Would you play a High Quality Wild West MMORPG?

Lonzo

I wonder why there is not a single Wild West MMORPG out there. There could be so much to do in that setting. Like small western towns, old mines, Indian tribes, Warfare/PVP, treasures, crafting/inventions, wilderness, territories, trains... So much good stuff you could implement. Would you play it, if it was a high quality game?

Hatefull

While I agree it is a theme that has not been well explored for some reason it does not appeal to me.  I can't really put a finger on it.

I do agree with the potential, setting up a homestead, player built cities (ala SWG) it could all work especially in a Sandbox theme park combo (again ala SWG) but for me the setting just does not grab me.

MikePaladin

Gearing will be so much fun and so entertaining 

Lore would be amazing
"Take part in a fabulous world of European Emigrants and genocide over Native Americans "
Exclusive themed features : Kill Native Americans and take their skull scalp which later can be exchanged for coins or gear
Spend all day in bar drinking virtual low quality alcohol
Game Motto is basically Kill steal rape
An amazing world with amazing architectural  constructions is awaiting you



Dude please...This game will never happen )))

Gitmix

At this point I'd be super excited about any setting other than fantasy/sci fi.
Yes yes yes !!! A cowboy AAA MMO would be awesome, as long as it didn't have a cash shop *cough*.
Actually any realistic historic setting would be awesome. Stone Age, Bronze Age, Roman Empire, Middle Ages and the crusades, Pirate era (already done but could be done way better) etc...so many possibilities.

cameltosis

Not for me, have never been a fan of the Wild West. 

Perhaps its part of being British, but we just don't have any equivalent landscape in our countries or any equivalent timeperiod in our history where we had "frontiers" etc, so there is nothing to connect me to the Wild West. I just don't like deserts / scrubland and the yellow/orange colour palette. 

However, if it was built well then I might play. We've never had a AAA sandbox MMO, so if the first one happened to be set in the Wild West then I'd probably give it a go just to see what it's like. 

Kyleran

Strangely enough, I think one of the biggest hold backs is how do you represent native americans?

Include them as a seriously under geared faction who win by zerging?

Make them into a powerful fantasy race with magical abilities or special mystic powers equivalent to Winchester rifles and Colt 45's? (We're back to Elves I think)

Make them NPCs only whose actions are controlled by the developers? (I would hate to see someone playing as one and making tasteless jokes, insensitive references about their culture )

Or exclude them entirely as if they never existed? (would cause an outcry as well)

As they are a real society that was/is treated very badly, its extremely difficult to decide how to portray them in the game world.

I would like to see some form of a western style virtual world, but needs to really be one, and not just a standard MMO themepark with a few western themed rides.

Phry

I can't think of a single good reason to make a cowboy game, let alone an MMO, and a thousand reasons why they shouldn't, bad taste just doesn't even come close.

Hatefull

cameltosis said:

Not for me, have never been a fan of the Wild West. 

Perhaps its part of being British, but we just don't have any equivalent landscape in our countries or any equivalent timeperiod in our history where we had "frontiers" etc, so there is nothing to connect me to the Wild West. I just don't like deserts / scrubland and the yellow/orange colour palette. 

However, if it was built well then I might play. We've never had a AAA sandbox MMO, so if the first one happened to be set in the Wild West then I'd probably give it a go just to see what it's like. 

Phry said:

I can't think of a single good reason to make a cowboy game, let alone an MMO, and a thousand reasons why they shouldn't, bad taste just doesn't even come close.

You're right the British were never an expansionist empire.  You may want do some reading about your country in Africa/India and elsewhere.  It makes the Wild Wild west look pretty mild.

@Phry while I agree the very sensitive nature of the Native American's and the horrible way they have been and are being treated is a very real world issue and not one I would want to explore in any type of game I think (someone smarter than me) could present it in such a way as to not be offensive or derogatory.

As far as bad taste, that is just your spin on it, there have been wild west games, none that come to mind that were amazing hits but they have existed in some shape for awhile now without offending anyone that has come forward.

Example 

Again, the theme does not spark my interest much, but I think the; "hair on fire omg the feels" reaction is a more than a bit overboard.

ThumbtackJ

Kyleran said:

As they are a real society that was/is treated very badly, its extremely difficult to decide how to portray them in the game world.

Exactly, how do you do it by not getting people all riled up and "offended"? I'd give it a week (at most) before someone puts out a "Native American Genocide Simulator" article.

I mean, even with the fact that they did equally terrible things, justifiable or not, during the time their lands were being taken (killing children, nailing bodies to trees, etc.), as well as numerous tribes being in violent warfare before the Europeans even showed up, there would be tons of people up in arms if you so much as showed any of it. 

