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What Settings Would be Good for a MMO? (Besides Fantasy)
Cactus_LFRez
Member UncommonPosts: 206
MMOs are synonymous with fantasy, and let's be honest, pretty stock DnD fantasy at that. (And being honest I am a bit sick of it at this point)
This extends to other mechanics in a MMO, such as loot and gear, classes, and conceptions of how PvE and PvP work.
( look at the forms we use for game organization; dungeons, quests, armor, races, all fundamentally DnD in nature)
MMOs live in the shadow of fantasy, and even if they aren't a fantasy game, they usually play like one.
So I want to open it up for discussion,
What settings do you think should get the MMO treatment?
and
What do you think they would bring to the MMO formula?
My thoughts,
A beat em up world, eg Streets of Rage, Final Fight, River City Girls, TMNT Turtles in Time
Basically a largely urban (though you can have non urban environments as well) world filled with street gangs and criminal activity where you punch and kick the bad guys while eating chicken out of the trash can.
This could mix up the MMO formula by esqueing traditional concepts like gear and weapons, in favor of an open system of learning specific moves to create your own fighting style.
Weapons in these kind of games are all inherently temporary, like knives, bats, guns and such anyway.
Character archetypes could be similar to fighting games, rush down, zoner, grappler, all rounder, with strengths and weaknesses.
Group dynamics are also different, and would be more similar to a WWE game, like assists to help an ally and group attacks for more damage, rather than a traditional group structure, which doesn't make any sense in a game where everyone uses their fists.
Environmental interactions, like picking up and throwing things at people or knocking them into things are a staple in beat em up design and could add an extra layer to game play.
This setting could be as grounded or as wacky as you want it to be.
You could stick to traditional humans fighting humans, or be like TMNT and add mutants and robots, or super sentai and give people cosmic powers.
You could have a typical beat em up camera angle to frame all the action or third person, like Anarchy Reigns.
PvE would not have traditional dungeons or quests but could have gang and territory control focus where NPC gangs takes territory and do crimes and players fight them back. This be in the form of capture points players fight NPCs for control of, (like Tabula Rasa)
PvP could exist, although it would have to be retooled since you don't want a bunch of hit stun against other players as you have against regular enemies.
It could be gang vs gang, or tournament style. Or special events like literal battle royales.
We got a small taste of how this might work with Rumbleverse, although that was explicitly a wrestling game and also a battle royale.
This extends to other mechanics in a MMO, such as loot and gear, classes, and conceptions of how PvE and PvP work.
( look at the forms we use for game organization; dungeons, quests, armor, races, all fundamentally DnD in nature)
MMOs live in the shadow of fantasy, and even if they aren't a fantasy game, they usually play like one.
So I want to open it up for discussion,
What settings do you think should get the MMO treatment?
and
What do you think they would bring to the MMO formula?
My thoughts,
A beat em up world, eg Streets of Rage, Final Fight, River City Girls, TMNT Turtles in Time
Basically a largely urban (though you can have non urban environments as well) world filled with street gangs and criminal activity where you punch and kick the bad guys while eating chicken out of the trash can.
This could mix up the MMO formula by esqueing traditional concepts like gear and weapons, in favor of an open system of learning specific moves to create your own fighting style.
Weapons in these kind of games are all inherently temporary, like knives, bats, guns and such anyway.
Character archetypes could be similar to fighting games, rush down, zoner, grappler, all rounder, with strengths and weaknesses.
Group dynamics are also different, and would be more similar to a WWE game, like assists to help an ally and group attacks for more damage, rather than a traditional group structure, which doesn't make any sense in a game where everyone uses their fists.
Environmental interactions, like picking up and throwing things at people or knocking them into things are a staple in beat em up design and could add an extra layer to game play.
This setting could be as grounded or as wacky as you want it to be.
You could stick to traditional humans fighting humans, or be like TMNT and add mutants and robots, or super sentai and give people cosmic powers.
You could have a typical beat em up camera angle to frame all the action or third person, like Anarchy Reigns.
PvE would not have traditional dungeons or quests but could have gang and territory control focus where NPC gangs takes territory and do crimes and players fight them back. This be in the form of capture points players fight NPCs for control of, (like Tabula Rasa)
PvP could exist, although it would have to be retooled since you don't want a bunch of hit stun against other players as you have against regular enemies.
It could be gang vs gang, or tournament style. Or special events like literal battle royales.
We got a small taste of how this might work with Rumbleverse, although that was explicitly a wrestling game and also a battle royale.
Comments
You could different factions like Italian, Russian, Cops. Really fun stuff.
A player could run a restaurant, a pawn shop, a bank, or a precinct. (Guild halls)
It would be really cool.
Could do all kinds of cool things with it, even incorporate Immortal Engines style world, which would be epic.
Wish it was not that way, but no getting away from it, bearing that in mind something that pushed the boundaries might work well. For example Game of thrones is very low fantasy, Ravensloft is a DnD horror fantasy setting.
Modern Gothic Setting,
It would both look and feel like a mafia/crime game.
Check out Definitely Not Fried Chicken
A business management game where you run a fried chicken place as a front for drugs,
You have run both the chicken restaurant and the drug trade.
