Fantastic article by Jon Wood but I have to say I think you missed the boat with your #1. I think an MMO movie not based off specific lore but rather thousands of people being butthurt over gear they couldn't get or instances they didn't meet gear requirements for would be much better. The last act would be everyone logging on to their repective game's forums and raging/trolling eachother. Now that's a movie that I'd watch.

http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/Half+left/fan-developer-eve-online-movie-blows-my-socks-off-127747.phtml

I am sure Lord of the Rings will be remade, it is what Hollywood does, but I doubt very much it will ever be done better than the existing movies.  How you can say they did not tell the story is beyond me, the movies are much longer than normal so they could fit in as much as the story line as possible.

 Yeah an EVE movie or tv show would be pretty good huh? I'd  watch it.

I agree with three... but LotRO movie and WAR movie, no.  LotRO could work as one, but I doubt any self respecting movie company would bank on hurting already hugely successful movies by creating one based on game lore.  Especially movies that stem from books that are considered classics in their own right.

Warhammer as a game turned out bad enough, I don't want to see them hurt it further by trying to create a game that's just a glitch and start with 1/3 of the material cut from it.

Two that should have been on the list.

In replace of LotRO, how about an EverQuest movie.  EverQuest has enough lore and time period to support a well developed movie.  It also is a classic in the MMO world and no self respecting MMO player can talk senseably without at least having played a little EQ.

In place of the Warhammer movie, how about Guild Wars: Flameseeker Prophecies movie.  Guild Wars, although not considered by everyone to be an MMO, is undoubtably well written.  The plot is well developed with plenty of twists, betrayals, and progression.  Leading to a well structured end plot for the HP mish.  It wouldn't take much adaptation to pull a movie out of the game and it would be well worth it as an award winner.

Has anyone considered an Anarchy Online movie? With its encapsulating sci-fi setting and rich lore, how could you go wrong.

My Top 5 Picks for MMO Movies:

5. Lineage II

4. Everquest (1 or 2) or use EQ2 and have EQ1 as a prologue in the movie

3. Eve Online

2. Tabula Rasa

1. Anarchy Online

Personally, a Champions/CoX movie would be the last thing I'd want to see.  The market is saturated with superhero movies.  The only way I'd be remotely interested is if it takes the tongue-in-cheek satirical path like the CoX mini-ads for each update.

I think Tabula Rasa has the best basis for either a TV series or set of Movies.  The backstory was one of the best aspects of the game, imho.  However it should not be based in any small way on Starship Troopers, which is only marginally better than Battlefield Earth.  Whoever liked that movie should do themselves a big favor and go read the book.  While I'm not sure that anime is necessarily the best medium for it, I do think that it would rock if done like the opening scene was done.

As for the EVE universe, based on what I've read, it would be another great source for a TV series especially once Dusk 514 launches.  But as was previously mentioned, the player base provides all the plot anyone could ask for.  You can't make up better stuff than reality like the takedown of BOB.  That was truly epic, and I don't even play the game, but I found myself following the events.

How about Asheron's Call?  This game had some really good plot arcs that could serve as the basis for movies.

As for Anarchy Online, the only question I have is this:  Will we have to sit in the theater for hours before the movie manages to become watchable?

I'd watch an EvE movie, and a Warhammer Fantasy (or 40K) movie. I'd even watch a D&D movie. The huge caveat is they would all have to be done by Peter Jackson. To date he is the only person in hollywood who has demonstrated that they have the understanding and intelligence to present such gaming related based IPs in the proper form. The first 2 D&D movies gave light to the level of "seriousness" that prevails in hollywood about these things "geek". I'm tired of the "reality tv, cool kids" who have never roled a 20 sided dice in their life getting tapped to bring these IPs to the big screen.

And if Uwe Boll has in fact played D&D (or Drakensang) then it just cements that he should be catapulted off this planet into the vaccum or space...and let him figure out how to take the next breath.

ugh, i think they would all be bad movies honestly. How many game to movies were actually good (I can only think of FF7: Advent Children atm). If they made any of these into movies it would have to be CGI or Anime, because a live action movie would just be corny as hell. Actually I would rather watch them as a series of DVDs instead of in a theatre. Making a movie of any of these wont explain too much of the current story, it will be a rushed mess. They can only explain so much within a 2hour time limit.

MMOs should come out with an anime series to explain the lore up to the current expansion, that would be great. They can release the dvd the day the new expansion comes out to explain everything that happened in the last expansion.

just my thought on this.

Originally posted by Valth

dude the first d&d movie was awesome, it got me to look into d&d more, how could you say it was horrible

at least someone liked D&D movies, good for Hollywood!

IMO Guild Wars could be a great movie. It's one of the great game that has top line story. If worked out properly one or two sequel wouldn't be impossible even. But please not like Resident Evil, scriptwriters should show minimum respect to the original story.

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Just thought of another movie that would be cool even though it is not a MMO would be Might and Magic based off imho the last great M&M games World of Xeen (IV - Clouds of Xeen and V - Darkside of Xeen).