The only way to keep people from moaning and groaning over it would be to either make them a completely non-hostile and peaceful group that cannot be attacked, or leave them out entirely. 

Of course, if the devs/publisher don't give a damn about any vocal minority of backlash (which they shouldn't IMHO), then they could implement them however they see fit.

Anyways, hell yeah. I'd love a Wild West MMO. I think ~1866 would be a good timeline. The west was just becoming settled, the railroads were being built, civil war was over for a year, western territories were being fought for with the Native Americans, etc. 

cameltosis

Hatefull said:

cameltosis said:

Not for me, have never been a fan of the Wild West. 

Perhaps its part of being British, but we just don't have any equivalent landscape in our countries or any equivalent timeperiod in our history where we had "frontiers" etc, so there is nothing to connect me to the Wild West. I just don't like deserts / scrubland and the yellow/orange colour palette. 

However, if it was built well then I might play. We've never had a AAA sandbox MMO, so if the first one happened to be set in the Wild West then I'd probably give it a go just to see what it's like. 

You're right the British were never an expansionist empire.  You may want do some reading about your country in Africa/India and elsewhere.  It makes the Wild Wild west look pretty mild.

Lol, I'm aware that England used to be expansionist and had one of the greatest empires of all time that spanned all sorts of environments. On the frontiers part, yeh, my history knowledge is pretty crap. I know we expanded and had frontiers, but I always sort of thought the frontiers were primarily fights against people as we took over their country, whereas I sort of got the impression that the wild west was more a case of man vs environment. 

What I meant is that, in Britain itself, we don't have the equivalent of the Wild West. There are no deserts in Britain, nor big canyons, or anywhere particularly sandy. It means that growing up in this country, my experience and expectation of "outside" is green, grey and blue, and full of life. 

It may just be me, but this expectation of what outside should look like doesn't mesh well with the Wild West. It just feels wrong to be in desert-like conditions voluntarily. It feels devoid of life and so isn't somewhere I'd voluntarily spend my time. In gaming, this feeling just results in a lack of immersion and a lack of desire to see the world. 

Phry

Hatefull said:

cameltosis said:

Not for me, have never been a fan of the Wild West. 

Perhaps its part of being British, but we just don't have any equivalent landscape in our countries or any equivalent timeperiod in our history where we had "frontiers" etc, so there is nothing to connect me to the Wild West. I just don't like deserts / scrubland and the yellow/orange colour palette. 

However, if it was built well then I might play. We've never had a AAA sandbox MMO, so if the first one happened to be set in the Wild West then I'd probably give it a go just to see what it's like. 

Phry said:

I can't think of a single good reason to make a cowboy game, let alone an MMO, and a thousand reasons why they shouldn't, bad taste just doesn't even come close.

You're right the British were never an expansionist empire.  You may want do some reading about your country in Africa/India and elsewhere.  It makes the Wild Wild west look pretty mild.

@Phry while I agree the very sensitive nature of the Native American's and the horrible way they have been and are being treated is a very real world issue and not one I would want to explore in any type of game I think (someone smarter than me) could present it in such a way as to not be offensive or derogatory.

As far as bad taste, that is just your spin on it, there have been wild west games, none that come to mind that were amazing hits but they have existed in some shape for awhile now without offending anyone that has come forward.

Example 

Again, the theme does not spark my interest much, but I think the; "hair on fire omg the feels" reaction is a more than a bit overboard.

Few countries don't have a murky history, the UK certainly has a history that may be considered somewhat murkier than most, but pretending they didn't happen, or making it 'sanitised for entertainment' is equally questionable, it just so happens that the 'wild west' is one of those questionable periods of history, sanitising it for entertainment, is imo, without question, bad taste.
Of course if you sanitise history for entertainment, you can probably persuade people it never really happened.

JDis25

ABSOLUTELY, I often wish the wild west was a slightly more popular genre/setting in gaming...

filmoret

Yea GET SOME BABY!!!

tawess

With some massive amount of research and neurotic attention to details i think it could work as a "sandpark" game. The biggest problem i see (beyond the whole genocide deal, but that can be somewhat circumvented by getting the approval of the different councils regarding representation of culture) is to make a game map that is big enough to provide a good gameplay both for the more steadfast immigrants and the more nomadic natives. Maybe it could work on a sort of "season" where the land reset ever... 12 month. 

As for tech levels i guess it would come down to speed vs power. Perhaps set rifles and guns to pre-repeater era. That way limiting how fast they can shoot. This would let skilled archers to be both faster and a lot more quiet. 

