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Perry's Secret MMOG - A Beast Riding Game

The strange tale of the Massive game built by committee gets a little less odd, as a Q&A session with Jamil Moledina at GDC Austin unveiled some details about the MMOG former Shiny director David Perry has been working on. The 'Top Secret' Acclaim MMOG has been said for months now to be a 'racing' title, and Perry unveiled this week that it will not involve vehicles of any kind. Instead, the game will involve racing beasts of many kinds. The beasts can be bred and traded, used to engage in Player vs. Player battles, and will help the player explore the game world. For the first time since the project was announced, the idea of players using tools provided by IGN to make the game doesn't sounds quite so out there.

22 comments

  1. Interesting by Turn-X+Alphonse · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If they get this right it could be extremely interesting, but I get the feeling they will screw it up by making more and more high range beasts so what you took 12 weeks to earn before will become totally worthless in the next patch when they release and upgraded version which requires 3 12 week beasts to make.

    Good idea, doubt it will go well though.

    --
    I like muppets.
    1. Re:Interesting by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Uh, how is that different than any other MMO game on the market?

      When the WOW expansion was released, it was easy to find Outlands *green* items in the first hour of questing there that were much better than the blues or purples you'd been repeatedly entering boring-ass dungeons for over the last year.

    2. Re:Interesting by pbaer · · Score: 1

      That's the gp's point. If it is done like a typical MMO it will be like every other MMO, aka a grindfest.

      --
      There are 11 types of people, those who know unary and those who don't.
  2. more ads and micrtransactions by weirdcrashingnoises · · Score: 2, Interesting
    and i don't really think it's a bad thing. not in this case anyways... when you think about how this game is going to come together and just the way they are doing it sounds totally different from a regular game development plan... it makes sense to ship it free and just let it build revenue in other ways.

    also, i really like the idea of a racing mmo, not that it's an original idea or anything, but hopefully something that is based more on skill and not strictly the # of hours spent in game doing grinds.

    --
    sigs... don't talk to me about sigs....
  3. I feel there will be protests by Daimanta · · Score: 2, Insightful

    From the virtual brigade of PETA

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
    1. Re:I feel there will be protests by tepples · · Score: 4, Insightful

      From the virtual brigade of PETA Has PETA complained about Nintendo's popular cockfighting simulator known as Pokémon?
    2. Re:I feel there will be protests by scot4875 · · Score: 1

      No reason for them to -- all Pokemon are treated ethically, and none are harmed during combat.

      --Jeremy

      --
      Jesus was a liberal
    3. Re:I feel there will be protests by Minwee · · Score: 3, Funny

      And when they aren't fighting they are ethically and humanely forced into tiny windowless cages not much bigger than your hand and left suffocating in the dark until their next fight.

      I don't see what they're whining about either.

    4. Re:I feel there will be protests by the+grace+of+R'hllor · · Score: 1

      It looks pretty cool to me.

    5. Re:I feel there will be protests by tbannist · · Score: 1

      Don't tell me you missed PETA's Pokemon Freedom Day where they encourage kids to empty their Pokedex's and let the digital animals roam free?

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
  4. "Breast riding game" by Brad1138 · · Score: 4, Funny

    It sounded more interesting when I misread it at first.

    --
    If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
    1. Re:"Breast riding game" by vrmlguy · · Score: 1

      Thanks a lot, fellow; now I'm seeing "breasts" in everyone replies. Hmmm, on second thought, maybe that's not so bad after all.

      --
      Nothing for 6-digit uids?
  5. Females? by UbuntuDupe · · Score: 1

    Appealing to the female demographic, maybe?

    1. Re:Females? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Appealing to the female demographic, maybe?

      I'm sure a "secret beast riding game" will also be popular in Alabama, New Zealand, Tasmania, Alberta, and Scotland.

        (Apologies if I left out your own country's rural 'animal-frendly' area. Feel free to add to the list. Heh.)

  6. 10 year old girls, maybe! by temojen · · Score: 1

    OMG Ponies!

  7. Awseom tag by spocksbrain · · Score: 1

    "gottacatchemall" is a perfect tag, props!

  8. Old, old news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dave Perry talked about this in detail on 30th May on the Game Theory Podcast http://www.gametheoryshow.com/index.php?post_id=22 0146

  9. So basically.... by Sasquatch6 · · Score: 1

    ...it's going to be pokemon racing?
    Seriously, let's look at the similarities: Breeding, trading, 'battling', and a world to explore with your 'beast' helping you. About the only thing they're adding to the formula is a persistant online presense, and even the latest pokemon games have online capabilities.

    1. Re:So basically.... by bbcisdabomb · · Score: 1

      Actually, sounds more like a Monster Rancher game. Same premise, almost, but more emphasis on the breeding and less on the fighting.

      --
      Please put some pants on before you post again.
  10. Another crappy MMO from Perry by Vacuous · · Score: 1

    I'm willing to bet that this game will be as horrible as Dance Online and all the other abominations he has released with Acclaim. Free is too much for this garbage.

  11. Re:Awesome tag by _damnit_ · · Score: 1

    I would argue "mailordermonsters" is the better tag. Reminds me of when I had a lot of extra time to work on vitual monsters to take over to my friends house for deathmatches. [Remember to make a copy of your disk in case your monster gets killed.]

    --


    _damnit_

    It's my job to freeze you. -- Logan's Run
  12. horse racing by brjndr · · Score: 1

    A friend of mine is really into this arcade horse racing game, Derby Owners Club. I went with him to check it out, it was pretty fun.

    If you don't have horses already, you select from a group of random mares and a group of random fillies and produce the horse you're going to race. Each horse has it's own attributes (speed, stamina), which help determine how it best races (try to get early lead or wait until last leg and make your move). You race horses in races of varying stakes, and train and feed them in between. You can save your progress at anytime by printing a little ticket which has the horse information stored on it (magnetically I believe). There is a small ebay market for hacked tickets with horses with maxed out stats.

    What really amazed me was how into the game people were. They had 'stable books' full of all the various tickets and horses they used. After you've used a horse enough you retire it and put it out to stud, and then can use it to breed your next generation of horses. The game was the most expensive I saw in the Arcade, and all 8 stations were taken with people waiting at each one. I commented to my buddy he'd save a lot of money if a pc version was available, and he agreed. An MMO makes is even more likely than a stand alone version because of the continual income for the developer. After seeing DOC, I can believe that people would love an online game where you can breed and race different animals/creatures. Different classes of animals with varying skill levels, or the ability to handicap races so slower animals get a head start, these can all lead to a hugely popular game. It was only a matter of time.