So many great idea's. What a great thread. I'm going to try to throw a few ideas out there myself.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Its been tried in RTS form to some commercial success by KOEI. I would like to see them make it a bigger, and more exciting world.
Day of Dead World. Think day of the dead. No living, but as you delve deeper into the world you gain power from the elder dead. That brings me to the next...
Heroes in Hell. Awesome stories by great sci-fi authors make up the series of books. Rub Elbows with Julius Caesar or side against him in Hannibal's army, Or Hitler's... Lot of faction fun and advancement, see you there.
Champion Eternal. Right out of Micheal Moorecock's groundbreaking books, Raid the champions of the Moorecock stories. Elric of Melnibone holds the secrets to bringing Stormbringer to life.
Spawn. To round it out, and still keep it with the dead and hero from hell ideology, Take Todd Mcfarlane's gritty universe to the next level. Choose, Heaven, Hell, or maybe Malbolgia himself to be your cause and become the best general of hell's new army.
My 5. I saw some other greats in previous comments, but I tried to make mine original/different and give reasoning why they would be fun.
Really people, there has never been a shortage of ideas for an MMO...
Do you really want WoW reskinned? Because it's really the game play, not the lore or the graphics, that have stagnated. Chess is still chess no matter what the chess pieces look like.
Star Trek and Star Wars... two massive franchises that have more or less fizzled as MMOs... there was no shortage of lore nor demand, just far less interest in the MMO genre as a whole.
Time to step away from MMOs and let then have their renaissance in another 20 years or so when no one will remember them but the old farts who live in the retirement homes.
Or, is this a plea for geriatric gaming? A hope for something to do when were retired and too much free time on our hands?
I think a modern attempt at The Matrix IP could go down quite well, they just need to ensure that you aren't "the one" as that ruins MMOs.
Game of Thrones is a bad idea. I know it's super popular, but it would make a bad MMO. First, the world itself is pretty boring. If you actually pay attention to it, there's nothing really special, just medieval europe and a bit of spain and north africa thrown in. The appeal of the series revolves around a small number of important people, but the average inhabitant of Westeros just gets dragged around, pawns in the game. Given that we couldn't be those important people ourselves, all we'd be left with is a fairly generic low fantasy world.
I like Stargate as a concept. Loads of factions, races, weapons, vehicles, worlds. You have pretty limitless possibilities. Trying to capture it's breadth whilst retaining fun gameplay might be a challenge. I also think it would struggle to get over it's geek image and become mainstream (not that I care if it's mainstream, only that I'd want it to have lots of money to keep development going).
I thought about Inception. As a concept, entering people's dreams opens up tons of possibilities to do some awesome stuff. However, I can't see how you would make it factional (which is a requirement for me as I love pvp). You could have the real world for pvp, but the fun stuff is within dreams and getting lots of people into the same dream....doesn't really fit with the film.
Perhaps Total Rekall (either version), Valerian (film was poorly acted, but the universe looked cool), Fifth Element etc...I also want to give a +1 to the Toy Story suggestion. I don't think I'd play it, but if I had kids it would be the sort of MMO I'd want them to play - assuming they were gamers.
My favourites though remain Star Wars, Warhammer and Warhammer 40k.
Currently Playing: WAR RoR - Spitt rr7X Black Orc | Scrotling rr6X Squig Herder | Scabrous rr4X Shaman
I think personally I would love to play an MMO in the Riddick Universe. It would be nuts. I would prefer to play in the Pitch Black era though with the darker tones. I don't know how it would work, but that is one of my favorite universes.
I don't know @DavidJagneaux, but from what he has written here he seems to be a fan of exploits and hacks. He must love MO survival games like Ark and H1Z1 when the Russians and Asians dominate servers via hacks and exploits. Why else would a developer let a player play as a Highlander, Terminator, Alien, or Predator if not as an exploit?
Highlander is about being different from normal humans. But it's also about hiding and the long game as @SirAgravaine said. What point does being an immortal play in a Battle Royal, if not as an exploit or hack? The only way to do a Highlander MMO where at most 500 out of 2.500 players per server are online at any one time, is to allow only 1 out of 100 players to be immortals or 25 per 2.500. There are four phases of immortal. The first phase you look like any other player and are not identified. In this phase you are expected to join a clan and collect allies to fight WITH / FOR you against other immortals. Build a defensible base and advance it up the tier system. Kill mobs and or players to gain levels or advance skills (either system is still leveling). This phase could last 3 months for casual players or 3 days for hardcore players. The second phase the immortal begins to glow, but the glow can be hidden by a cloak. That I expect to be worn by most if not all players. This item can be removed by a skill requiring rare crafted & dropped items. Again lasting days or months depending on level of player activity. Next phase can not be hidden and the player starts to exude lighting in combat. Again lasting days or months. Lastly the player always exudes lighting, even out of combat. The player is also way pointed to all, on the world map. But what fun is this game for the other 2.475 mortal players, that can not gain a chance of becoming immortal until after the last two battle and a winner is declared? BTW, the winner gets to chose the next time period of the world map, and has a higher chance of becoming an immortal in the next RNG selection.
