What I totally miss in that list are three books/stories: Neverending Story (anyone offering more freedom of what to place in the world while sticking to certain clichees so people feel at home? C'mon!), Eric van Lustbaders outstanding Kundalan-Trilogy (you have all the factions, a world which is very flexible and diverse in tems of freedom against natural laws, technomancer and "normal" mages, war, a rich lore to suck you in) and Dragon Hunters (the french series is a huge success since ages, the world if big and diverse, has spawned already games and the movie too with big success as well).
Played: Pretty much any fantasy MMO, some did not even make it to release ... Favorites: UO, EQ2, Vanguard, Wurm Online, Salem, ESO, Creativerse Playing: ESO, Creativerse, Guild Wars 2 Anticipating: (sigh) ... maybe Ashes of Creation
One has to consider popularity when one is looking at creating a video game based on an IP. If you make something based on an IP no one has heard of, no one will play it.
That actually sounds like a statement against game developers creating their own IP.
Well, that's a cynical way of looking at things.
What I should have said was "based on an outside IP".
In any case, original IP games are becoming fewer and fewer in the market because existing IPs have built in fan bases of people who will pay for the game simply based on name recognition.
Battletech anyone? I think I only saw a single comment back on page 2 with Battletech listed... there are several series of books by a variety of authors written on the BT universe, it's NOT fantasy (which I think we're a bit inundated with at the moment), it has very rich lore, a rough timeline with lots of gaps to be filled in, and there's not a single "hero" that the books follow, but rather they seem to all be focused on a collection of random heros for a book or three... I've always enjoyed the Mechwarrior games - to bring that level of FPS to an MMO set in the BT universe would be pretty awesome. They could start out with a game focused on the inner sphere, and then the clan invasion could be a future expansion...
"Books based on" weren't considered. it had to originate as a book. In fact, Battletech has already appeared on one of my lists. If we considered "books based in the universe", you could really fit anything into this category. I've seen novelizations of almost everything at some point or another.
A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge Only 2 books in the universe and those thousands of years apart, but SOOO much you can do there. Even just the things that are hinted at leave the potential for endless play.
One of the things that you guys are all missing is what makes for a good MMO.
The failure of most of the existing IP games has always been you want to be the hero. If the hero of a story has some special ability that sets them apart, it makes for a BORING MMO. Think of SWG. Everyone wants to be a Jedi.
The thing that makes for a good MMO is that everyone CAN be equal. IP's like Battletech, Starship Troopers, Honor Harrington, Otherland, Night's Dawn, and Pern are great examples. These books have a very large universe to pull stuff from. Very few special abilities that set people apart. And they all have enough spread on what can be included that you can be a lot of different things and still have fun.
Of course there are always wide IP's like Warhammer and D&D that you would think could be great MMO's that end up sucking balls. I have pretty much given up on the chance that anyone will come up with an MMO that is REALLY going to give me the enjoyment that i had when MMO's first started.
"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?"
Well, actually Dragon Raja is also based on a fantasy novel, it is just not as popular as the ones mentioned.
I have to agree with the idea of an MMO game world based on W. Gibson's Neuromancer (and Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive). The Sprawl is filled with too much awesome. Snowcrash was excellent, but too neon and superficial (as perfectly cyber-punk as that sounds...).
Along those same lines, I would suggest Shadowrun. However, Shadowrun was established first as a game universe by Fasa, rather than the novelizations that followed. Even still, the Shadowrun IP has been brought to video games several times with debatable success. The genesis/snes versions were absolutely amazing; whereas, the most recent incarnation (FPS-Style Shooter) was an absolute failure. The biggest problem with making an MMO based on the Shadowrun universe is the sheer scope of the game itself. With the Matrix for deckers, the Magic system, riggers, samurai, all the races, the Awakening, and everything else that made the Shadowrun universe so rich, I would hate to think of the development pipeline to produce this universe in its entirety.
Finally, its a disappointment that, throughout this epic thread, there was only one mention of Orson Scott Card. Ender's Game was a work of art. After deeper consideration, it would be difficult to realize this as a full blown MMO without further guidance from Card himself; but, he is known to do some work in the video game industry, and I'm sure he would be thrilled to work on an MMO based on his Xenocide trilogy. You would have to ask him though. I can't speak for the man, I can only attest to his genius. If not the Xenocide trilogy, then pick any random "universe" from his Maps in a Mirror collection. Card's works never disappoint.
10) A Mechwarrior- Battletech MMO One based off all the IP (Battlespace, Citytech, Aerotech, Battletech, Mechwarrior, Mercenaries, on and on) The IP is as rich as Star Wars. God it could be the ultimate MMO This in my opinion would make the best MMO EVER and deserves the #1 spot. But all the novels are based off the boardgame/PNP game. *sigh*
Why did I not think of this??? If done correctly, this could be the single greatest thing ever created... By humans.
