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Could a Realistic Historical MMORPG Work?
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I've always found it interesting how culturally popular many historical periods are (ancient Greece and Rome, the Viking golden age, the Napoleonic Wars, the wild west, Victorian Britain, etc), but the vast majority of MMOs are science fiction or medieval high fantasy. I'm wondering if this is because over the top, ridiculous things like dragons and laser guns are necessary for an MMO to succeed.
So, I'm asking if you think that an MMO set in history based on real events with true realism (no magic, prayers, mythical beasts, bullet sponge enemies, etc) could actually become significantly popular (>100,000 regular players), or would the lack of 'cool' mobs to fight and mundanity of most progression (oh, this longsword is the best in the game? Where's the glowing fire coming out of it?) bore too many people?
I know that there are historical MMOs out there, but I'm not aware of any with a significant population, although please do correct me if I'm wrong and there's one I've never heard of.
So, I'm asking if you think that an MMO set in history based on real events with true realism (no magic, prayers, mythical beasts, bullet sponge enemies, etc) could actually become significantly popular (>100,000 regular players), or would the lack of 'cool' mobs to fight and mundanity of most progression (oh, this longsword is the best in the game? Where's the glowing fire coming out of it?) bore too many people?
I know that there are historical MMOs out there, but I'm not aware of any with a significant population, although please do correct me if I'm wrong and there's one I've never heard of.
Comments
Oregon Trail Online! ...I can see the advertising for it now:
"Do you have what it takes to make it to California or will you die a horrible death along the way? Work with other players to survive! Craft everything you need from food to a raft to get your wagon across a river. Be ready to fight off wolves, bear attacks and even angry natives! Pre-order now to claim your limited edition founder's straw hat for when you begin the most epic hardcore co-op massive multiplayer journey of all time!..."
Seriously though, I think there would be a market for a massive multiplayer survival style game. Survival games out now only allow small groups on a server. It would be interesting to see how guild sized groups work for this kind of game.
Imagine a MMO community trying to survive together. Let's use Oregon Trail for an example. A single wagon would be a party. A wagon train would be a guild with the wagon master being the guild leader. When players are offline their characters stay in the game as NPCs so they won't fall behind or leave the rest of the wagon train waiting for everyone to be online. When you die you start over at the beginning. This would be different from most MMO games since there is no 'endgame'. Instead it would focus on the journey and group survival.
It is an interesting concept and something I'd be willing to try if it is done right.
That said, hitting the right demographic might end up being slightly older than what many target which for some reasons seems to be around the age of 13 despite the average age of gamers being much higher
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400k copies of Your Own sold on Steam, and the MMORPG version of LiF is currently in CBT. We'll see if this one gets really popular, it seems to be the best hope right now for a realistic / historical MMORPG.
yup...
and its an awesome game best I can tell and of some I have played. I wish I had more time
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I dont think the majority of players are going to run off to the library and check out the latest book on the dark ages to look up and make sure the game has all the right features.
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Hmm on second thought. It could work provided you made those parts of history that are considered bad/racist/ sexist today as kind of a spoof. Thinking John Candy in Canadian Bacon where they just poked fun at Canada and U.S. stereotypes.
Liberals because if the game included any part of Africa, they'd have a bitch fit seeing that those of color also owned as many if not more slaves than white people did in north america and treated them even worse. And they even shipped them to north america for slavery
Republicans because it would show religion (especially that in the papacy) as a barbaric religion full of pedophiles, and brutal killings in the name of god. It would also show that christians stole most of their stuff from pagans (holidays and what not) and their brutal treatment of pagans
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
When you want to create a MMO,EACH and every player should be creating their OWN life/activities role playing,they should NEVER be following the same path as every other player.
So could it work as a single player game,yep for sure and already has,i played several and enjoyed most of them.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
The game would almost have to avoid certain topics, like religion or races to keep from offending well-meaning people with too much time and money on their hands. Most every civilized country has historically had some form of laws that prohibit murder, so combat becomes extremely restricted by the PC crowd and historical accuracy (countries make war, not people). Certainly, it might be possible to make a crafting game (1900-1920: become a car manufacturer) but that is going to have limited appeal, and history will pretty much declare who built Ford Motors and when, so there's no "firsts". The limits of the developers will dictate what can be made and how it can be decorated, eroding the boundaries of innovation.
After all the limitations are added in, it wouldn't be very historically accurate, and the creativity might be severely hampered by the design choices. It probably wouldn't make it as an MMORPG, and certainly would struggle to find an audience of 2,000, much less the 100,000 + the OP wants. For the most, such a game probably wouldn't be very appealing.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
But also it would be boring as dirt.
Sounds much more like an idea for a co-op survival or sandbox game.
This have been a good conversation
Thats the other side of it for me. Why be joe in a history game. Living out the story of what happened in RL. I get enough RL in RL lol. I play games to become something that does not remind me of the bad things going on here in RL.
The survival elements would include ship building as a community effort along with hunting, cooking, and construction of longhouses and forges. Known Viking settlements would exist, however, which brings me to the traditional MMO part. Going to a town full of NPCs and getting permission, through a quest, to put together a raid, or set out for new lands via exploration would all be a part of it.
In the end, I had to vote no though because realism just isn't feasible. All female characters are limited to cooking as a profession. Their sword skill and strength is capped at 250 / 500 while their perception, charisma, and Dexterity gets a +100 bonus. Women will randomly be affected by the debuff "With Child" which can randomly effect stats by up to plus or minus 200 and cause hunger to occur 100% more often. Additionally, random NPC mobs in Europe will cause the debuff "Plague" which will decay one's maximum health at an exponential rate. This process takes roughly 2 weeks of in-game time (2 Days real time). This debuff cannot be removed by any known means. All death is permanent, and all head shots result in immediate death. PvP is free for all with community defined penalties in settlements and will result in penalties in accordance with predefined laws within NPC controlled town and cities.
For some, the realism elements might sound amazing, bad parts and all, but for most, it would end up extreme niche. Again, I think history has provided us some amazing settings for sandbox style MMOs, but you'll have to leave the realism out of it for it to be successful.
A "realistic" game based on the Vikings would only have raids in the summer months, for instance, because navigating the North Sea in winter in open boats is simply suicidal.
What is usually done is the game is given a reasonably accurate historical setting, but everything else is done on "alternate history" lines with large allowances for "enjoyable game play".
That said, there's an audience for almost any game imaginable, it just may be a very small audience. A game like "Tale in the Desert" survived for many years with around 1000 players...
But not a realistic representation of the wild west, That would be boring, Im thinking cartoony type wow graphics with over the top animations, and magic users ect...
Aloha Mr Hand !
On top of that hiatoricL means a predetermined accourences. How do you make sure a certain faction will win exactly as it did? And who is going to want and play the faction destined to lose? Also what happens when the historical progression catches up to the present? Or is it aletas stuck in a particular historical time period?