Terminator is about the extermination of the human race. A single player RPG can have time travel, an MMO might have a tutorial phase before Judgment Day. But the main game would be based after. Playing as a Terminator, indicates a preference for playing with exploits and hacks. Playing as a Terminator is not a race or class, it is a rare drop single use item that applies the Terminator state until zero health. Also the Terminator state would be bring an aircraft carrier to a twitch stream. Meaning it would have high health points and armour, but would turn VERY slowly and not be able to sprint. Any player should curse the Terminator state rather than cheer it.
Alien/Predator is also about the extermination of the human race. Once again playing as an Alien/Predator, indicates a preference for playing with exploits and hacks. Only mobs should be an Alien/Predator in this MMO setting.
Mad Max, see Fallen Earth. It has been done, I enjoyed it for a time. But nobody else showed up. Except those of you who did.
Tron is a character, not a world. The Matrix Online (MxO) was one of my favorite games, that I bought and subscribed for years. The problem, people wanted a single player story and not a 1 in a million anonymous players MMO. They wanted a single player story as Neo and not a world.
I hope David doesn't bring us anymore articles about how much he enjoys exploits and hacks.
To those who said Game of Thrones, have you played the game by Telltale Games? I expect you have not. Which one of you would want to play faceless Lannister soldier 4.733, rather than Jaime Lannister? How about doing 10.000 bring me the heads of 20 Dothraki quests?
@laserit, you do know that Sinbad the Sailor was an Arab / Asian character? Because James Mason played Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), people insist Nemo is a White British man. I suppose if you and everyone else is expecting a White Washed Sinbad MMO, then it could be done. But do you expect an authentic Arab Hero MMO would sail in Trump's America? If what I have said has upset you, that wasn't my intent. My intent was to express what I feel, are actual conditions preventing a Sinbad MMO or any other.
Pardon any spelling errors
Konfess your cyns and some maybe forgiven Boy: Why can't I talk to Him? Mom: We don't talk to Priests. As if it could exist, without being payed for. F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing. Even telemarketers wouldn't think that. It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
Really people, there has never been a shortage of ideas for an MMO...
Do you really want WoW reskinned? Because it's really the game play, not the lore or the graphics, that have stagnated. Chess is still chess no matter what the chess pieces look like.
Star Trek and Star Wars... two massive franchises that have more or less fizzled as MMOs... there was no shortage of lore nor demand, just far less interest in the MMO genre as a whole.
Time to step away from MMOs and let then have their renaissance in another 20 years or so when no one will remember them but the old farts who live in the retirement homes.
Or, is this a plea for geriatric gaming? A hope for something to do when were retired and too much free time on our hands?
It's not even the game play, The only thing standing in the way of MMOs today is the cost. There is a segment of the gaming community that wants to Play 4 Free. To them, P2W is any cost to them. They use buzz words like "cosmetic", this means anything they don't want to buy, or will not spend money on. "Cosmetic" can also mean, items targeting the homosexual and social gamer communities.
The only thing the Play 4 Free can find wrong with any MMO is the presence of a subscription or a cash shop. The industry is trying to implement both on single player games already. WoW has their ire because it has had a subscription for a long time, and the most subscribers.
Does the community want a reskinned WoW? Of course it does. And this is why they fight it so hard. Their greatest fear is anther successful WoW like MMO with a subscription and a cash shop. So they will fight the community to their death or hopefully their retirement.
Pardon any spelling errors
Konfess your cyns and some maybe forgiven Boy: Why can't I talk to Him? Mom: We don't talk to Priests. As if it could exist, without being payed for. F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing. Even telemarketers wouldn't think that. It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
@laserit, you do know that Sinbad the Sailor was an Arab / Asian character? Because James Mason played Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), people insist Nemo is a White British man. I suppose if you and everyone else is expecting a White Washed Sinbad MMO, then it could be done. But do you expect an authentic Arab Hero MMO would sail in Trump's America? If what I have said has upset you, that wasn't my intent. My intent was to express what I feel, are actual conditions preventing a Sinbad MMO or any other.
I agree with your observation.
Sad isn't it. A lot of great stories, Ali Baba and the 40 thieves, such a rich culture.
Most movies are not great settings for MMOs since they generally just focus on telling a single story and lack the details so you would be forced to take a lot of liberties with the IP.
