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Forgotten Realms - The ultimate MMO setting
Lobotomist
Member EpicPosts: 5,980
The Forgotten Realms
If any MMO should ever again be based on existing intelectual setting , i can claim that withouth no argue Forgotten realms is best , bar none.
There are so many fact proving this point.
1. Forgotten Realms setting - is the most "generic" - It is the setting created for D&D game. It was created so it would put mish mash of everything and everywhere. There is little possibility anything can happen that is not in accord with "lore". It was crafted so that behind every turn there is a possibility of adventure , treasure or monster. Withouth any question only popular setting created with "game" in mind
2. Forgotten Realms setting - is the richest - There is over 170 novels published , and i will not even look into how many gazeeteers, campain guides , maps , adventure modules, games, and fan made content was created. I think that only other setting that can rival this is SW , but as i said before FR was created with gaming in mind - SW wasnt... In one word sea of inspiration , no wait, and ocean of inspiration
3. How many monster manuals is there ? 4, 5, 6 ? What is that - thousands of unique monster creatures? Just to think that developers of LOTRO have to tacle Tolkien Lore trying to produce even handfull more than Orc,troll, goblin and giants ....
4. Brand - that gives instant sale sucess - I read somewhere that almost every computer game with Forgotten Realms brand went on to be Roleplaying Game of the year , and wopping best seller.
5. Should i mention huge fan base
6. In words of LOTRO advertising department ...
We got Drizzt , nuff' said 
That said.
There are rumours about Bioware making KOTOR MMO. Other rumours that i tend to find more agreable claim that Bioware would be nuts to pass on opportunity to make Forgotten realms MMO, since this would be a virtual GOLDMINE and would topple sucess of WOW with ease of stealing lollipop from an infant. Secondly there is a faint suspicion since WOTC never given Turbine rights to make FR MMO (but only Ebberon) , and also WOTC not licencing FR for years now.
This all ammounts to gappingly obvious Bioware is working on Baldurs Gate MMO hunch...
Well , at least i hope so 
Comments
i gotta admit i love Drizzt and Wulfgar and Bruenor and dont forget the little halfling Regis ( if i remember correctly ) i would play a game if it was in this setting for sure. i jus love forgotten realms books :P
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
would be cool hehe
I agree an mmo based off that world would be very interesting.There is alot of content already created in the forgotten realms world and in truth how many of us didnt grow up reading about it, the crystal shard was my first fantasy novel. How cool would it be to visit Mithril hall or the harppels ( not sure if thats the corect name or spelling) or fight some Drow in Underworld. RA Salvator is working atm as content developer for another game company on an MMO
im with you guys all the way but guess what?Bioware the makers of neverwinter nights is making an mmorpg in the neverwinter nighst world and guess what world that is?Forgotten Realms!So looks like bruenore wulfgar drizzt cattie-brie,and regis will be showing their adventures to us in the future i cannot wait ill be first in line at gamestop lol when i heard about it i almost had a heart attack...i dont know about its release or anythin i think it was just announced!but cannot wait and thought you guys would like to know
This setting wouldn't promote the selling of new books for WotC!
Isn't that the reason why they change every now and then. I think Eberron is about to be replaced...it has been there for soooo long compared to other game settings; most game world didn't even enjoy half that time.
But if you think about the success of a MMO, yeah, Forgotten Realms is a no brainer, no other license, no other game, nothing could even come close to rival with it. And Planescape is a natural expension to it...
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Please we all know Warhammer will rule! But Neverwinter would be cool!
Let's look at this logically.
The Forgotten Realms is an absolutely huge place. The amount of potential content is exceedingly vast.
That in itself is why no one will ever make a Forgotten Realms MMO.
Bioware has already stated that they are working on their own Intellectual Property - that they have not licensed any IP for their MMO project.
If any company were to undertake a FG MMORPG, they would either have to spend 10+ years developing it in hard crunch mode, or they would have to start small and expand. Do you recall the bitching about LOTRO just a few months ago?
"Not enough content!"
"When do we get to play in Mordor?"
