I would vote for Ian Banks culture universe.  Civilisation managed by AI factions, super advanced technology, Alien civilisations, ring worlds, sentinent spaceships 45 km in length with living cities on them, hidden portals between worlds.  So much scope :)  

Originally posted by free2play

I've said it before. The best IP World is the free one. It's called Earth. Turf the political lines and make it massive. Give it seasons, climates and altitude variations.

Already done, The Secret World :p

Originally posted by daemon

Baldurs Gate

FYI, that is set in Forgotten Realms.

I voted for Forgotten Realms but as other have pointed out, Shadowrun would lend itself nicely to an MMO game. Its both Sci-Fi and Fantasy; the best of both worlds!

Originally posted by Bladestrom

I would vote for Ian Banks culture universe.  Civilisation managed by AI factions, super advanced technology, Alien civilisations, ring worlds, sentinent spaceships 45 km in length with living cities on them, hidden portals between worlds.  So much scope :)  

yeah that too for a sci-fi mmo

although - the culture would always win

also have you read Transitions, what about that sort of world?  sort of fits the "real world" thing to.

Dragonlance

I dont think the IP matters THAT much. It matters more like how its done.

For example, I love the Conan stories and I would be massively interested in a Conan game that would be for roleplayers. I'm however not at all interested in Age of Conan:

- Only THREE(!!!) races (thats absurd beyond description, given the number of races in the story and even worse in the setting)

- One can play Conans race, a massive lore failure .. the only Cimmerian in the Conan stories is Conan himself, so his race shouldnt be an option for the player

- Still even with only 3 races, they had to insist on race limited classes

- Small gameworld (and Conans world was actually as big as, for example, Middle Earth)

- Shooterlike, shallow combat

- Cheap effects like beheadings and nudity. While I dont really care if you have them or not, the way it was advertised was very annoying and repugnant.

I would choose a completely original IP owned by the devs so that they could make their own vision without the constraints of existing lore.

Dragonlance!

Hell yeah I want to play a Tinker Gnome or Kender : D

Palladium Fantasy

Runequest

GOR

Starship Troopers!!!!

Originally posted by Adamantine

I dont think the IP matters THAT much. It matters more like how its done.

For example, I love the Conan stories and I would be massively interested in a Conan game that would be for roleplayers. I'm however not at all interested in Age of Conan:

- Only THREE(!!!) races (thats absurd beyond description, given the number of races in the story and even worse in the setting)

- One can play Conans race, a massive lore failure .. the only Cimmerian in the Conan stories is Conan himself, so his race shouldnt be an option for the player

- Still even with only 3 races, they had to insist on race limited classes

- Small gameworld (and Conans world was actually as big as, for example, Middle Earth)

- Shooterlike, shallow combat

- Cheap effects like beheadings and nudity. While I dont really care if you have them or not, the way it was advertised was very annoying and repugnant.

 

I agree with you on most. Only thing that didnt bother me was, it didnt matter to me if you could be a Cimmerian. I hated the world. it didnt feel like a world at all. Everthing was overly instanced. Conan lore could make one hell of a sandbox style mmo.

You were spot on, The IP doesnt matter, its how well the game is done.

Only thing IP is good for is selling more boxes on day 1.

I was thinking about this some more this morning.  What is an IP that is something completely different?  I thought of political/social commentary.  Then I thought of comic strips.

What about the possibility of a Lil'Abner (for the older folk), or Pogo (for us older-but-not-quite-that-old folk) or Peanuts or Dunesbury or Bloom County based world?  The great tradition of satire present in the American newspaper comic strips seems to be a coming to an end with the near extinction of newpapers, and these properties might be willing to explore new venues for storytelling.  A good satire based on political and social issues could be great fun (and constantly changing), but is there a game in there?

How many gamers wouldn't want to be on Steve Dallas' next excursion with Opus to Planet Playtex?

Just thinking way outside the box, here.

Star Trek not done by Cryptic or any of its ilk

Forgotten Realms.

With a sandboxy-quest themed gameplay. Where a player could follow a storyline by completing quests based on the setting's factions, cities, gods, planes, etc while having the power to shape the game world with the help of sandbox tools by starting wars, building trade federations, worshiping / creating new deities and the like.

Which ruleset it would be based on wouldnt be important, as long as the game is worth playing, IMO.

I have to agree with everyone who says, be original.

I would love to say Midkemia as I'm a big fan of Raymond E. Feist's books. But I tend to play mage characters always, and as they are pretty rare in Midkemia it would ruin the atmosphere if everyone was waving their hands throwing fireballs around.

Legend of Dragoon imo... A "sequel" to the underrated playstation game. It's also already owned by Sony, so SOE should have no problem with the IP.

When I was bored in college, I used to think about how it could pan out, as far as lore/abilities/balance... perhaps the dragoon crystals were all shattered, and now the shards have sought new people (the players) to harness their powers. Fairly traditional classes are already represented by the color of the shard/dragoon... If anyone is familiar with the original game, gold = tank, black = assassin, white = cleric, blue = shaman, etc...

Dont laugh at me.... but I think both a HARRY POTTER themed, and a STARCRAFT MMORPG would be reall fun/successful if done right....

Forgotten Realms

Ultima Online 2...................................