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General: Top 10 Books That Should Be MMOs
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
In this week's list, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood takes a look at ten IPs from the world of books and literature that would make good candidates for future MMO projects.
Do you want to live forever?In 1984's Ghostbusters, Egon Spengler blithely announced that "Print is dead." Fifteen years later, even with the rise of the internet, the medium is still alive and well. Literature has been telling stories and creating vast and unexplored worlds for years. Literature, it could be argued, is the forefather of all storytelling media from television to movies to video games.
Hollywood has been mining the world of literature IPs for decades: Independence Day, Jurassic Park, The Da Vinci Code, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, A Beautiful Mind, The James Bond series, The Bourne Series, the list goes on. So why then, when scanning the vast list of games on the MMORPG.com game list, do only Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online and Funcom's Age of Conan stand out as a novels-turned MMOs?
;)
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
I totally agree with Wheel of Time and Song of Ice and Fire!!! Those could be epic mmo's. I hope that perhaps this company that purchased the rights see this as an opportunity to make their first mmo
cause it could be really cool.
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The Idea of using as established IP sounds like a great idea but it has its many flaws as well. Most good IPs will have a high $$$ just to buythe IP then you will have the hordes that will not be happy with the MMo for not being true to the game. Then you have all the problems of trying to be true to the IP. You have so much freedom when you create your own IP that you dont have to worry about what come before that said a good IP will bring in alot of fans of the IP will bring in the fans of the IP so you have an established player base but depending on your IP may keep people from playing IE i have friends that will never play Star Trek Online cause they like Stargate better and vice versa. It sounds like a great idea and I know i love to play a game based on any 10 of those you listed but I think that most would never make it as an mmo except maybe HP how can anybe bet against its success.
There are some true classics in your list, like HHGTG and Dune. The only issue I have with them is that they are such classic and dear IPs, not just to me, but to many people I am sure, that I would hate to see them destroyed by some botched attempt at an MMO.
I propose:
Waiting for Godot
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Snowcrash would be at the top of my list.
Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard.
The novel, not the movie, of course.
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btw even if just a collection of short stories, I think Bruce Sterlings Shaper/mechanist universe would be an awesome setting as well.
I agree completely with Harry Potter as the #1. Theres just so much that can be done with that universe. Dragons, Dementors, Trolls etc would all make for good raid bosses i think.
The Wheel of Time is also a very good one. Although i don't know how they would implement character classes, as Aes Sedai, Wise Ones or anyone who uses the One Power would be infinitely more powerful than anyone else in the world. It would be cool to be able to be a darkfriend though and be on the evil side...
Not only that, but the whole point of Shrek was making fun of Disney cartoons' conventions in the first place. It was a good move for DreamWorks SKG to set themselves apart from reigning tradition - which was, yep, Disney (not to mention it must have made Katzenberg feel good). The story in Shrek is a keen antithesis of Disney movies' messages. Even visually you can spot the mockery easily. The scene where Princess Fiona begins to sing with the little bluebird, and in the end burst it with the high pitch she strikes? Yep, a send-up to Snow White and the bluebird.
In the end, Shrek is funny, but it's sort of a parody, that's why all that mixing blending works.
only one i can agree with is Wheel of Time
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Books to be MMOs...
To me it'd be the DragonLance saga by Weis & Perin, and Forgotten Realms by Greenwood & Salvatore (the best 2 writers for FR IMO)
....yeah... AD&D player here ;-)
The Wheel of Time mmorpg is in the works, it was even announced here on mmorpg.com. Stradden, how did you miss this?
Wheel of Time MMORPG Announced
Absolutely!
Great writeup!
I am an avid reader and have read most of what you mentioned, Stephen King's works going back to Carrie and when he wrote as Richard Bachman. Would make a dark and very deep MMO, Lovecraft without all the shogthoth's and stuff
Also, Dune, which I felt was boooorrrrrring, makes a great setting and the different houses would make for great pvp.
Martin, I read all of the Song of Ice and Fire books and I'm waiting for him to finish with the newest installment, "Dance with Dragons" that was pushed back to September. He wrote from points of view and it would be interesting to actually roll a Crow and live primarily on "The Wall" but fight the ice wraitths of the north.
World War Z, awesome book, going to be a great movie. MMO? Fallout meets Left for Dead? Heck, I'd play it. I'll play anything.
However, What about the Piers Anthony "Xanth" series? Everyone was born with a unique magical power and everything was a pun. Wouldn't it be fun?
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Ink
My #1 book that would be fun to play as a MMO
Elric of Melnibone series
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"Song of Fire and Ice" is the best fantasy literature since, well, for many decades. I'd give my left nut to play an MMORPG in that universe.
"Dune" I'd give my other nut to play.
I was thinking the exact thing as well.
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As for a "Harry Potter" MMO? No thanks. I'm not a pre-pubscent teen. I'm an adult who has liquid income. Create a game for me, and you'll get my money.
I'd go Dragonlance (as in Chronicles and Legends Trilogy era) by Weis & Hickman, the two that created the DL world. I've not read any of Perin's work within DL, but I'd prefer to go with both of the world's creators instead of one and a guest author.
As for the list, I'd like to see a non-themepark Dune as well as a Stephen King novel game. The others on the list didn't interest me so much.
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100% agree! Add in the "Sword of Truth" series by Terry Goodkind for good measure
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First off I read alot and you picked some really off the wall IP's.
I don't know how in the world you missed Firefly. There is enough fantasy out there right now and very little well done Sci-Fi..
As to the Wheel of Time MMO, don't hold your breath, the IP is owned by a completely unknown company with no known industry names associated with it. Chances are that you will never see a live server for this game as long as it is in the hands of these people.
I agree with some others, Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance have far better IP's suited to a MMO than those you listed. Even the Michael Moorcock seriers with Elric of Meliborne has a better IP.
...books, man. Firefly was a TV show. And I believe it may have been on some previous list Jon did (although I could be wrong).
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Sorry to say this, but the author did not do a lot of reading in his lifetime. It's mostly big hits or hearsay titles.
How about these:
Philip Jose Farmer - Riverworld series setting and idea. Would be a top-notch sandbox mmo.
Serge Brussolo - you pick a title, they're all equally disturbing.
Philip K. Dick - The Man in the High Castle (or Fatherland by Robert Harris).
Not to mention Shogun, The Long Ships, Winnetou, The Three Musketeers, even the Illiad ffs!!
And what happened to the SciFi genre? Have you seen the polls on mmorpg lately? Most voted for a SciFi MMO. So how about giving some credit to Asimov? And Van Vogt? Carl Sagan? Arthur C Clarke anyone? They have invisioned worlds beyond EVERY game designers widlest dreams (while stoned). Aren't you just about sick and tired of spells, wizzards, elves, pure PvP CounterStrike clones? Don't you crave for some shred of realism?
I have put so much faith in Mortal Online just to be utterly dissapointed when I saw gameplay videos featuring some spell casting during a PvP encounter. And Fallen Earth... FPS aiming & RPG damage? 'The hell's that? "Target too far" while I'm standing 20 feet away from the target? How about some Shift-Delete on your install folder?
Don't mind me, I`m just a too-mature-bitter-gamer waiting for a real MMO.
Better to be crazy, provided you know what sane is...
...books, man. Firefly was a TV show. And I believe it may have been on some previous list Jon did (although I could be wrong).
I rescind my comment about Firefly, I most definitely got caught up in the moment. Thanks for catching my mistake.
Beermangler has some good ones I did not think of either.