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Interplay Pitches Fallout MMO, Despite Dearth Of Cash
Thanks to Yahoo! for reprinting an Interplay press release discussing Interplay's latest financial results, ruminating on possibilities for the embattled publisher. Although "the Company reported a net loss of $.9 million" for the quarter, a relatively small amount, Interplay's detailed financial statement reveals: "We currently have no cash reserves and are unable to pay current liabilities. The Company cannot continue in its current form without at this time obtaining additional financing." However, CEO Herve Caen is bullish about prospects, explaining: "We are now pursuing several options to fund our entry into Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming with titles including Fallout", a positive step, according to "...initial feedback from our investment bank and ongoing dialogue with others in the gaming sector." We've previously covered Interplay's recent financial woes.
...another MMOG in an already massively saturated market. Thanks Herve, keep on nailing that coffin shut.
I have an amazing idea. Why not make the fucking game people actually want instead of making all these spinoffs that on one's going to like ? I love the Fallout series, and even enjoyed Tactics, but I'd never buy or sign up for a Fallout Online. If they do it, it'll probably be an even bigger flop than Fallout: BOS, mainly because it would cost them so much more to make...
Look, folks. The real success behind Fallout was the story, the aesthetic, the locations, and the fact they put it together with some pretty good attention to the important things like gameplay. Remember that the original plan for Fallout was simply as a GURPS-based game that got re-worked near the end of development into the SPECIAL system that -did- work very well.
The real problem with this kind of development would be if they went and tried to make it turn-based-MMORPG. Then we'd just have to kill them all.
If they do something similar to a City of Heroes environment, without the mind-numbing quest for items and other crap like you have in more traditional MMORPG places, it'd go over quite well.
My own pointless vanity vintage computing page
They don't have the cash flow (or capital up front) to sustain an MMOG. They don't have the trust of gamers any more. Hell, all their good employees have left the company (Troika)!
Herve, if you're reading this, YOU NEED TO MAKE FALLOUT 3. This will bring in the cash you so desperately need to keep your company afloat, respect from the industry, and a leaping point to resurrect Interplay. The market is saturated with up and coming MMOGs that are going to suck the online market dry - City of Heroes is here, Matrix Online and World of Warcraft are coming, not to mention EQ2, PLUS all the MMOGs currently ON the market. There's no room for you online, but there are some of us who have been waiting years for a proper and wonderful RPG. You've got the freaking goose that lays golden eggs - out with them already!
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
I'd give it even odds that Interplay is just fishing for investments to try and save the farm. Isn't it odd that it is only now after years of cries for a new fallout game they propose one but insert the buzzword "MMORPG"? One has to wonder if they are trying to show potential investors they have a viable product with heavy fan demand (eg. Look at level of interest in a new fallout game over the years, its a license to print money!!! Its one of those "lucrative" MMORPGs like UO or EQ no less!!!) Sounds custom fit for an investor pitch to me. I can't help but think Interplay is completing the slow implosion that has occured over the years with less and less blockbuster projects.
That doesn't totally suck and has the magic storylines of the original series. I love turn based games, but frankly, they are going the way of the dodo and I want Fallout 3 to succeed in the mss market so it can stay alive. A Fallout MMO would be hard to do. Key to the whole Fallout feeling is being the Chosen One and wandering the wilderness alone, ala Mad Max. I don't want to play a fallout game with folks spamming "selling power armour, 100k caps!" in the center of every town. Fallout was all about the mystery of discovering a wonderfully crafted, funny, post apocalyptic world, alone. Bring the magic back one more time folks.
Sure, it would fuck up the franchise. Sure they're doing it for the money. Blah blah blah.
But it would be fun.
Aren't we all sick of the current mmorpg's now? I could care less about elf's and dwarves, and wookies...finding a magic key, or collecting gold coins to by a new sword with a +1 bronze gem that makes me immune to the common cold.
I want an mmorpg where you don't fit things, you fight for survival. Imagine having clans of players, in a DANGEROUS, screwed up after-world, fighting each other just to survive. Imagine leading the warriors of your clans, in the night, to the other guys shack, killing or abducting they're women, slitting the men's throats, stealing they're necessities, ETC, JUST TO live another week! That would be thrilling. And? no/barley any computer npc's. Hell EQ, that warcraft thing (god I hate blizzard, make a Linux port you lazy sluts) starwars.. it's all coop doom with swords and a couple thousand space marines. Coop doom wasn't (that) fun! Dammit, these games remind me of the sims.
In Fallout Online, you band together, traveling the wasteland, salvaging useful scraps, not finding them in chests next to a dead gnome. I'm talking about a SAVAGE online experience, where you can get pissed off, angry, and travel the wasteland, sometimes solely on revenge. Or from an order from your clan leading. You can over through your clan leader (provided it's in the public favor, aka mutiny. You can start your own clan in a shack in the dessert, convert some homeless people, (not that you would start out homeless, but it's a possibility), arm them, and attack a nearby town, in the dead of night, kill a local shop keeper (think shady town), and turn the place into your own military-grade bunker. Advance, take your clan, make it into a battalion. Army. (think brotherhood of steel) Form legions, alliances, with common interests, secretly generated by the world. Forge new technological advantages. Advanced weaponry, hardened armor. Take over.
Or possibly form a neutral facility, helping strangers, in exchange for favors that will help the community etc.
I'm sick of wacking rats with sticks. Gimme a damn gun and shove me in a deadly world. Fallout Online.