I thought the list was great, but I just have to ask one very elitist @%#hole-ish question: Did you even proofread this thing? I mean, it was kinda sad, there were typos in every other paragraph. Saying the 9th book got the tenth spot, not hitting shift+9 for parantheses once, referring to Dune as a great "sci-I IP" (What's with the second I?), among other things, kinda bugged me. OK, rant over, sorry but I'm a serious grammar whore.
Great list, love the idea of a fairy tale and/or Stephen King MMO. Personally, I'd check out a Dune MMO, but that's cause I grew up on that stuff (My dad loves the movie, used to watch it every other week). Dunno what else to say, so just gonna say that Hollywood needs to get original, it's basically just a machine to get books into movies now. Sorry, the final paragraph of the opening reminded me of the huge list of original movies that have come out lately... sarcasm.
A lot of Coldfire fans here (funny story: my name comes from a forum I tried to sign up for but couldn't use "Tarrant" because it was taken already). That's cool. I'd be curious how a developer would handle certain facets of the world though, like earthquakes, or the difficulty of ocean travel, or the sheer risks involved in channeling Fae.
Another one a couple folks mentioned would be DeathGate. I would LOVE to see this, but I'd also be afraid of it going wrong. If the Sartan/Patryn become playable characters, other races would be worthless in comparison. Unless the Sartan and Patyrn were really, really watered down.
Another cool idea though would be the Darksword trilogy, also by Weis and Hickman. Some REALLY cool ideas about magic. And it was set somewhere during the third novel, the introduction of the Technologists from Beyond would be pretty awesome. I'd have to admit though, I think everyone would want to be Duuk-Tsarith.
How come absolutely no one has said Discworld yet? Does no one here ever actually read anymore? Does a book have to get made into a Hollywood movie before it becomes real to you people (Harry Potter, Stephen King, His Dark Materials, Starship Troopers, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, various fairy tales, Dune?) I'm beginning to lose faith in MMORPG.com readers and bloggers. It's not as if this is some obscure, difficult to read series with maybe one or two published works.
Discworld is such a complete and rich universe to set an MMO in, it is absolutely perfect for this genre of games.
How come absolutely no one has said Discworld yet? Does no one here ever actually read anymore? Does a book have to get made into a Hollywood movie before it becomes real to you people (Harry Potter, Stephen King, His Dark Materials, Starship Troopers, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, various fairy tales, Dune?) I'm beginning to lose faith in MMORPG.com readers and bloggers. It's not as if this is some obscure, difficult to read series with maybe one or two published works.
Discworld is such a complete and rich universe to set an MMO in, it is absolutely perfect for this genre of games.
It's a good enough list and has spawned a lot of conversation.
However, I personally would prefer NOT to see MMORPGs based on licensed IP.
WAR, LoTRO, SWG, AoC all suffered because of the limitations set on the game by the IP. AoC had many problems all around, but the other three all have serious flaws that are related to the IP that they chose to license.
Another quibble I have with the list is that in a number of cases, "realistic" is cited as an advantage. You know what? I'm sick and tired of fantasy MMORPGs that use architecture, armor, weapons and landscapes taken from drab, "realistic" medieval European roots.
IMO, one of the reasons WoW is so popular is that it at leasts tries to stretch out against "realism".
However, not even WoW stretches it enough IMO.
Original, fantastical, magical stretches of the imagination are what I want to see from new MMORPGs; not "realism".
No. No more books into MMOs for me. LotRO and AoC have proven to me what a bad idea that is. These games have their good points, but they are not reflective of the worlds they were modeled after. They can't be, really.
Create your own world, with it's own rules. Please. WoW is as close as I want to see for an MMO to be created out of an existing story.
Have played: Everquest, Asheron's Call, Horizons, Everquest2, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Warhammer, Age of Conan, Darkfall
a non warner brother,studio to make the mmo..i mean look at disney's pirates mmo
gore,buckets of gore option....for those who want a more darker feeling....
3 factions
tree huggers
loggers
tree farmer
Tree huggers,would be the hippy non viloent wizzards who dont belevie in violence...and rp around
loggers would be the dark wizzards,who kill the whineing hiipys...to shut them up about violence ,and ocationaly sacrafice a hippy for a spell...
tree farmers..would be the carebare 's...yes for the first time care bares will have the faction...these people will be magical creatures like garden gnomes..who use their capitalist ways..to make a quick buck
a option to ban IP'S for gold sellers...'
and all the magical things a player could love!!!!!!
