A song of Ice and Fire.

Dragonslance Saga at the time of the War of the Lance.

Death Gate Cycle.

The Dark Tower...Stephen King boooy!

LOTRO could have made an awesome mmorpg.

Sandbox, single-server, open world. Everyone starting as a peasant and becomes whatever on his journey, options would have been endless. It could have been the biggest thing ever, as an IP like this deserves.

Unfortunately the license went to Turbine...and you know the rest of the sad story.

Robert Jordan "Wheel of time"  Serries

Game of Thrones (based on the war before Robert takes the throne)

Pretty much any of the Dragon Lance era's

Raymond E. Feist "Riftwar universe" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_E._Feist

Shadowrun. I read a number of the novels. Very interesting world with a nice blend of technology and magic. Hopefully the game on kickstarter doesn't suck or go into development hell.

Originally posted by Volgore

LOTRO could have made an awesome mmorpg.

Sandbox, single-server, open world. Everyone starting as a peasant and becomes whatever on his journey, options would have been endless. It could have been the biggest thing ever, as an IP like this deserves.

Unfortunately the license went to Turbine...and you know the rest of the sad story.

Ha Ha Ha.. I was just going to say either LoTR or Star Wars, and both of those IP's failed due to a piss poor dev team that was only concerned with market value money grab instead of actually making a RPG game..  I would of loved to have been the lead boss with either IP.. It's sad that when I think of playing a hobbit, I actually remember playing a halfling in EQ..

Games based on licensed properties always suck.  It's one of the fundamental laws of the universe.  Here's a handy-dandy chart for future reference:

Book > Movie = Good, frequent exceptions

Movie > Book = Bad, no exceptions

Book > Comic Book = Good, frequent exceptions

Comic Book > Movie = Good, frequent exceptions

Movie > Comic Book =  Bad, rare exceptions 

Video Game > Movie =  Bad, no exceptions 

Video Game > Anything not a movie =  Bad, rare exceptions 

Anything > Video Game =  Bad, no exceptions    

I think everybook of fantasy could be a good MMO. its the Team (dev) that make all the difference and the style they choose to make it.

For exemple lotro, imagine if blizzard would have made it.

hmm but i think i would like to see Game of thrones. its already been made for a web browsers thought. i dunno how its will turn out.

Originally posted by Greyface

Games based on licensed properties always suck.  It's one of the fundamental laws of the universe.  Here's a handy-dandy chart for future reference:

Book > Movie = Good, frequent exceptions

Movie > Book = Bad, no exceptions

Book > Comic Book = Good, frequent exceptions

Comic Book > Movie = Good, frequent exceptions

Movie > Comic Book =  Bad, rare exceptions 

Video Game > Movie =  Bad, no exceptions 

Video Game > Anything not a movie =  Bad, rare exceptions 

Anything > Video Game =  Bad, no exceptions    

 Batman arkham asylum and Lara croft hardly suck that aside theres not been that many book tie ins and maybe its about time someone brought out a good one for a mmo maybe HBO should give it a go :)

A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) could make for an awesome sandbox MMO if it were in the right hands, but from the little I've seen, what we're getting from Bigpoint is almost certainly going to be just a medicore cash-in like the two single-player games from Cyanide.

I actually think the Malazan series is better suited for the current MMO environment than either Wheel of Time or A Song of Ice and Fire. It has deeper lore and a more robust cosmology to support the setting than possibly anything except LotR/Middle Earth. The power curve in the Malazan series is absurd, so it also supports character progression in a way that other fantasy series might not.

Originally posted by Greyface

 

Anything > Video Game =  Bad, no exceptions 

We all had that time before we played Batman: Arkham Asylum.  We were all there once.

For that matter, the Wheel of Time game back in the day had a pretty dang fun multiplayer mode I loved.  And there have also been a few extremely fun Star Wars games (Jedi Knight 2, X-Wing, etc) over the years.

As for basing MMORPGs on an existing IP?  Eh, I'd say overall don't do it.  The primary benefit is for companies to sell more product because it's familiar.  The benefit for players is vaguely there (after all they're the ones wanting to purchase something familiar) but is purely thematic value.  Trying to fit your MMORPG skin over the top of an IP will just generally result in gameplay compromises in order to stay true to the IP, and will produce slightly worse gameplay as a result.

I suppose there are exceptions.  One of the advantages of known IP is you could potentially use it to really trumpet your game's core pillars.

Another advantage to known IPs is a slight reduction in the need for internal communication.  If you're making a Batman game, your art team is already going to know exactly who Batman and Joker are, and capture their essence pretty well right from the start.  If you're making Mass Effect 1, you have to spend a pretty good chunk of time presenting these new characters "Liara" and "Shepard" so that the team has a clue who they're supposed to be.

The Black Company. 

Roger Zelazny's Amber.

You need a huge world to work with for the book idea, imo.  Nothing is much bigger than Amber.   Moorcock's books are the same way in that sense.

Frank Herbert's Dune of course.

It is one of my most favorite series EVER. I would love to see Dune Universe in MMO.

Originally posted by Sevenstar61

Frank Herbert's Dune of course.

It is one of my most favorite series EVER. I would love to see Dune Universe in MMO.

yeah dune would be great imagine trying to get across the desert with all those worms lol