By Jim Rossignol on March 13th, 2009 at 11:24 am.
Destructoid report that Vin Diesel’s Tigon Studios has been working on an MMO, Barca BC, set during the Punic wars. Diesel had this to say about the notion of a “dream” game: “My dream game is something we’ve been working on in-house. We haven’t talked about it much because we’ve been mulling over how to do it just right. My dream game is a game that we’re developing called Barca BC… The reason why it’s my dream game is because it is an MMO and — remember you said funds were not an issue in this scenario, this is obviously a hugely expensive game — but, it’s a massively multiplayer online game where you create an avatar that lives in the reality of Hannibal Barca, the Punic Wars and life 200 BC.”
The game has apparently been in development for several years, and apparently won’t be seen for several more.
What’s your dream MMO, readers?
The trade/crafting and skills system of SW:G set in a world somewhere between Alpha Protocol and Deus Ex with a focus on intrigue and deception in the writing like in Vampire Bloodlines and in a completely persistent world like Morrowind, only making players more vulnerable (perma-death needs to be properly tried IMO.)
…wow I don’t seem to have an original thought in me.
report
Typical forum thread: “What game would you fund if you were rich?
Vin: Hey wait, I’m rich!
I wish I could make my dream game too. Must be a nice experience.
report
Since watching that Vin Diesel movie Babylon AD a lot of my dreams have included Michelle Thierry (actually I had a bit of a thing for her before from a film called Chrysalis but she’s grown up and gotten prettier since that was made).
Sorry; that’s not really answering the question, is it?
report
I think a historical MMO would be nice for a change. I’m just sick of fantasy & sci-fi MMOs.
report
Hmm… dream MMO? That’s difficult. I know what my dream game would be and it’s pretty much a fleshed out Precursors/Evochron Legends universe crossed with Planetside style ground combat. Imagine having a complete solar system (or two with a couple of planets each) and being able to fight for control of segments of the planets, orbiting stations and deep space refuelling stations/battlestations or boarding battleships etc which corporations build like in Eve.
Of course, such a game would only really work in an MMO if the subscriber base remains large.
report
EVE with real-time, Freespace 2 style combat, plus seamless integration with planets and cities for FPS action. Crafting and ship customisation. Colonise asteroids, fight in huge space battles, board and capture ships, lay siege to entire planets. Launch with a squad of marines to assault a city. And why not have some air-dropped mechs in there too.
report
40k
report
Damnit, wish I was rich, instead I’ve got to do it the hard way(s).
report
Vin Diesel is a total geek sometimes. Funny thing is, most geeks hate him.
Mine dream? Why, any single-player, open-world, non-linear, sand-box, slow-paced, atmospheric take on some architectural sci-fi classics (Fearsum Endjinn, Aeon Flux, BLAME!, Great Sky River) would do me good.
By ‘good’ I mean, ‘would totally blow me away in comparison to the unimaginative sequelfest that currently occupies our cultural space’.
report
Something without other players.
report
Oh, the usual. Eve/Planetside crossbreed. Man, I’m so RPS-entrenched!
Actually, I did think about this recently. Start with one massive, barren planet. Players are space-colonists, who start off in the game’s one pre-built city, and eventually wander off into the wilds to start building their own colonies. These get established near exploitable resources, and colony leaders can order the contruction of various upgradable types of building. In the long run (several years) these can become cities. Factions form alliances similar to Eve, conflicts are inevitable.
Oh, and it’s all done in real-time FPS.
report
Even though it wouldn’t/won’t be spectacularly original, I’d thought for a while that an MMO based on Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time books would probably make sense. Then I read in PC Gamer that apparently one is in the works. So… yeah.
Also, Panzer Dragoon.
report
HAHAHA…HAHAHAHAHAH…..HAH! what an obviously easy question.
Warhammer 40,000.
report
@Bobsy
Nice idea. Add in the ability to take off from the planet’s surface and fly to nearby moons etc and I’ll fund it when I’m a billionaire.
Another thing I would like: Mount & Blade Online with an entire planet to fight over.
report
BattleTech, circa 3020 or 3052. Either that or World of StarCraft
report
Its a good choice of setting though, three separate wars that form a distinct beginning, middle and end and opportunities to do stuff involving the alps abounds.