Comments
What I totally miss in that list are three books/stories: Neverending Story (anyone offering more freedom of what to place in the world while sticking to certain clichees so people feel at home? C'mon!), Eric van Lustbaders outstanding Kundalan-Trilogy (you have all the factions, a world which is very flexible and diverse in tems of freedom against natural laws, technomancer and "normal" mages, war, a rich lore to suck you in) and Dragon Hunters (the french series is a huge success since ages, the world if big and diverse, has spawned already games and the movie too with big success as well).
Played: Pretty much any fantasy MMO, some did not even make it to release ...
Favorites: UO, EQ2, Vanguard, Wurm Online, Salem, ESO, Creativerse
Playing: ESO, Creativerse, Guild Wars 2
Anticipating: (sigh) ... maybe Ashes of Creation
That actually sounds like a statement against game developers creating their own IP.
Well, that's a cynical way of looking at things.
What I should have said was "based on an outside IP".
In any case, original IP games are becoming fewer and fewer in the market because existing IPs have built in fan bases of people who will pay for the game simply based on name recognition.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
"Books based on" weren't considered. it had to originate as a book. In fact, Battletech has already appeared on one of my lists. If we considered "books based in the universe", you could really fit anything into this category. I've seen novelizations of almost everything at some point or another.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
SciFi is sorely under-represented in most lists.
A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge Only 2 books in the universe and those thousands of years apart, but SOOO much you can do there. Even just the things that are hinted at leave the potential for endless play.
One of the things that you guys are all missing is what makes for a good MMO.
The failure of most of the existing IP games has always been you want to be the hero. If the hero of a story has some special ability that sets them apart, it makes for a BORING MMO. Think of SWG. Everyone wants to be a Jedi.
The thing that makes for a good MMO is that everyone CAN be equal. IP's like Battletech, Starship Troopers, Honor Harrington, Otherland, Night's Dawn, and Pern are great examples. These books have a very large universe to pull stuff from. Very few special abilities that set people apart. And they all have enough spread on what can be included that you can be a lot of different things and still have fun.
Of course there are always wide IP's like Warhammer and D&D that you would think could be great MMO's that end up sucking balls. I have pretty much given up on the chance that anyone will come up with an MMO that is REALLY going to give me the enjoyment that i had when MMO's first started.
"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?"
Well, actually Dragon Raja is also based on a fantasy novel, it is just not as popular as the ones mentioned.
I have to agree with the idea of an MMO game world based on W. Gibson's Neuromancer (and Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive). The Sprawl is filled with too much awesome. Snowcrash was excellent, but too neon and superficial (as perfectly cyber-punk as that sounds...).
Along those same lines, I would suggest Shadowrun. However, Shadowrun was established first as a game universe by Fasa, rather than the novelizations that followed. Even still, the Shadowrun IP has been brought to video games several times with debatable success. The genesis/snes versions were absolutely amazing; whereas, the most recent incarnation (FPS-Style Shooter) was an absolute failure. The biggest problem with making an MMO based on the Shadowrun universe is the sheer scope of the game itself. With the Matrix for deckers, the Magic system, riggers, samurai, all the races, the Awakening, and everything else that made the Shadowrun universe so rich, I would hate to think of the development pipeline to produce this universe in its entirety.
Finally, its a disappointment that, throughout this epic thread, there was only one mention of Orson Scott Card. Ender's Game was a work of art. After deeper consideration, it would be difficult to realize this as a full blown MMO without further guidance from Card himself; but, he is known to do some work in the video game industry, and I'm sure he would be thrilled to work on an MMO based on his Xenocide trilogy. You would have to ask him though. I can't speak for the man, I can only attest to his genius. If not the Xenocide trilogy, then pick any random "universe" from his Maps in a Mirror collection. Card's works never disappoint.
-.Sleepless.
maybe expand this to the Eternal Champion settings as a whole... multiple worlds..LOTS of possibilities.
Why did I not think of this??? If done correctly, this could be the single greatest thing ever created... By humans.
What about the books by David Eddings and his wife Leigh?
It will come a new ''Harry potter mmorpg'' Hogwarts online. Fan made, look pretty good realy! Home site: http://www.hogwartsonlinemmo.webs.com/
I thought the list was great, but I just have to ask one very elitist @%#hole-ish question: Did you even proofread this thing? I mean, it was kinda sad, there were typos in every other paragraph. Saying the 9th book got the tenth spot, not hitting shift+9 for parantheses once, referring to Dune as a great "sci-I IP" (What's with the second I?), among other things, kinda bugged me. OK, rant over, sorry but I'm a serious grammar whore.