You could also have a "proficiency" system (i know.. it is not popular) where the immigrants start ut with a generally better skill in guns and rifles but any player can learn to use the weapon over time.. Maybe introduce item decay and make it so the natives have to trade for replacement parts for their guns or break down guns they find "in the wild" 

Gaming.Rocks2

Stephen King's The Dark Tower is an excellent setting for an MMO. I like it so much I might make it myself! Well, not make it myself, more like beg other people to do so

Vermillion_Raventhal

Yes as long as I don't get a quest to kill 10 buffalo and get 5 of their hooves.

Lonzo

guys lets not get pseudo political, thanks... I am a german, and there are thousand games about our bad history...

MikePaladin

OK ok And what with Native Americans ? included in game or not as if it didn't even exist as if European Emigrants never did their genocide ? Or they will be in game only as Mobs to be slaughtered thousands and thousands ? AHAHA this game won't even get the right to be published xD ......might if it will be accepted by some minorities but then it must be quite true to American history but every one knows Americans are most ignorant hypocrites in entire world .
So how we deal with History lore behind the game ?

MikePaladin

Oh you mean PVP fractions cool you mean this

vs

[mod edit]

rodingo

The more I think about it the more I don't think it could be done in a good way unless they twisted fantasy/steam punk into it or some type of alternate history. 

Edit: Don't get me wrong, I don't want any more games with elves, dragons and fireballs (unless it's a Shadowrun game then yes please) since we have more than enough of those.  It's just I don't see how roping horses, repairing fences, or herding cows could be that much fun of a daily activity.  I'm pretty sure it was very hard work and not much fun back then.  I'm also pretty sure the "cowboys" or Native Americans didn't roam the country side slaughtering thousands of animals daily as a way to get overall better (level up) at life.  Yes the white man slaughtered lots of animals and Native Americans during the industrialization of the U.S. but that is a situation that wouldn't make for great gameplay except for maybe in a PVP setting so you could play as someone who fights back against that.

Rusque

JDis25 said:

ABSOLUTELY, I often wish the wild west was a slightly more popular genre/setting in gaming...

I don't know why it happened or who made the call but there's a very odd split in "acceptable" genres and Fantasy got pigeonholed into the "this is for nerds and shut-ins" category while Westerns, Sci-Fi, Mystery/Thrillers all got shuffled into the "this is highly marketable stuff that everyone will love!" category.

From there Fantasy got picked up by the gaming industry, since D&D was a thing and RPG's were natural extensions. Just look at how few Fantasy movies there are vs any other genre. Sword and Sorcery is almost 100% gaming territory and it's only changed recently. LOTR, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, finally we have some Fantasy outside of gaming and literature (sure there was stuff like Willow or Krull or Conan, but that's basically nothing).

Anyway, this mini-rant is just to point out that somehow, someway Westerns were deemed too popular to ignore which is why they bypassed gaming and continued being household movie/TV favorites. Anyone who is fairly young, early 20's or younger, completely missed the early years of gaming in which it was not popular and not commonplace, it was almost instant pariah status and where the stereotype of loser living in their mom's basement came from.

Amathe

Go with Cowboys and Aliens. Then we get Western, Sci-Fi and avoid the issues that will otherwise be presented by the depiction of Native Americans. 

SEANMCAD

Lonzo said:

I wonder why there is not a single Wild West MMORPG out there. There could be so much to do in that setting. Like small western towns, old mines, Indian tribes, Warfare/PVP, treasures, crafting/inventions, wilderness, territories, trains... So much good stuff you could implement. Would you play it, if it was a high quality game?

yup..

its one of the top if not top games I am waiting for in life its the top.

but it has to have items like you are suggesting. I need to be able to find gold mines, secure them, raise animals, protect them from player theives, create traderoutes to sell my gold or oil, etc.

SEANMCAD

Amathe said:

Go with Cowboys and Aliens. Then we get Western, Sci-Fi and avoid the issues that will otherwise be presented by the depiction of Native Americans. 

a SteamCowPunk theme would work very well.

JDis25

Can I be the first to say that maybe it doesn't have to be historically accurate or even based on Earth? This would allow for some freedom in the lore, as well as steampunk and other elements that could be added.

That way we also don't have to worry about offending anyone.

Or make it completely historically accurate, with many of the main characters being evil, land hungry, white men.

filmoret

If modern cowboy movies can successfully integrate Native Americans into their movies then so can a mmorpg.  You can shame American history but it was the movies in the 80's and 90's that caused me as a white man to respect and even sometimes desire to be a Native American.  They were portrayed as moral, cool, strong, smart, badass...   This can be done in a mmorpg without causing some racist separation and hatred.  Assassin's Creed is a perfect example of having the burden of an African slave and life of a Native American.  Both of those games caused me to have passion for their cause and desire to see them justly treated.