Books are generally far better since they can add a lot of details you just can't get into a movie. Pen and paper roleplaying settings are far better yet since they have everything you need in them.
Yes, there are exceptions like Star wars but that is mainly because the IP is far more then just the movies.
Even most regular computer games based on movies suck (E.T more then others) and movies based on computer games suck as well (Two words: Uwe Boll), the different medias are hard to translate between.
Many good movies are based on books though and more then a few good games as well.
however, I've always said that if Nintendo ever got serious about needing money that a Fully 3d AAA pokemon MMO would let them print money for decades.
A VR Harry Potter MMO, with voice commands and hand movement recognition for spell casting would be pretty awesome. Although i have no idea how you could actually make an interesting game out of it, but just messing around in the world would be fun.
All good choices from David, apart from Tron. I would not put that in a top twenty.
An issue here is we let how good the films are influence how good the MMO would be. Rather than the obvious I will put a few interesting ones out there:
Indiana Jones
Hellboy
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Neverwhere
Verne (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea etc)
Comments
Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Its been tried in RTS form to some commercial success by KOEI. I would like to see them make it a bigger, and more exciting world.
Day of Dead World. Think day of the dead. No living, but as you delve deeper into the world you gain power from the elder dead. That brings me to the next...
Heroes in Hell. Awesome stories by great sci-fi authors make up the series of books. Rub Elbows with Julius Caesar or side against him in Hannibal's army, Or Hitler's... Lot of faction fun and advancement, see you there.
Champion Eternal. Right out of Micheal Moorecock's groundbreaking books, Raid the champions of the Moorecock stories. Elric of Melnibone holds the secrets to bringing Stormbringer to life.
Spawn. To round it out, and still keep it with the dead and hero from hell ideology, Take Todd Mcfarlane's gritty universe to the next level. Choose, Heaven, Hell, or maybe Malbolgia himself to be your cause and become the best general of hell's new army.
My 5. I saw some other greats in previous comments, but I tried to make mine original/different and give reasoning why they would be fun.
GI Joe
Transformers
He-man
Fraggle Rock , Flintstones & smurfs- Think minecraft/trove builder style mmo
Aloha Mr Hand !
Really people, there has never been a shortage of ideas for an MMO...
Do you really want WoW reskinned? Because it's really the game play, not the lore or the graphics, that have stagnated. Chess is still chess no matter what the chess pieces look like.
Star Trek and Star Wars... two massive franchises that have more or less fizzled as MMOs... there was no shortage of lore nor demand, just far less interest in the MMO genre as a whole.
Time to step away from MMOs and let then have their renaissance in another 20 years or so when no one will remember them but the old farts who live in the retirement homes.
Or, is this a plea for geriatric gaming? A hope for something to do when were retired and too much free time on our hands?
Game of Thrones is a bad idea. I know it's super popular, but it would make a bad MMO. First, the world itself is pretty boring. If you actually pay attention to it, there's nothing really special, just medieval europe and a bit of spain and north africa thrown in. The appeal of the series revolves around a small number of important people, but the average inhabitant of Westeros just gets dragged around, pawns in the game. Given that we couldn't be those important people ourselves, all we'd be left with is a fairly generic low fantasy world.
I like Stargate as a concept. Loads of factions, races, weapons, vehicles, worlds. You have pretty limitless possibilities. Trying to capture it's breadth whilst retaining fun gameplay might be a challenge. I also think it would struggle to get over it's geek image and become mainstream (not that I care if it's mainstream, only that I'd want it to have lots of money to keep development going).
I thought about Inception. As a concept, entering people's dreams opens up tons of possibilities to do some awesome stuff. However, I can't see how you would make it factional (which is a requirement for me as I love pvp). You could have the real world for pvp, but the fun stuff is within dreams and getting lots of people into the same dream....doesn't really fit with the film.
Perhaps Total Rekall (either version), Valerian (film was poorly acted, but the universe looked cool), Fifth Element etc...I also want to give a +1 to the Toy Story suggestion. I don't think I'd play it, but if I had kids it would be the sort of MMO I'd want them to play - assuming they were gamers.
My favourites though remain Star Wars, Warhammer and Warhammer 40k.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
For some reason with that golden object in the beginning I thought of The Shadow and that crazy creepy dagger the baddie had lol.