Great list, love the idea of a fairy tale and/or Stephen King MMO. Personally, I'd check out a Dune MMO, but that's cause I grew up on that stuff (My dad loves the movie, used to watch it every other week). Dunno what else to say, so just gonna say that Hollywood needs to get original, it's basically just a machine to get books into movies now. Sorry, the final paragraph of the opening reminded me of the huge list of original movies that have come out lately... sarcasm.
blawr
The Black Company series would be perfect material to base an MMO on.
If you want a real harsh death penalty, go play Russian Roulet. - Hamzal
Well apart Dune and Harry Potter I disagree with the 8 others.
A lot of Coldfire fans here (funny story: my name comes from a forum I tried to sign up for but couldn't use "Tarrant" because it was taken already). That's cool. I'd be curious how a developer would handle certain facets of the world though, like earthquakes, or the difficulty of ocean travel, or the sheer risks involved in channeling Fae.
Another one a couple folks mentioned would be DeathGate. I would LOVE to see this, but I'd also be afraid of it going wrong. If the Sartan/Patryn become playable characters, other races would be worthless in comparison. Unless the Sartan and Patyrn were really, really watered down.
Another cool idea though would be the Darksword trilogy, also by Weis and Hickman. Some REALLY cool ideas about magic. And it was set somewhere during the third novel, the introduction of the Technologists from Beyond would be pretty awesome. I'd have to admit though, I think everyone would want to be Duuk-Tsarith.
I would love to see a Dune Mmo, but as someone said in a previous post, its such a huge ip that they would have to do a really good job.
Also I think the Necroscope series of Books by Brian Lumley would make an awesome Mmo setting !
DISCWORLD!
How come absolutely no one has said Discworld yet? Does no one here ever actually read anymore? Does a book have to get made into a Hollywood movie before it becomes real to you people (Harry Potter, Stephen King, His Dark Materials, Starship Troopers, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, various fairy tales, Dune?) I'm beginning to lose faith in MMORPG.com readers and bloggers. It's not as if this is some obscure, difficult to read series with maybe one or two published works.
Discworld is such a complete and rich universe to set an MMO in, it is absolutely perfect for this genre of games.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld
Care to expand on that?
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
I expected to see Goodkind's Sword of Truth books listed....
Other than that I cannot comment too much since I only read books from half that list (or seen a movie or two)
Seriously? You obviously don't read anymore. Several people mentioned Discworld. Get over yourself.
I would love to see the Malazan world in an MMO.
I would expect Discworld series of Terry Pratchett. Refreshing look of cliche Fantasy stories. Cohen the Barbarian and the Silver Horde ftw!
It has all the ingredients for a MMO.
Fair enough!
Futuristic
"Historical"
Science Fantasy
P&P
It's a good enough list and has spawned a lot of conversation.
However, I personally would prefer NOT to see MMORPGs based on licensed IP.
WAR, LoTRO, SWG, AoC all suffered because of the limitations set on the game by the IP. AoC had many problems all around, but the other three all have serious flaws that are related to the IP that they chose to license.
Another quibble I have with the list is that in a number of cases, "realistic" is cited as an advantage. You know what? I'm sick and tired of fantasy MMORPGs that use architecture, armor, weapons and landscapes taken from drab, "realistic" medieval European roots.
IMO, one of the reasons WoW is so popular is that it at leasts tries to stretch out against "realism".
However, not even WoW stretches it enough IMO.
Original, fantastical, magical stretches of the imagination are what I want to see from new MMORPGs; not "realism".
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
No. No more books into MMOs for me. LotRO and AoC have proven to me what a bad idea that is. These games have their good points, but they are not reflective of the worlds they were modeled after. They can't be, really.
Create your own world, with it's own rules. Please. WoW is as close as I want to see for an MMO to be created out of an existing story.
Have played: Everquest, Asheron's Call, Horizons, Everquest2, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Warhammer, Age of Conan, Darkfall
harry potter mmo FTW
all you need is
a non warner brother,studio to make the mmo..i mean look at disney's pirates mmo
gore,buckets of gore option....for those who want a more darker feeling....
3 factions
tree huggers
loggers
tree farmer
Tree huggers,would be the hippy non viloent wizzards who dont belevie in violence...and rp around
loggers would be the dark wizzards,who kill the whineing hiipys...to shut them up about violence ,and ocationaly sacrafice a hippy for a spell...
tree farmers..would be the carebare 's...yes for the first time care bares will have the faction...these people will be magical creatures like garden gnomes..who use their capitalist ways..to make a quick buck
a option to ban IP'S for gold sellers...'
and all the magical things a player could love!!!!!!
I'M being serious..people