You are basically Gus from Breaking Bad.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1036240/Definitely_Not_Fried_Chicken/
I always thought a Ghost Busters type universe would be really interesting.
A modernish world, filled with all manner of ghosts and ghouls.
Players could have many different gadgets, from traps to radar to different types of guns.
You could split the game into investigation missions in the day and hunting missions at night.
Add in some ancient ghost big bads (like Gozer) and some interdimensional and lovecraftian horrors.
The seasonal events could be crazy.
You don't just want a 20s gangster themed game that plays like a fantasy game.
Like no (instant) fast travel but you do have taxis and public transit plus you can drive a car.
It could be more like shooter combat with some melee brawling, and you could just have people reviving each other like in a regular shooter.
You also wouldn't have typical stat boosting gear, like a mighty fedora +5, it would just be clothing. And guns would only have stats relevant for the gun itself, not like plus intelligence or anything.
(Honetly the typical gear system doesn't even make sense for fantasy games, who is mass producing all this enchanted armor?)
It could be a good opportunity to branch out and introduce new mechanics and offer a different experience than your typical MMO.
The earliest RPGs were fantasy and so fantasy is intimately tied to RPGs so that if people hear RPG, they think fantasy.
No doubt that bullet spongey enemies feel bad in a shooter, but the combat does not have to conform to RPG convention,
It could just straight up be a shooter, you don't need combat levels or numbers involved with shooting dudes.
I think a mafia MMO could work well as an RPG similar to Vampire the Masquerade,
The RPG progression and numbers aspect could apply to the social and criminal activities, not the combat.
You would be leveling up your characters ability to lead others, or lie, pick locks, bribe officials, create forgeries or make bathtub gin.
And combat is just straight up shooter combat, no RPG levels needed.
This setting would pretty much require the game shift to be about the politics and interprise of criminality.
You wouldn't be doing mafia dungeons or raid bosses.
Combat may not even be the focus.
Funny you say that you are sick of fantasy MMO's yet I havent seen a single decent fantasy MMO that is better than MMO's from 15+ years ago.
I am actually just plain sick of all the garbage MMO's.
I think an underwater MMO, with futuristic technology "like jetsons" but underwater.
In single player Subnautica, it had a real cool world, if you could expand on that and make that an MMO with, ridable underwater tames, more tech, economy. Probably go down the crafting route a little more.
Not sure if this is considered a fantasy or not.
I know the chance of actually releasing a GOOD MMO is a fantasy.
There is SO much of that that even when a game like Baldurs Gate 3 comes out which no doubt is a well made game, I struggle to find any interest because it is Dungeons and Dragons.
There are also a lot of RPG conventions, like dungeons, character archetypes, enchanted gear etc that comes from fantasy that bleeds over into all RPGs regardless of setting.
And I think different settings should have their own mechanics that suit the setting rather than just a generic list RPG features.
Increasingly today there is a reluctance to give anything other than a smattering of lore for two reasons. Lore is not deemed necessary by the baulk of players and it is easier for them to fit anything new into the MMO when there is no lore to contradict the new development.
Ideally you would want unique settings and unique mechanics to suit the setting.
New World is a good example,
Basically it is set in the 1600s at the earliest stages of colonization in fantasy America,
But so much of that game falls back on regular medieval fantasy, like elemental magic staves and such.
I would have loved if NW actually played into that time period more.
Instead of elemental magic which is very early medieval.
Maybe actually play on the belief and superstitions of that time.
Holy magic, cast from a tome (basically a Bible, like the puritans)
Witchcraft (based on fears of witches)
Earthen magic ( to represent native beliefs)
For other weapons, I think lean into the period more
I like rapier as a weapon and the riffle and hatchet and spear.
The other weapons are too medieval.
Instead of great hammer, great sword and sword and shield
mace and buckler, sabre and halbred
Instead of bow, crossbow
Use American folklore more for fantasy creatures,
Sasquatch, wendigo, skin walker, moon eyed people, wood goblins, dog men etc.
Plus things imported from the fantasy old world (Europe)
Demons, vampires, werewolves, undead
And lean more into settlement building and survival (not necessarily hunger and thirst bars those are annoying)
A bit of colony builder would have been nice and fit nicely.
Now they have an Egyptian zone which is weird and doesn't really fit imo.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/trippy-3d-art-from-the-early-90s
https://www.google.com/search?q=early+90s+3d+art&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwj5_MLo35OBAxXNJN4AHcJeAtwQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=90s+3d+art&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQARgBMgQIIxAnMgYIABAHEB4yBggAEAcQHjIGCAAQBxAeMgYIABAIEB4yBggAEAgQHlAAWABg3gVoAHAAeACAATGIATGSAQExmAEAqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWfAAQE&sclient=img&ei=PkT3ZPnlFs3J-LYPwr2J4A0&bih=941&biw=1920
It reminds me of Reboot mixed with LSD Dream Emulator and vaporwave.
That is such an open ended setting anything could happen which is why it is fun.
Everyone knows what a sasquatch is.
And a big chunk know what skinwalkers and wendigo are.
I live in the Appalaichan mountains, so you hear all kinds of folklore, from monsters to hauntings and faery lights.