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Someone please make a Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance MMO
Danubus
Member Posts: 169
I know there is DDO and it was ok, but I have never understood why WoTC never lisenced their Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance properties for an MMO. People would flock to playing either one of them. Eberron was not that popular and then to give it to Turbine...ugh. I mean, AC and AC2 were decent, but Turbine? I honestly wish Bioware would have done a D&D MMO. There is a lot of talk about Cryptic getting to do a Neverwinter Nights MMO/D&D MMO next. Atari use to/still does have the rights to D&D I think. There was some sort of lawsuit wasn't there?
All I know is those two properties would make a killing. You throw in some D&D writers to do the plots/quests like DCUO is doing with the DC comics writers and maybe talk Larry Elmore into doing the art and this thing would fly off shelves if it was done right!
At this point I would even welcome Blizzard doing either property as their "next gen MMO" I just will never understand how WoTC/Hasbro can sit on two great properties and throw out buttloads of "fluff D&D" books and then never capitalize on those worlds as MMO's. Then again, they did produce 4e...
Comments
Don't you think we have enough high fantasy mmorpgs as it is?
Not enough good ones.
I'm all for Dragonlance to be made an MMO. The different orders of Knights, the Mages of red, black or white robes, the class options in those two areas alone will give a good amount of variety.
Problem is they have never really been done right. Well, except EQ and WoW. I wouldn't consider WoW being done right either. It just had mass appeal with the lore and game mechanics they put in. I want a hardcore MMO again that plays like D&D.
I would be all for playing a mage in Dragonlance or a Knight of Neraka. Depends on the Age they made the game in.
Hard to find a good age, imho. Perhaps the future (though the Age of Dreams would be interesting). I dislike playing in games where you have a bunch of major lore figures whom have already been established as doing all the really significant stuff. Too deprotagonizing to me.
QFT
Forgotten Realms would be nice. Sorry but I think D&D slumped the way it did because it focused on Ebberon instead of something familiar. Quite a bit of lore there and tons of update potential.
Or a World of Darkness game like Aberrant since the superhero/villain thing hasn't really been done by anyone but Cryptic.
"There is only one thing of which I am certain, and that's nothing is certain."
I prefer the Death Gate worlds....
First off, Atari only has limited licensing to the D&D name and maybe none at all now that Hasbro is suing them. And regardless of what you might think, Turbine right now has one of the best reps of any MMO company, and if they even thought of letting Cryptic do a D&D game it would flop, they are just not a good development company.
But the main reason there is no and will be no Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance MMO is that they have never been core worlds, and the official setting for 3.5 which is what DDO is based on is Eberron, the official setting used to be Greyhawk. While I would love to see any of those made, any new D&D game will have to be based on 4.0 rules, which are to D&D as WOW was to MMOs....dumbed down and easy to play, and yes fanbois start your ranting, but regardless what you might want to think, that statement is correct. But then, that is also why it is a success, so its not a bad thing.
But a Forgotten Realms MMO would be great, it has a very full and well developed world, but then again that also hinders the ability to create a good MMO in that world, everyone knows it and will expect things, and by just creating the game, it puts it into canon in a way and further limits creation. So Eberron, while kind of a wierd world, is a good core to use as a D&D game, cause there is nothing really established and Turbine, had free rein to make the world as they saw fit mostly.
And how would that work out? Or do you think that running from Waterdeep to Baldur's Gate and back in 5 minutes is all right?
REALITY CHECK
Consider for a moment that FR is a very very High magic realm with a level zillion mage under every rock and uncounetd magical items..I think they could work around it.
I have a feeling the next D&D mmo will be by Cryptic, which means it will be rushed out in under a year and have zero support from Wotc because they will still be cheesed about losing the lawsuit. I hope Wotc and Turbine wins, but things like this rarely works out in the favor of gamers.
This sword here at my side dont act the way it should
Keeps calling me its master, but I feel like its slave
Hauling me faster and faster to an early, early grave
And it howls! it howls like hell!
Never played these games,but it sounds like they are great games....
FR setting for an MMO would rule and running from one end of the sword coast to the other in 5 min. is a total farce
It's a HUGE world and Massive multiverse So it would require varied forms of transportation i.e. wagons, magic circles of travel, interdimensional doorways, boats etc.
I for one would be overjoyed to hear about some studio crafting up a Forgotten Realms IP MMO, Turbine's DDO is alright but Eberron...meh.
lolwut?
"There is only one thing of which I am certain, and that's nothing is certain."
There have been plenty of good high fantasy MMORPGS over the years, a lot more than there has been non high fantasy mmorpgs.
