Green Monster Games (Curt Schilling)

[Fammaden]

Originally Posted by James

I hope you're making a world set in the Rainbow Brite universe, personally. That would be outstanding.

Fuck that shit, get on the Smurfs IP for an MMO immediately.

[Draegan]

Go-Bots MMO.

[GrobbeeTrull2.0]

I love Zehn's posts, but the game he wants he already hated

[ToeMissile]

Care Bears FTW

[Pyros]

Originally Posted by ToeMissile

Care Bears FTW

Already exists I heard, it's called WoW.

[Tropics]

Originally Posted by Vatoreus

So basically...we want another world akin to World of Warcraft then?

No gunpowder in my MMORPG please.

I would rather have swords, magic, bows and arrows, dragons, ogres, and other fantasy stuff.

I dont want to see robots, space aliens, missles, airplanes, air balloons, guns, cannons or anything like that.

I would also rather do away with flying mounts while we are on the topic, would rather see a world where travel becomes more meaningful again, and WOW definately did away with meaningful travel. I do think there can be some portals in the world that allow for travel between major cities with the completion of a quest done in each city (so that you have to travel to that city at least once on foot before you can port there). But I would like to see some of the old feeling of running from the portal in the Dreadlands to the city of Cabilis again. Fast horses are ok, but flying either on the programmed path griffons or the controlled flying mounts does not do much for me in WOW and makes the world feel insignificant compared to what EQ's world felt like. Northrend to me is a collection of 20 points on a map I land on, not a continuous piece of land.

[Drave]

Damn it would be nice to have a release of a decent MMO already.

It's a damn shame that WoW could have been so much more.

[ToeMissile]

Originally Posted by Drave

Damn it would be nice to have a release of a decent MMO already.

It's a damn shame that WoW could have been so much more.

I'd say that's applicable to most of the recent 'big name' releases the last few years.

[Azrayne]

I'd love to see a quality low/hard fantasy game world. I know this has been repeated ad nauseam, but a world akin to A Song of Ice and Fire and/or The Malazan Book of the Fallen would be amazing.

Not really relevant, but I don't think Malazan really qualifies as 'low fantasy'. I only read half a book, but from memory they had gods, powerful wizards and all sorts of strange creatures out the ass.

I think an anachronistic setting with sci-fi/steampunk elements would be great for an MMO. Kind of like some of the FF games, but less asian. Blended in with China Mieville's novels and a bit of Planescape: Torment.

WoW has that to an extent, but it's very limited, and often feels very out of place in an otherwise high fantasy setting. The gnomish stuff worked at first, but they've just kept getting more and more ridiculous and it's kind of tacky now. Especially once you get into the 'dimensional ships' from BC and so forth (which conceptually could have worked, I think, but the way they implemented it into the lore, and aesthetically, was very akward).

I'd also love to see a dark, futuristic fantasy type setting. Think Starcraft, or WH40k but without the 'elves and orcs but they're in spaceships l0l'. Something like the bastard child of star wars and some dark, dirty and gritty cyberpunk type setting.

[Pyros]

Originally Posted by Azrayne

I'd also love to see a dark, futuristic fantasy type setting. Think Starcraft, or WH40k but without the 'elves and orcs but they're in spaceships l0l'. Something like the bastard child of star wars and some dark, dirty and gritty cyberpunk type setting.

Well starcraft doesn't have elves or orcs, it's really a very straight SF world with like, space marines as usual, and 2 other major races, one technically advanced on the verge of extinction(ok that sounds like elves, but damn tons of SF settings have those) and the non technologic insectoid race(also very common in SF settings). WAR40K while it does have "orcs and elves" is pretty damn gritty and I really like the universe, what is left of humanity has been pushed into such extremes it's rather interesting.

What I like about those(at least I believe SC is similar but not sure) is while it's futuristic stuff, it's a very dark future, nothing like "oh lookies we got spaceships we own the universe" that's a bit too common otherwise. It's also total war, not a political war for economic domination but pure survival war, most races only thrive to survive a bit more after centuries of war, and annihilate the others to do so. Star Wars in that regard, I wasn't a big fan of, at least what I know of it(so mostly the movies).

Anyway, tons of ways to make something original, or fun, or both. Won't please everyone, unless you do high fantasy which mostly please everyone, but anything well done could work I guess.

P.S.: I knew I'd get a negative for my wow comment. It was a joke, but if I had a penny everytime someone said wow was a carebear game...

[Grave]

Originally Posted by Azrayne

WoW has that to an extent, but it's very limited, and often feels very out of place in an otherwise high fantasy setting. The gnomish stuff worked at first, but they've just kept getting more and more ridiculous and it's kind of tacky now. Especially once you get into the 'dimensional ships' from BC and so forth (which conceptually could have worked, I think, but the way they implemented it into the lore, and aesthetically, was very akward).

This is why I don't think the "So, WoW?" replies are justified when talking about FF6/Chrono Trigger type worlds.

