Originally posted by viko95

i have always hope on a Harry Potter Mmorpg.

Dana's picture in the editorial fits well ;)

I think a Dune MMO would work if you did it in the ten years between Dune and Dune Messiah.  Then you could have Fremen, Lansraad, Tleilaxu and Bene Gesserit as factions, and you wouldn't have to deal with the LotRO symdrom of following in the paths of the greats instead of living your own story.  I do think that was what made SWG a good idea.  You weren't pigeonholed into the storyline of the Trilogy.  For me, that was what was kind'of limiting about LotRO.  I like the PvP aspect that Dune would offer.

I think that TR was closer to Halo than Starship Troopers.  In fact, TR may have been what killed the production for a Halo MMO, first in its conception, then in its failure.  The issue with Starship Troopers is that, sticking to the lore, it would work as a PvE MMO, but as a PvP MMO, all you would have are the troopers.  Unless you want to have the bugs as a race, which I doubt would be very popular.

Originally posted by haggus71

I think a Dune MMO would work if you did it in the ten years between Dune and Dune Messiah.  Then you could have Fremen, Lansraad, Tleilaxu and Bene Gesserit as factions, and you wouldn't have to deal with the LotRO symdrom of following in the paths of the greats instead of living your own story.  I do think that was what made SWG a good idea.  You weren't pigeonholed into the storyline of the Trilogy.  For me, that was what was kind'of limiting about LotRO.  I like the PvP aspect that Dune would offer.

I think that TR was closer to Halo than Starship Troopers.  In fact, TR may have been what killed the production for a Halo MMO, first in its conception, then in its failure.  The issue with Starship Troopers is that, sticking to the lore, it would work as a PvE MMO, but as a PvP MMO, all you would have are the troopers.  Unless you want to have the bugs as a race, which I doubt would be very popular.

Those are the same concepts I would apply to a Wheel of time MMO.  Since there are manny ages  one could be created where there are none of the characters from the book from that age but they could make apperances from a past age.  You could have  Aiels, Seanchan, Tar Valon, White Coats, Dark Fiends, commeners( to cover the rest).  White Coats might be the only ones with a faction disadvantage  as the rest could have classes that used the one power in different forms.  They could have some form of herbal healing though. LOTOR online seem to get around the limited magic users in the world . Seanchan could have  "pet" class that would be  a Sul' dam with a damane filling the role of a pet.  commerns woudl hav e wisdoms and wilds.  even men who could channel ( just possible have issues with npcs and such if they did it around them in say a town square.

 I agree with most of these.  Though I kinda wish Myth, the fallen Lords (remember that?) could be turned into an MMO.  I could never beat that game.

No real complaints about your choices. I think they're all good.

But I have a few I'd change, or think would make better.

10 and 9 dont really belong there but man I'd really love to see them as a MMO. So I put them last although they should be 1st.

10) A Mechwarrior- Battletech MMO

One based off all the IP (Battlespace, Citytech, Aerotech, Battletech, Mechwarrior, Mercenaries, on and on) The IP is as rich as Star Wars. God it could be the ultimate MMO

This in my opinion would make the best MMO EVER and deserves the #1 spot. But all the novels are based off the boardgame/PNP game. *sigh*

9) AD&D Greyhawk Setting

I'd love to put this at #2 but...its an AD&D book which is based off a PnP game. Not a stand alone (original) novel. We (I) need a sand box MMO based off of the early AD&D. Not the piece of turd that is barely (and doesnt deserve) the AD&D title that we now have as a MMO.

8) A Song of Ice and Fire

I said in the other thread you did www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/2798342 that A Song of Ice and Fire would be a 10 spot.

So I still have reservations on whether this would make a good MMO (no matter how much I love the books).

The only way could see it working is if they used a system sort of like TMxO combat interlock. Because there is no magic in the books. At least magic like the average MMO player knows.

So combat would have to focus on melee combat (and ranged of course). And it would have to have 100's of different animations for the different fighting styles. Water dancer, vs armored knight classic style, vs Dothraki , vs Unsullied, vs Meereen pit fighter, vs Dornish spearfighting, etc.

And then how would the players be? Hedge Knights, Mercenaries, ect. That wouldnt be to hard, GRRM flesh out a whole world, all the way from Westros to the Jade Sea.

But the key would be combat, it would have to be based in reality, and like I mentioned above it would have to have 100's if not 1000's of combat attack and counter animations. If done right it could be absolutely ground breaking and f'n awesome. I dont think we are there yet with the technology much less the creative innovation to produce it though.

7) Dune

Dont really need to add anything to what you already said.

6) Michael Moorcock's works. Hawkmoon in particular.

Ive always been a big fan of Elric. And there has never been a more awesome sword or swords than Stormbringer and Mournblade. But I dont think the Melniboné setting would make a overly great MMO.

But the Hawkmoon setting I think would. Magic as technology, a world at war and mostly conquered by obscene and perverse overlords, hell yeah I say.