As for me, I’d do a spiritual successor to Planetside that doesn’t stumble into the design mistakes that the original has, has proper day/night cycles and tries to give players a better reason to fight than ‘just because’. Plus, it’d actually be marketted, I’d make it clear that the CoDuties and Battlefields have nothing on this for sheer scale of conflict, work to avoid the situation in Planetside where keen FPS players go “Whats that?” when you mention it in general conversation.
report
Battletech crossed with Mount and Blade!
Also everything Bobsy said.
report
While reading others ideas and trying to think of my own, I had to change my underwear at the idea of a MechWarrior MMO. It’s been too long since we’ve had some real big stompy robot action!
Not my dream MMO (still haven’t decided), but I’d so play it.
report
Something in the style of Unknown Armies/The Invisibles/Last Call.
report
Aren’t MMOs that online thing with the monthly fees?
/poor
report
My dream MMO involves players roleplaying an evolving thought form construct, inhabiting fifth dimensional space, battling one another using ironic time traveling petrol bombs and using sex to communicate – so it essentially takes place in Grant Morrison’s subconscious.
report
My dream MMO…
It would be a 4X game with only one sever, based on a gigantic multiplanar space. Each plane would have its own elements, resources and conditions and each player would begin with a tiny kingdom, trying to get more space and resources, fighting or allying with other players in the same plane until they were powerful enough to navigate through the planes and spread their influence.
It would be heavily magic based but not on a obvious way, It would be a bit like Magic (the rpg from White Wolf), there would be tons of presets spells to affect all type of spheres (social, economy, military) and you will be able to create your own ones once you had enough experience and power. Same way, you will be able to craft your own magical items.
You know, I could write pages and pages of this game, but I don’t want to indulge myself in such a worthless exercise. Think on Master of Magic, the rpg Magic and a bit of Dwarf Fortress, online in one server and with real consequences to your actions. In my mind is glorius and I guess it will remind there.
report
I’d like a serious GTA/Urban Dead/Left 4 Dead mixture. A whole quarantined city overrun by infected, unsafe streets, large groups of survivors barricaded in whole blocks of buildings, rooftop agriculture and walkways between buildings, frequent raids and expeditions into infected territory to get supplies and find out more about the infection, resuce missions to recover wounded, defense missions when the infected breach a barricade. Add a strong military presence with its own agenda to make things a bit more uncertain. The vibe from Brian Wood’s DMZ, if you will, plus zombies. Modifiable equipment, bunks in common rooms and later flats you can customize and store your stuff in. Survivor and military Radio stations. When you decide to stop playing and end your subscription, you can embark on an epic last ditch mission to leave the city.
Something like that.
report
@Bananaphone
In general I’m against WoW-style fast travel. My attitude is that the journey should be as much game content as the destination and if I’m ever bored going from A to B the solution is to make the travel more interesting rather than just faster.
That said, it’d probably be easier/better in a footurwistic setting, with chunky dropships and fancy magno-trains and everything.
report
My dream MMO wouldn’t depend on the setting but on the mechanics. Can you HAVE a dream setting? I’d settle for space or fantasy or whatever if the gameplay was right. And that’s something that one can’t get into in a short reply.
report
A proper autoduelling game based on skill and physics. Get hired as a lone merc to fend off a biker clan. Fill a battle bus with your mates all firing from the windows as you ram through some walls. Scavenge some rusty hulk and tune it up with dangerous engine mods and a few turrets. Bail out of your flaming sidecar and pick off drivers with a few well-aimed pistol shots.
report
I’d like an MMO based on A Song of Ice and Fire just because I’m so in love with that story and universe. I don’t even like MMOs, but I’d play that one.
report
An MMO which gave us a huge, and occasionally impassable, world to play in would float my boat immensely. Of course, it’d conflict with the current MMO model of raids and loot, and be really hard to make and implement right, both design-wise and technically.
Huge landscapes, like what Tim Stone was getting at in Empire’s Wot I Think.
report
Something based on the Warhammer licence but more interesting than WAR.
My basic idea is based in the Empire. Player would either be chaos cultists corrupting villages, religious nutters trying to root out the chaos and keep people respecting Sigmar etc. or just normal people living lives that get caught up in the conflict.
Possibly with a WFRP-style career system instead of levels. And no grinding.
