Sometimes I don’t know what is more fun. Speculating on upcoming games, brainstorming of what could make a great game, or actually playing new games. Speculating about upcoming games is always interesting. Unfortunately playing new games sometimes is anything but interesting… I’m looking at you Avatar Star, Daimonin, Crime Craft and others of your ilk (yes those actually exist and are on our MMORPG.com gamelist). One recent discussion lead those of us at MMORPG.com to think about what current intellectual properties out there would make for interesting, if not great, MMOs. The catch is they had to come from IPs that are not rooted in other video games. So in no particular order here are 4 of the best and one of the most outlandish ideas we could come up with. I’ll leave you to figure out which fall into what category.
The Walking Dead
I sincerely doubt that Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore knew what they were going to set off when they first created The Walking Dead, published by Image Comics, back in 2013. The world had not settled into the Zombie love fest that it now enjoys. A decade later, however, the Walking Dead has birthed over 10 years of award winning comics, a record setting TV series on AMC, and an engrossing game series by Telltale games. We have also seen resurgence in the survival horror genre. What better place to set a modern day survival horror MMO than Kirkman’s vision of a post Zombie Apocalypse Earth? While Zombies might be scary, what you’ll really need to be afraid of are the other players.
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The Terminator
While I love the Walking Dead as much as the next person, I can’t be alone in saying Zombies are really starting to get old…. What ever happened to scary robots? Tell me when the T-1000 showed up in T2 and Robert Patrick started extending liquid metal through people’s eyeballs you didn’t think, “oh sh*t.” For everyone that complains that themepark fantasy MMO number 1123 is just another boring clone this would be a refreshing break from the norm. This Terminator MMO would be set after Google…um, I mean Skynet has taken over the world with their army of robots. Humans are now an endangered species. Struggling to resist against the machines, collect enough resources to sustain yourself, and stay safe from rival groups of humans, this post-apocalyptic survival MMO set in the near future could provide the fresh take on a stale genre that a lot of players are asking for.
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Jurassic Park
Dinosaurs. Nuff’ said.
Ok. For those of you that don’t feel that was enough here is a little more. Remember in the Lost World where the mama T-Rex started destroying San Diego looking for her baby? That was one dinosaur (smaller than Godzilla) and it manager to menace an entire city. Could you imagine what a whole pack of them could do? One of the themes in the first two books was that “life will find a way.” In this game life finds a way of growing the populations of the dinosaurs so large on Isla Sorna that they evolve or find other means of making their way off of the island chain and on to a large continent somewhere. From there the dinosaurs reestablish themselves as the apex predator and man again becomes the prey. With a fourth film scheduled to be released by Universal Pictures in 2015 we could see the dinosaur hype meter back on the upswing and a game of the same name could help add to the appeal. The only question remains is can the humans find a way to keep their lives?
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The Dark Tower
After a close brush with death Stephen King wrote the final 3 books of the main Dark Tower series at a breakneck speed to make sure the world was able to share in his vision of the Dark Tower. While I think King may have lost it a little when he decided to have his character Roland break through the wall and meet a younger version of himself, this series of books stands as the pinnacle of his writing career and the center of all of his universes. This central theme to all of his universes that King expressed may seem a little strange but it makes about as much sense as other MMOs that aspire to have a multitude of universes smashed together as the basis for their lore so let’s just go with it. King released an eighth Dark Tower novel in 2012, The Wind Through the Keyhole, with the possibility of a ninth in the future. There has never been a MMO based on a King property and this fertile series is filled with hooks that could make for engaging areas of interest for all of us to explore.
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A Song of Ice and Fire
This series of novels by George R.R. Martin has produced a hit TV series on HBO, a number of pen and paper role playing game supplements, a collectable card game, and a few horrible video game adaptations. This game could easily end up being generic Fantasy MMO 1124. The trick will be to capture the essence of the series and make diplomacy a driving part of the play experience. The appendixes covering the families that Martin attaches to each of his books provide ample source material for a developer to draw from. While not every player would get a chance to sit on the Iron throne every player will get to participate in a game of thrones. If only the game being made by HBO and Bigpoint would get someone to tell us if it was alive or dead...
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There you have it. Five IPs that we would like to see made into MMOs that take their inspiration from a source other than video games. Since the possibilities are almost limitless I could only scratch the surface with this list. What IPs out there would you like to see made into MMOs? How would you like to see them implemented? Let us know in the comments below.
Robert Lashley / Robert Lashley is a Staff Writer and Online host for MMORPG.com. Rob's bald and when he isn't blinding people from the glare on his head talking in front of a camera you can find him spending his free time checking out the latest games and technology. Feel free to hunt him down on twitter @Grakulen
Read more MMORPG.com coverage:
- World of Warcraft: Isn’t the Killer
- Three Questions for: 2014
- What Makes it a RPG?
