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Why no Wheel of Time MMO
Mopar63
Member UncommonPosts: 300
I look at the various IPs that have been used for fantasy MMOs and most are okay but I wonder, with such great fantasy worlds such as that created in the Wheel of Time. Or what about Ice and Fire, the Belgariade, or even Pern.
These are some unique worlds that change the rules of how a Fantasy world works and would make, in my opinion, an amazing game world.
Am I the only one that ponders this?
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I have a soap box and I am not afraid to use it.
Comments
Not everyone thinks Wheel of Time is great.
Established worlds have already established hierarchy and battle systems and magic and everything without any notice of game design. For example, in a Witcher's world, there is a very small number of witchers in the whole world.
As for Game of Thrones, now that the franchise is popularised by tv series, the mmorpg will probably appear.
I've actually thought this for some time. Hell you could even set it in a different Age than the one highlighted in the books and it would be great. I would love to see Tear, or the White Tower, or travel in Andoran. I've always wanted to see this, specifically from a smaller company maybe, but no luck yet.
There has been a unity based browser mmo in development for a long time now, though it's been very quite so I don't know if it wasn't cancelled or something. It look rather promising the last time I saw it, ambitious even if I remember correctly.
True but why does a small number need to be bad. Not everyone in the world is a witcher, in fact the effort to become a wticher is not an instant process but takes time. Many hunt monsters, save people, seek treasure and adventure in general without ever becoming a witcher.
It seems in every MMO every person must be the greatest in the world. I think this is because we forget the second half of the genre, the RPG.
Personally I would love to see a game world with limits. It would give those limits true value and meaning and attaining them would be something a gamer would truly care about, not just another gift under the give me tree.
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I have a soap box and I am not afraid to use it.
Yes, we would all like an mmo like that. Except I reiterate, people suck, and no game like that could ever exist. Can you imagine if for example the Star Wars mmo made players get through all of the content for example to BECOME a Jedi? Sure to sensible people it would be the best award for leveling ever, but for the majority of the mmo dirty masses it would be cause for alarm and screaming bloody murder "I wanna by a Jedi now" they would cry, "Why do I have to work for that?" would bawl the others.
It's the Jedi problem in SWG. There were just a few Jedi in the entire galaxy, but when SWG had the option to be a Jedi, there were hundreds or thousands of them. Telling people they couldn't be a Jedi wasn't an option, and it wouldn't be an option with the Witcher thing either. It might make sense to people who are familiar with the setting, but it's not going to be familiar to most of the people playing the game. To them, not being a Witcher/Jedi is just an arbitrary restriction that doesn't make any sense.
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Rzep beat me to the SWG and Jedi reference.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
http://www.gamespot.com/the-wheel-of-time/
The idea comes and goes . . . was even a movie or TV series in the works for a while.
Popularity or even critical praise doesn't really mean much. Example, when was the last time we had a Discworld game? How long did the Sword of Truth series manage? Where are the movies, series, games based on Dragonriders of Pern or Dragonlance?
Yeah, things have to be popular right now for things like movies and games to get made for them. Even then it's not a sure bet. Just because a series of books has a lot of fans doesn't mean those fans would buy and play a game based on the series.
The other side of it is that a movie, television show or game based on a book may or may not be a good idea. Sometimes the stuff just doesn't translate well, or it would translate well to one thing and not another. I think a lot of books would translate well to single player games or games with player run servers, but would not translate well to MMORPGs.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
The Eye of the World was probably one of the most boring books I've ever read...
People should realize, though, that making an MMO is not about the IP that much. Gameplay mechanics are far more troublesome, slapping a good IP on it won't do squat (see SW:TOR).
How I dream of a brutal The First Law movie trilogy, or an adaptation of The Kingkiller Chronicle.
Wheel of Time has a lot of lore to work with.
I'd love to play a WoT mmo but I'm glad nobody's made one yet. It would have been another on rails themepark disaster- imagine a WoT version of swtor, or even worse, Neverwinter. If some of the more open games that are in development do well maybe we will get lucky and someone will take it on.
If I was making it, I would set the game before the books, maybe when Manetheren was still around and the nations were at war with the dreadlords and trollocs. But then you lose out on having the Seachan. And you'd have to decide if you include Shara or not since they don't come into the books much. Trying to balance players characters would also be a nightmare in a WoT game, and gender issues would be a concern with the imbalance of channlers, and the way the books deal with gender in general. It would be really difficult to make it a great game and be faithful to the IP, design elements like dungeons and raids wouldn't work because you couldn't keep making up/killing off enemies for your players to fight.
It does have some strong points for MMO gameplay though. Lots of canon ways for fast travel- channeling, the ways, Tel'aran'rhoid, the portal stones. Those portal stones also have some other possibilities with their link to alternate worlds.
Agreed.. In fact I stopped reading the series somewhere in book 5.. As much as I enjoyed the first couple books by Jordon, he was stuck on a pattern that drove me nuts.. Each books read the same as all the others.. Anyways... Not sure it would go far as an MMO tho.. The lore is ok, but then everyone would want to be Rand or one of the other main characters.. In that case I'm not into "replaying" the story I just read on the computer..
I think it is rather simple really.
You have to buy the rights to use the IP of an author, this costs money.