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General: New Column: Why Not Historical MMOs?
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the ideea i had it since 2003. but lack of personel and money made my ideea remain only on paper for now. but i hope everything will change in future. dunno how close is this future tho.
I leave a trace in your life
I think your article has some merit and that in time, more genres will be explored and developed. Right now, in this economic downturn, I'm thinking that most companies want to pander to an audience which sees "fantasy" as something that can take them away from their troubles and doesn't require much thinking.
Down the road, if a company hand several people who majored in history, studied world events, and could develop a sound storyline from any of the periods you mentioned, then there is a chance. There are several single player games on the market which work well but IMHO, for a historical MMO to succeed, it would have to be very accurate with historical facts and still provide a means for players to alter the course of history. If players and their guilds could change the very landscape by when and how the industrial revolution comes into play, if at all, then this would effect the environment I presume. Something which could take players from our early stages into a futuristic setting.
Be careful though because even when talking about a world wide event, the ability for any company to provide the required feature set, balance, combat, server capacity, and dynamic storyline is going to be huge and expensive.
dear mother of god! its a real life gnome! wtf
You people are making me wish that I had taken a Gaming Design diploma instead of a Biomedical Science Diploma. Worse of all, my school has both courses, and it's a bit too late to transfer at the moment. Not to mention that my parents would throw a fit...
When it comes to books, historical fiction is my favourite genre, and in gaming, it would definitely be my favourite genre as well. The particular time period I'm interested in is Chinese history, particularly during the dynasty period. In fact, the warring dynasties period, to be more precise. I would definitely play a game like that, as long as it remains true to the source. When I think of historical games, I want a game in which the settings, characters, quests, all come from that period. I won't even mind fighting monsters from time to time, as long as there is variety in the quests offered.
Until then, I'm just happy with fantasy games based on historical periods. Main reason why I was so much in love with Cantha when I first visited it.
Main characters:
Jinn Gone Quiet (Guild Wars)
Princess Pudding (Guild Wars)
hmm a historical MMO sounds like a good idea
"And don’t quote the death of Gods and Heroes at me either. A noble attempt, but that game was mythological, not historical, and its death was more to do with the collapse of the company making it than the product itself."
I take it you never beta tested god and heroes to say it wasnt the product,any player that tested GnH's will tell you it was in a real mess,on the beta forums around 80% of the testers were saying the only way to save the game would be to start at the begining again.....so I will indeed quote the death of GnH's,Yes it was more mythological than historic but I am sure history buffs like myself would not have cared in the least.
As you pointed to in your post the medieval times,though how much of that is indeed legend and myth and not fact?
I think for there to be a successful mmo based from history there would have to be a certain extent of myth or other added content to make it a mmo...I mean who wants to say fight the battle of Hastings over and over again.
Edit-If any dev is reading this then go down the "braveheart" mmo road,though maybe that would just attract us Scots wanting to kill the English
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
At first glance I thought this argument could be, in simple terms, lame. I decided that I would read wiht a bit more of an open mind since I'd been someone on this movement of expanding the idea of what an MMO is. Back to basics an MMO should include games of all types that are massively multi-player and not just those that fit some sort of WoW defined concept of what an MMO has to be. What really won me over, however, was the daydream that ran through my head of playing in an ancient roman world. The life of a roman patrician could be great fun to experience. The rich culture, the strong identity... the debuachery. I say lets give them a go.
Replying to the article, not anyone's posting.
Carebear is such a strange term for the people who hire armies and provide the support and infrastructure for those armies, isn't it?
I prefer non-combatants. There is a need for non-combatants in every society.
(yeah, yeah yeah - it's JUST a game - blah-blah-blah - get over it)
It's just really strange to me that the interests of those that want to game - in a different way - are rarely taken into account. I like simulations, but they fall flat because of the low to no player interaction, or stupid scripted crap you HAVE to do aka Sims Online.
I would love to play a supporting role in a game where I didn't have to fight - unless the whole city was attacked and then it's a free-for-all...without being called a carebear.
I DETEST that dumb doll. I don't like Barney. I don't think world problems can be solved with love-love-love.
That doesn't mean I want to run out and kill everyone I see to "pwn" anyone. Meh, anyone can fight. Nursery school children often do it very well.
It would be nice to see a game that encompassed all aspects of a civilization including the supportive, but conniving, back room deal players; the honest figure out how to beat the systems players' and then those who just want to chat as well as those who want to freelance merc, join an army, sneak around snipers, or duel in the streets.
The Wild, Wild, West would have been an epic fail without the shopkeepers, tavern owners, weapon makers, horse sellers, railroad developers, etc.
Most of these are run by NPCs in-game. But what if a player could log in and take the NPC place for the 2-3 hours they played? NPC gets logged out, players logs in and tries to build their little niche empire in the big world?
A Wild Wild West game could have poker tourneys too, someone could build game halls and run them - and should or lose any authentic flavor. Shooting contests, and horse racing too.
Ah well, just a dream of mine.
Just making a "go out and gank everyone all the time" and slapping a Wild West label on it doesn't make it so. It' would be just the same old, same old with a different look.
In my opinion Historical mmorpgs can be successful, but, but only if it is made during a certain time period.
I don't think a Wild West mmorpg would succeed. The wild west just does not seem the fit as a rpg type of game. I mean come on pretty much the only combat would be gun fighting. But a historical ancient Rome or 12 cent. Japan actually seem plausible as a mmorpg.
A medieval mmorpg would just be like a fantasy game but without wizards; medieval mmorpgs would probably be just ignored. Same with a cavemen mmorpg, would probably just be ignored.
And If the mmorpg was realistic then it would fail even a fantasy mmo would fail. And what I mean by realistic is that combat would be too short, and it would beat the purpose of one of the main qualities of a rpg, the level system.
But I would love to see a roman/greek mythologic mmorpg. I really wanted to see Heros and Gods to succeed. I probably would be playing that game if the developers discontinued it, for Star Trek Online, which also was discontinued. >:(
granado espada gets pretty close from historical MMO style
voyage century hits the spot...
well i would like to try a sangoku/sengoku style MMO (just like dynasty or samurai warriors if u wanna be hardcore... bud i'd rather take something like Kessen III... that's brilliant!)
almost no magic, but a lot of "power", just like Koei's games... gunpowder and bows could substitute "magic classes" in some way (a nuke with fireballs and a nuke with cannonballs can be similars... fire walls and gunpowder traps too)
AH! a single name: KINGDOM UNDER FIRE 2. this should be closer to reality and even so very cool and frenetic
give a look
I put together an article and posted it (on another site) a couple of months ago about a theoretical Western MMO. What we came up with was quite interesting. There's a lot more going on than cowboys versus indians, the discussion generated some very neaaaaaaaat-o ideas.
As for "historical" MMOs in general...man, some of you people in this thread need to take a deep breath and relax. it's just using a time period as a setting, it is not supposed to be a historical recreation. It will always be historical fiction when you revisit the past with modern people in a video game.
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i'm not speaking 'bout "purely historical"
but change the setting would be good... "european medieval higly folcloric based" setting is gatting on my nerves
NINJA MMO!