Wish I was Vin Diesel.
report
I would like to see a squad MMO. Somewhat strategical. You would have a squad 2 to 6 men that you use, equip and level. In my dreams you could equip every character with unique stuff( weapon and armor. Grenades etc. would be universal for the squad.) Then you would have a limited amount of skills you can take with you. Skill bar would have designated slots for item skills, learned abilities and such. For example 9 skill bar: 2 skills for tactical stances, 3 for item abilities, and 4 for other learned skills. For example you could take aggressive and defensice stance that you can switch between (changes AI, dmg and defence), frag grenade for infantry killing, medikit for small health boosting and ap/av bullet toggle for third, For learned you could have some passive boosts as better aiming, active such as bloodlust for increased dmg for a duration etc.
It should also have all kinds of missions from instanced small ones to huge battlegrounds and free for all wilderness where you can kill monsters and other players as much as you please. Squad size would depend on level and mission.
It would have the usual RTS camera angles with zoom in and out. Think of it as DOW2 meets guild wars. The setting should be sci-fi, either w40k like or post apocalyptic. The squad men shouldn’t be like supermen either. Basic monster should drop easily but also the squad should be a bit fragile so you would need some tactics.
Sorry for the long rant
report
Dreams? I stay awake, so the ultrabodies capsules don’t steal my body!. Call me paranoid, If you wish. HAHA.. you are triing to trick me!.
Using your money to create a MMO is about the 2th fastes wais to broke. The other one is rebuild the titanic in scale 1:1 using something highly flamable, and accidentally dropping a molotov over it. I kind of think is easier just to extract the money from the bank and drop it in a big pool of acid.
report
Has anyone read Otherland by Tad Williams? Well, a game played in the same way as that. Without the getting stuck on The Net and dying bit, obviously.
report
apnea says:
“Vin Diesel is a total geek sometimes. Funny thing is, most geeks hate him.”
I think a lot of film snobs hate him but geeks? I like him, but I’m no alpha geek.
report
Arf. On the wiki for Otherland: “On October 1, 2008, it was announced that RealU and dtp entertainment are developing a MMO based upon the novels. It’s currently scheduled to be released in 2010.[1]”
It’ll be bollocks, though.
report
“Something without other players”
“Hate the players, not the game”, is my online motto.
report
espy: YES.
But there’s no reason to stop when you leave the city. Find your new territory, clear out and fortify some country estate, start the struggle to forge your new microstate/feudal kingdom, or become a bandit and live by raiding, develop a whole Mad Max-ish theme of islands of civilisation trying to restart from scratch, vs the ever present zombies and the bandit gangs…
report
It’s actually kinda freaking me out that the guy who wants to make an MMO based on the Punic Wars is also this guy.
(best thing about Fast and Furious is the presence of Paul Walker, who manages to make Vin Diesel look like Laurence bloody Olivier)
report
@ Bobsy
Haha, I had the exact same idea. I was also thinking about creating an actual ecosystem, where creatures don’t just walk around and attack the player but interact with eachother. And where over-hunting of a certain species, can cause another one to bloom, etc.
@Larington
That MMO partially exists, and it’s called WWII Online. It has a Day Night Cycle, and you play to take over the map. Only issue is it’s still very buggy, and there are still multiple game design flaws (Especialy with infantry).
It is more for hardcore sim fans, but considersing it’s the only MMO FPS still around (Been going since 2001!), had such a rocky launch and the staff is probably smaller than Blizzards Janitorial Services…It’s very damn impressive. Not even WoW has so many updates and game improvements.
And no MMO developer out there, outside maybe the CCP guys doing EVE, is attempting anything so different.
Of course, its got the stability and polish of an Open Beta, but it’s a testament to the guys are CRS. I mean, the damage model alone is more complex than the game mechanics on every game on the next gen consoles combined.
I’m shocked that as PC Gamers that talk constantly about EVE and Planetside, the RPS peeps have never acknowledged these guys.
No game comes close to the sheer scale of WWII Online.
If someone where to take the WWII Online engine, pump in the money and staff needed so CRS could get the new terrain and game engine code out faster and with fewer bugs, fix the shooty bits and place it all into the WH40k universe, i’d have my dream MMO
report
EVE, but without the boredom.
report
Hah – somehow the fact that Vin Diesel started his own video game studio escaped me. It’s funny how he has this tough-guy image but really isn’t stupid at all. He directed a short film that made it to the Cannes Festival AFAIR.
Ah – and he plays D&D – ha, ha!
