAGON
Stick with what you know. In my opinion, Mass Effect Online (or whatever it's name ends up being) won't be a boom headshot because like someone said before, Its concept, Sci-Fi shooter/RPG is not unfamiliar territory. Unless BioWare really nailed it, which I doubt they will because they've perfect RPG's not MMORPG's, the game will just end up being more of the same maybe even less.
Character Creation would be interesting, seeing as how you could pick your race, race-specific classes, etc. People could spend hours in creation perfecting their Turian to somehow resemble William Shatner.
The questing is what really gets me. It would be extremely hard to have every quest and every action affect your story-line. then again, I'm not a game developer so I don't know what I'm talking about. It just seems that the quests would have to end up being linear, and linear= kill x of y to get z then go talk to v, rinse, and repeat.
I'd be interested in seeing how they would plan to make the game work as a persistent game world with each player influencing the game environment, but most likely I would not buy it.
Haha, this is awesome. Just on the 1st of February me and my buddy were wondering when a ME MMORPG would hit the shelves. Fair enough whe never considered if.
I mean, every Jonny and Miranda has an MMO to their lore nowadays, the message of a CoD MMO merely shocked me, but it's nothing I would have considered as way out there. I'd love a ME MMO, for I can really agree that ME found a way to entangle you in its lore more than any other game every did (well I did also love Oni, an ancient game nobody probably every played) but besides that ME has its very own charme and attracts women and men alike.
I probably won't play TOR, although having BioWare as the developing studio is a BIG HUGE argument to try it, I'm kind of stuck on the FFXIV and GW2 track, but who knows.