Enough with the dragons and elves. Lets have something new.
That map brought back a lot of good memories from my old pnp days. Love to find a game that could even 10% as good as pnp.
I would prefer that running from one side of the world to the other be done to scale, but I am probably a minority. Also, if people really want to travel quickly I am sure the massive portalling system (elven) could be used somehow if you had a mage with you. Throw in the Underdark and even more ways to get around. Could also bring in Latan and their wonderful flying ships.
Honestly, I know that any new FR MMO would be 4.0, but I would prefer 3.5. They totally hosed Faerun with the spellplague and all that happened afterwards.
A lot of us who are really into D&D and Forgotten Realms would probably never be happy with whatever they do with a FR MMO, but at least we could play in it. I imagine that's how a lot of people who are playing Star Trek Online feel. The game may suck, but least their in the setting. Abeit, a really poor knockoff setting.
First of all, FR won't be licenced by WotC ever for any MMO. The FR francise was closed almost a decade ago
Secondly, DragonLance is not the IP of WotC, but Weiss & Hickman. Their lore was adapted for TSR's Advanced Dungeons& Dragons. When TSR went bankrupt in 1995, Weiss & Hickman retrackted the licence from TSR, to avoid it to fall into the bankrupcy.
Thirdly, Ebberon was a price winning setting by a freelancer promised to be sponsored by WotC. Personally I think the setting sucks...
Then about Neverwinternights. Cruptic/Atari gonna rape a new MMO again..? I doubt that WotC will let them do that after the failure of CO & STo. WotC has too much at stake to get their IP raped this way.
I agree that there should be a "new" D&D setting to become MMO. FR would be nice, but not as Neverwinternights. DL would be better, since there's been only 2 computer RPG's ever for the setting and the setting is best land based system ever.
What would really make my day is when Planescape or Spelljammer is turned into an MMORPG. Both odd settings with even stranger rules. Of the 2 I think Planescape will be the one with the best chances.
On the other hand, don't keep your hoped up for WotC giving away their licences quickly. WotC is (as most know) part of Hasbro, and to Hasbro the D&D fransice income is close to nothing
...original pen-n-paper 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragon player speaking
"Secondly, DragonLance is not the IP of WotC, but Weiss & Hickman. Their lore was adapted for TSR's Advanced Dungeons& Dragons. When TSR went bankrupt in 1995, Weiss & Hickman retrackted the licence from TSR, to avoid it to fall into the bankrupcy."
I will have to ask Margaret on Facebook about that. I was under the impression that WoTC still owned the rights. From what I had read both Weiss and Hickman were pretty peeved off at WoTC over business dealings and that there wasn't much they could do since WoTC owned the rights. I believe this was also the reason Dragonlance wasn't redone for 4th edition. I will check into that, but appreciate that tibit.
I'd play a DnD MMO set in either Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms or Ravenloft campaigns. I think that a Ravenloft setting would be very unique as it's dark and evil. Plus, it's sort of made to be an MMOs as it's broken up into domains (zones).
My biggest fear though, is that Cryptic will get their hands on an NWN MMO, since Atari owns the rights to it, which will be a complete travesty of one of the best DnD settings.
I wonder how people would react to a dragonlance MMO with accurate mechanics for the various alignments of mages, ie. powers based on moon phase and various other restrictions. Something tells me it would not be well recieved by a large majority of people who want quick fun.
I love FR and DL settings and would love a MMO set in those. It'd have to be a 3.0 ruleset or AD&D ruleset and made by CCP though in order for me to give it any serious consideration. I suppose if another dev did it I'd give it a look but frankly I don't like the forumla by which most AAA devs make MMOs these days and don't trust them to do it in a way I think pays homage to D&D. I use to trust Turbine but their D&D effort was disappointing to me to say the least.
"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
I want a Planescape MMO. Its the coolest DnD setting and the best fit for MMOs due to the nature of planes and the already in place factions and their constant petty warring. Plus it literally lets you RP anything you like if you are into that kind of thing.
Its not a coincidence that one of the best CRPGs ever made, Torment, was set in Sigil/Planescape.
Cryptic was rumored at one point to be making a NWN MMO. With their... let's say recent challenges I'm not sure how that is progressing. There hasn't been any news that I've been able to find.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/10/rumor-cryptic-making-neverwinter-nights-mmo-for-atari/
I pray someone else does it.
Which would make it an automatic buy for me, lol! The more "sim" they made it with respect to the setting's pnp mechanics the more they pull me in.
"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