Well – I don’t like the movies he stars in – all of them. :-P
Except for Saving Private Ryan, The Iron Giant and the animated Chronicles of Riddick stuff.
Wait – we’re talking about MMOs here. ;-)
OK – my perfect MMO would be something like Progress Quest but with more interaction between the “players”. That is – there should be a real persistent world where your avatars would meet other avatars etc. – of course absolutely automatically. ^^
http://progressquest.com/
report
@Larrington
Global Agenda?
report
@Morph, ever heard of Mordheim? That would probably do the trick, and for a sci-fi bent just use Necromunda. Those MMO’s could potentially be so sweet but they’d never happen.
My dream MMO would be an almost modern setting, maybe steam-punkish, where the main object of the game is exploration and exploitation of resources rather than combat, as well as almost realistic survival conditions and a freedom of travel (i.e. you could begin training as a pilot from the beginning rather than having to grind all the way up a leveling structure first, also flying would have a soft flight sim element to it. You’d still need lots of money to own and maintain your own plane mind, but you could work for say a corporation (NPC or player owned) that could provide you with one to help with jobs).
report
Planetside plus … something. Can’t put my finger on it. Maybe Planetside with EVE-style player-run factions, but I get the feeling it wouldn’t be much different than it already is. As for setting, I’m thinking mock 18th century, replete with naval battles and AI soldiers to fill the ranks where players are missing. Reload times might be suicide inducing, though.
I’d also like a Daggerfall MMO. Take all the versatility and scale from that game, clean up the shit, and it could make for a nice fantasy diversion. If there was ever a game that could benefit from taking friends with you on a dungeon tromp, Daggerfall was it.
report
An MMO with PvE that doesn’t make your eyes squirt blood, with PvP that makes the loser care if he loses, and with an economy where taking the RIGHT risks is enough to get rich.
All other features optional.
report
My dream MMO: An MMO where the core gameplay is so fun that it effectively makes gold selling/character leveling services obsolete. I mean, you wouldn’t pay someone to play Team Fortress 2 for you, right?
report
@Bobsy
I wasn’t thinking of fast travel, it’s all about the drop-ships and asteroid mining.
If nothing else, I’d just like an MMO that does real-time FPS combat right. Planetside’s battles always felt limp to me. Don’t want to be forced into PvP either, PvE should always be an option.
report
DoW II’s singleplayer character and equipment progression married with CoH’s setting and more tactical gameplay. In a massive, evolving theatre of war, where the next battle is determined by your success in the last. Possibly with the reward for hitting the high levels being to become first a battlefield commander, able to use certain abilities like off-map arty and also attempt to direct lower level squads, and then a regional commander, able to select which squads will fight where.
report
Something with a cyberpunk flavor, but actually friendly to players in the way WoW generally is, instead of annoying and hostile like Neocron was. But with guns and implants and drugs and AIs with questionable motives that run everything.
Or… Team Fortress MMO?
report
Mmo games developer mmo. Spend months crafting for a franchised material fail to get the contract and then try and edit thousands of pages of lore. Diva developers draw public attention good and bad and your publisher wants the game out before christmas. Can you avoid being compared to wow?
report
@Malagate.
Mordheim wasn’t really what I had in mind, but it’s a cool game anyway. A Mordheim MMO sounds pretty fun.
report
Robotech MMO would be fun. Battletech/Battlemech MMO would be good too. A decent cyberpunk one (Cyberpunk 2020/Deus Ex based would work nicely.)
report
I’d tell you but then I’d have to kill you!
I did develop an idea for a great MMO years ago and thought I was all original and shit but then someone showed me that the basics were already in place in Second life. Obviously though second life is shit and my idea wasn’t to create a 3D facebook. User content creation was the basis for every element of the game though, where people could create and script for the game and then sell that content on to other users for use in the game. So The game would basically provide an empty world and people would have to build it up with their own content.
report
I’d really like to see something take that next evolutionary step past the current WoW model, entirely in PvE. And preferably with a very large, interesting world to explore, a strong setting (hopefully not standard fantasy, although, say, urban fantasy might work), and NO BLOODY LICENSES.
Well, unless it’s the 40K license.
I have no idea what this would look like, which is why I’m not working for an MMO company right now.
report
My respect for Vin Diesel just rose manifold.
