By Alec Meer on July 3rd, 2012 at 12:00 pm.
Game of Thrones games will continue until every last remaining dark corner of Westeros has been illuminated by the lord of cutscenes. It has been prophesied! Next to leap aboard George R. R. Martin and HBO’s blood’n’sex bandwagon is serial MMO-maker Bigpoint, who follow up their Battlestar Galactica free to play massively multiplayer with Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms.
It’s a free to play, browser-based MMO, will be based specifically on the TV show (nudity!) rather than the source books (bloat) and seems to be set near the start of the second series. That is to say, the hunting accident and the surprising event seen from the statue of Baelor have both gone down and thus the kingdom has plunged into civil war.
The North (proud, stoic, chilly) and the South (flash, duplicitous, good hair) are both very much out to get each other, and there are a whole host of folks claiming their right t the crown of Westeros. In vidjagam terms, this translates to “ Players are challenged to form alliances through Player vs. Player (PvP), Siege combat and politics to control Westeros.”
And that’s basically all we know, bar a couple more screenshots on the website. First footage will arrive during San Diego ComicCon next week, and beta testing is due later this year. Let’s hope Seven Kingdoms is more Game of Thrones The Roleplaying Game than Game of Thrones Genesis. And that there a big, brutal, Blackwater-style naval battles, please.
03/07/2012 at 12:11 RvLeshrac says:
You lost me at “Browser-based MMO.”
03/07/2012 at 12:15 Vicho says:
You lost me at “MMO”
03/07/2012 at 12:16 greenbananas says:
You lost me at “grind”.
03/07/2012 at 12:19 Timberfox says:
You had me at “nudity!”
03/07/2012 at 12:26 Zakski says:
WARFACE?
03/07/2012 at 12:31 lorddon says:
You had me at “hunting accident”? Wait…
03/07/2012 at 13:11 roryok says:
You had me at ‘Game’.
Although as a result I’m now banned from their stores forever
03/07/2012 at 13:01 Xardas Kane says:
I stayed around until Bigpoint. Those guys are asses.
03/07/2012 at 13:15 Gaytard Fondue says:
I’m not an ass. And most of my coworkers are cool.
04/07/2012 at 11:09 Xardas Kane says:
Then whoever is calling the shots is. I am sorry, but I have yet to play a Bigpoint game that hasn’t severely disappointed me.
03/07/2012 at 19:14 diestormlie says:
Though All Men Do Despise Them…
03/07/2012 at 12:25 Ian says:
I hope this game isn’t just throne together for a quick buck.
03/07/2012 at 12:32 Ian2 says:
I seventy hope so.
03/07/2012 at 12:33 genius_starship says:
Why, that would be Bigpoint’s entire business model.
03/07/2012 at 12:35 sonofsanta says:
There are no quick books in GRRM’s world.
03/07/2012 at 12:37 Mr Labbes says:
If they make a good game, my heart will be filled with greyt joy.
03/07/2012 at 12:40 f1x says:
well, with winter is coming the beta test, so we will see
03/07/2012 at 12:45 Fuzzball says:
Indeed, that would be a Stark future.
03/07/2012 at 13:01 Xardas Kane says:
You can bet your ass it will be. That’s what Bigpoint do for a living.
03/07/2012 at 13:23 Enkinan says:
Browser based…Arya serious?
03/07/2012 at 14:12 Mr Labbes says:
Vary serious.
03/07/2012 at 13:28 roryok says:
Bigpoint suck. I’ve got more talent in my littlefinger than most of these guys have in their entire bodies
03/07/2012 at 14:23 Milos says:
If this turns out to be just a sloppy cash-in you will Hear Me Roar.
03/07/2012 at 17:12 Muhu says:
Well, with the F2P model you can expect the ingame shop prices to be as high as honor
03/07/2012 at 19:58 tossrStu says:
It’s a Joffrey 2 Play MMO, I’m fairly confident it will be pretty Dire.
03/07/2012 at 20:30 TyrOvC says:
I hope Bigpoint isn’t annoyingly incestant about gameplay that requires micropayments.
04/07/2012 at 00:15 Aardvarkk says:
With the source material as good as it is, there shouldn’t be any ned to robb us of a decent game.
03/07/2012 at 12:31 Simas says:
I hope we can play as a HODOR!
03/07/2012 at 13:16 roryok says:
HODOR
03/07/2012 at 14:27 Ian says:
Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor.
04/07/2012 at 06:58 MacTheGeek says:
HODORFACE!
03/07/2012 at 12:55 epmode says:
I keep thinking that a Creative Assembly-developed Game of Thrones/ASoIaF game would be the best thing ever. Make it happen pls.