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This. I was pretty young when playing the Xeen series from Might & Magic, but it sure left an impression on me and was part of my fantasy gaming upbringing. I still have the maps that came in the boxes! :)

If not a movie, I would love to see these games re-done with todays game technology. Updated graphics and gameplay and you would have (imho) a massively popular game series.

At age 34, I have played many games in my life. Another series that was amazing to play from the start was Ultima. Anyone remember Ultima Underworld (I & II). The first underworld game had a story so immersive and awesome that I still remember it today. Getting locked in some very old caves and having to crawl your way into the deepest parts of the cave system in order to find a way out (and save the day!) was amazing.

The Wolfenstein series was awesome fun, too. Remember the first one? lol.. I don't think anyone would have the patience to play games like that these days.

I didn't mean to hijack things here. As to the original topic, I would absolutely LOVE to see an EverQuest movie. For those that have spent the time to read up on the Lore of EQ, there is plenty for a great movie. Hell, there's plenty for a series if you ask me.

Acidon

I think WoW movie would get lots of viewers even if it would suck just because of the huge fanbase.

 The only way any of these will make a good movie is if the people involved with it forget that their source material is a game. I'm only familiar with Warcraft and D&D so I won't comment on the others, but both of these have some amazing stories and characters that could be brought to the screen. If the writer/director/editor/whoever approaches the material this way, as a story about some characters, with some event(s) happening around them. Also, they need to keep in mind that movies are a much more limited medium that video games.
One has 2-2.5 hours tops to have the plot and characters introduced, conflicts resolved, and the story brought to a reasonable satisfying ending (a little foreshadowing is good if a sequel is planed, but don't leave everyone hanging). If I'm following the storyline in warcraft though, what do I have? 3 titles which take dozens hours to work through (Warcraft I-III), and WoW that can pretty much take all the time it wants to explore various plotlines, characters, and settings? You don't have this luxury in a move, so the scope has to be limited from the very beginning. Tell the story of Arthas' fall, or Drizzt's escape from the Underdark, or something else limited in scope and no more.

 I would love to see a Warhammer movie. The humor that greenskins bring with them in every Warhammer game, the lore including the Chaos Gods, etc... make a great movie concept, better than Warcraft.

Other than that, the Tabula Rasa clip has huge movie potential as well.

I do not know if it has been said, but as far as DnD movies...I would love to see a well financed Dragonlance movie based on the original novels and secondly a Forgotten Realms movie...but if they are going to be low budget and have to make cuts I would rather them not be done.

Originally posted by jufo

And perhaps it is just me, but I just picture an EVE movie, as an expanded Star Wars movie.. now with 4 factions instead of just Imperial and Rebels.. and with no jedis of course. But other than that I would actually believe that a movie about 4 interplanetary kingdoms at war, which would make all wars on earth look like insignifficant battles, would be a great concept. And if nothing else, then the large spacewar scenes.
I can just imagine it... and though I imagine it as quite cool, I can't stop imagining a Death Star hovering by, in the background at different times

Actually, I'd see an EVE movie looking and tasting a lot more like something like the Alien series, with a pinch of Firefly.  Actually, you could even throw some Chronicles of Riddick in there (crazy space religion WHAAAT).  And a dash of Battlestar Galactica.  In the beginning you want to start the movie with the arrival in New Eden and subsequent "holy crap, we're trapped in another galaxy".  Fun!

 i think Anarchy Online would be a bad ass movie.

1.City of Heroes = A No No for me as a movie, I like my superhero's to have something mystical, but then again regardless that I am a Superhero fan I for some reasons can not get into MMORPG's like CoH/V, ChampionsOnline. But please do make a movie about CoH/V cause I am sure lots of people will look forward to it, perhaps I will even go and see it, but would not be looking forward to it.

2. Lord of the Rings Online, really not sure how this would work out, okay put Peter Jackson on the helm and they might become awesome, but think he's pretty busy the next couple of years with projects like The Hobbit 2011, Adventure's of Tintin 2011, presumed Halo the movie 2012.

3. D&D, definitly want a movie from that, but this time let it be done so it justify's the serie and not like the former movies where one (the first) was kinda alright but very lowbudget not really enjoyeble, the other one slightly bigger budget but they made a wierd type of comedy flick of it, both didn't do justice towards the IP, let someone please do the IP justice.

4. Tabula Rasa, already heavy inspired by movies like StarshipTroopers and War of the Worlds and plenty of other al ready made Sci-fi movies, so it wouldn't be anything special apart from it's title perhaps.

5. Warhammer only if made like their intro movie, feel the same way about the World of Warcraft movie as I feel if it's done like their CGI intro movie's it will do the games justice.

6. EVE, awesome space sim with a touch of MMO, don't think a movie can do it justice, but will agree if done as a serie, think BSG/StarGate there can be lots of creativity in making EVE a tv serie.

Oh and .......I did enjoy the read

EVE-Online is the ONLY 1 mentioned that I would have any real interest in watching, either as a Movie or a HBO/SyFy series...

In fact I think a Series would be great, possibly based upon Actual events occuring in the game as time goes on...

Events that Real People are playing a part in , not just the NPC side of things...

The major Alliance conflicts and Sov Wars ongoing and so on...

Difficult as that might be to do, it could make for Great TV...