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Bioware Developing an MMOG
Gamasutra reports that Canadian developer Bioware has opened a studio in Austin, Texas. The new studio will be the base of operations for development of an as yet unnamed MMORPG. From the article: "Joining the Austin team as lead designer is James Ohlen, BioWare's creative director, whose previous credits include lead or co-lead design roles on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II. Also leading the BioWare Austin team are MMO veterans Richard Vogel and Gordon Walton." That's some serious firepower. Can't wait to hear what that's about.
Supposedly, although Bethesda Softworks licensed Fallout almost 2 years ago, it was not exclusive license, with Bioware still retaining MMO rights.
As much as I'd love to see it come out, I just know that if it does, it's going to suck days or weeks of my time that could be spent more productively.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
People have been pushing the "design your own content" angle for a decade at least, and it has yet to come to fruition because it's a bad idea spawned by ignorant k00l dewds that think they can design better games than the professionals despite the lack of any training or skill.
Yea, I can't think of any content that has been created by users that has been worthwhile or even popular. Of course, that's because I haven't played a video game in 25 years so I don't know of things like Counter-Strike or countless other popular mods or user generated maps, textures, sounds, models, and so on. Yup, none of that user generated content has ever been more popular or of higher quality than the original "professional" produced content.
Seriously, where have you been?! Half-Life sold well for at least 4 years mainly due to the draw of its user created content. Not only has the idea come to fruition, it's already succeeded.
It'll be interesting to see what license, if any, they're using. I was kinda surprised they didn't get drawn into doing D&D Online, given they've basically made the only D&D games in recent memory that don't suck. If they had, maybe that game wouldn't be getting such dire launch publicity.
I'm guessing they'll use the setting from Dragon Age or Mass Effect. IMO it's a good thing that they're dropping D&D, I mean it's a great RPG and all, but there is only so much you can do within it's limits.
Funnily enough, in Guild Wars I found it odd the first time a particular baddie I had killed _did_ come back, because one of the people in the group still had that quest. Instanced _Worlds_ have an advantage there. It's quite a bit why I play it - there's not 500 "heroes" waiting to kill the same critter, only to have some guy run through and steal the "Spear and Magic Helmet" before you get it. It's you, the other people in your party, and The World. That's it.
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples