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Why aren't there any Ancient Rome/Greece MMORPG's?
c1c3r0
Member Posts: 26
Why have there not been like any major MMOs (besides Roma victor) based on ancient rome or greece? There is such a wealth of information to be used. The only problem i see is no supernatural classes but still, it would be a ton of fun. It be like realm vs. realm there could different regions you could belong to. such as egypt, persian, rome, or carthage (hannibal anyone?). Then each region could try to gain as much land and resources as possible. They could fight everywhere. In the sahara, alps, meddiaterian. The potential is almost limitless. God a game like that would be a ton of fun. You could maybe even learn a little history.
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You weren't aware that companies only make fantasy based MMO's with a strong IP?
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic
Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW
Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike
Loved: Star Wars Galaxies
Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
http://gw.igg.com/
greek
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
You weren't aware that companies only make fantasy based MMO's with a strong IP?
Please dont bring that into this thread. Just wanted your opinions on this type of mmo.
I agree a good non-fantasy historical MMORPG would be really fun. Not all games have to be about magic. Theres just hasn't been any good ones yet, both Rome Victor and Pirates of the Burning Sea lack alot.
When we get back from where we are going, we will return to where we were. I know people there!
You weren't aware that companies only make fantasy based MMO's with a strong IP?
Please dont bring that into this thread. Just wanted your opinions on this type of mmo.
No, you asked why there weren't any major MMO's of that type. I gave you your answer. Companies don't like to stray from the beaten path very often. Sci-fi MMO's, which I would consider to have more mainstream appeal than a historical MMO, are even hard to find these days. The market is dominated by Fantasy MMO's because of the large success of a certain not to be named one.
So therefore, my comment was completely valid and pertained to your original question. I personally think that an MMO like this could be very interesting, and I would be very curious how things would work. But I gave you your answer, and if you don't like the answers, don't ask the question.
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic
Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW
Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike
Loved: Star Wars Galaxies
Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
Perpetual Entertainment (devs of the upcomming STO) were making "Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising" MMORPG (it got cancelled about 18 months ago... i mean put on 'indefinite hold')...CB didnt go well
i was initially quite excited about playing a game with such rich lore, and the devs promised expansions (Ancient Egypt was leeked as in the pipeline, as were possibilities of Norse / barbarian factions in the future) to provide RvR
rome was huge, and included the circus maximus (transporting players into an instance as they enter it) suggesting that perhaps player chariot racing might exist...
players would chose gods to worship in addition to picking their classes, in return players could call upon their deity to aid them in times of need to grant them great powers... also completing some quests would cause the ire of some deities players were not aligned with... their reputation with the various gods affecting their future...
however, there were marketing problems (they chose Platform Publishing for disk printing / distribution) and SOE hate filled forums with negativity
there were technical problems... with their squad-based gameplay (players would control squads of minions - some of which were to be beasts of mythology like medusa / gorgons, minataurs etc)... and the 'paired move' interlocking combat (allowing wrestling moves and grabs etc with animations to match)
also they were going to ship it wihtout crafting, and were calling it a MMOAAG (massivly multiplayer online action adventure game) neither of which helped
( o )( o )
Anything historical, without fantasy and superpowers, would be great. What i really would like to see is a medieval Europe, or wild west mmorpg, but ancient Greece/Rome or even stone age would be welcome. I think a historical theme could work nice, because everyone have at least some understanding about historical epochs, and dont need to read game lore or in other ways "learn" the world. That way you should feel familiar with the environment from start. The real history contains great scenarios to build upon, usually much richer and complex than anything a game company can make up. And everything is free to use. No one have copyright on history.
There is a very simple answer. There isn't enough mainstream interest. The end.
Actually, long ago Mythic made an attempt to make a futuristic Roman game called Imperator. Think Warhammer 40k with Romans. The game didn't look so good and people were bitching that Mythic should be fixing their DAOC crisis after there horrid release of Trials of Atlantis. Imperator never really caught on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperator_Online
Appearently the game remained in development for 3 years before getting canned in 2005. I'm guess that was the time EA came knocking on their door about WAR.
I think they would be very boring personally. Unless it was based off the gladiator lifestyle, like the movie Gladiator. You could train your gladiators, watch them as they get hurt in combat, deal with injuries that affect how your gladiators perform, how they live, what they eat, how much fame they earn, ect. You could have a whole group of gladiators that you have to manage and maintain.
What is wrong with magic being inside a rome/greek game? Have you ever played titan quest? Or god of war for that matter, look no one is forcing you to play a magic class and there is nothing wrong with it you act as if you have it in a mmorpg then it automatically makes it a dumb idea, if anything it is far from it we play games to do things we cannot do in real life.
If you add fantasy elements, like magic or monsters, to a historical game, then you have yet another fantasy game, not historical.
If they were gonna do one on history... IMO ancient eygpt would be the best. A lot of the current fantasy originated from there... AND there's still tons that most people don't even know about.
Pats let Manning win.
