Dana Massey Asks "Why Not?": Historical MMOs
Each Thursday, this column explores some element of MMOs that isn't being done and why it should be. Massey debuts the column with a look at the often neglected Historical MMO genre.
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The American Revolution
There’s no finer tradition in Hollywood than “Ra Ra We Smote Them British” movies… thanks Mel Gibson. So let’s make a game out of it. Seriously, what’s crazier than standing in a row with slow loading rifles and firing at guys thirty feet away.
First guy to invent the bunker wins the war.
Cavemen
Women’s groups might get upset the first time someone tried to "capture" a wife, but that’s a small price to pay. Time for a proper cave man game.
Form a clan, build a hut, invent fire, and then burn your enemy’s hut to the ground!
Also, bonus points for being the first MMO Vivox cannot install their VOIP into, since you know, speech wasn’t invented yet.
And while Age of Conan may have flaws, it did prove that any game that lets you ride a Mammoth is 23% cooler than games that don’t.
Wild West
The Old West was built to look like an MMO for God sakes, with their three building cities that were all in a neat row. It’s time for a cowboy MMO.
Sure, again, there would be some people upset at the Cowboy vs. Indians motif, but again, while the whole era was full of atrocities and evil, it happened, there’s no reason we cannot have a good video game about it.
The Cowboys would be all about colonizing new lands and building railroads through to the West, while the Indians are there to thwart them at every step. Like most of history, it’s set up for some good PvP conflict.
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12th Century Japan
What is cooler than guys with big swords, ninja skills and obscene feats of honor? We consume enough movies on the subject that you’d think someone would like to do it properly.
Hint to developers, just because Asian MMOs routinely put out games in this genre doesn’t mean that a AAA North American Samurai game wouldn’t make it out the front door.
There is an entire world here, ready for MMOs and a culture that is familiar enough to excite Western audiences, but foreign enough to intrigue them.
And again, the advances in melee combat necessary to pull this off would be worth it.
Speaking of ninjas…
Pirates vs. Ninjas Online
Not quite historical, but seriously, how has no one done this yet?
I could keep going all day...
There is no limit to the number of potentially interesting historical MMOs. Name a period of history and there’s a game to be made there. Sure, when reality gets involved, people can get testy, but if the world was ready for a mega franchise built on shooting people, stealing cars and consorting with prostitutes, it can handle some online historical conflict.
And kudos to those who have tried. I’m looking at you World War II Online, Roma Victor and Pirates of the Burning Sea (the only truly AAA stab at history and the reason I left pirates off this list). You blazed the trail, but there is still work to be done.
So, moneymen, it’s time. Give us a good historical MMO! You have the power, recreate what those stuffy old high school teachers in weird patterned shirts do their best to excite young people about and make those worlds come to life.
Heck, kids might even learn something.
