By Adam Smith on November 18th, 2011 at 11:45 am.
It seems like a long while since the announcement of Three Rings’ Doctor Who: Worlds In Time but perhaps not. Perhaps it will actually be announced yestermorrow and I’m writing this from a place between moments, stuck in the gaps between seasons, trapped in the trembling alcove between the tick and the tock. What I have been able to discern from this aching voidspace, which echoes with the shrieks of collapsing realities, is that on 18th November 2011 it will be vital for me to inform you that Sega have acquired the erstwhile Puzzle Pirates developers and will be helping to bring the Doctor Who MMO to fruition.
Although I have extensive experience of the free-to-play Worlds In Time, garnered during an expedition to ‘later this year’ when it is due out, I am forbidden from speaking of those future events for fear of altering history. Also the future has really tough NDAs.
If I were you, I would expect the game to have more in common with Puzzle Pirates than World of Starcraft, or whichever game Blizzard dominate the MMO scene with in the inferior alternate timeline that you currently inhabit. Think puzzles and challenges for all age groups rather than roleplaying and raids.
There are very few concrete details as of now but the Sega acquisition could put a great deal of support behind the project. Hopefully we’ll know more relatively soon and the website shows off the art style, which seems informative in itself.
Oh! That one reader should also check the use by date on the mayonnaise before taking a bite of his sandwich. Yes, you!
18/11/2011 at 11:49 Rinox says:
Looking at this pic makes me think “the British Michael Jackson”.
18/11/2011 at 16:14 DiamondDog says:
For a second I was puzzled as to why James Brown was posing for that picture.
18/11/2011 at 11:54 Gothnak says:
Can i play as a zombie Tom Baker?
18/11/2011 at 12:19 Johnny Lizard says:
…never mind
18/11/2011 at 11:58 DickSocrates says:
Tom Baker, fresh from his controversial one man production of Pimp-thello at the Hackney Empire.
18/11/2011 at 12:05 talon03 says:
In the words of every single Doctor Who fan….
DO. NOT. WANT.
18/11/2011 at 12:07 phlebas says:
Probably not every single one. I’m thinking it might well turn out better than the downloadable adventure games.
It does seem a rather odd idea basing an MMO around encounters with a single unique NPC, though I suppose not as odd as if it were one who couldn’t time travel.
18/11/2011 at 12:12 neolith says:
This.
I’ve only discovered Doctor Who about a year ago and even though it took me some episodes to get into it I now think it’s the coolest thing since sliced bread.
A browser based F2P MMO with flash graphics does not exactly look like it’ll fit what I’ve come to like about the series. Not even close.
edit: This was in response to talon03.
18/11/2011 at 13:31 Koozer says:
The only possible genre Doctor Who can fit into is point and click.
18/11/2011 at 19:50 Andy_Panthro says:
USE Sonic Screwdriver ON Puzzle/Trap/Door/Broken Item/TARDIS/Davros
Well Done, you have completed the game!
18/11/2011 at 12:06 Bluerps says:
What? I don’t even like mayonnaise.
18/11/2011 at 12:11 Zoomon says:
I hope this has Daleks in, the latest reincarnations of Dr Who have really lacked Daleks.
18/11/2011 at 12:27 cliffski says:
I still think it’s sad the British Broadcasting Corporation decided to use a non-british game developer to make this. I’m sure we have some game dev experience here :(
Still… at least the profits will be channeled into reducing the license fee, and not spent on Bruce Forsythes salary right?
18/11/2011 at 13:33 youthful cynic says:
Also on the copious amounts of virgins to feast upon to keep Brucie in a continual state of undeath; virgins are expensive.
18/11/2011 at 14:06 Vurogj says:
If it helps, Daniel James (Three Rings CEO) is British, and having met him I don’t doubt for a second his knowledge or commitment to the Doctor Who IP.
18/11/2011 at 14:19 Optimaximal says:
Come on cliffski, they originally gave the Adventure Games to Sumo Digital and look how that turned out!
18/11/2011 at 20:37 The Tupper says:
I agree entirely Cliff, but the Corporation has managed to firewall itself behind ‘BBC Worldwide’ (basically the bastard lovechild of Lord Reith and Simon Cowell) thus enjoying the fruits of free market tendering while maintaining the licence fee.
18/11/2011 at 12:32 Magnetude says:
The problem with this is that all the things that make Doctor Who appealing and fun to watch are all the things that games are bad at doing.
Apart from poking the fourth wall, but I think the Monkey Island series exhausted all possible gaming fourth wall jokes already, so good luck with that.
18/11/2011 at 13:34 Hoaxfish says:
Okay, break this down:
This is an MMO, so that’s masses of players…
There’s only 1 doctor at a time, so that’s not “masses”…
There’s maybe 4 or 5 companions at most, still not masses…
The only thing there’re masses of, are the monsters…
ergo, You play as the monsters trying to kill the Doctor+companions
18/11/2011 at 15:27 Groove says:
OR, this is the perfect ip for an MMO, since every companion get their own version of the doctor at once, since he’s a time traveller.
18/11/2011 at 16:29 Dances to Podcasts says:
So what you’re saying is everyone in SWTOR will be a stormtrooper?
18/11/2011 at 17:59 Hoaxfish says:
only if you think “the old republic” time period contained a total of 5 jedi/sith
18/11/2011 at 14:36 Dremandred says:
Please excuse my lack of knowledge on Dr. Who but isn’t that Bilbo Baggins on the right?
18/11/2011 at 14:56 a cynic writes... says:
No. Patrick Troughton who played the Doctor 1966-69.
The picture is a publicity shot from the 1983 anniversary show The Five Doctors which is why the First Doctor is played by a guy who looks like William Hartnell and Tom Baker is played by a waxwork dummy.
18/11/2011 at 15:04 Chris D says:
Good facts Mr Cynic, but I believe Dremandred may actually be referring to John Pertwee, who shares the same hair as the old Bilbo in the Lord of the RIngs films.
18/11/2011 at 14:45 Slade says:
As long as this is not related to the Airzone Solution movie, I’m fine.
18/11/2011 at 15:25 superflat says:
What I love about that shot is that Tom Baker is actually made of wax.
18/11/2011 at 16:19 Liquidben says:
Why is that one Muppet made of leather?
19/11/2011 at 08:05 WJonathan says:
Man the Stones have aged badly.
19/11/2011 at 10:57 kazooka says:
So, you only get one character slot, but it looks different every time you log in?
20/11/2011 at 15:29 Merus says:
I was rather fond of how forward thinking Puzzle Pirates was; instead of character classes, you picked a job and performed that for as long as you wanted. It had an entirely player-driven economy with several production steps (as opposed to most MMOs where players tend not to require stuff made by other professions) that was still easy for players to just buy things. It had parties that smoothly scaled from 4 people to 200 or so, with NPC s to round out jobs you didn’t have.
Basically if you took Guild Wars 2 and Puzzle Pirates and crossed them I’d be delighted.