How about Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Confederation? Or his Commonwealth universe? Either would IMHO make for a vibrant and diverse universe in which to set an MMO. Harry Potter - meh. Dullness.

Discworld anyone?

I originally put the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, but how about The Iliad and The Odyssey?  What a great number of PvP possibilities...its a slightly mystical world so that allows for some great bosses, Odysseus is king.  Iliad provides the setting of the Trojan War, and PvE bosses could be things such as Cyclops, Sirens, Circe, etc.

Such strong possibilities for a great game, wow.  Maybe a game that just includes all that kind of lifestyle and lore with the greek gods would be very, very nice.

Originally posted by lethys

I originally put the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, but how about The Iliad and The Odyssey?  What a great number of PvP possibilities...its a slightly mystical world so that allows for some great bosses, Odysseus is king.  Iliad provides the setting of the Trojan War, and PvE bosses could be things such as Cyclops, Sirens, Circe, etc.

Such strong possibilities for a great game, wow.  Maybe a game that just includes all that kind of lifestyle and lore with the greek gods would be very, very nice.

 Narnia is tied up by Disney. We've seen what fantasic MMOs they've put out so far, right?
 

As for the Homer and Virgil's works...well technically Gods and Heroes would have done that. But it flopped/

 Two series of novels that I feel greatly deserve being explored in the MMO genre are Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms. While both are technically based on Dungeons and Dragons. Both campaign settings are arguably more popular than the Eberron setting, which has spawned a relatively successful game. Both Krynn and Faerun have very rich lore and backstories allowing for an infinite number of adventures simultaneously occuring and affecting the fate of all. Interesting ideas for settings include, for Dragonlance, the War of the Lance, or the era before the Cataclysm.  Either of these games aI feel have infinite potential. Of course I'm also partial to a Wheel of Time, Thomas Covenant,  or Ender's Saga MMO, heh.

I would love a Discworld MMO. It's a very well fleshed out world and it could be alot of fun. Who wouldn't want to escape death because Death was busy rescueing some kittens?

Most of you people are just listing your favorite fiction series w/out regard to how it would translate into a good game.  You push away from the Harry Potter one because its "mainstream" and a "kid's book" w/out realizing exactly how many people would enjoy it and how much the content lends to a mmo fantasy environment while still conveying a unique setting that sets itself apart from every other fantasy/magic based MMO.

Granted I wouldn't play it myself, because I'm older and any game based on that franchise would likely cater to a younger crowd, but I'd be a fool to say it wouldn't have a very good chance of being a successful MMO.

Originally posted by moorgoth

 Two series of novels that I feel greatly deserve being explored in the MMO genre are Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms. While both are technically based on Dungeons and Dragons. Both campaign settings are arguably more popular than the Eberron setting, which has spawned a relatively successful game. Both Krynn and Faerun have very rich lore and backstories allowing for an infinite number of adventures simultaneously occuring and affecting the fate of all. Interesting ideas for settings include, for Dragonlance, the War of the Lance, or the era before the Cataclysm.  Either of these games aI feel have infinite potential. Of course I'm also partial to a Wheel of Time, Thomas Covenant,  or Ender's Saga MMO, heh.

I'd do Forgotten Realms.

DragonLance....look, that's the series that got me into D&D. It needs to be done right. War of the Lance-era only. They pull any of that 5th age junk and I will personally set WoTC or whoever owns them this week en fuego.

Ender's? Eh....I just don't see the potential there. but I do so love that book.

My number one would be Dragonlance.

One IP I think deserves mention and was very close to being my number one choice is "The Black Company."  by Glenn Cook.

 What fantasy MMO has been released in the last 8 years that hasn't seen a guild named the Black Company in it? Great books, and dark enough not to be just another elves vs. orcs mmo.

Like many others here I would love to see some good SciFi or at least non-Fantasy MMOs out there.

Peter F. Hamilton's books are great, but hard to turn into a playable standard MMOPRG. Same goes for Vernor Vinge and Iain M. Bank's Culture novels.

I guess, I would pick

1) Battletech - Dunno what came first, but a MMO-mechpilot-rpg-fps type thing would be off the chain. The lore is very deep, the factions well-defined.

2) Otherland - This would be the perfect IP to implement a multi-verse type MMO, where you can be a medival knight in one world, an egyptian soldier in the next and a magic wielding sprite in the third. The expansion possibilities are endless and with the right tools could be self-perpetuating through user created content/addons.

3) Perry Rhodan - Probably not very well known outside Germany, but I loved the series. Very deep sci-fi lore.

4) The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - I guess this is fantasy, but it feels a lot grittier than the usual fare.

5) Discworld - Can't remember if there was one in the works. Could be fun though.

6) 1984 - Unite against the man!

7) Blade Runner - (Philip K. Dick's original) would make a great gritty and  dark, look-over-your-shoulder setting.

8) Saga of the Exiles - Julian May's time travel (one-way :) ) series. Great good vs.evil setting, with cool technology and psy powers

There are some great Pen&Paper IPs that could make great MMOs, too. Ars Magica (for the best magic system known to man... well at least one man) or Paranoia (for insane black-humor and wanton destruction) come to mind. Or Traveller.