Stone Age MMO would be sweet. It would have to be Rated M or it would be realistic. Can you imagine fighting a T-Rex and when you die he doesn't rip you head off. That would suck, but if the T-Rex did that would be sweet. Human players could live in cave tribes or nomad tribes aka guilds. Man this idea would be sweet as a Rated M MMO. Weapons could be clubs, rocks, stone knives, stone spears, etc. Animals could be anything from the stone age ranging land, air, and sea animals. Maybe it could be called something like Stone Age Online: Prehistoric Carnage. Rated M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Violence, and Partial Nudity(Its the stone age, but the heck the female humans still need to be sexy. Its a gaming law,lol.) Well I'll stop now I've been ranting for too long, lol.
When we get back from where we are going, we will return to where we were. I know people there!
Because the current crop of developers are too lazy to design a historical based MMOG with realism.
It's easier to copy and paste another version of a Fantasy based game and claim it will be better than the rest when in reality it won't be because they don't apply any innovation.
Flying Lab failed with their opportunity at making a historical based Pirate MMOG with PotBS because they didn't stay true to the realism factor of a large sailing world which should take time to travel in and a Caribbean where trade abd exploration played a major factor. Instead they released a WoWified Pirate game with instaporting and super speedy travel which made the game world very small with a limited economy based on NPC purchases and sales of goods and materials without harvesting or real crafting.
Holy homophobe.. Where did that come from?
On another note, I was so pumped for G&H: Rome Rising. Has tons of potential, with the expansions being other parts of the world. But they dumped it
Ancient Egypt is a good idea too, they have one called A Tale in the Desert 3, Which is definitely an interesting, crafting based sandbox type, but the masses don't dig that kind of thing, and I guess there were problems with paying (not sure what).
I would love to see a (sandbox- type) MMORPG based in some relatively interesting historical era. I have a few different ideas that are definitely not mainstream, but I'm not in the business of making games, so that doesn't matter.
Besides, the industry has been pulled away from what it was, no more niche games. This past round of games has proved that to be competitive in the market now( not that many are), you have to follow the current mainstream model to be successful. Games cost a ton to make, too much to aim for a 200,000k sub base, especially when all investors think of is the money WoW makes.
Depends if you mean Rome/Greek inspired or 'this is greece' types. Age of Conan is based on this time period and CoH has a zone based on this time period as well. In fact go watch the movie 300 and then go play AoC. AoC is pretty much 300 the game
You weren't aware that companies only make fantasy based MMO's with a strong IP?
Please dont bring that into this thread. Just wanted your opinions on this type of mmo.
No, you asked why there weren't any major MMO's of that type. I gave you your answer. Companies don't like to stray from the beaten path very often. Sci-fi MMO's, which I would consider to have more mainstream appeal than a historical MMO, are even hard to find these days. The market is dominated by Fantasy MMO's because of the large success of a certain not to be named one.
So therefore, my comment was completely valid and pertained to your original question. I personally think that an MMO like this could be very interesting, and I would be very curious how things would work. But I gave you your answer, and if you don't like the answers, don't ask the question.
No, you made sardonic comment that implied that the obvious. I wanted to know content wise, why games like these couldn't be made. Not some bs answer like "companies only make fantasy MMOs" which hear all the time.
I'd like a Roman/Greek style game. You could do a lot with all the myths. It would be fantasy. Sorcery, giants, gods and goddesses. It would be really really fun to get into the lore.
and adding RvR to it would be totally awesome. Expanding your nations empire.
Edit: Ooooh! And I just thought of all the possibilities for ship battles.
Some company really needs to look into doing something like this.
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Meow
I think it is going to be difficult. It is not that developers are lazy. In fact, i bet there are ones who are actively pitching ideas of Roman/Greek MMORPGs.
It is about whether they can get funding to actually build one. It takes like $30-40M to build a good MMORPG and it is difficult to convince investors. They care about ROI and you have to demonstrate to them that it is likely they will make their money back.
That is why if you look at all the new AAA MMO development, there is often a known, popular IP connected. (Stargate Worlds, Warhammer, Star Trek, Marvel, DC, LOTR ...)
AoC is a great example of how a Roman/Greek style game could thrive. As others have said...it is very Roman-esque. It had nearly 800K customers at launch. If it had been a better game...it could have obtained even more. There is a market for low-fantasy Roman type game.
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Meow
I think the current cookie cutter style mmo wouldn't translate very well into that genre. It might be hard to make it interesting enough with no spells, healing, magic lootz ect.
Surely you guys have not forgotten the attempt at one the largest Roman mythological MMORPG's ever that failed. I will leave it at that and see who can come up with the name first.
Who let you in the VIP section?
I would email MMORPG companies directly and ask them this question. Usually larger MMORPG companies have some type of research / development department, they would most likely be able to answer your question.
Gods and Heroes. I beta tested it and it was awful, just another boring linear task driven experience game. It also suffered from the SOE curse because they partenered with SOE's publishing division, Platform publishing.
If you are going to make a historical genre game, you need to make the emphasis combat experience with real quests added, but not being the main source of earning experience.