5) The Deathgate Series by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

Loosely based (in my opinion) on their semi-D&D-ish writing much like the (Dragon Lance series). I think it would make an okay MMO. The settings are interesting. As are the different magic styles.

4) The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski

Geralt is a lot like Elric of Melniboné but this fantasy setting would make for a better MMO. Almost nothing like the rated 'M' PC game. Would be a good adult MMO.

3) The Coldfire Trilogy by CS Friedman en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coldfire_Trilogy

Man its hard to explain, if you havent read it. This could be done in the very classic fantasy MMO way. Just with a fresh new setting. Could be called a fantasy horror MMO.

2) The Guardians of the Flame by Joel Rosenberg.

This comes in second as my favorite series behind GRRM.

A low-magic setting with a mix of early gunpowder technology. Its a dark fantasy written story not unlike a Song of Ice and Fire. I put it as close to a Greyhawk AD&D setting (classic). Swords and magic along with wizards and clerics.

Its a story of what would happen if D&D was about a real alternate world and you got sent there. Well for the people throwing the D20 it was a version of hell.

1) The Cthulhu Mythos by HP Lovecraft

Cthulhu nuff' said.

If you can find it, Cast a Deadly Spell, HBO movie is what made me fall in love with the Cthulhu mythos. Not 100% accurate on how Lovecraft did his stories, magic was more secret.

But I think a more open magic setting like this movie would make a damn good MMO.

Originally posted by Stradden

One has to consider popularity when one is looking at creating a video game based on an IP. If you make something based on an IP no one has heard of, no one will play it.

That actually sounds like a statement against game developers creating their own IP.

What I totally miss in that list are three books/stories: Neverending Story (anyone offering more freedom of what to place in the world while sticking to certain clichees so people feel at home? C'mon!),  Eric van Lustbaders outstanding Kundalan-Trilogy (you have all the factions, a world which is very flexible and diverse in tems of freedom against natural laws, technomancer and "normal" mages, war, a rich lore to suck you in) and Dragon Hunters (the french series is a huge success since ages, the world if big and diverse, has spawned already games and the movie too with big success as well).

Originally posted by Delanor

Originally posted by Stradden

One has to consider popularity when one is looking at creating a video game based on an IP. If you make something based on an IP no one has heard of, no one will play it.

 

That actually sounds like a statement against game developers creating their own IP.

Well, that's a cynical way of looking at things.

What I should have said was "based on an outside IP".

In any case, original IP games are becoming fewer and fewer in the market because existing IPs have built in fan bases of people who will pay for the game simply based on name recognition.

Originally posted by jposavatz

Battletech anyone?

I think I only saw a single comment back on page 2 with Battletech listed... there are several series of books by a variety of authors written on the BT universe, it's NOT fantasy (which I think we're a bit inundated with at the moment), it has very rich lore, a rough timeline with lots of gaps to be filled in, and there's not a single "hero" that the books follow, but rather they seem to all be focused on a collection of random heros for a book or three...

I've always enjoyed the Mechwarrior games - to bring that level of FPS to an MMO set in the BT universe would be pretty awesome.  They could start out with a game focused on the inner sphere, and then the clan invasion could be a future expansion...

"Books based on" weren't considered. it had to originate as a book. In fact, Battletech has already appeared on one of my lists. If we considered "books based in the universe", you could really fit anything into this category. I've seen novelizations of almost everything at some point or another.

SciFi is sorely under-represented in most lists.

A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge      Only 2 books in the universe and those thousands of years apart, but SOOO much you can do there. Even just the things that are hinted at leave the potential for endless play.

One of the things that you guys are all missing is what makes for a good MMO.

The failure of most of the existing IP games has always been you want to be the hero. If the hero of a story has some special ability that sets them apart, it makes for a BORING MMO. Think of SWG. Everyone wants to be a Jedi.

The thing that makes for a good MMO is that everyone CAN be equal. IP's like Battletech, Starship Troopers, Honor Harrington, Otherland, Night's Dawn, and Pern are great examples. These books have a very large universe to pull stuff from. Very few special abilities that set people apart. And they all have enough spread on what can be included that you can be a lot of different things and still have fun.

Of course there are always wide IP's like Warhammer and D&D that you would think could be great MMO's that end up sucking balls. I have pretty much given up on the chance that anyone will come up with an MMO that is REALLY going to give me the enjoyment that i had when MMO's first started.

"So why then, when scanning the vast list of games on the MMORPG.com game list, do only Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online and Funcom's Age of Conan stand out as a novels-turned MMOs?"

Well, actually Dragon Raja is also based on a fantasy novel, it is just not as popular as the ones mentioned.

I have to agree with the idea of an MMO game world based on W. Gibson's Neuromancer (and Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive).  The Sprawl is filled with too much awesome.   Snowcrash was excellent, but too neon and superficial (as perfectly cyber-punk as that sounds...).

