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General: What About a Detective MMO?
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
MMORPG.com writer Bill Murphy has written today's staff blog. In it, he opines that the world just might be ready for a cops and robbers MMO. You know, some players would be criminals and some would be detectives. See if you think he's onto something!
Perhaps it’s a little too creepy to imagine a virtual game world in which players stalk around murdering NPCs (or worse) but I can’t help but feel APB missed a rare opportunity to do something really special. Their game of cops and robbers is a fun and frenetically paced shootout, but there’s a more subtle layer to the balance of law and order (dun-dun!) which is completely missed. I know the practice of dusting for prints and all that CSI stuff might not interest some folks in terms of game mechanics, but I grew up playing Police Quest.
Read more in the MMORPG.com Staff Blog.
Comments
Considering the popularity of detective shows in the media I would have to agree, it is something the public seems fascinated with.
Of course APB is not a MMO, but a shooter, so it would never occur to them to include such ideas. Makes you wonder why this subject has been ignored to this point. It would be more challenging than your common MMO, but if done well the chances of a bit hit are fairly good.
i thought using your brain was shunned upon in this industry now..
While I love reading a good hard-boiled detective novel (e.g. Raymond Chandler's "Phillip Marlowe" or Dashiell Hammett's "Sam Spade") I don't know if it will incorporate well into an MMO. Like Oz eluded to, I don't want a shooter type detective MMO. So I don't know if there's enough substance to fill out what it needs to make a detective genre MMO.
But hey I'm personally getting kind of bored with the standard fantasy fare.
I would love to see MMO game like L.A. Noire - Mafia world with criminal cases to solve.
Narf... Quoink...
Funny how I grew up with policequest and spacequest too. Hard to build a working MMO from that concept I think, unless you do it with minigames.
I totaly agree! I also grew up with police quest. I love the concept.
I also gettin sick of all the fantasy games where people run around with larger then life blades on their back. I wish a company would dare to make a game with actual police work!
There was one once, it was called Modus Operandi by Simutronics.
-Niksa
Looking for a real game.
I think he may be on to something, a serious Detective MMO might be a little rough in the start, but what if It was like Loaded Weapon, Naked Gun, or DragNet? ya know a little comedy here and there, funny cases before the real ones, or better yet both, players could make a name for themselves as the Detective that handles the funniest crimes, or the One who is the screwball, or the One Who Handles the Serious Crimes. OR Players can be the super criminal, Stupid Villian, or just a infamous for bad taste.
The Only Downfall I can think of is if said game is made that there will be more "Criminals" or "Bad Guys" (cause a good cop can become corrupt) than Cops or "Good Guys" also a system should be implemented so one person doesn't have a major "kingpin" status, it would kinda ruin the game if 1 person carries all the weight and no one can band together against him or her.
I think it's a great idea too, but I actually posted it in another thread BEFORE Bill did....so thank you.
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and just assume it's a coincidental ocurrence of GMTA.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
As much as I hated the movie; going the route of 'Roger Rabbit' might pull off the trick. That way the 'bad guys' could do outrageous stuff and the detectives could work at solving the cases.
Long ago in the PBM days of games I helped test a hand moded Detective game. You got 5 cases to solve with the start just being the police report than it was up to you to decide how to handle it. One of the main problems was the mod trying to stay ahead of the 2 of us testing it, since outside the normal things - view the scene, question the subjects, we were coming up with stuff he hadn't thought about.
Makes you wonder how it could be handled without the MMO leading you by the nose through the case. Maybe BioWare's multiple choice NPC's / storyline setup?
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
Great idea til someone posts all of the content on the internett.
I like the idea of actually having a Private eye or something like that type of game. Where you are trying to determine who did it. How do you pull this into an MMO type setting with PUGS? Sounds a bit difficult.
Say hello, To the things you've left behind. They are more a part of your life now that you can't touch them.
As your backup when you go in to do the final arrest? Or maybe if the game threw out random hostage or bank robbery situations from time to time where you'd need more than 1 person. Of course as hard as it is to control PUGS in a fantasy game think of the problems here! Hahahaha.
Guess you'd need a rep meter of somekind, too many dead or blown arrests and you get demoted or kicked off the force. Might be a way to rein in the cowboys.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
I don't think it would be played in the exact same way as more traditional MMOs....at least not in MY mind. The genre needs some fresh ideas any way. Why put ourselves in a box that requires the exact same form of grouping or PuGs or any of those old standard ideas?
It would be a unique implementation for MMOs, I'm sure...if anyone ever decided to do it. But I think it's quite workable for grouping and whatnot. In a group, let's say you'd need a couple of CSIs, a PI (maybe more a solo type class...heh), a cop or two, a detective or two, maybe an attorney....who knows??! lol And you could even raid as a SWAT team! For the "evil" side....you could have classes like bank robbers, serial killers, drug dealers.....
It would be a dark and gritty adult game. I think it would be hellafun!
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
I would love to play a detective MMO -- especially if it were set in a colorful universe like Sherlock Holme's London, Capone's Chicago, or a Film Noir Los Angeles.
Far more interesting to me than the combat system would be a system for solving crimes and mysteries. It would be particularly interesting from the criminal side -- successfully completing crimes in such a way as to avoid leaving clues and evidence that would lead to your capture and conviction.
will you get off yourself? why cant a shooter be a mmo?
Okay....now that just gave me goosebumps!
I would SOOOOO play this kind of MMO.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
Outside of APB, this is the closest game I can think of : http://www.play.net/mo/
I remember playing this game and several ohers they made. Quite fun!
"Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better." parrotpholk
wasn't there a (European CSI type) InterPol Game in the works a year or 2 back?
did it ever come to light?
If You Stand Against An ARMY,
Stand FAST And STRONG!
If Stand Against A Single MAN,
Stand HARD And LONG!
If Stand Against YOURSELF,
What Is RIGHT Or WRONG!