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Riggers, Deckers and Dragons...oh my!
hermit000
Member Posts: 91
Where oh where is our Shadowrun MMO? After FASA studios botched their last outing over at Microsoft, why hasn’t someone attempted to convince Jordan Weisman to have another developer take the reins of their IP and produce the MMO that should have been out already?
The setting is designed for episodic/mission based encounters, already set up for the traditional quest structure through the use of Mr. Johnson’s. It has a rich background to have writers work with, as well as a large amount of pre-existing source material from that could be pushed out as content for the old school PnP players.
The setting has a plethora of ‘zones’ without even leaving the Seatle/Salish area. Multiple factions in the guise of the Mega-Corporations as well as various gangs, the mafia and yakuza, lots of PvP opportunities both in the open world as well as in runner vs. runner on missions for Johnson’s.
There are many opportunities for variations in game play, through the use of stealth, the matrix, astral space as well as traditional combat roles.
The genre has an out as far as resurrecting player is concerned, through either Doc Wagon contracts or clones. It also begs for player housing/lifestyles and supports small guild structures in the form of runner groups.
The race selection at a glance looks like standard fantasy fare, but when you look deeper is a refreshing change form the norm.
The magic system is non traditional as well, which helps with breaking it away from the fantasy genre.
The only weak point from a MMO standpoint is the lack of crafting, it would need to be handled more as a repair/modification skill due to the Corps selling everything.
Riggers Deckers and Dragons….oh my
Comments
It'll never happen, it makes too much sense.
I'm hoping that because it makes so much sense that someone would at least make the attempt to bring the IP to life in an MMO. I believe Microsoft has the rights for shadowrun as a video game for another 5 years (give or take), and that weisman wanted to let the IP sit on its laurels while the debacle that was the last shadowrun game faded into distant memory (good luck)
This.
However... from wikipedia:
"In September 2007 Microsoft closed FASA Studios (and the FPS official forum), and licensed the Shadowrun electronic entertainment rights to Smith & Tinker, a company owned by Jordan Weisman, an original creator of Shadowrun. Details at Smith & Tinker's website hint at the development of an MMO"
They also got the rights to Battletech too.
Here's to hoping...
"There is only one thing of which I am certain, and that's nothing is certain."
So weisman licensed shadowrun to microsofts FASA studios, which they clsoed after the big flop they put out, and then licensced it back to Weisman in his new company.
I knew they had aquired the rights to the old FASA products from way back, but their site doesnt mention anything about them other than the fact they have them again.
I would cut off my left little finger for a good Shadowrun MMO, for a great Shadowrun MMO they could have them both! No foolin' devs, call me.
Use the 4th.ed setting/additions, wifi-world, formal technomancers and genuis-level AI's who live in a comlink, yes please.
Limit the setting initally to just Seattle territories, anything from the Seattle 2072 book.
Characters have a finite lifespan, though not 1-death perma-loss. Make it a formula of Essence*Doc.Wagon Contract.
Non-repeatable, failable missions. Let people botch the run and deal with the financial/reputation loss.
Lifestyle determines character creation in part. Char's from a Med. lifestyle existence saw a completely different mess than a high-lifer.
Have a set progression of time for the game. Not entirely game altering, but asthetically have years roll on with posters/signs/etc.
Active/light-twitch control. It doesn't need to be competitive-fps precise, but it can't tab-lock, bunny-hop, or click-to-move. Best example would be Crackdown with DEEP progression/customization... and a Troll who replaces an arm for a Minigun hardpoint...
Those are about all the things I could bullet-point out for what I'd love to see in an SR MMO. Best PnP setting ever. Screw prissy-high-fantasy settings, I'll kill my dragons with this anti-missle systems the rigger jacked on the battleship off-shore, thank you very much. But ya, tons of potential, hopefully Smith&Tinker does it right, that, or even just make a hi-def remake of the sega gen. game.
And the crafting in SR is also extremely deep if you want it to be. Riggers rebuilding custom drones based on plans stolen from Ares. Gunsmiths forging signature editiion firearms in their garages.
Mechanically it was "Have the skill points spent to justify you knew how to make it, then hope the GM lets the stats go", but that can be more flexible.
Take restrictied/illegal items in SR. Depending on what it is, you could be that guy custom fitting some Red Dragon armor for a Troll, or a mechanic who built a nuke-proof APC inside an of VW-bus.
In every campaign I've ever played in, the top notch gear, be it physical, magical or digital, was always either custom-built or stolen from an R&D lab. Anything "Stock" from just a get-by till then.
Lets Push Things Forward
I knew I would live to design games at age 7, issue 5 of Nintendo Power.
Support games with subs when you believe in their potential, even in spite of their flaws.
True this. Maybe if they first make a succesful movie so Shadowrun becomes more known. Then they can milk more money with a videogame.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
Shadowrun has always been one of my favorite settings for a game. The possibilities seemed endless, and like all of you, I sure wish that it could have found a real MMO home.
