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Why Aren't There More Horror MMOs? - Garrett Fuller at MMORPG.com

SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
edited April 2017 in News & Features Discussion

imageWhy Aren't There More Horror MMOs? - Garrett Fuller at MMORPG.com

MMO games have been made in many settings. Fantasy, Sci-Fi, or even Superhero they have all been launched and made money. It is a huge shame that the Horror genre of game has never seen a solid MMO on the market. For years, CCP held the rights to World of Darkness and it looked like we’d get a vast game of werewolves, mages, and most of all vampires. However, that project ended and now we are left with next to nothing in terms of horror for MMOs.

Read the full story here



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Comments

  • DauzqulDauzqul Member RarePosts: 1,982
    I personally never really cared for horror. Give me a sword and board!
  • Po_ggPo_gg Member EpicPosts: 5,749
    "The other game which does a good job of adding horror to the mix is The Secret World.
    Funcom delivered on a solid action game which has loads of horror
    elements.
    "

    TSW was not an action game (as the "we hate the combat" crowd yelled as well for years), and wasn't entirely horror setting either (just the horrors we have in myths and legends and folk tales), but at least it was an MMO.

    "For now, all hope lies in a reboot of Funcom's Secret World"
    Errr...  colour me puzzled, but why exactly you hope for that, if the title is more horror MMOs? Legends will be a single/co-op game, and not an MMO.
  • TillerTiller Member LegendaryPosts: 11,125
    A strictly Horror MMO would have too narrow of a focus. You can put scary things in any MMO, but if the MMO was purely based on scary things at some point it would fail to be scary to anyone anymore.
    SWG Bloodfin vet
    Elder Jedi/Elder Bounty Hunter
     
  • WellspringWellspring Member EpicPosts: 1,464
    For me, a horror game is only enjoyable in small doses. To play a horror MMORPG, it would mean I would potentially be engulfed in a frightening environment for months or even years. That's not something I think I would find too appealing.
    --------------------------------------------
  • PhaserlightPhaserlight Member EpicPosts: 3,071

    Nyctelios said:

    You forgot to mention Requiem: Momento Mori, my biggest disappointment. The game itself started development as a "psychological horror MMO" following the success of Silent Hill franchise.

    I would gladly enjoy a mmorpg set on pure mind bending horror. But that's me: The guy who draws listening to Silent Hill soundtracks and drone metal.

    So, I think it would be the most niche game ever.


    Do you like the Deftones? 

    "The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
    Authored 139 missions in Vendetta Online and 6 tracks in Distance

  • moosecatlolmoosecatlol Member RarePosts: 1,530
    Solitude allows the mind to imagine terror more vividly. Also no replay-ability in terms of fright.
  • KnightFalzKnightFalz Member EpicPosts: 4,122
    Horror is more individual and intense experience than simple enjoyment, so it is not all that easy to produce in the player in comparison. It also has a smaller potential audience. It is no mystery then why most game makers would shy away from it. Horror is harder to do successfully and has inherently less earning potential. Funcom is supposed to be making the game more individual focused, but with some group activities as well. This will cause the player to become more isolated, a common feature in the horror genre, without having to kill off party members.

    The player often being solo may allow them to customize the adventures to induce more fear though various environment affects and such without having to worry about taking multiple perspectives in account. Fear can often be in the details and having more control over the presentation of things to the player can only be helpful in that regard.

    Supposedly the controls are also to be improved. This should make the game more approachable for players that previously had difficulty with them, making fight... or flight... a better experience for players overall.

    These could be some of the things that give hope that the changes to TSW will improve the experience of the game, and perhaps in time the MMORPG horror genre itself if it reaches a high enough level of success to inspire others to give it a try.
  • PhaserlightPhaserlight Member EpicPosts: 3,071

    Tiller said:

    A strictly Horror MMO would have too narrow of a focus. You can put scary things in any MMO, but if the MMO was purely based on scary things at some point it would fail to be scary to anyone anymore.


    Another staple of the horror genre is isolation (and also powerlessness, dissolving reality...):

    I'd say it's probably more difficult to create that horror moment when you have maybe 4 other players in your party all potentially going "lol".