- Highlander is about being different from normal humans. But it's also about hiding and the long game as @SirAgravaine said. What point does being an immortal play in a Battle Royal, if not as an exploit or hack? The only way to do a Highlander MMO where at most 500 out of 2.500 players per server are online at any one time, is to allow only 1 out of 100 players to be immortals or 25 per 2.500. There are four phases of immortal. The first phase you look like any other player and are not identified. In this phase you are expected to join a clan and collect allies to fight WITH / FOR you against other immortals. Build a defensible base and advance it up the tier system. Kill mobs and or players to gain levels or advance skills (either system is still leveling). This phase could last 3 months for casual players or 3 days for hardcore players. The second phase the immortal begins to glow, but the glow can be hidden by a cloak. That I expect to be worn by most if not all players. This item can be removed by a skill requiring rare crafted & dropped items. Again lasting days or months depending on level of player activity. Next phase can not be hidden and the player starts to exude lighting in combat. Again lasting days or months. Lastly the player always exudes lighting, even out of combat. The player is also way pointed to all, on the world map. But what fun is this game for the other 2.475 mortal players, that can not gain a chance of becoming immortal until after the last two battle and a winner is declared? BTW, the winner gets to chose the next time period of the world map, and has a higher chance of becoming an immortal in the next RNG selection.
- Terminator is about the extermination of the human race. A single player RPG can have time travel, an MMO might have a tutorial phase before Judgment Day. But the main game would be based after. Playing as a Terminator, indicates a preference for playing with exploits and hacks. Playing as a Terminator is not a race or class, it is a rare drop single use item that applies the Terminator state until zero health. Also the Terminator state would be bring an aircraft carrier to a twitch stream. Meaning it would have high health points and armour, but would turn VERY slowly and not be able to sprint. Any player should curse the Terminator state rather than cheer it.
- Alien/Predator is also about the extermination of the human race. Once again playing as an Alien/Predator, indicates a preference for playing with exploits and hacks. Only mobs should be an Alien/Predator in this MMO setting.
- Mad Max, see Fallen Earth. It has been done, I enjoyed it for a time. But nobody else showed up. Except those of you who did.
- Tron is a character, not a world. The Matrix Online (MxO) was one of my favorite games, that I bought and subscribed for years. The problem, people wanted a single player story and not a 1 in a million anonymous players MMO. They wanted a single player story as Neo and not a world.
I hope David doesn't bring us anymore articles about how much he enjoys exploits and hacks.To those who said Game of Thrones, have you played the game by Telltale Games? I expect you have not. Which one of you would want to play faceless Lannister soldier 4.733, rather than Jaime Lannister? How about doing 10.000 bring me the heads of 20 Dothraki quests?
@laserit, you do know that Sinbad the Sailor was an Arab / Asian character? Because James Mason played Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), people insist Nemo is a White British man. I suppose if you and everyone else is expecting a White Washed Sinbad MMO, then it could be done. But do you expect an authentic Arab Hero MMO would sail in Trump's America? If what I have said has upset you, that wasn't my intent. My intent was to express what I feel, are actual conditions preventing a Sinbad MMO or any other.
Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
The only thing the Play 4 Free can find wrong with any MMO is the presence of a subscription or a cash shop. The industry is trying to implement both on single player games already. WoW has their ire because it has had a subscription for a long time, and the most subscribers.
Does the community want a reskinned WoW? Of course it does. And this is why they fight it so hard. Their greatest fear is anther successful WoW like MMO with a subscription and a cash shop. So they will fight the community to their death or hopefully their retirement.
Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
Sad isn't it. A lot of great stories, Ali Baba and the 40 thieves, such a rich culture.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Most movies are not great settings for MMOs since they generally just focus on telling a single story and lack the details so you would be forced to take a lot of liberties with the IP.
Books are generally far better since they can add a lot of details you just can't get into a movie. Pen and paper roleplaying settings are far better yet since they have everything you need in them.
Yes, there are exceptions like Star wars but that is mainly because the IP is far more then just the movies.
Even most regular computer games based on movies suck (E.T more then others) and movies based on computer games suck as well (Two words: Uwe Boll), the different medias are hard to translate between.
Many good movies are based on books though and more then a few good games as well.
Mad Max
GoT
300
Any Tarantino movie ( exept Jango ofc )
Stormlight Archive/Cosmere
however, I've always said that if Nintendo ever got serious about needing money that a Fully 3d AAA pokemon MMO would let them print money for decades.
A VR Harry Potter MMO, with voice commands and hand movement recognition for spell casting would be pretty awesome. Although i have no idea how you could actually make an interesting game out of it, but just messing around in the world would be fun.
An issue here is we let how good the films are influence how good the MMO would be. Rather than the obvious I will put a few interesting ones out there:
Indiana Jones
Hellboy
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Neverwhere
Verne (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea etc)
"classification of games into MMOs is not by rational reasoning" - nariusseldon
Love Minecraft. And check out my Youtube channel OhCanadaGamer
Try a MUD today at http://www.mudconnect.com/Proud MMORPG.com member since March 2004! Make PvE GREAT Again!