The MMO hype...

zandman78

I dont know how many of you others that have thought about this...

It seems that every single book/movie/rpg etc. now HAS to become an MMORPG. And sorry to say, many of them becomes a disappointment to the players.

Some examples of MMOs that I think might be a mistake;
* Lord of the rings online. These books is among the best fantasybooks ever written and the movies are great too. Now it feels like it MUST become games and even an MMO. I think alot of people are going to try this MMO out but I also think most of them will become disapponted. I dont think they can recreate the feeling from the books and the movies.

* Myst online. Yet another good game, but can it become a popular MMO?

There are some games becoming MMOs that I really think will work out. One of those is Warhammer Online. The team behind the Warhammer-games has been very serious about making good games before so I really think they will do that this time too.

But what this post is about is the hype that everything must become an MMO. And why is that...the only reason I can think of is that the companies behind the MMOs has understood the possibility to rip money off the players every single month. And therefor I also think that many companies haste in finishing their own MMO to get the flow of money, which in most cases makes it a lousy game.

One example of this is Turbine with titles like Asheron's Call 1 & 2 and Dungeons & Dragons Online in their history. I havent tryed out Asheron's Call, but I have read alot about it. It seems like a pretty good MMO but for some reason people didnt show up for the second in the series. The conclusion of that is because the first one might not have been so good after all. And Dungeons & Dragons I have tried and didnt like at all. THAT game feels like a haste to bring in money.
The Neverwinter Night-series of games are awesome games and DDO was supposed to bring that feeling to the MMO-scene....well it didnt by far.....

So I hope this hype will be over very soon because it brings us alot of BAD MMO's to try out and get disappointed by....I already have about 5-7 bad MMO's behind me which I wish I would have never tryed out in the first place.

Please comment on this post and bring your thought

/Mattias

Sheista

The reason AC2 failed is that Turbine made a game that was nothing like their first.  The only similarity was the game lore.  AC1 was very much a success, and most people who played it will tell you it was a very good game.  (note most, and I say most because to be honest, not many have played it.  Those who -did-, usually consider it a good game)

AC2 was launched too early, and was full of bugs.  Turbine later fixed the problems, but it was too late.  They had already alienated their AC1 player base, and people already thought the game sucked.

The games played nothing the same, and all people really wanted was the same game with new features and better graphics - not a completely new game with mechanics that were nothing like the old system.

Antipathy

I can't think of any reason why something like a lord of the rings MMO can't be made to work. Tolkiens middle earth is a highly detailed world with huge amounts of background. There is plenty of scope for all sorts of adventures to be set there.

You are, however, right in a way. A lord of the rings MMO wouldn't have the same feel as the books. That's inevitable given the medium. With thousands of players online at the same time it is impossible for every one of them to be the ringbearer or one of his companions, with the destiny of middle earth in his hands. However that "heroic" side of things isn't the only reason why people like lord of the rings - others are drawn to the rich background and imaginative setting. These people may well be satisfied provided Turbine do a good job.

Other intellectual properties may be much less suitable for an MMO. The one that strikes me as most dubious is the "Pirates of the Carribean" game. Is there much more background material available beyone the films? Whilst there is enough in the films for 4-5 hours of entertainment, can this really sustain 6 months or more of gameplay? Are people attracted to the film in the first place because of the
setting, or because of Captain Jack? And would a world full of Captain
Jack Sparrows be any fun? This is a cheap attempt by disney to try and cash in on the films. Expect the MMO to suck badly.

I don't know enough about Myst to comment on that game.

I also don't know alot about Asheron's Call 2. Although I have heard the reasons it failed had far more to do with it's own faults than those of AC1.

RK-Mara

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Originally posted by Antipathy
With thousands of players online at the same time it is impossible for every one of them to be the ringbearer or one of his companions, with the destiny of middle earth in his hands.

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That's not the idea of LOTRO.

Unknown

But LOTR is High Fantasy.  How can you have high fantasy as an MMORPG when no one is a real a hero?  If if you make it so everyone is killing gods like in EQ after a few expansion then it just becomes dumb.

This is Why Age of Conan and things like it are a smarter world setting then others.

The OP is right too many people are just trying to jam things into an MMORPG mold without any thought as to the whys and whatfors.

Look at Eve its whole purpose screams out MMORPG world sim even down to the way travel works.  CCP made sure each of its things fit in place and are there for reasons.

Most MMORPGs are just a mish mash of things people think should be in a fantasy setting or whatever.  Its Broader than just hype.  Its a symptom of the entire genre from the beginning.

The Sim games like Eve and UO suffer from it less and the dungeon run games like EQ suffer from it worse.  And now that people are seeing setting that were not designed for MMORPGs they are seeing how the jamming of these idea together really makes no sense.  Whereas games like EQ try to be both a world sim and not a world sim, to be both high and low fantasy and everything in between.  Then they eventually fall flat on their face.

In the end they are ruining your suspension of disbelief by jamming contradictory or anachronistic things together, just like a bad movie version of an IP does.

Herodes

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Originally posted by RK-Mara

Originally posted by Antipathy
With thousands of players online at the same time it is impossible for every one of them to be the ringbearer or one of his companions, with the destiny of middle earth in his hands.

That's not the idea of LOTRO.

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In LOTRO we all will play orcs, trying to kill Frodo.