    "The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
    Authored 139 missions in Vendetta Online and 6 tracks in Distance

  • someforumguysomeforumguy Member RarePosts: 4,088
    Here you are, on an abandoned alien ship. Working your way towards the engine room, to get power working again. You hear a strange noise coming from behind a bolted door. But you have no time to check it out so you continue towards your goal.

    Suddenly the door opens and an alien leaps out! Before you get time to react, you hear over ingame voice chat : 'KILL THAT ALIEN!' 'WHO ARE YOU CALLING AN ALIEN!?' ' YO MAMA' ' F U' 'CHUCK NORRIS vs ALIEN 1 0' .. from an arriving bunnyhopping zerg. You see one of them tballing the dead alien, then try to shoot you and run past. You hear shooting and cursing untill they are far away and the silence comes back. Alone in the dark abandoned alien ship.

  • Octagon7711Octagon7711 Member LegendaryPosts: 9,000
    edited April 2017
    Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines, still has a strong following and would make for a great MMO if done correctly. TSW had a great theme and I played it for years in spite of the feel of the combat. Vampyr, an RPG is suppose to come out in 2017, so we will see.

    Currently I get my horror fix from ESO and all the great Skyrim mods.  When the Warden comes out I will probably make him a werewolf or maybe even a vamp.

    "We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa      "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."  SR Covey

  • SovrathSovrath Member LegendaryPosts: 31,937
    I don't think it can be done well because horror relies upon a certain level of immersion/engagement from the player. Add a few wise asses in a party or have some guys shooting the shit about "whatever" and the tone will quickly become diluted.
    Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb." 

    Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w


    Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547

    Try the "Special Edition." 'Cause it's "Special." https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/64878/?tab=description

    Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo 
  • wildarms2wildarms2 Member UncommonPosts: 80
    sigh your forgetting H1Z1 " Before Battle royal killed the project ", Fallen Earth ,Survarium

    moo all

  • pokrakpokrak Member UncommonPosts: 111
    I just need atmospheric dark and murky vampire vs human vs werewolf mmo with gore and sexual themes.... Horror level should depend of faction u choose to play. Vampires with a lot of gore and darkness,
    Humans fight it and brings light and order, Werewolfs should be barbaric and close to nature mixing all...
    That the horror mmo I would play
  • waynejr2waynejr2 Member EpicPosts: 7,769
    Why should there be more?  lol.
    http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2010/QBlog190810A.html  

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    Kyleran:  "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."

    John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."

    FreddyNoNose:  "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."

    LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"




  • Thoth_MosheThoth_Moshe Member UncommonPosts: 240
    Full loot open world pvp, thats a horror game.
    Cogohi
  • hatefulpeacehatefulpeace Member UncommonPosts: 621

    System said:


    imageWhy Aren't There More Horror MMOs? - Garrett Fuller at MMORPG.com

    MMO games have been made in many settings. Fantasy, Sci-Fi, or even Superhero they have all been launched and made money. It is a huge shame that the Horror genre of game has never seen a solid MMO on the market. For years, CCP held the rights to World of Darkness and it looked like we’d get a vast game of werewolves, mages, and most of all vampires. However, that project ended and now we are left with next to nothing in terms of horror for MMOs.


    Read the full story here





    Not nothing, there is Dark Eden, and requiem. 
  • hatefulpeacehatefulpeace Member UncommonPosts: 621


    Full loot open world pvp, thats a horror game.


    That is not horror, that is just a bunch of people getting mad, and a bunch of people thinking its funny doing dumb things, like in mortal where they took their naked character and squatted on people. 
  • Thoth_MosheThoth_Moshe Member UncommonPosts: 240






    Full loot open world pvp, thats a horror game.




    That is not horror, that is just a bunch of people getting mad, and a bunch of people thinking its funny doing dumb things, like in mortal where they took their naked character and squatted on people. 


    Immature people are in every game including theme parks
  • cheyanecheyane Member LegendaryPosts: 9,067
    edited April 2017
    I am not a big fan of horror games even TV Shows that zombie show everyone swears by I have not watched it either. Having said that Secret World managed to scare me in some parts like when the Wendigo came out in the parking lot.
    Chamber of Chains
  • Loke666Loke666 Member EpicPosts: 21,441
    The horror genre is way harder to turn into a good massive game then sword and sorcery.

