With the imminent arrival of that game that’s based on a venerable old movie favorite…what’s its name again? Oh right, Star Wars: The Old Republic, that’s it. Anyway, with SWTOR finally hitting the airwaves, it made me start to think of other movies that I believe would make terrific MMOs, games that have a fairly clear set of factions that could probably make the transition to a game world inhabited by thousands of players at the same time. All of the titles I’ve listed would bring a breath of fresh air into the increasingly dull line of MMOs that exist today.
The most important factor in these titles would be giving the players the flexibility to be on either or any side of the factional warfare they would have to include rather than limiting all players to the somewhat tiresome "good vs evil" thing as it currently exists in most MMOs. It’s time for massive scale PvP and each of these movies represents just that. They carry with them the hope that someday someone will be able to pull it off.
Without further ado, here is my list of Other Movies that Should be MMOs:
5) Die Hard – Terrorists vs Rogue Good Guys
The Die Hard series is a great old action series, still popular enough, in fact, that Bruce Willis checked himself out of the old folks’ home long enough to make 2007’s “Live Free or Die Hard” nearly twenty years after the original came out in the late 80s.
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In a post-9/11 world, it’s hard not to like the idea of being able to put a world of hurt on terrorists of any stripe, whether international religious whack jobs or domestic whack jobs. Terrorism is terrorism and there’s nothing like the thought of being able to instill a sense of fear into those who would take away people’s collective peace. Rather than the traditional MMO fare of demons and otherworldly forces, a Die Hard MMO could score a big win with some good old human vs human action. The only caveat with this one and why it ended up at #5 was the "hitting a bit too close to home" thing with terrorism these days. Still, it's an intriguing thought.
4) Red Dawn – Invaders vs Nationalists
It seems as if movie makers are having a hard time coming up with original ideas for movies as they are on the brink of releasing a 21st century “Red Dawn”. The original starred the late Patrick Swayze and featured a ragtag group of teenagers taking on the Red Army invading the U.S.A.
Picture this: Players choose a country and some become part of the national army. Then it’s up to the army, or to players choosing to be rank and file citizens who are dragged reluctantly into the fight, to defend their country from invaders or to choose to become invaders themselves. PvP mayhem FTW! Nothing would stir nationalistic pride more than taking on invaders bent on changing the way a country’s society and government function. Players could fight as part of a people's army defending first their country of choice and then with their allies as they in turn are invaded. Can you imagine the factional warfare that could erupt? It makes the heart quiver with joy!
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3) Blade Runner – Replicants vs Humans
In the first of my two IPs featuring Harrison Ford, I bring you “Blade Runner” which was originally filmed in 1982. “Blade Runner” features Ford as a police officer who has burned out in his day job to hunt down the increasingly human-like replicants created to perform menial labor on off-world sites.
Can you imagine replicants invading the Earth that are relatively indistinguishable from their human counterparts? Players would either take on the role of the invader replicant or the officer charged with “retiring” the created beings. Each side in the battle would be focused on the elimination of the other, on building and maintaining strongholds and working to dominate the world. Set in a futuristic world (2019, if you can believe it!), Blade Runner would be a natural for an MMO.
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2) The Terminator – Humans vs Machines
Bots masquerading as humans would fill the game world. Players would be charged with finding ways to detect and eliminate the bots or, conversely, the bots would have to worm their ways into the human world in order to wreak havoc and eventually take over the planet. Humans would ‘go to ground’ and band together to seek out and destroy the machines. Add in time travel as did the movies and it’s a win for MMO players.
Oh and NOWHERE in the game will the line “Ah’ll be baack” be allowed to be uttered.
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1) Cowboys vs Aliens – ‘Nuff Said
OK now, who hasn’t dreamed of an MMO based in the Wild West of the 1880s U.S.A.? What about someone making the next great space-themed MMO? Put the two together! Throw in the stars of this past summer's blockbuster hit and it's even more enticing. Daniel Craig? Harrison Ford? Horses? UFOs? Wickedly weaponized shackles? WHOOT!
Nothing speaks to my MMO heart more than the thought of Cowboys vs Aliens being brought to the MMOniverse. What’s not to like? Nothing says MAKE ME AN MMO like the image below:
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OK so maybe none of these are exactly feasible for an MMO but a girl can dream, right? I'm not talking logistics here, just desperately wishing for something to shake up the MMO game world!
So what about you? What other movies would make great MMOs? Let us know in the comments!