Pulling this off, as an ancient historian myself, would be nothing short of outstanding. It’s not entirely unexpected mind, Vin’s been trying to get a film about Hannibal put together for years now – in period language no less.
report
Vin was in Saving Private Ryan? Er. Was this a different Saving Private Ryan to the one I saw?
report
My dream MMO is one that finally stops people from making MMOs when it fails.
report
I’ve heard about Global Agenda, but I’m reserving my judgement until I have a solidish understanding of the gameplay mechanics. If players are going to be limited by classes or by pidgeon-holing players into a browser based system of chosing a target and suddenly your magically there, I’m not going to be interested.
Meanwhile, the people who have heard about WWII Online, tend to be the same select few who have heard about Planetside. Again, a grossly under-marketted game.
report
A Mordheim MMO would be awesome, especially considering the Empire itself was pretty messed up at that time anyway. Would be a good adventure-y MMO as a counter to the mass PVP of WAR.
report
@Bobsy
He’s the first of the squad to get killed. Shot by the sniper in the church that Giovanni Ribisi shoots through the eye.
report
Bobsy: He was the guy who gets shot in the rainy town by the sniper in the tower.
And not an mmo but I always wanted to see a real time space based civilization game where distances and sizes of stars and planets were properly scaled, so sorta like Celestia, the game.
report
Spoiler warning:
Bobsy he’s the guy getting shot in the german town, when helping a little girl. It’s all rainy and stuff.
report
Lol, now he knows.
report
You 3 are very helpful today.
report
Bobsy: Assuming you’re thinking of the Saving Private Ryan when that guy is saving a girl and TOTALLY GETS EATEN BY A DRAGON then yes, that’s the one.
report
I thought he was the guy that saves the little girl by speeding through a train crossing in a muscle car.
report
To me, a Cowboy Bebop/ Firefly setting would be ideal for an MMO. The perfect setting for lots of varied missions, gunplay and even hand to hand combat.
report
@martydodge
An MMO worked off of the proper Shadowrun license might fit the bill there as well, with enough cyberpunk flavour flashed over some recognisable gamer tropes to pull in the unfamiliar, since cyberpunk in general tends to miss mass market appeal in my experience.
That or Snow Crash. I went there.
report
My dream MMO would be one that is actually fun.
report
Difficult to do, but this is dreaming…
My dream MMO would construct a story between all the players. There would be no NPCs giving out the same story quests to everyone. There would be people, in some fashion, developing storylines all the time. Some of those people would be staff, many would be other players. Quality might be an issue. Really, really good content creation tools would be required to keep things flowing at a decent rate. Simulate a world where the people in it determine the story, not where there’s a grand story that everyone plays through and it’s the same for everyone.
The main risk with a truly mutable world is that you end up with one faction so dominant that nobody else has a chance, although I suppose then the staff writers’ extra powers could kick in and they could kick off balancing events on a scale that ordinary player-writers wouldn’t be allowed to do. Or recruit some player-writers to do it for them.
Would be expensive. Technology requirements difficult. Lots of staff needed. Also needs a high-quality playerbase, which probably makes it completely unworkable in real life.
report
Dream Game: Planescape: Torment with Diablo III graphics.
Dream MMO: Shadowrun
I would have listed the World of Darkness MMO being made by White Wolf and CCP, but as much as I love EVE and tend to have proper faith in CCP, White Wolf has been disappointing me since 2004, so my hopes are not high. :(
report
APB with the occasional seasonal game event… zombie virus, terrorist attack, asylum for the criminally insane breakout, alien invasion, and so on.
Also, my wife and I both did SIGINT during the cold war. I’d like to see a modern warfare game that includes an accurate depiction of the way electronic warfare (SIGINT, ELINT, TELINT, etc.) can affect battle. You know, GPS spoofing, anti-satellite missiles, jamming, communications intercept, all that good stuff.
report
Dream MMO would probably be space game where you are in full control of your ship, with real-time action, full trading systems and can customise your ship, (visually as well as functionally) etc.
Also you’d be able to go down to numerous habitable planets and each one would be like a mini MMO, each one with the same core game and progression, but with different gameplay twists depending on the planets condition, requiring different weapons and strategies for each planet.
So you have a low gravity planet, a planet where you have to wear crazy spacesuits and has environmental conditions that erode traditional weaponry so you have to use like some crazy kung fu to fight. One planet where the populace are made up of war-renactment enthusiasts, but it went horribly wrong, and all modern weapons and items are stripped from you upon arrival, and you get to engage in some messed up version of 15th century warfare.