Id like to see a mmo based on the Asprin books M.Y.T.H inc

Originally posted by orionite

Like many others here I would love to see some good SciFi or at least non-Fantasy MMOs out there.

Peter F. Hamilton's books are great, but hard to turn into a playable standard MMOPRG. Same goes for Vernor Vinge and Iain M. Bank's Culture novels.

I disagree. Peter F. Hamilton's Confederation universe had sentient and tech ships and habitats, different branches of humanity at odds with each other (telepathic atheist Edenists who embrace genetically engineering living tech, religious humans who spurn living tech, pirates,independents) , alien races (with one being a very real potential threat to humanity, and another highly advanced and peaceful), FTL travel, a very video game friendly style of space battle IMO (less dogfighting, more WoW-style click and attack with weapons), cybernetic and living tech implants providing upgrades for characters... etc, etc.

How is that not RIPE for conversion into an MMO or SP Elite/Escape Velocity-style game?

You've adversarial groupings of humanity and aliens, a massive universe of planets and habitats to explore, trade with and run missions on, sentient and standard tech ships to customise and upgrade, crew to hire and train, cybernetic or living tech implants to upgrade your human or alien characters, heh - I'm starting to repeat myself. Well, you get the picture!

My question would be - what specifically do you think Peter's Confederation universe is MISSING that an MMO requires?

I belive there is a NWN MMORPG in the works

Just find a shape shifter that can be  a bear and you have your tanks for Harry Potter

John Norman's Gor series.
A good BDSM mmorpg.

I like the Idea of playing an MMO based on the universe of Honor Harrington.

Ringworld provides such rich MMO content what with all the Foreign races (human, Kzin, Puppeteers, etc), Ringworld sapiens and made richer by the fact that any one of the Sapiens or Foreign races can be made into an Engineer, talk about Endgame content. :) the possibilities are endless.

As for Xanth, that may be a bit troublesome, every magic talent is unique and can't be repeated. How will a developer get around that issue? every player, random talent, unique only to that player, never to be repeated. It might not be feasible, but damn if one could figure out a way, I'd be first among many to try it out :)

Harry Potter can be good if it doesn't go the way of Wizard101. Nothing wrong with it, just a bit too...fluffy. Harry Potter world (not Harry Potter centered :) ) deserve better treatment than that.

Dune universe....need to based in the universe at large and not just Arrakis, It'd be intriguing if the developer started the universe with the original Arrakis pre-Mua'dib and allowed players to transform the world into Green Arrakis and see how all of the houses cope with that. Just throwing that out there.

Dragonriders of Pern.....I'd pay to play that, seriously. HP Lovecraft, front and center :)

Battlefield Earth, I dunno about that. Though at the end of the book, if i am recalling correctly (and please god, if I'm wrong don't flame me) there are colonies out there, so a potential for RvR is built in. I'm reserving judgement on this however.

Forgotten Realm is a must of course.

Discworld is, once again, a must. Terry Pratchet is a genius :)

Sherlock Holmes? not very MMO friendly concept. After all, not everyone in London was a genius detective nor a prolific recorder.

How about Edward Greene's newest creation? Falconfar? Sounds richly detailed and ripe for an MMO to me

Starship Trooper, there'd be too much potential it'd turn into a Battlefield 2 type gameplay, persistent Ranking with promotions and unlockable weapons. Am I right or wrong? I've nothing against BF2 (I'm an addict m'self) however an MMO it is not.

So many books to comment on sooooooooooo little time, so I'll leave it at this until I get struck by a fevered compulsion to comment again :)

Lone Wolf gamebook series.

I read on wiki they were working on something like that but it stopped because they decided to make it a single player game.

Would be great if they make one of the dark tower books,dune,and battlestar galactica. Harry potter would make a great mmorpg,it's just not my cup of tea.                                                       

Song of Fire and Ice!! Totally. Also add Malazan Book of the Fallen.

Ugh @ harry potter mmo

Dune was by far the best idea

The Peter F Hamilton Confederation Triology setting would work well, although some of his more recent works would be more suited to an MMORPG setting.  With a rich social analysis and wealth of ideas, there would never be a shortage of goodies to draw upon to make a really good world.  That said, I agree with the poster above who lamented that classics are better left alone if game's companies are going to keep botching their implementation of them into gameworlds.  

Originally posted by Lokath

Dark Tower. Pleeeeeeeease.

 

This.

QFT

Learn it and love it.

I think we have all forgotten perhaps the most quintessential of all book series that would make for an amazing MMO that would offer endless possibilities...the Choose Your Own Adventure bboks... :P

I really think the Dark Tower would make a great mmo setting.  I'm a big fan of King's work, even being a bit of a book snob I can't help but see the beauty in his story telling that a lot of people seem to miss.  The world is huge, there is almost unlimited back story and it draws connections to almost all of his books.

The Crimson King, Pennywise, Atropos and Randall Flagg as raid encounters?  Thankee sai, may I have another?

When I read the title for this article I decided I would be pissed if A Song of Ice and Fire series wasn't listed. You listed it at #2 and rightly so.

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere the Cyanide studios will be making a RTS and RPG using the Song of Ice and Fire IP.