Good riddance NO! None of them should EVER be made into a MMO. The reasons are way too various, and LOTRO shows well why books, however fascinating as book, dont automatically make a good and interesting MMO.

I'd rather see a MMO based on Traveller pen & paper, or *maybe* The Belgariad world of David Eddings.

 For sci-fi

Strength and Honor: A Novel of The U.S.S. Merrimack by R.M. Meluch

 For Fantasy

 The Cold fire trilogy by C. S. Friedman

    I would so love either of those...

The only thing coming to my mind right now is Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.

Overall Lore scale of DF could become into a great mmorpg with some detective elements in quests even. The contrast between Chicago/Earth and Nevernever would make it into one of the most unique mmorpg of all times.

I remember when I finished reading the "Summer Knight" (fourth book of DF book series) a year ago, I always imagined the "ending battle" working perfectly as massive player campaign in some mmorpg game.

If I was the head of some game developer company and wanted to create a mmorpg from which a lot of profit could be brought, my first choice would be Dresden Files.

Heroes Die by Matt Stover. All time fav for me.

Originally posted by Elikal

Good riddance NO! None of them should EVER be made into a MMO. The reasons are way too various, and LOTRO shows well why books, however fascinating as book, dont automatically make a good and interesting MMO.

I'd rather see a MMO based on Traveller pen & paper, or *maybe* The Belgariad world of David Eddings.

While I respect your opinion, I have to disagree.  LOTRO itself wasn't all that bad for what it was, not that it kept my attention for long, but than again, what game does?

Anyhow, I think any of those books could be made into a worthy MMO in the right hands.  Just as an MMO based on Traveller could be done very well in the right hands, or end up being very uninteresting in the wrong hands.  In the end, it really depends on the creative team behind the game that will decide how interesting or uninteresting the gameplay actually is (as interesting as Traveller may be, in the wrong hands, it could be made into a very boring experience).  That doesn't just fall on the IP itself (while I do agree some IPs would lend themselves better to an MMO, the creative team and their design will ultimately make or break it).

Originally posted by Nikopol

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.

I also think that the Culture universe would make for a great MMO. The game's setting, in my opinion, shouldn't be within the Culture itself, but in the galaxy that surrounds the Culture. There's great opportunities for Contact and agents of Special Circumstances to be mixing it up with characters from hundreds of species, so many of which have their own unique abilities and political/social agendas. Plus there's so many strange worlds out there, with differing levels of techology (seen so well in Consider Phlebas (sp)).

The Culture itself is post-scarcity, but the rest of the wide Galaxy isn't. That in itself could be turned into a fun to play mechanic, characters that are used to having whatever they need for however long they need it dumped into worlds where scraps of paper must be accumulated to actually purchase what they want... but then, that's probably a concept that would just mystify most gamers. :)

One of the elements I love about Banks' series is that the AI Minds and Humans were social equals, just with very different specialties. The Minds didn't cater to the humans, the humans didn't cater to the Minds, they were partners (Usually with the Minds pulling the strings behind both Human and Drone motivations). With even some humans (Referrers) able to think just as well as a Mind, if not as often. :) Which reinforces the ability to play a Ship, Drone, Human, or any other race without a significant disadvantage... though the scope of conflict for each would vary. Which would create a variety of different fields of conflict for PvP, RvR, etc for those interested in such. Imagine a Swarm of 60,000 warships as a boss. :) (ie: what Sleeper said it wasn't!)

The social dynamics in such a MMO would cover scopes rarely seen in games. The player of a General Service Unit (a starship capable of a population of several hundred million) would want to be interesting and unique enough to attract a population of Culture citizens to use the ship as their home base. General Contact Units (populations ranging from one to thousands) would have the same challenge on a smaller scale... On the opposite end of the spectrum, a number of players could group together to create a ship to live in that was a NPC, more like the guild house or base of most games.

A Culture MMO could allow devs to not only think outside the box, but get away with it, in ways not seen in other games to date.

Unfortunately, no matter how adaptable to an MMO game the Culture universe is, it is still a relative unknown compared to the Star Wars or Star Trek IPs. Those will be getting the investor money to make a difference in development hours and advertising that would make even a very well-designed and sandboxed Culture MMO delegated to obscurity.

I'd still play it, though. :)

For those interested in what the few of us are going on about, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture

-w

PS: While I think Starship Troopers would be the more recognizable IP for an MMO, John Steakley's Armor would be a better universe. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armor_(novel)

I would love to see some of the work of David Eddings turned into an MMO, specifically the Elenium and Tamuli series but I'm not sure it stands apart enough from some of the other fantasy type works out there.

I'm totally off topic here but I'm still waiting for a Space Quest and G.I. Joe MMORPG.  I mean come on already....

How's about the World of Judy Blume Online?  :P

I'm surprised Narnia wasn't mentioned.  Maybe too obvious.

Originally posted by fudi84

Discworld anyone?

 

 

me!

a Discworld mmorpg would be great!

Edit the story; lots of grammar mistakes!

you know i'm honestly not sure if anyone else mentioned this already, but they ARE making a Wheel of Time mmo.....

It's being published by Red Eagle Games.

The Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton would be epic as an MMO...

Amazing history, several races, great factions..

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Reality_Dysfunction

1, H.P lowcraft, = //www.darkdemonscrygaia.com allrdy somwhat in the works. 

and way the F, put hary pothead at number one,, the boks are funn, and the story as well, But its realy just a highscool Serie whit som magic in it, The world is simply way to small for a Good mmo, IMO. 

agre on who ever sad Simon green, death stalker ...

Originally posted by Oyjord

"Song of Fire and Ice" is the best fantasy literature since, well, for many decades.  I'd give my left nut to play an MMORPG in that universe.

 

"Dune" I'd give my other nut to play.

I would offer both of my nuts in a similar fashion to see those two IPs come to the MMO world. 

Sidenote: If the IP "Wheel of Time" is in fact made into an MMO I would hope that the stories internal to the game would progress quicker than the ones in the book. Although I have read all the books, though truly only enjoyed the first four or so, the story was so vast, the characters so numerous and the plot SO SLOW that I simply lost interest in that world.

Don't know if anyone has suggested the Vampire Earth series by E.E. Knight but that whole series screams MMO.

Originally posted by montie1123

I would love to see an MMO based on Jim Butchers Codex Alera.

Yes, oh yes! If I had a third nut I would offer that one for this IP. Clesses, skills and races are already present in that game; it would make a smooth transition into the MMO genre.

Also not sure if this has been mentioned but there is a game being developed on the Fire&Ice universe ,not an MMO but a single player game

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/news.html

One to watch

Originally posted by Airwren

I would love to see some of the work of David Eddings turned into an MMO, specifically the Elenium and Tamuli series but I'm not sure it stands apart enough from some of the other fantasy type works out there.

This.

Some really good ideas. My vote for Sci Fi would be Dune I think. Not sure about fantasy. There are some really good books but as someone has already said. They wouldn't necessarily be a good mmo.

Discworld would be fun I think.

The Malazan Book of the Fallen

the world of A Song of Ice and Fire

The Wheel of Time

Midkemia from Feist's books

All have mmo potential, because the world already has great depth and basic mmorpg fantasy concepts can be easily implemented.  Books like Ender's Game or  Dune have a terrific story, but that doesnt make them a mmo material. Any game based on those would have to be quite innovative.

Oh, and my vote totally goes to Battletech. It doesnt have to be a mmo, just give me a Battlemech and let me shoot other people.

I think the Soul Rider series by Jack L. Chalker would make an amazing and original MMO.  It would give players a feeling of true godlike power to progress in that world.