My choice would be the culture novels by Iain M Banks, lots of lore but with so much scope and leaway.

Originally posted by terrant

Since someone mentioned it....Otherland is already slated to become an MMO. We'll see how that one goes.

It is??? I LOVE that series. Can't believe I thought of Peter F. Hamilton's Confederation, but not Otherland!!! Who's developing it? Oh gods I'll cry if this one is screwed up...

Originally posted by mrw0lf

 My choice would be the culture novels by Iain M Banks, lots of lore but with so much scope and leaway.

I like them, but they seem like they wouldn't have a cohesive enough set of ideas upon which to develop an MMO. I mean - the Culture is cool, but exactly which parts would be an MMO? It's just too undefined IMO (which works well for the books, but not an MMO).

Originally posted by Nikopol

Seeing Harry Potter there... One thing is certain, good IPs for games need not come from accomplished books. 

For example, there's this series I'm reading right now. It's called Nightside, and is written by the British author Simon R. Green. Its setting is a sort of hidden and completely weird, supernatural part of London. The place also is called the Nightside, and - interestingly, somewhat like the magical community in the Harry Potter books - is not known by the ordinary folk of the city. It has special folk, the total outcasts, freaks, weirdos, magical beings, fallen angels, crazed killers, what have ya... It's an astonishing place where anything can happen and that anything is usually horrifying.

Now, Green writes these books in the vein of old hard-boiled detective novels - the protoganist is a man named Taylor, who has the gift of finding anything - and the style is a bit overdone for my taste, but the setting would be amazing for an MMO:

A macabre fantasy setting in a hidden otherworldly pocket in the middle of a big city... All sorts of beings, all sorts of odd places and all sorts of strange phenomena. Hey, it even has an overarching story to it with a lot of "side-quests"  employing colorful characters. :)

Thats already being done...  Havent you seen the trailers for  " Secret World "...   Its all about the shit you mentioned with a twist of Da Vinci and it looks worth watching out for....  Its in development now with the old boys over at Funcom..

Link to the offical forums ----> www.darkdemonscrygaia.com

Personally Id donate both of my bollocks to science to play a Dune MMO....

A good sandbox game that could REALLY deliver nirvana for all the crafters and harvesters of the MMO world, while having an excellent excuse for great open PvP between the various houses...

For all you businessmen - Spice trading around the galaxy mmmm

Originally posted by TheHavok

Originally posted by Silver_Leaf

Harry potter (I prefer to call it hairy potty) sucks big time, hated the movie, hope it NEVER becomes a game.

 

Because you said the movies suck, I take it you didn't read the books.  The books were great.

 

You also based an IP solely on the movies which were first created from the books which is pretty blind-sighted.

Think ya mean " short sighted "  :)

wow so many posts.... i would like a F2P starwars and harry potter 

NARUTO MMO FTW.

Originally posted by Krky7

NARUTO MMO FTW.

ya man.. Naruto and Dragonball too
 

Originally posted by Krky7

NARUTO MMO FTW.

What about "The God Delusion" by Richard  Dawkins. Theres only one playable class, "Atheist", and you get to go round beating up various extremist right-wing religious nutters.

Some guy said many months ago (it could have been last year, I can't remember) that Turbine is working on Harry Potter as their next MMO.

For me, it would have to be The Discworld Series by Terry Pratchet.

It'd be great to play a light-hearted MMO with a great sense of (British) humour.

Ahh, to walk around Ankh Morpork, or visit Deaths cottage.

Originally posted by saker

 

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Originally posted by Nilenya

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Originally posted by ProfRed

 

Snowcrash would be at the top of my list.

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btw even if just a collection of short stories, I think Bruce Sterlings Shaper/mechanist universe would be an awesome setting as well.

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The Shaper/Mechanist solar system/setting would be freakin brilliant!!!!

BRILLIANT!

got spell-check?? Man, proof-read yer articles, mate. :-)

Since we are including series, I will put my Vote in for the Shannara Series by Terry Brooks. Early on, they felt like a real LotR rip-off (especially the sword fo Shannara). But later, they started having airships, and things got more original. Magic is rare and powerful and typically gets you shunned by the populous. It could be a very interesting world to play in.

I'd also put a vote in for Anne Maccaffery's 'Dragonrider's of Pern' series. THis is a really fun series of novels, but its lack of genuine international conflict would make it a PvE game, except for duels..which WOULD be to teh death.

Snowcrash, Neuromancer, Hyperion, Vurt all would make great MMOS (as well as movie pictures).

Ringworld .... discworld ......dune ...... i hope to see all of these turn into a brilliant mmo one of these days.

Maybe also Tchai from Jack Vance ? I loved that book.

Originally posted by Wizardling6

Originally posted by mrw0lf

 My choice would be the culture novels by Iain M Banks, lots of lore but with so much scope and leaway.

 

I like them, but they seem like they wouldn't have a cohesive enough set of ideas upon which to develop an MMO. I mean - the Culture is cool, but exactly which parts would be an MMO? It's just too undefined IMO (which works well for the books, but not an MMO).

