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With Turbine and Warner Brothers do you think we could see a Middle Earth caliber Hogwarts or is AC3
Aericyn
Member UncommonPosts: 394
Would you want it? What would make it compelling to you?
Comments
Wouldn't be surprised to see a Harry Potter MMO.
They would make it like LOTRO though, where they follow the story in the books and turn all the players into amazing heroes that are non-existent in the books.
I'd rather they did a sandbox.
Yes, I would prefer a sandbox - post Deathly Hallows world. But... that didn't go so well for Matrix lore.
AC3 with monthly chapters, an explorable, moldable world LOTRO class progression... you know what scratch that. I don't know that I could so easily sum up what would make a good AC3 game. Tummies?
AC and AC2 had some groundbreaking mechanics - so many games have gems blended in with the mundane requirements - class progression, quest, combat, craft and other typical RPG fare. WoW has some, WAR has some, AoC has some, FF14 has some... GW. All have things that make them different as a result of different people involved. Ask two or 20 artists to paint/draw a bear looking for food - you expect to find similarities but each will have individual qualities and brush strokes.
It's hard to discover a simple solid diamond in the rough. Something with enough facets that truly shine and complete a compelling online RPG experience.
Folks comment on the "glory" days of 1st gen MMOs. There was so little to compare them to, one opal in the stones will be striking no matter how flawed. Now we are searching for a diamond in the opals.
I would.Harry Potter fanaticism is on its way out. If anyone wanted to make a Potter MMO, they missed the opportunity
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)
Well I wish AC3 but hope not like AC2 as it was junk.. Or redo AC1 to now a days and advertise it, recode it to f2p and bring to back to life, I know with the engine they have now they can't do f2p so thats why I said to redo it. But it may be to costly.
But they may do it as they seen what DDO has turned to and now LOTR so I would not be surprised if they did do that to AC1 as they know many old players would return , I know I would in a second..
I think AC2 scared them enough to not make an AC3. Likely the only way that would happen would be if all of the people who want an AC3 started subscribing to AC. Those numbers going up and up would put that thought in there head. But sitting back not subscribing to AC and hoping an AC3 comes along is just foolish.
I would imagine the next MMO Turbine makes will naturally be in an IP that WB is related to. Thing is that list is pretty long. Probably means it will be a Pinky and the Brain MMO, you heard it here first.
I don't think the window has passed for HPO since lego harry potter just released and I believe it did very well. Just because the temporary fans who saw a couple of the movies and that's it are over it does not mean those who are much bigger fans would not still kill to be able to be immersed in the world.
Just make it as pretty as ac2 and they'd have a pretty popular game on the market. Ac2 had no gameplay worth mentioning but the graphics were pretty fair even in retrospect. I'd love to play ac again, it was a great game... but the graphics, I've tried, I just can't... (and thats saying something since I play nethack/angband/dwarf fortress.)
Shadus
Never played Asheron's Call, but it's gotta be better than Hairy Pooter.
That being said, I think a Potter MMO is much more likely - but I voted for what I want to happen, not what I think.
AC1 should go f2p imo, I loved AC2 I had alot of fun playing it with friends, an AC3 thats just like AC1 with better grpahics would be AWESOME!
Sounds probable. That would give them much more control over the license and IP than going with an external property, and it would also eliminate the need to come up with a whole new universe of creatures and lore like they did with AC.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
I very much doubt there will be a Harry Potter MMO, at least one not aimed only at kids. Somehow a traditional MMO just doesn't seem to work, epecially one where its kids in school uniforms. It would get preverted beyond the developers intent.
AC3 with the LOTRO engine, that would be awesome.
You do realize that there is a Harry Potter Themepark, right? There's enough people that love Harry Potter enough that there will probably always be enough of an audience to justify an MMO. And it's almost certain that it's going to become a classic that's handed down from generation to generation.
Yep Harry Potter is now part of our culture much like Winnie the Pooh. They are still telling Winnie the Pooh stories written 80 some years ago. It is strong enough material to affect generations not a generation.