Obviously this game will never happen, but thats why it’s my “Dream” MMO.
report
I’d also sink my life into a proper MMO fashioned around Uplink. Anything from personal computers, to corporate mainframes, to proper zombie computers, etc. Imagine the PVP possibilities, egads!
report
I hear elephant is good with fava beans and a nice chianti.
Not sure how a Punic Wars MMO would work. I thought the wars were characterised by large-ish military engagements (hell, about 80,000 people died at Cannae) rather than the scattered skirmishes that seem to make up most MMO combat.
report
A BattleTech/MechWarrior MMO would be fun. Wasn’t one in development a couple of years ago? I haave a vague memory of a friend rambling about a MechWarrior beta.
I have already told you about my dream mmo: A white trash/trailer park mmo with alien abduction-style horror. A bit like Trailer park boys, merged with Gummo. And alien abductions (in an It came from the desert/X-files style).
That or a mmo based on A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. War of the Roses with a touch of magic.
report
Why, that question is rather easy to answer. A Fallout MMO would be quite nice to see.
Logically, I would have hundreds of “hired players” to act according to their given profiles. I would pay a certain dude to act as a normal tribal, for instance. I would also hire many funny dudes, just to make the game a little more like Fallout 2 in terms of funniness.
The game would also have an EVE feeling, in terms of having “0.0 space”, which would be the wasteland itself. Think of Road Warrior, if you want.
It would be crucial to have an economy like in EVE too. Supply and demand controlling the pace of trading.
It would be the most expensive MMO project ever. But I would be oh so very happy.
report
Oh, and Vin’s character in Saving Private Ryan is called “Caparzo” iirc.
report
@Aphotique
That MMO is out already. I hear the penalty for failure is pretty steep, though.
report
Dream MMO : Roger Rabbit… think about it and you know am right!
report
@cyrenic
If you mean what I think you mean, then I suppose you’re right, though I don’t think I personally have the necessary fortitude to withstand a prison sentence.
report
@Bobsy: If building the colonies is as involved as Dwarf Fortress, count me in.
@cHeal: Have you seen Metaplace? It’s like a less horrific Second Life.
…
My dream MMO would be cyberpunk themed, social and player-driven to at least the same extent as EVE Online. No shards, no questgiving NPCs. Very hard-edged cyberpunk like Blade Runner and GITS:SAC, with the technology being used for realistic criminal/political ends, not “200+ years in the future and we have vitachambers and space colonies” nonsense. And certainly not Shadowrun’s fantasy horseshit.
Cyberpunk is a good setting for an MMO because you can give players lots of interesting non-life-threatening things to do while they’re building up their resources, and then use medical and cybernetic advances (and artistic license) to stave off permadeath indefinitely for those that don’t want it.
report
Actually… a redwall mmo would be kind of cool. Anything based on a kooky kids novel series would be nice :)
report
Can we not do that ‘readers’ bs that Triforce do?
It’s so condescending.
Why don’t you just say plebs and be done with?
report
Battletech-Planetside-Eve-craft-online.
Player economy + whatever skill system ccp would have retrospectively used + large persistant universe on one server.
Mech/vehicle/infantry combat, resource harvesting etc on planets surfaces. Want to fight in a suitably shooty spaceship? fine, but you’ll need a crew of players to run that miniature flying fortress. No sense in having one enemy pod-pilot ruining an entire ground offensive, eh?
Wishful thinking and optimism of the highest order, but it makes me happy.
report
Glad I’m not the only one who wants something that’ EVE + Planetside. And who cares about the setting if you mix those two. Just have it so while you’ve got ships doing stuff and infantry doing stuff you never have to play an FPS when you want to fly a ship around, and vice versa. Have it be really pervasive too, so even if you can’t use the main client you could still contribute and gain stuff, say playing browser games on the site to give bonuses to people in game and gain some pay for your trouble, or even some way for dinking around on the forums to provide something. Stand alone chatter client so you can sit in the in-game channels without being online, and so fourth and so on.
Kinda funny how everyone wants an MMO, but I suppose this is about staying power, where a single player game may occupy you for a few weeks at most.
report
Well mmo’s are all about team play or co-operation so.
One of the hardest things to keep on the internet is a secret. I think a mmo based around keeping secrets, more to the point collectively keeping a secret would be just great.
