Massively Multiplayer Grand Theft Auto

Voodoo Extreme has the story that earlier this week Grand Theft Auto creator David Jones announced the upcoming release of APB, a massively multiplayer game in the vein of Grand Theft Auto. It won't be out until 2007, but will make an appearance at E3 this year. Business Wire has details on the game's developer, Webzen, as well. The company sounds as if it's going to be making a major push into the market. From the article: "In addition to APB, Webzen, Inc. plans to bring multiple online game titles to the U.S. market. The titles include the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), SUN, releasing in the third quarter of 2005, and a massively multiplayer online first person shooter (MMOFPS) called Huxley, that leverages the latest Unreal 3 game engine and is scheduled to release in 2006."

Comments

MMGTA?

[FirienFirien]

This is going to be a game of 'who can run over the pedestrian first'... gonna have all the "That was my pedestrian!! OMG" arguments we see in hacknslashes at the moment ;)

Dare I ask.....

[LordPhantom]

.... what your charachter options are? I can see it now - "I wanna be a $10 dolla ho!" or "I wanna be Crazy Voodoo Woman". I mean, seriously, how many mobsters CAN there be running around before it gets....boring? And what happens when the Cops and the Mobsters get organized?

This sounds cool, if.....

[Asprin]

Three things need to be possible, though:

1) Higher-level players have the ability to create and define missions for other (lower-level) players to complete. You could order hits on enemies (or friends), pay other people to take the rap for your dirty work, etc.

1) Cops need to be playable characters. (You could even become a dirty cops!)

2) Jail time has to COUNT. When you get caught by the police, the game has to turn into you sitting in the crossbar hotel sitting on a cot for 48 hours (or so) of realtime.

Re:This sounds cool, if.....

[Golias]

If you followed the link, you would have seen that cops can be played... although from the promo shot it looks like they are supposed to look like the cop from the Villiage People.

I've found that I've been able to "create and define missions" for lowbies in just about any MMOG. It started in Everquest, when my barbarian shaman needed snake skins and bat wings for spell components. Instead of running around hunting level 2 monsters (or looking for somebody who already gathered some for sale), I would invite some 1-5 level characters to take up a "quest" for me, rewarding them with a platinum coin for each stack of 20 they gathered.

Since then, I've found that it's kind of fun to send players on errands. You would be surprised the lengths some people will go to for a "free" Sword-of-killing-pretty-touch-monsters, as long as you roleplay it out to make it seem like a "mission" to them.

Great...

[Dragoon412]

Fantastic! Where do I sign up for beta? There's nothing I'd rather do than hang out with the sort of quality people that think beating hookers to death is fun! I can't imagine a game with a more enjoyable crowd of players than the teenage-suburban-white-kids-that-act-like-gangstas demographic this game will surely attract!

I mean, just think of the possibilities! I always found common 13375p34k to be too intelligable, now, I'll be able to revel in wonderful in game conversation like "wtf yo gimme ur g4tz fo rizzle j00 f4gg0t" and "3y3 wiznill takes j00 ryde fizzy you plz!11!elevntyone!11"

*sigh*

I fear for my generation.

Besides, what could this game accomlish that Gizoogle hasn't already. ;)

A massively multiplayer GTA environment?

[Wildcat J]

They already have something like that--it's called "Detroit".