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Licenses And MMO Games - A Good Pairing?

Posted by simoniker on from the like-vim-and-vigor dept.

Thanks to GameSpy for their article discussing the realities of building MMOG world based on existing licenses. They point out: "The rush is on. Star Wars Galaxies, released this past summer, was only the beginning. Middle-Earth Online is gearing up to bring The Lord of the Rings to life... The Matrix Online, still secretive, is a real noodle bender: A virtual reality based on living life inside a virtual reality?" But, as Will Wright points out: "Books and movies are by definition very linear properties, as seen from a single protagonist's point of view. That's very hard to put into an online world." The article concludes: "Most agree that great licensed games have to be based on a sense of place, as opposed to character."

2 of 19 comments (clear)

  1. Deja vu by pommaq · · Score: 2, Informative

    I remember seeing this in a Slashdot discussion just a couple of days ago - Burke's rant about SW:G. I don't remember if it was in the editorial itself or in the comments (and I can't really be arsed to search, perhaps someone could karma whore a little for me?). It was a point I found pretty lucid, however: movies will usually focus on a few exceptional characters, but... not everybody can play them. Of course everyone will want to be a Jedi, but having everyone run around with lightsabers won't work in a game. And everyone wants to be Legolas or Gimli, not $randomOrc[351].

    It's very hard to convey a sense of being in the licensed universe, unless you get the hierarchy and the composition of trades and races right. For every Frodo you would need 50 resident farmers living in Bree to make it seem real, and NPC's will only get you so far. Until someone can think up a new way of doing MMOGs except the old fight-insects-for-a-couple-of-hours, these licenses will only be a gimmick to make the publisher take less risk and feel safer.

    Just my 0.15 SEK.

  2. Wheres our Immersion? by Naffer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think that immersion is the largest problem in MMORPGs today. You wouldn't belive how large the percent "churn" (people who cancel accounts early on) is. The problem lies in the fact that it's difficult to really get into a lisenced game world when you feel like the actions that you're allowed to take are all superficial.

    I played SWG for exactly one month after launch, just long enough to get out without having to large a time or monatary investment. Everything I was allowed to do in the game was superficial. I could kill randomly spawning rocks (burrows) or randomly spawning rats. I could craft using randomly spawning resources, or go on randomly spawning missions to destroy randomly spawning burrows for a random amount of gold. I don't remember the Star Wars Universe as portrayed in the movies to be anything like that. Heck, they STILL don't have landspeeders!