here's a top ten in no particular order with annotations.

10) A song of Ice & Fire (Martin provides us with such a deep intriguing world that I would give a finger to explore it first person.  Imagine if the DAOC team got behind this.)

9) Diablo (yeah, it's already an online game but not a persistant world, not a true MMO.  I guess the pub/dev would need to be blizzard)

8) Mage (yeah, CCP is making World of darkness.  Here's hoping Mage will be a part of i.  Or dare i wish... promethian)

7) Eddings' Belgariad/Malloreon (ok, I imagine the ppl in charge of making the rules for this game pulling their hairs out, one by one trying to create some semblance of balance.  still i want to play silk :P )

6) Zelazny's Amber books (classic for anyone who has not read them.  See above comment about trying to create rules systems, because it applies here too.)

5) Mass Effect (surprised nobody's mentioned it)

4)  Something alternate-history, for instance Turtledove's Guns of the South

3) Pokemon (say what you want, i think it'd make a fine MMO)

2) Berserk (the anime/manga)

1) Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes books

 Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

Waterworld.

I'd have to agree with itchmon, Mass Effect would be great. Bioware put enough background and lore in the game and it nearly feels large enough to be one already. Obviously Bioware would be on just job and I'd be all for that. Every game they touch is pure gold.

For me its already in development. By that I mean, Star Wars: The Old Republic. I've been wanting a Star Wars game like this for years. Its turning out to be every thing I though Star Wars Galaxies should have been, Its weird a lot of what Bioware is doing, I thought of while playing SWG. I used to think, wouldn't it be cool if and now most of my dreams are actually happening in TOR. Its scary its like LucasArts and Bioware are reading my mind, as to what my ideal Star Wars game would be.

Originally posted by itchmon

 

6) Zelazny's Amber books (classic for anyone who has not read them.  See above comment about trying to create rules systems, because it applies here too.)

 

Yup. Same deal with Alan Dean Foster's 'Spellsinger' books, or Piers Anthony's Apprentice Adept series (with rhyming magic).

I'm a little surprised no one has tagged Anthony's 'Xanth' world for an MMO. It would certainly be an interesting setting.

Originally posted by Achillez

I'd have to agree with itchmon, Mass Effect would be great. Bioware put enough background and lore in the game and it nearly feels large enough to be one already. Obviously Bioware would be on just job and I'd be all for that. Every game they touch is pure gold.

I agree too. I would love to see a Mass Effect MMO. Maybe they'll get around to it, once the trilogy is done with.

Barny the Purple Dinosaur or Mr. Rogers Neighborhood MMO would be just utterly amazing.. Also thought about maybe a Sesame Street MMO. But that might be a little to old fashion..

LOL seriously though Shadowrun, Mechwarrior. Gundam or Robotech or maybe rifts.

Out of of those I think Shadowrun or Mechwarrior would hold the most promise.

Gundam would come in a 2nd place if done right and with the more mature asian storylines. with all mobile suits available not just the gundams.

Robotech would be hard to do if used in Macross because it would be way to linear.. if they did it with a Guildwars type approach for a story telling MMO it could be possible.

Rifts could be just awesome. But you would have to do away with Class balancing all together... All together Rifts is a great world but it used one of the most imbalanced screwy systems in existance. The game system sucked hardcore. It worked for the Robotech lines but not for rifts.

---

Originally posted by itchmon

3) Pokemon (say what you want, i think it'd make a fine MMO)

---

My opinion is that the Pokemon handheld games come about as close as you can to an MMORPG without having the "Online" part.

The two ideas that got me wondering about possibility were Pokemon and Harry Potter. I know very little about the Pokemon IP but I have seen the HP movies. I just don't think you could make a MMO out of these two unless it was heavily monitored like Habbo Hotel. The community it would draw would be a large portion of children and then a mix of trolls, raging MMO vets and pedophiles. Just imagine having your children playing their wizard character with a 52 year old living in his mom's basement cracking jokes about female anatomy.

The worst thing that Bioware have ever done in their entire history was make a Star Wars MMO...

They already had the PERFECT IP.

MASS EFFECT

It boggles my god damned mind why they went and made a freaken star wars mmo.

Originally posted by satoriblue

The worst thing that Bioware have ever done in their entire history was make a Star Wars MMO...

They already had the PERFECT IP.

MASS EFFECT

It boggles my god damned mind why they went and made a freaken star wars mmo.

becuz star raws has lots of fans and stuff? Liek, from teh moives?

Shadowrun for sure...but only not just if anyone was making it. Not a fan of Turbine...so I would rather not have the game at all if they was making it.  lol

Originally posted by satoriblue

The worst thing that Bioware have ever done in their entire history was make a Star Wars MMO...

They already had the PERFECT IP.

MASS EFFECT

It boggles my god damned mind why they went and made a freaken star wars mmo.

If I say "Mass Effect" in a room of with people ranging from the ages of 12 to 30 (the general MMO audience). Maybe 25% of them (MAX!) would know what it is.

You say "Star Wars" in that same room and they will all know what you are talking about. In fact, I once called one of my students a "scruffy nerf herder" and all the male students started cracking up while the females just stared at me like I had six heads. Star Wars...it's a 'guy thang.'

HHGTG

Naruto

Bleach

Discworld

Some previously mentioned in this thread that I liked:

Mad Max as in the Road Warrior era, not the Thunderdome era.  I REALLY like this idea and think it has a ton of potential.

Chronicles of Riddick would be an interesting I.P. to develop.

Some of my own:

Chronicles of Narnia - massive world and characters to draw upon

Not really an I.P. per se but a true sequel to Asheron's Call 1.

As for developers, I'd have to go with Turbine or Blizzard.  Funcom has the potential to pull off a Road Warrior or C.O.R., but they need to keep it in development until it's done.  No pushing things out the door early like they have with AO, which could've been huge had it been release ready and AOC.

*edit*

For developers....

Originally posted by Mardy

Civilization

A real space MMO that's not star wars, and one that doesn't keep you in a ship at all time.

As a huge Civ fan I'm not sure how a Civ MMO would play out.

I'd be interested to hear your idea's though.

Dark Sun.

 Mine is already being worked on, The Wheel of Time.

I am gonna miss that kid...

I've read about an Otherland MMO here on mmorpg.com which I think might be pretty cool.

Apart from that I'd love a Shadowrun or Blade Runner/Neuromancer (well, it boils down to cyberpunk with or without fantasy), Riverworld or Babylon 5 MMO like they were mentioned before.

But what I would really REALLY like would be a sandboxish MMO based on Crimson Sky... Including an avatar out of your plane, owning zeppelins and multiple users on one plane or zeppelin, one being in control and another one or many others manning the guns or something.

Call of Cthulhu MMO, officially sanctioned by Chaosium.

The Cthulhu Mythos definitely has great potential as a MMO. Tons of monsters to fight (Cultists, Zombies, Deep Ones, Nightgaunts), lots of areas and dimensions to visit (Arkham, Innsmouth, Dunwich, Dreamlands, R'lyeh) and great end-game mega-bosses that are raid-worthy (Nyarlathotep, Great Cthulhu, Azathoth), this game would definitely be the trailblazer in the horror-genre MMO field.

Me want.

call my childish but "Redwall"

being able to choose between a mouse, rat,shrew,otter,rabbit, mole would just win

Hmmm ... a mix of Private Gold, Grindhouse and South Park.

Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series would be massive.

Originally posted by wickedpt

Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series would be massive.

This may already be in the works ;0

http://wnw.blogwarhammer.net/2008/11/13/wheel-of-time-mmo/