    Sure, you could make a really good Lovecraft styled MMORPG but players would have to get used to not actually defeat the monsters there, at best they kill a few cultist and stop the world from dying but you don't go up against the elder Gods, you don't even go up against most of their minions. A star vampire is relatively weak and should still wipe your group or raid.

    Sword and sorcery games are about you kicking @ss , in a horror game you are severely underpowered and use detective work to save the world, or you flee from an insane mass murderer in a goofy mask. Direct confrontation is just not the way to go in a horror game unless you made one where the players were the monsters.

    Horror work fine in single player or co-op but I don't think most MMOers could take that they can't outlevel the Lovecraftian monsters. Survival and sanity is the goal in a horror game, not loot and XP and I don't think the general MMOer could take that. More people here then the average gamer (We do have more then a few Lovecraft fans here including me) but still not enough.

    Now, a zombie survival MMO is another matter, or an alien invasion game but they are more a genre in themselves then pure horror. 

    It is not unlikely that a good horror MMO could be successful if done right but I just don't see any publisher betting on it, you would need to attract a very different audience the usual MMO fans. And yeah, TSW is kinda horror, more Delta green then CoC and while it is a pretty good game it never became that popular with mainstream gamers and it is at least 50% action instead of a pure horror game.
  • Octagon7711Octagon7711 Member LegendaryPosts: 9,000
    When I think of horror MMO's I think more of the supernatural aspect rather than focusing on attempting to actually terrorize players.

    "We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa      "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."  SR Covey

  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332
    I think the answer is simple.
    A Hero game is a joke,those devs are trying to sell utter crap games based on ONLY the super hero theme.
    Fantasy offers the developer the ability to go in several directions.
    A Horror game, a GOOD one would need a deep story and be well designed throughout from start to finish and not just randomly adding content week by week.

    The very few Horror type games i tried to get into had almost no animations and no depth.They had the story but little else.So imo these devs are similar to space type games,aiming for a cheap budget game design.

    If a dev took it seriously and put some money and effort into it ,i am sure it would be a big hit but NOBODY is doing it.
    As to "making money" NONE of these games are making money based on quality of game or the HORROR theme,they are making money based on shallow game ideas like cheap deathmatch/LMS mods or like H1Z1 that doesn't even have the zombies or ANY horror factor in it's most popular part of the game.

    Even all the popular games are not selling on merit,they are making money because of ladders and rankings and esports.I see it every single day in Twitch...." i just have to get legend" i just have to get gold rank ,i have to get number one on ladder.As soon as the rankings and ladders are at the end of the season ,nobody cares and go off to play other games
    You remove ESPORT/ladders/rankings ,basically the $$$ factor and these games all die and VERY quickly.

    Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.

  • YanocchiYanocchi Member UncommonPosts: 677
    Horror fans could be easily appeased by adding somewhat isolated horror modules to existing MMO worlds. Imagine LV-426 crawling with scary aliens or a Dead Space style derelict spaceship like Ishimura somewhere in the world of Star Citizen. A good MMO should provide some probability of ending up in a secluded horror place once in a while. :)

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  • Azaron_NightbladeAzaron_Nightblade Member EpicPosts: 4,829
    It would probably take an MMO with a LOT of instancing, and heavily reliant on PvE content... which means a big budget. MMOs are rarely scary. Even TSW only manages "creepy" at times. I suspect it might get a little better now that there aren't a gazillion players running around everywhere like headless chickens to break your immersion, but... I still doubt it.

    Something like @Yanocchi mentioned might work though. Like SWTOR has a few areas like that (the Rakghoul outbreak flashpoints and the abandoned Czerka spaceship that you go to for the HK parts, which used to be a research facility. It felt very Sci-fi horror a la Alien.

    My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)

    https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/

  • NanfoodleNanfoodle Member LegendaryPosts: 10,610
    Not my cup of tea, I rather family rated games. Also not a fan of swearing and horror content has that in droves. IMO horror has a smaller circle of fans then says something PG13. So the larger the audience the more money there is.
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