But hold on for a second!
A GTA style “cop & Robbers” mmo game where people join forces catching crims and infiltrating gangs or gangs infiltrating the police would be just great. This would by default it being an mmo be all based around trust the moment the trust breaks down would be where all the fun would start.
Finding a guild/network of players that you trust is a very tricky thing to do. So to find out that one of your trusted group is actually secretly working in some corrupt criminal gang would be an amazing revelation. In a nutshell an mmo that exploits group trust to the maximum.
Also the PvP possibilities for a crime based mmo are endless with car chases and shoot outs you name it.
report
The above has been an idea my brother and I have pondered at some length. For it to be fun, the crims would need to be able to commit ‘worthwhile’ crimes like Heat-style bank robberies, which would need to be planned, scouted, practiced and executed (getting the plans, hacking the security systems, etc. could be abstract, but the practicing and execution would have to be FPS really). Not sure how the cops would be able to ‘cop on’ to the conspiracy – obviously you’d need informers/infiltrators but there would have to be a lot of false leads to follow. Tricky to think of how the crims could leave a trail that could be followed without the game just arbitrarily betraying them. Would be difficult to have a balance between every gang always falling apart in backstabbing and betrayal, and the occasional impenetrable gang that plans everything offline. There ought to be great opportunities for those Eve stories where someone works their way high into the hierarchy before revealing themselves though.
Unfortunately, if it was to be any good, it really would end up being a training tool for prospective real world criminals – the Daily Mail would LOVE it.
report
A pokemon MMO. Yeah, go ahead and pretend you don’t like pokemon. It lends itself to the concept of an MMO perfectly, roaming around the world in search of new monsters (They would have to be actually roaming around though, not the random encounter bollocks) to catch and battling other players you meet on your way. Choosing your first pokemon and actually having the sense that you are heading out on your adventure into an open world with it rather than into a linear single player storyline is a prospect that would have made my 10-years-in-the-past-self splooge his pants, and that even now I find exciting. Add in an interesting and fun breeding mechanic, and an overhaul of the rubbish 4-move turn based combat system, and I’d be sold.
report
Radiant: You just reminded me of Caesar II: “MORE PLEBS ARE NEEDED”
report
Necromunda, a thousand times Necromunda. Squad based strategy MMO. Going out to find new terrain and meeting another player there and having to fight it out. Going to the shop and getting ambushed. Your scout getting kidnapped and having to be captured back.
You could roam around with a single scout and anytime you met someone else you’d go into a battle screen and set your gang up etc. Or you could run away. Or you could try and kidnap the enemy scout.
Or, of course, the same with Mordheim or GorkaMorka. But Necromunda will always remain my one true love in terms of setting. I remember seeing a short CGI video of Necromunda done up for a Games Day back in the mid 90s and it looked amazing, and ever since then I’ve wanted this game to be made. It could be done, and it could be the first of a new kind of MMO, if only someone would listen to me…
report
Something with the complexity and world-shaping potential of EVE Online and Wurm, with the narrative strength of a single player game and the gameplay/visuals/musical score to match. It would need to start out of the gate with a player base at least equaling WoW’s to stand a chance in hell of ever making back the development costs. Never going to happen.
report
Starship Troopers Universe.
I see it like this:
FPS-type of gameplay (with commanders and general tactics) for the Human Alliance side.
RTS-type of gameplay for players on Bug’s side.
Kinda like of controlling and raising your own part of the big bugs swarm. Protecting the nest, flanking trooper’s positions, etc You know, Zerg Rush and such.
report
Easy. Set it in the Culture universe. Get Banks on board as Creative Director, the guys from Troika to do the dialogue and Turbine to do the engine.
Done. Best game ever.
report
Collaborative ecosystem builder! The cooler you make the world the more points everyone gets! Everyone can live happily together!
report
Oh also what Petel said.
report
I wish I could make my dream game too. Must be a nice experience.
Yeah, all power to the guy. Good to see him doing something creative with his money rather than the usual Hollywood coke/hookers/private jet thing.
Vin Diesel’s non-movie projects remind me of Seth Green & Robot Chicken.
report
STALKER meets DOOM 3. In the wake of the demonic outbreak, you must do all you can to survive in a city-sized martian colony. Learn the nooks, crannies and hidden secrets of your facility, because a safe region one day could well be hell the next. Watch out for your own skin, or work together with others to ensure that things like power and life support don’t go away for good.
report
A Napoleonic Wars FPS/Squad based MMO.