AC3 would be awesome, but I'm willing to bet Turbine won't revive the Asheron's Call franchise after how hard it fell with AC2. I loved AC1, and I do mean loved it. It had the best FPS-style FFA PvP in all MMO's I've played. But let's face one fact, Asheron's Call was never that popular. Compared to old classics like Everquest, UO, and DAOC, Asheron's Call looked like a tiny subscription game. Turbine tried once to release a sequel and it fell hard on its face. They made the same mistake that Mythic eventually made with WAR. They forgot to cater to their loyal fanbase and tried to do something different & new.
Anyways, I really doubt Turbine wil bring Asheron's Call franchise back. It's keeping AC1 going just because they only staff 2 developers while they still get a small income out of the game. Heck AC1 probably has more players than Vanguard right now. But unless there's a sudden spike of player population in AC1, don't expect to see an AC3.
Turbine's flagship is LOTR Online and that game is making them money. They know what kind of games work today and what kind of games will attract customers. So expect any new games to be more like LOTR Online than anything.
EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-DDO-GW-LoTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO
Their next mmo will be a console mmo and I hope they actually make something on their own instead of buying a popular ip and running it into the ground like Lotro.
Common misconception. AC1 was not far behind UO and EQ at all. They just didn't advertise at all where as EQs name was talked about all over the place so it seemed much bigger. When UO and EQ were at 200k AC was at 150K, for that day and age that was huge.
I was never really interested in a Harry Potter MMO but you just made it sound awesome, where do I sign up?
The difference is when EQ climbed up and up until 450k+ subscribers in 2003, AC1 went down and down and 150k was about the absolute peak for it. AC1's peak occurred during the very early 2000-2001 years, and it literally went downhill fast especially after the AC2 fiasco.
Personally I consider the tripled subscription numbers a big difference, but you may perceive it differently. And honestly all you gotta do is look at the game's population today, compare EQ1 to AC1 if you want to, or simply compare Turbine's own LOTR Online to AC1. No investor will go out there and say "here I'll give you $50mil to revive the asheron's call franchise".
EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-DDO-GW-LoTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO
Wizard 101 is already the game I think a Harry Potter MMO would be like, I just do not think a MMO based in that IP would ever live up to expectations of the fans, Turbine is not Cryptic so wouldn't in all likeliehood create a STO dogpile, but it could spell a substantially bad opinion of them as a studio, it could be a huge risk & despite the potential payoffs I think it would be too shallow a franchise to work with.
AC3 despite the problems with AC2 would be more likely, though I think they would not name it AC3 or associate it with that franchise though it would be the "spiritual" sucessor to AC1/AC2 & take what worked from those & LoTRO & try to maybe bring a sandbox game to life but without going the Ultima/Darkfall route, a PvE - focused sandbox rather than a PvP one.
I've never believed that EQ made it anywhere near those numbers that people claimed, if Sony backed those up at some point I would be interested to see it.
From what I know UO capped at about 200k, EQ made it to about 250-300k and AC made it to 150k, all of these were in the same time frame.
Also ACs population trended down just as slow as the other two. There was exactly one point in time where it dropped fast and significantly and that was leading up to and including the launch of ToD. Just before they stopped releasing monthly updates to "focus" on ToD they had 90-100K players still, which was in 2004.
Stopping the monthly content updates wasn't a good move to start with. Even though over games don't do monthly content updates it is tough to tell players that you aren't going to go any for about 6 months when they're used to getting them every month. They get a bit spoiled by that and now feel their monthly sub is a rip off when they are getting the same as they would get with any other MMO sub. So they lost some people from that. Then ToD hit. The big expansion that people had accepted 6 months of no content updates to wait for arrived, and it was a giant let down. A lot of the cool stuff they said they wanted to put in either wasn't in or was half assed. The "graphics update" actually made a lot of the graphics worse. It was just a terrible expansion. The population dropped down faster in a month or two after release then it had ever before.
The past year the population has been growing again due to all of the work that has gone into the game in the past year, which is a ton.