Along those same lines, I would suggest Shadowrun.  However, Shadowrun was established first as a game universe by Fasa, rather than the novelizations that followed.  Even still, the Shadowrun IP has been brought to video games several times with debatable success.  The genesis/snes versions were absolutely amazing; whereas, the most recent incarnation (FPS-Style Shooter) was an absolute failure.  The biggest problem with making an MMO based on the Shadowrun universe is the sheer scope of the game itself.  With the Matrix for deckers, the Magic system, riggers, samurai, all the races, the Awakening, and everything else that made the Shadowrun universe so rich, I would hate to think of the development pipeline to produce this universe in its entirety.

Finally, its a disappointment that, throughout this epic thread, there was only one mention of Orson Scott Card.  Ender's Game was a work of art.  After deeper consideration, it would be difficult to realize this as a full blown MMO without further guidance from Card himself; but, he is known to do some work in the video game industry, and I'm sure he would be thrilled to work on an MMO based on his Xenocide trilogy.  You would have to ask him though.  I can't speak for the man, I can only attest to his genius.  If not the Xenocide trilogy, then pick any random "universe" from his Maps in a Mirror collection.  Card's works never disappoint.

Originally posted by grunt187

My #1 book that would be fun to play as a MMO

Elric of Melnibone series

 

maybe expand this to the Eternal Champion settings as a whole... multiple worlds..LOTS of possibilities.

10) A Mechwarrior- Battletech MMO

One based off all the IP (Battlespace, Citytech, Aerotech, Battletech, Mechwarrior, Mercenaries, on and on) The IP is as rich as Star Wars. God it could be the ultimate MMO

This in my opinion would make the best MMO EVER and deserves the #1 spot. But all the novels are based off the boardgame/PNP game. *sigh*

 

Why did I not think of this???  If done correctly, this could be the single greatest thing ever created...  By humans.

What about the books by David Eddings and his wife Leigh?

It will come a new ''Harry potter mmorpg'' Hogwarts online. Fan made, look pretty good realy! Home site: http://www.hogwartsonlinemmo.webs.com/                     :D :D :D 

I thought the list was great, but I just have to ask one very elitist @%#hole-ish question: Did you even proofread this thing? I mean, it was kinda sad, there were typos in every other paragraph. Saying the 9th book got the tenth spot, not hitting shift+9 for parantheses once, referring to Dune as a great "sci-I IP" (What's with the second I?), among other things, kinda bugged me. OK, rant over, sorry but I'm a serious grammar whore.

Great list, love the idea of a fairy tale and/or Stephen King MMO. Personally, I'd check out a Dune MMO, but that's cause I grew up on that stuff (My dad loves the movie, used to watch it every other week). Dunno what else to say, so just gonna say that Hollywood needs to get original, it's basically just a machine to get books into movies now. Sorry, the final paragraph of the opening reminded me of the huge list of original movies that have come out lately... sarcasm.

The Black Company series would be perfect material to base an MMO on.

 Well apart Dune and Harry Potter I disagree with the 8 others.

A lot of Coldfire fans here (funny story: my name comes from a forum I tried to sign up for but couldn't use "Tarrant" because it was taken already). That's cool. I'd be curious how a developer would handle certain facets of the world though, like earthquakes, or the difficulty of ocean travel, or the sheer risks involved in channeling Fae.

Another one a couple folks mentioned would be DeathGate. I would LOVE to see this, but I'd also be afraid of it going wrong. If the Sartan/Patryn become playable characters, other races would be worthless in comparison. Unless the Sartan and Patyrn were really, really watered down.

Another cool idea though would be the Darksword trilogy, also by Weis and Hickman. Some REALLY cool ideas about magic. And it was set somewhere during the third novel, the introduction of the Technologists from Beyond would be pretty awesome. I'd have to admit though, I think everyone would want to be Duuk-Tsarith.

I would love to see a Dune Mmo, but as someone said in a previous post, its such a huge ip that they would have to do a really good job.

Also I think the Necroscope series of Books by Brian Lumley would make an awesome Mmo setting !

DISCWORLD!

How come absolutely no one has said Discworld yet? Does no one here ever actually read anymore? Does a book have to get made into a Hollywood movie before it becomes real to you people (Harry Potter, Stephen King, His Dark Materials, Starship Troopers, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, various fairy tales, Dune?) I'm beginning to lose faith in MMORPG.com readers and bloggers. It's not as if this is some obscure, difficult to read series with maybe one or two published works.

Discworld is such a complete and rich universe to set an MMO in, it is absolutely perfect for this genre of games.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld

Originally posted by Deewe

 Well apart Dune and Harry Potter I disagree with the 8 others.

Care to expand on that? :)

I expected to see Goodkind's Sword of Truth books listed....

Other than that I cannot comment too much since I only read books from half that list (or seen a movie or two)