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Why is there no Walking Dead MMO?
Sassy_Gay_Unicorn
Member UncommonPosts: 316
I have been wondering about this and am truly baffled.
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Because buying the rights for a game costs a ton of money and when it's an MMO they have to keep renewing it in order to make new content. It's way too expensive.
There are plenty of Zombie type mmo games, go play those and pretend it's WD.
The problem is, from what I have read, none of them are any good.
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What makes you think a Walking Dead MMO would be any better?
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Because it's a high profile IP and would probably have significant resources and a built in fan base that would be appealing to investors. Sure, it could still end up crap, but I think it would have a better chance than most.
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Define 'plenty'? DayZ, H1Z1....that's about it. Not that I think a Walking Dead MMO would be a good idea. What makes WD a successful show isn't the Zombies per se, but the story and characters and how they react in the aftermath. That is really hard to replicate in within the freedom of an MMO. A themepark MMO wouldn't cut it as it would loose that 'death at any moment' feel, whilst a open sandbox pvp MMO would fail because the lack of story. And without the story, might as well be just a generic zombie MMO.
Honestly, a better approach would be to gather a bunch of your friends and find a suitable pen and paper RPG to roleplay the Zombie Apocalypse. That would be infinitely more fun in my opinion assuming you have a good GM.
Based on how the other high progile ip mmo's have gone it has been argued that a no name mmo has a better chance.
For a tv show don't forget to add in the time factor. It'll take 2 maybe 3 series to show it has value, then you need to negotiate the rights, then make the thing, by which time there's a good chance the show has been over for a year or 2(or longer) and your initial target audience may no longer be there.
I think TWD lends itself better to a single player RPG along the lines of Skyrim, Fallout or The Witcher. You can have interesting characters, an epic story or one of just survival, choices that impact the story, exploration, etc. An MMO of TWD would be bad.
Because the costs of getting the right to use such a big IP would be ridiculously high, with the potential of getting higher when it comes time to renew the deal (keep in mind that the ones who own the IP can demand whatever price they want to renew the contract, and the devs would be obligated to pay it or watch their game get shutdown if the renewal doesn't come through).
And on top of that, there is literally nothing unique about the setting. It's a zombie apocalypse set in our time, on our world. What makes the show unique is the drama and the situations the survivors find themselves in, which would translate incredibly poorly to an MMO.
A single player game at least has the chance to capture the show's feel. (Like Telltale's The Walking Dead series)
I hate to say it, but the chances of someone ever making a TWD MMO are pretty much nonexistent. At least while the show's still popular. Perhaps in 10-20 years when the IP's all but useless, and cheap to acquire someone will bother with it.
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Some interesting thoughts here.
The Telltale games are excellent.
I would love to play a table top RPG, did so for most of my life. Sadly, I am old now and the members of my former gaming group have died or moved.
WD or not, I would be very interested in an MMO setting that wasn't fantasy or spaceship based. The Secret World is the closest to what I desire. I've tried other post-apoc themed games but found them lacking.
Fantasy is played out imo. Need some new blood.
I would also love a good Steampunk inspired game, or for 'The World of Darkness' IP by White Wolf to rise from its grave.
But I'll throw something else out there: what about an MMO based on 'The Strain'? Would not be as expensive as The Walking Dead to license I would think.
Folks always seem to forget the awsome 7 days to die... It's shaping up wonderfully... It's not a MMO, but to be honest, the theam does not suite mmo architecture... Imagine an appocalypse with hundreds of people together on a hub, what sense of loneliness and danger would there be? I would say that's the main reason this type of games hasn't made it to MMO.
"Vidis Fodidis Est"
That's an interesting point. I think it could be fairly easily resolved with a "walled city" like in 'Land of the Dead' ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418819/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_67) or for an even more recent reference, 'Attack on Titan'.
What I can't figure out is how to deal with character death, or even getting bitten for that matter. On the absurd scale I have thought about a "four chance" rule, where one limb gets amputated at a time and then you have to re-roll.
Or perhaps all of your attributes and items simply go to a fresh character, so you don't lose any progress but there is the illusion of perma-death.
On the other end of the spectrum some lore-breaking "cloning chamber" type mechanism could be discovered.
I personally like the perma-death illusion option myself, but I am not sure how well it would be received. As a player who is heavily vested into character aesthetics, I would be, at best, dubious.
Thank you for the recommendation on '7 Days to Die'. I will check that out. I am not opposed to single player games, I just vastly prefer MMORPGs.
It wouldn't be expensive but it's also not a very good base for an existing IP. The book trilogy the TV show is based on is pretty rubbish. The money demanded just wouldn't be worth it and would be better off put into an original IP.