I mean, Chrono Trigger is pretty close to it I guess, but the technology just felt more natural in that world for some reason. In WoW it did too, back when they kept it mostly to the Gnomes/Dwarves, but now it's kind of ridiculous.

And in FF6, technology was commonplace. Magic was the out of the place thing in that world, despite all the monsters and stuff. They actually freaked out the first time they saw Terra cast. I dunno, I think a world like that would be awesome.

[Lonin]

Originally Posted by Azrayne

Not really relevant, but I don't think Malazan really qualifies as 'low fantasy'. I only read half a book, but from memory they had gods, powerful wizards and all sorts of strange creatures out the ass.

That's the hard fantasy from the "low/hard fantasy." It's probably not an official description of it, but I meant it as a hybrid between low and high fantasy. The Malazan series definitely uses some aspects from high fantasy like dragons, gods and heavy magic use, but it also has a much harder edge to it and dispenses with the stereotypical elves and other cookie-cutter archetypes.

More than anything I just want to see complexity in a world. Complexity, grit, hard edges, vast amounts of moral gray areas and uniqueness all breath life into a world; life that's almost completely absent from any MMO ever made.

[Azrayne]

Originally Posted by Pyros

Well starcraft doesn't have elves or orcs, it's really a very straight SF world with like, space marines as usual, and 2 other major races, one technically advanced on the verge of extinction(ok that sounds like elves, but damn tons of SF settings have those) and the non technologic insectoid race(also very common in SF settings). WAR40K while it does have "orcs and elves" is pretty damn gritty and I really like the universe, what is left of humanity has been pushed into such extremes it's rather interesting.

What I like about those(at least I believe SC is similar but not sure) is while it's futuristic stuff, it's a very dark future, nothing like "oh lookies we got spaceships we own the universe" that's a bit too common otherwise. It's also total war, not a political war for economic domination but pure survival war, most races only thrive to survive a bit more after centuries of war, and annihilate the others to do so. Star Wars in that regard, I wasn't a big fan of, at least what I know of it(so mostly the movies).

Anyway, tons of ways to make something original, or fun, or both. Won't please everyone, unless you do high fantasy which mostly please everyone, but anything well done could work I guess.

P.S.: I knew I'd get a negative for my wow comment. It was a joke, but if I had a penny everytime someone said wow was a carebear game...

Yeah I know SC doesn't have elves and orcs, that was more a reference to 40k. I agree about dark and gritty sci-fi though. I think perhaps 40k is a tad excessive at times, but I like the general atmosphere they create.

That's the hard fantasy from the "low/hard fantasy." It's probably not an official description of it, but I meant it as a hybrid between low and high fantasy. The Malazan series definitely uses some aspects from high fantasy like dragons, gods and heavy magic use, but it also has a much harder edge to it and dispenses with the stereotypical elves and other cookie-cutter archetypes.

Yeah it's definately not D&D or Feist or Eddings, but it's closer to them than Martin is, I'd say.

[tad10]

Originally Posted by Tropics

No gunpowder in my MMORPG please.

I would rather have swords, magic, bows and arrows, dragons, ogres, and other fantasy stuff.

I wouldn't mind a change from fantasy and space -- something that hasn't been done at all is good pulp. I'd like to see an MMO with a world based on Indiana Jones/Mummy/Call of Cthulhu with a dash of prohibition-era bootlegging for the occasional change of pace.

So yes, I would very much like to see guns and gunpowder in an MMO.

[Miele]

Originally Posted by Lonin

I'd love to see a quality low/hard fantasy game world. I know this has been repeated ad nauseam, but a world akin to A Song of Ice and Fire and/or The Malazan Book of the Fallen would be amazing.
...

Everytime I read posts like these, I find myself agreeing strongly. Then, after a brief moment, I think why we'll never have something like that: accessibility.

Face it folks, a big part of the audience would never stomach a world like the malazan one or even less the song of ice and fire one: too violent, brutal and with a very dark atmosphere.
In SoIaF there is not a full chapter without a rape of some sorts, pillaged places, mindless killing, decomposed bodies rotting somewhere and in Malazan is almost the same, at least in certain books.
The biggest difference is how magic, deities and weird creatures are spread all over the world and how heavy the usage of the word "cock" is done.

The accessibility part of current days MMOs is why I have less fun playing them every day that passes.
It should have been a matter of numbers only (10 people vs 40 for example), yet it became a matter of difficulty (some vs none).
Theme-wise it's the same, you can't have kids playing a game where NPCs rape left and right, kill just because they can (including killing newborns and defenseless people) and use pretty much only swearwords except in very few cases.
Putting a Song of Ice and Fire in a MMO would ruin it, I'm 100% sure about this, don't even try to.

On the other hand, Malazan magic was very interesting and with a very broad range of possibilities to build on it, even from a MMO point of view and with a solid foundation in the lore of the books. I'd like something like that in a game.