Can someone give me a quick lesson in Superheros MMOs 101?

hubertgrove

I mean, I don't get it. Champions is being made by Cryptic which already has a superheroes game, City of X. SoE is currently making a DC Universe Online game which, according to insiders, is exactly the same as City of X except instead of Statesman and Lord Recluse and Paragon City you now have Superman, the Joker and Metropolis etc. Does anyone know who is familiar with the development of these games if there is any distinctive difference between them? I believe that Marvel pulled out of the superhero MMO business precisely because it couldn't find a differential between its own proposition and City of Heroes/Villains, yes, no?

IdesofMarch

The two main reasons that swirl around as to why Marvel Universe was canceled is Microsoft Game Studios (the set publishers for the game) felt a venture into the MMO market wouldn't be successful enough for them to put the time and money into. The other is that Microsoft and Marvel had issues with the licensing of the Marvel characters and whatnot.

GrimHellfire

For DC online, i'm not sure you make you own character but instead you play as one of the DC characters,

i know that sounds weird

vajuras

I love comics and follow both titles. Cryptic made CoX originally but then they sold that IP to NCSoft.  After they developed CoX, Jack said they had "revelations" or rather, learned more about MMO development.

 

For starters, when they conceived CoX it was supposed to be skill-based (many dont know this). I was pumped like many others. But then Jack claimed they went to E3, saw how lost people were, then dumped it for simplier Class based system

Over the long haul, this decision cost them he explains in an interview at gamasutra or somewhere

 

so now they have licensed the HERO system and will make Champions Online, which will be classless system loosely / firmly based on HERO. In HERO system you could design your own avatar. I just happened to look into HERO awhile back and alwayts said they should use it. So guess my guardian angel looked out

 

DC Universe I have no inside scoop. I have read impressions so far it is fairly classless as well and will be an Action MMO. you can see a lot of footage on gametrailers.com

 

It's a dime toss atm. We dont know anything much. We can only speculate til they both go open beta

Reklaw

Originally posted by GrimHellfire


For DC online, i'm not sure you make you own character but instead you play as one of the DC characters,
i know that sounds weird

 

DCUO lets you creat your own unique character that will and can fight along side famous DC characters.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/37624.html < listen to about his 4th sentence

Must say from games like CoH/CoV/Champions Online only DCUO looks kinda intresting to me, but am afraid that all it is will be the looks of seeing those famous DC characters. I yet have to see a MMORPG that really allowes you to be that superhero as games like COH/COV are not what I would expect from a superhero MMORPG but more just a MMO with some concepts of rpg elements but those games is all you are is a superhero and sorry call me oldfashion but for a superhero MMORPG I expect to have 2 indentity's, one the superhero, the other one myself the regular guy.

And I need to add all these COMBAT only games kinda ruin the whole MMORPG experiance I thought this genre would bring. As they definitly starting to lack more and more depth and take the easy road which is always been to make a combat type of game. Far to limited for a MMORPG in my opinion, will not make it a bad game but wont be a MMORPG in my opinion.

hubertgrove

Originally posted by IdesofMarch


The two main reasons that swirl around as to why Marvel Universe was canceled is Microsoft Game Studios (the set publishers for the game) felt a venture into the MMO market wouldn't be successful enough for them to put the time and money into. The other is that Microsoft and Marvel had issues with the licensing of the Marvel characters and whatnot.

 

Thank you for your answer but you can understand, from the information available, that it is a non-answer. I mean, why didn't Microsoft think it wouldn't be 'successful' for them, the world's largest software company in partnership with a proven successful gaming studio? And the next question what issues arose between Marvel and Microsoft? Without verifiable information on either of those answers, I'm drawn back to my original question made in my original post.

Nadia

Microsoft has a bad record with mmos -- thats all there is to it

 

MS abandoned their own mmo, Mythica -- before WOW launched



MS sold Asherons Call back to Turbine -- also PreWOW



MS abandoned Vanguard



MS abandoned the XBOX mmo True Fantasy Live Online





and recently abandoned the Marvel mmo

 

 

the official reason for most of these, including Marvel, is MS did not think they could be competitive

 

if it helps, Massively recently had this article

www.massively.com/2008/07/29/microsofts-shane-kim-on-xbox-360s-mmo-failures/

Curate

For an analysis of why Marvel Universe Online isn't moving forward, I'd suggest this blog post: http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/UnSub/032008

Short answer: No one really knows. I think the best guess is that Marvel's being a lot more restrained with their intellectual property when it comes to licensing, and they're twitchy about investing in an MMO that'll appeal primarily to western audiences when WoW's got an apparent stranglehold on the market. I'm not surprised considering how well non-game IPs have translated so far into MMOs: Star Wars, The Matrix, and (arguably) Conan and Lord of the Rings.

EDIT: OK. let's try and make a link here: www.mmorpg.com/blogs/UnSub/032008 -- there we go.