I understand what you're saying but I guess for me that was the main reason I chose it. I look at many of the other suggestions and while I can see them making good single player game or films imo they are just too restrictive. I always think when devs have just the very, very basics of an idea the better the mmo is.

It would imo be more about instilling the attitude of being a gland using, ai dependant culture citizen pitting their way of life against societies (could also be player chars, there are some very nice examples in the books which I would love to play) that have very different views ideals etc.

I guess its more about stealing bits from the books than actually recreating them. The thing about picking existing IP's is they require a certain adherence to canon and this can only restrict possible gameplay imo. I much prefer total freedom for mechanics with influences for design (skills/profession/back story, etc) and artwork (general look of chars and world).

Originally posted by mrw0lf

Originally posted by Wizardling6

Originally posted by mrw0lf

 My choice would be the culture novels by Iain M Banks, lots of lore but with so much scope and leaway.

 

I like them, but they seem like they wouldn't have a cohesive enough set of ideas upon which to develop an MMO. I mean - the Culture is cool, but exactly which parts would be an MMO? It's just too undefined IMO (which works well for the books, but not an MMO).

 

I understand what you're saying but I guess for me that was the main reason I chose it. I look at many of the other suggestions and while I can see them making good single player game or films imo they are just too restrictive. I always think when devs have just the very, very basics of an idea the better the mmo is.

It would imo be more about instilling the attitude of being a gland using, ai dependant culture citizen pitting their way of life against societies (could also be player chars, there are some very nice examples in the books which I would love to play) that have very different views ideals etc.

I guess its more about stealing bits from the books than actually recreating them. The thing about picking existing IP's is they require a certain adherence to canon and this can only restrict possible gameplay imo. I much prefer total freedom for mechanics with influences for design (skills/profession/back story, etc) and artwork (general look of chars and world).

The Culture books are just great. Above all, they're great literature. And on top of that, they have a solid vision and manage being both passionate and sceptical about their utopia at the same time, which is something very few science fiction books have any more.

Of course, by no means does this make them a good candidate for an MMO. However, their vivid imagination does. Come on, it's got great species, sentient machines that run the whole show behind the curtain, wonderful articificial worlds and plenty lore for designing them, all sorts of interesting games (hey, who wouldn't want to see their characters compete in Azad?)... They've got on-the-fly boosts in the form of glands! Sex changes that take a few months to complete - that's an MMO mechanic right there if I ever saw one!

They've got exploration and first contact strategy in the form of Contact...

They've got political muscle, a universe the history of which is fraught wars and still running system-wide grudges... Hey, they've got ships that name themselves, how cool is that? :) Here are some hilarious ship names from the books: So Much For Subtlety... Just Read The Instructions... Youthful Indiscretion... Size Isn't Everything... Who's Counting... Hand Me The Gun And Ask Me Again... Come on, you could even play a ship in this game and it would make sense!

One major catch is, they're built on what Banks calls post-scarcity economy, so there's practically no ownership and no currency. But to me, that could be a relief - I'm tired of playing the economy in MMOs anyway.

An MMO based in the sprawl trilogy by Gibson (Neuromancer, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive), would be my fix for some good sci fi.

Instead of King I'd have put up Lovecraft his works are much darker and probably  carry more suspense in them aswell.

I'm currently reading through the wheel of time series at the behest of a friend and so far I'd definately enjoy an mmo in that setting. Other than HHGTG however, none of the other's interest me much... especially H.P... ughh

I'm CONVINCED that "the wheel of time" universe could be made into an Epic Sandbox type game..

I would also like to add another fantasy series that would be awesome as an MMO, namely "the Malazan books of the Fallen" series. It's universe is MASSIVE with many magical realms and lot and lots of nice stuff. My favorite fantasy :)

There are also other Sci-fi books that could be made MMO. Revelation Space and the other books in that universe written by Alastair Reynolds would be great as a game at least, perhaps MMO.

I think the reason why there are few book MMOs is that an MMO requires a lot of freedom for the creators. It is dificult to make a good MMO if you are stuck within the confines of already defined lore. There must be room for new content.

Well, at this point in the fantasy genre George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire books are prolly the best you will ever read, followed i think by Steven Erickson's Book of the Fallen  ( Malazan Emire ) serie.

Both of them are offering incredible lore, awesome background, more than credible storyes... None of them were yet brought to public as a movie ( at least yet, HBO's Song of Ice and Fire is schedued for 2010 ) or a game - so it will kinda offer a lot of freedom to the developers. Also, both writers can be contacted and they can help develop the MMO's - it's not like the LoTR's saga where you have to stick to what was writen 60 years ago. 

I will really give any price on a premium MMO's set in any of those 2 universes ... dead serious on this statement.

/salute

Originally posted by clwoods

I reiterate that The Dark Tower would be great.  A fantasy western mmo hybrid.

I would agree, the setting of The Dark Tower would be a nice change from the current and future fantasy and sci-fi MMOs.

I would add "Coldfire Trilogy" by C. S. Friedman, with the world as it is during the trilogy rather than what it becomes at the end of the series.

An other that'd make a nice MMO:

Earth's Childeren by Jean Auel (did I spell her name right?).

Ir would be nice to see how a pre-historic setting like that would work out :D

harry potter /lol