http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/movies/pottermore-site-leaves-harry-potter-clue-from-jk-rowling

With rumors of a Harry Potter MMO in the making what is the general consensus?  I love the story and all the lore, but I find it difficult to make an MMO using the same stuff in the books and movies.  At least difficult if using the same cookie-cutter MMO style as seen in all the current MMOs.

Would you guys welcome this game?  If so, what do you think it should concentrate on to make an impact?  We've seen something with the lore and power of LOTR fail in this field simply because of being approached the wrong way. 

Another fantasy mmorpg? No thanks! 

I voted "maybe" because if they managed to break away from all the same old same old, then yes, I'd welcome a potter mmorpg :)

I'm not a huge Harry Potter fan but if they could just make something fun...something that doesn't try to nickle and dime you to death...something less tedious and more adventurous than the standard fare...something that doesn't rely so heavily on progression carrots as a cructh to hook people but instead hooks people simply because it's fun...well, then, even if it was a kiddie game I'd be glad play it.

I also want a purple unicorn for my birthday delivered personally by Santa.

I have been waiting to play it although I'm no longer a fan of the books or even the author. As far as I know there isn't an MMORPG with a similar universe to the one in Harry Potter, although I strongly suspect the new Blizzard MMO is going to be one, hence the announcement of a new HP IP by it's respective holders. As long as they take universe seriously and don't market it to little kids it would be awesome and start a fresh trend in the market.

I put, "It depends..." if my character can bag Hermione.  And I'll roll a female toon to do it, too

I am saying no. My daughter might love it though.  It would be way to tween like for my taste.  I love the books and movies but a game not so much.

Originally posted by Stellos

http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/movies/pottermore-site-leaves-harry-potter-clue-from-jk-rowling

With rumors of a Harry Potter MMO in the making what is the general consensus?  I love the story and all the lore, but I find it difficult to make an MMO using the same stuff in the books and movies.  At least difficult if using the same cookie-cutter MMO style as seen in all the current MMOs.

Would you guys welcome this game?  If so, what do you think it should concentrate on to make an impact?  We've seen something with the lore and power of LOTR fail in this field simply because of being approached the wrong way. 

Since its release in 2007, LotRO has generally been the 3rd most subbed mmorpg among all titles designed for the western market. Even still, 4 years later, the only western mmorpgs beating it are WoW, Runescape, and possibly Rift and EVE. EVE had been beating it prior to LotRO's f2p conversion but I do not have current numbers.

I'm always a little shocked by people's skewed perspective of success vs failure.

As to the question, the Harry Potter world has as good a chance as any world and a better chance than some at being successful. The mixing of the Wizarding world with the Muggle world could be really interesting in an mmorpg setting. But there are a lot of hurdles, too, and decisions will need to be made about whether they are trying to appeal to kids or adults or both. Trying to appeal to both would be fairly complicated to pull off in the Potter setting, imo.

However, if they do an mmorpg and it is as big a failure as LotRO, I'm sure they'll be quite pleased with that.

I watched a special on bloomberg about J.K. Rowling and how much  artistic/marketing control she demands for anything with the harry potter name on it.

She has been extremely successful because of the control she has over the development of anything harry potter.

However, This makes me have strong reservations about any MMO that might ever be produced.

She would probably make it hell for a video game design team to work and when the game came out it would probably be disney 13ish rated.

Originally posted by jado818 She would probably make it hell for a video game design team to work and when the game came out it would probably be disney 13ish rated.

Nah, that isn't like Rowling.  You have to understand that she wants to be taken 'seriously' as an author that deals with 'dark' and 'adult' stuff. That's why she said she wanted to write adult, I think romance, novels after Harry Potter. That's also why she didn't want Harry Potter to be animated. She will defer to any option that can concievably help reinforce that specific image.

However...

The problem is that she may truly hold a Judge Judy view that adults do not play any kind of video game, much less own something like a console for themselves. This is by far the most worrying hurdle here because I don't think Rowling would know better and it may wind up being a really kiddie type game doomed to failure. Behind that there is the problem that Rowling could not keep her ideas straight about really basic and/or important stuff while writing the fucking series itself.

First off, it's way too late.  The series is over, the last of the movies comes out next month, let it die.  It started out great, it went out with a whimper and frankly, I don't know many people who actually liked how it ended.

Secondly, other than dumping people into yet another generic fantasy game, I don't see what it could do to differentiate itself from other magic-based games, except for the fact that it's not high fantasy.  Putting wand-waving nonsense in the modern day really isn't that exciting, sorry.

I wouldn't play it.

I think, if anything, a Harry Potter MMO would fall along the lines of Free Realms or Wizard 101. While there may be some appeal towards older gamers, I think the game would probably be most successful if marketed as a F2P game towards younger players.

After all, if the MMO were set after the books, it would be very easy for it to be much more light-hearted than its novel counterparts and therefore more marketeable towards a younger audience.

Would I play a game with effectiely one character class?  Hell, no.  It would be full of kiddies anyway, which would put me off anyway.

Originally posted by Zeprimus

After all, if the MMO were set after the books, it would be very easy for it to be much more light-hearted than its novel counterparts and therefore more marketeable towards a younger audience.

The problem is, if you do it after the books, you no longer have a link to the books.  The "danger" is gone, everyone is grown, it's just a generic magic game.  As soon as you do away with Voldemort and the rest, you lose any attraction for a Harry Potter game.

This is a good article to read concerning the potential MMO (i say potential as no announcement as been made yet)

http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/05/05/the-perfect-ten-why-a-harry-potter-mmo-makes-sense/

Check it out.

Edit: Fixed spelling

I really hope it's an MMO, however I doubt it is.  But, if it was, I could stop working on mine.  Wizards World Online.

Originally posted by Cephus404

The problem is, if you do it after the books, you no longer have a link to the books.  The "danger" is gone, everyone is grown, it's just a generic magic game.  As soon as you do away with Voldemort and the rest, you lose any attraction for a Harry Potter game.

Not necessarily - simply by allowing players to participate in a multiplayer version of Hogwarts, with quidditch and all that sort of stuff, along with outlying towns and the parts of London featured in the books, the game would be firmly rooted in the universe. The game wouldn't necessarily have to be another ultimate "good versus evil" game; it could focus on allowing players to play out being a student at Hogwarts instead of the fighting that occurred.

Originally posted by Zeprimus

Originally posted by Cephus404

The problem is, if you do it after the books, you no longer have a link to the books.  The "danger" is gone, everyone is grown, it's just a generic magic game.  As soon as you do away with Voldemort and the rest, you lose any attraction for a Harry Potter game.

 

Not necessarily - simply by allowing players to participate in a multiplayer version of Hogwarts, with quidditch and all that sort of stuff, along with outlying towns and the parts of London featured in the books, the game would be firmly rooted in the universe. The game wouldn't necessarily have to be another ultimate "good versus evil" game; it could focus on allowing players to play out being a student at Hogwarts instead of the fighting that occurred.

Yeah and you have to remember that there's still a lot of danger in the world.  Think of all the magical creatures and even angry Voldemort supporters.  There's still lots they could do with something like that.