"I want to go into Moria! I'm not playing!"
"y cant we play bad guyz???????!!!one"
The whining would be 10,000 TIMES LOUDER for a FG MMO in development. Game companies know that.
Also, WotC would have to license the product. As already stated above, that won't sell new materials for them. They'll be coming out with a new campaign setting over the next couple of years, and that's where the next few games will be set. Forgotten Realms is old hat, and Drizzt has become the most horrible fantasy cliche imagineable (despite R.A. Salvatore's relatively good characterization).
For all those reasons and more, a Forgotten Realms MMO is probably never going to happen.
However, I would play it if it ever comes out.
--------
"Give a man a fire, and he is warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he is warm for the rest of his life."
I have to admit this was the setting I hoped so set a virtual foot on when I first heard about the new generation of this so-called "MMORPG"s (I'm talking about "Everquest & Sons" here, when I'm referring to these "new boys"
).
I'm no pen & paper RPer... Though, I've always liked computer RPGs, especially the marvelous single player titles by Black Isle and Bioware. I have a lot of respect for what they did with the genre, and with the setting. Some prefer fresh settings, but in my opinion, having such a rich and well-known setting brings a lot of good stuff to the table.
Just think of the scene you run into Jarlaxle in the Underdark. Pure fun. If you already read about him in the novels, it's an absolute blast meeting such a "legend" and seeing him act true to character. If you haven't... well, then still you have an extraordinarily well-designed character out of nowhere
And don't forget, you don't need to do the *whole world* at once. Actually I think it would be smarter not to. You can just build on it in time. Even the single player games did not try to tackle the whole world. You can do just Faerûn; you can do just the western part of it; or you can do just Icewind Dale, or Baldur's Gate, or Neverwinter, or Amn, or better Calimshan (hey, it's got Artemis Entreri!)
Any way you look at it, it's a rich world with deep history, very well-known characters, interesting and diverse geography... To me, it's the ultimate fantasy setting.
Many players seem to be quite exasperated with the traditional fantasy MMORPG, but to me, a really decent one has not been made yet. Forgotten Realms setting with dynamic events like Hero's Journey seems to be promising would make for a very interesting game.
I thoroughly agree with the OP here, but a couple of points to put right:
1. There's 5 Monster Manuals, plus one Monsters of Faerun book, specific to Forgotten Realms.
2. The original generic setting, created for D&D is Greyhawk (a pale comparison to FR).
3. Oh, and Drizzt SUCKS! Gawd I hate superman-lookit-me-ma-I-can-do-everything! Drizzt!
When I first heard about DDO, I pictured it being set in the Forgotten Realms. I mean what other setting could it be?
Turbine made a big mistake. I would have rather DDO be set in a generic D&D world.
If anyone would ever create a Forgotten Realms MMO, it would have to be better than average, or it would ruin the setting.
I think that DDO has already ruined D&D as a setting for years to come.
On note of scope of Forgotten Realms
True. It is hugamongues setting, and it is impossible to make game of such scope.
But LOTRO allready done just Eriador , and slowly expanding
FR MMO could start as Sword Coast , or Cormyr ... or even as just area around Waterdeep , and grow with expansions.
Imagine getting Jungles of Chult expansion, Underdark expansion , Burning south expansion....Far east expansion
Oh gawd !
A Forgotten Realms MMO would be awesome if it would be a sandbox game (Like Darkfall, UO) and use the same approach in expanding lands like LOTRO does.
There already is a Dungeons and Dragons mmo, so I don't think this is happening anytime soon
sorry Also sorry to say the story and lore and all the things you mention is one of the least important things to the mass market audience. Also we already had a generic D&D world in games before, take a look at EQ 
Topple WoW....don't think you are going to accomplish that with a dungeons and dragons franchise sorry. also why would developers pay for a generic D&D world license when they can just hire a writer who can make one up himself and save themselves the cost ?
There are many good ideas out there.But many of them will never be used...
The lore really doesnt matter as long as the game doesnt stand out in some other way (revolutionary game play, whatever that might be). And there is only so much you can do within a fantasy setting anyway...