What?
report
Paranoia XP, for the glory of Friend Computer.
report
My dream MMO is a FPS on a single server in which players on two opposing factions fight in a single, fully fleshed out and fully destructible city (based on New York), with WWII weapons and vehicles. When the city is nothing more than rubble, the server resets. It has no story, only awesome shooter gameplay. Also, the city has citizens who run around screaming the whole time. It is called “Blow Up City”.
report
Been watching Nature’s Great Events on the BBC iPlayer and it got me thinking: “Wouldn’t an MMO about species survival, eco-systems and the natural world be fookin great?”.
I had similar hopes for Spore, but they died the moment I heard about the stages further than the first two.
report
Galaxy of Starcraft
oh and also 40k, which i think they are making?
report
Fantasy – Basically extend Morrowind to the entirety of Tamriel, take the good bits of Oblivion, namely physics modeling, and tweak the skill- and level-up mechanics to be more MMO-friendly.
SF – EVE. But more playable. Don’t ask me how.
report
They are theoretically making a 40K MMO, yes. That is the sum total of the available knowledge on the subject, which leaves me unsure whether to be hopeful.
report
Have to agree with the Eve + Freespace + Planetside thing. Also with first poster and perm MMO death. Installed Sacred 2 this week and have found playing the hardcore mode VERY gratifying, reminiscent of the old days of D2 HC on Bnet.
Finding some way to pull it off and still keep long term playability a goal in a MMO would make for a fantastic game mechanic.
report
Two settings I’d love to see in an MMOFPS:
1. A version of Hell based on an enormous amalgamation of US and South American cities mid-20th-century (I’m thinking some Buenos Aires here, some Havana there, some LA, some NYC, you get the idea), filled with gangs, revolutionaries, private militaries, and government troops, all gunning to gain or maintain hold of the city’s centers of power. The aesthetic would be more Godfather than Grim Fandango.
2. An anachronistic version of the Roman Republic with modern technology. Hannibal doesn’t have elephants–he has tanks. And you’d get to play as whomever you’d like. Wanna be a crazy kilt-wearing Briton? Go right ahead. I’m stealing this idea from the IF “Varicella,” which used a futuristic version of the Italian Kingdoms for its setting.
report
A couple of people have already said it but a Battletech Mechwarrior MMO would be the ultimate shizzle.
With the best bits from EVE/SWG using real-time twitch mech-combat on the ground, and more EVEish in space. Proper faction based PvP with the main factions vying for galactic domination, with independant guilds setting up home bases on empty planets where they can farm, mine, manufacture etc… to get by.
report
Persistent MO in an expansive story driven game space, using a grind free mechanic and results being the reward of players actions over mindless item collecting. That’s all I can really say about that tbh.
report
Space MMO dreamers, have you read about this?
http://www.infinity-universe.com/
report
A game set in Iain M. Banks’ Culture universe, with the ability to play as humans, aliens, drones, or ship Minds. With strictly enforced RP rules.
report
I’ve got a FPS/RTS/MMO in my head that I think would be swell. Players work together to form governments of varying types or join AI controlled governments. Fight for resources to build buildings and research new tech. If one side gains complete dominance the server resets and a new round starts.
Character leveling exists, but it only takes three months to “max” your character and death is real (you just keep your callsign or nickname).
report
I was thinking about this today actually….ok wait for it….
Transport Tycoon MMO!!!
The map is the whole planet and people have to fight for trade routes, can do deals with each other etc. Perfect.
report
My dream MMO? Easy, Planetside.
report
Option 1) MMOFPS/RTS
A Post modern/BF2142 setting with a continuous resetting war, Players can choose to play either Combat or Command, Combat players have a squad under their control, which levels up, can get access to better gear, vehicles or Spec Opps assignments. Command starts off as an adviser for a separate squad, and levels up through Platoon commanders Generals ect… when one faction wins the game is reset
Option 2) No NPC MMO
An MMO without any NPC’s EVE like economy, very deadly world forcing players to band together for survival. All societies are player made (eg a guild built a city and now owns it) options for creating buildings and other major modifications to the world
report
Urban Dead, as a TPS. Nuff said.
A game that lets you beat people to death with a toolbox is clearly the only way to go.
report