Proof for you regarding EQ's subscription numbers, and this was SOE's last publically published numbers in 2004:
"About EverQuest
Developed and published by Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE), EverQuest launched in 1999 and has since become both a gaming and cultural phenomenon. The game has sold more than 2 million copies while continuing to grow with award-winning expansions The Ruins of Kunark®, The Scars of Velious®, The Shadows of Luclin™, The Planes of Power™, The Legacy of Ykesha™, and Lost Dungeons of Norrath, making it the largest online 3D fantasy world ever created. During peak periods, more than 118,000 simultaneous adventurers have explored the fully detailed world of Norrath, filled with monsters, magic, adventure and more. The active global EverQuest subscriber base of more than 430,000 players is comprised of people from 40 different countries. Sony Online is committed to bringing EverQuest to various entertainment platforms, releasing titles such as EverQuest Online Adventures for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, EverQuest for the Pocket PC and EverQuest: Hero's Call for wireless phones. In 2004, SOE plans to launch the highly-anticipated sequel, EverQuest II, on PCs around the globe."
Aside from that, 450k+ number was quoted by an active developer who is currently working on Everquest. It wasn't a random made-up number by random people. You are free to dig that up on EQ1's forum, I know I read it just last year.
What I am interested in is where you got the 150k peak active subscriber count for AC1 from. Could you show me where you got those numbers or are they simply what random people have claimed? The closest thing I can find with AC1's sub numbers is on wikipedia. They claim AC1 peaked at 120k subscribers in 2002, and quickly declined from there on. If you can prove otherwise please do show.
So knowing AC1 peaked at 120k in 2002, and SOE was quoted to say they had over 430k in 2002 and that wasn't even the peak (peak was in 2004), how can you even put both of these games in the same league? I loved AC1, but I'm not about to go fanboy crazy and lie about how AC1 really wasn't that big of a game. I would love to see an upgraded AC1, but anybody with any financial sense should know there's very little chance of that happening.
EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-DDO-GW-LoTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO
Why there hasn't been a Potter MMO is anyones' guess. It's the perfect setting. You already have factions. Schools of Magic. High speed and quick travel. Buffs/debuffs... almost like it was built to be an MMO.
The downside of pulling it off... Hogwarts itself isn't nearly big enough, unless you're just talking about making a kid MMO. It would need to be the whole wizarding world to be a true, adult friendly MMO worthy of the brand.
But I suspect if anything gets made, it'll be mostly kid oriented.
Just so you know theya re maxing out the graphics on AC1 soon, it may not be up to todays standards but this means they are trying something with AC1..
The problem with AC was turbine never made the game MS did, and turbine never advertised like EQ, and like WOW, it was an easier game, where AC was no hand holding..
I remember in AC to be able to cast a spell I had to dl comps in a certain order and I had piles of paper and comp orders all primted out, AC was a hard core game compared to EQ so yes it didnt draw people in like EQ,
It was far from a tiny subs though as my guild alone we had atleast 100-150 a people a day on and we had a mid size guild as the yrs went in went less and less due to the bad changes turbine made,,.
Turbine only cared about DDO, then when LOTR came out they didnt care about AC at all, this is what happen with AC..i WISH TURBINE never touched it as they only wanted it to make DDO and LOTR.,
There is alot of die hard fans of AC1, and if they brought it back or an AC3 and did it right I think it would do well... LOOk at games like MO, DFO, yes they have smaller player base, but AC was done right so people do want them type of games ...Sndboxs FFA PVP etc.. old school questing .
AC would never have the subs that WOW has no game will and who cares but I think there is many people who love them type of games, The sad part alot of my friends now had no idea what AC was,, and thats because of no advertisement at all....
I know AC would do great if they did an AC3 like AC1, but now a days graphics and such, but leave the PVP as is, questing etc.
ADVERTISE. I already know turbine and warner bros have plans for AC because they are trying to update the graphics now, thats alone won;t be enough to bring people back..
I think they need to add it to a new engine to code it to a F2P like LOTR and DDO, then I can see it doing great and make the graphics like now a days..... we been saying this for over 6yrs to do this, with there current engine they can't make it f2p thats why I said this.
Use AC2 engine maybe...something..
The AC2 engine is used in LotRO and I think that Turbine considers LotRO to be the spiritual successor of AC1 and 2.
All those memories will be lost in time, like tears in the rain.
There have been numerous rumors about a Potter MMO. I, myself, consider it likely.