Dont know if you are aware, but there is an open source project to build it into an MMO. While I dont know if it will ever see the light of day, or the quality of it, it'd be nice if it had enough attention to draw a budget from a larger studio.
http://awakenedmmo.org/
I don't think Shadowrun had that huge of a following anyway. I remember a few sci-fi nerds who played the tabletop RPG about 20 years ago, but even those guys have probably moved on.
I just do not think it is a huge market, not that it couldn't be.
Weisman isn't doing anything with Shadowrun in the immediate future. He has partnered with Piranaha games of Canada and they are getting close on releasing a new Mechwarrior series of games (Which look pretty darn slick). In an interview he mentioned that he has had talks about other FASA IPs that he has back now with the head of Piranaha Games Russ Bullock but that nothing really official is set in motion.
Here is that interview: http://pc.ign.com/articles/100/1002164p1.html
I love shadowrun. In my top 5 IPs all-time and is my #1 Sci-fi IP. That said, in this climate of themepark conveyorbelt MMO creation I'm much rahter see it stay where it is. Unless CCP did it.
"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 agree, that if they arent going to be true to the PnP, then thy should just leave it where it is.I appreciate the communities efforts in trying a fan created mmo, i just have a feeling it will either never launch or will get litigated into to one the stone age.
I am a little surprised no one has brought up the potential for vehicles and drones in this setting. the drones would fill the need for pets, and vehicles add a whole new dynamic to the game play. One would hope the world would be created in such a way that it was open enough and large enough to warrant the inclusion of deckers as more than just the 'pet' option'.
Map out the seattle area like they did for true crime, way back. just bigger and better looking.
Shadowrun is still my favorite game setting after all these years. If nothing else for the combat style alone. Everyone basically has 10 "hitpoints", everything is skill based, and even if a character doesn't have a particular skill (say pistols) he can still pick one up and make a lucky shot against someone who is much more "powerful" skill wise.
Don't know of many other settings where your ork gator shaman can stalk around with an ak-74 and have cybernetic implants..
Conducting Research for a future MMO project.
In regards to the numbers of people who played or were fans of teh original PnP game, I'm fairly sure it was a decent size crowd since the game is still in publication and on its 4th edition.
Aside from D&D... I recall Shadowrun being the second most popular in the day. Others were GURPS, RIFTS, Paranoia (ROY G. BIV baby!), Earthdawn, Marvel Superheroes... *shrug* Oh christ... forgot Cthulhu... fucking game. Now there's a hardcore PvP MMO game that needs to come out to put the rest to shame. It would make Darkfall look like WoW.
"There is only one thing of which I am certain, and that's nothing is certain."
LOL receive bacon... off topic, but HILARIOUSLY funny XD
And yes I too would give your left little finger for a Shadowrun MMO... *whistles*
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
If all it took was sacrificing others "little fingers" to the gaming gods to have a quality game produced then all i have to say is you all line up and i'll get my industrial cigar cutter sharpened.
Imo there are several untaped pnp ip's. I'm talking Shadowrun, Rifts, Cthulhu and Battletech. Think all have been already mentioned in this thread so far. Agree with you op, why not use them? All have ton's of unique lore and backstory, classes and settings, not to mention an existing and loyal fanbase. Maybe WAR has set a bad precedent. I'm hoping if ccp can do something special with the WOD game it may turn things around. If I have to read another generic backstory I think I will eat my own testicles. "In ancient times the beautiful Godess created the 10 dildo's of maximum power...then the world was changed by a great war..Blah blah blah blah!"
Yes, I'll have to hang onto my pencil and paper copy of the game and modules, and just hope a bit longer.
i agree about the lack of fleshed out backstory in teh current MMO landscape. I only wish developers who take on existing IP's would not try so hard to make the story their own, and spend more time trying to be true to the original story that made the IP's fanbase what it was already.
With shadowrun, there are so many good stories already in print like dunkelhazen for president that it would be a shame to not see them fleshed out in a virtual environment.
Shadowrun would be perfect as a MMO as long as you don't add levels to it. Levels and machineguns just gets silly, even Funcom knows that.
But yes, I would play it. Gibsons Cyberpunk would work as well.
Shadowrun is however mostly known by P&P roleplayers so the game should preferably be focused on making a good game for them.
The thing I made to get my old weapon foci Katana would be perfect in a MMO ( I had to get a rather large shark, dig out Orihalicum in Australia and a few other stuff to make it).
The mechanics for magic would work fine too in a MMO, you don't really need any cooldown or anything there. The firearms mechanics would probably need a bit of revamping to work.
I agree with the magic system being used as is with no cooldown as that would just be silly with the spell burn. and for it to be a true shadow run game it would be horribly dissapointing to have a developer add levels to it. kepp it skill and stat based, one of the best parts is the ability of the newby ganger being able to take down the cocky troll street samurai with a lucky shot(yes i know it would have to be really lucky)