03/07/2012 at 14:01 Grygus says:
If they drop a properly moddable game again, this will take care of itself.
04/07/2012 at 21:24 Werthead says:
Westeros: Total War mod incoming for Medieval II (ancient pre-alpha version available to play, but the finished mod will be quite a lot different):
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=721
Hopefully Rome 2′s engine will be moddable enough to support a new version when that comes out, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
03/07/2012 at 13:02 Spengbab says:
Im only reading the books for the incest. Eh.
03/07/2012 at 20:20 jrodman says:
What a grind.
03/07/2012 at 13:02 SanguineAngel says:
Sooo… I know this is likely to be shoddy but that first screenshot has a lovely atmosphere that would do nicely for a somewhat more historically based romp.
Imagine a single player RPG set during the early years of the Hundred Years war. mmmmmmmmm
03/07/2012 at 13:09 Iskariot says:
Another fantasy MMO?
Really?
It won’t be difficult to predict its short future.
03/07/2012 at 13:20 misterT0AST says:
Are there orcs, dwarves and wizards in A Game Of Thrones? I genuinely don’t know. Never read/seen that book/series.
03/07/2012 at 13:26 Enkinan says:
Not in the traditional sense. GoT Dwarves are the same as RL Dwarves. No Orcs, but there are a handful of Dragons, Giants, Dire Wolves, and Undead. Not your standard D&D style fantasy setting by any means.
03/07/2012 at 13:30 roryok says:
One of the main characters is a dwarf, but it just means he’s really short and gets a hard time. He’s also the best character in the entire series
03/07/2012 at 14:08 f1x says:
And the only one of the interesting ones that actually gets his history developed,
03/07/2012 at 17:13 Shooop says:
The only reason for that f1x is they haven’t decided how they want to kill him off yet.
03/07/2012 at 20:25 jrodman says:
Maybe, though I suspect Tryion is one of the embodiments of the kind of personality traits that Martin likes.
03/07/2012 at 13:45 Knightley4 says:
Civil war… Well, it would be pretty pointless for those, who read the books. For others it’s too dangerous – spoilers are coming(from other players).
03/07/2012 at 16:53 Universal Quitter says:
In a game about a civil war called ‘Seven Kingdoms’, there are only two major factions? I am confused. They call it the war of five kings.
03/07/2012 at 17:49 Carra says:
Well, there were 7 kingdoms before they merged into one big kingdom. They’re still the centers of powers and they team up against each other.
As for the five kings, five guys claim to be be king.
04/07/2012 at 08:03 Grargh says:
As the maesters of Oldtown will tell you, there were technically never more than four contesting kings at any given time; one died before the fifth took up the claim.
Which makes your point still valid, of course :)
03/07/2012 at 17:46 Carra says:
Damn you, Alec. I hoped to see a new 7 kingdoms title.
I’ll just dream on.
04/07/2012 at 05:43 AgamemnonV2 says:
Enlight is too busy making money off of the digital sales of their old games. : \
So many good times in Fryhtan Wars, too.
03/07/2012 at 19:21 Ministry says:
Oh, this is great! Bigpoint is known for their depth of gameplay and engaging storylines and I can’t wait to play. After 5 million people play it for 30 minutes and quit for life they can announce “Over 5 MILLIOOOON PLAYERS!”, so much fun!
03/07/2012 at 19:56 Hmm-Hmm. says:
Win or grind.. so basically, if I don’t play the game I win? Whoo! I iz winner!
04/07/2012 at 01:36 Kresh says:
I hope this bandwagon thing has very roomy seats ’cause it looks like everybody is hopping on.
The more “ZOMG GAME OF THRONES” tie-ins I see, the less I wonder if the books are actually any good. After the hoopla around the series I considered picking them up, then I see this… this… latest gaming abomination.
Christ people, if your Browser-based MMO isn’t decent enough to survive with an original back story, clamping another IP over it isn’t going to make it any better. Seeing as how there hasn’t been a decent MMO out since WoW derped over the shark tank (which was when BC released, in my opinion), I can’t see how this is going to be better.
Changing the name of the forest/plain/tundra/mountain you’re grinding spiders/boars/goblins/elves in isn’t going to make the grinding any more fun.
So, yeah, I’m actually getting turned off of the whole Game of Thrones thing. Call me when people stop trying to cash in on a trend and just do their own thing to become successful through their own merit. Oddly enough I don’t expect that particular phone to ring any time soon.
/mini-rant off.
04/07/2012 at 08:08 Grargh says:
Following your logic, the Lord of the Rings must be utter crap as well.
04/07/2012 at 21:27 Werthead says:
Anything that’s successful tends to get franchised to death, whatever the merits of the original. If you are interested, I’d suggest just giving them a go anyway.