D&D 4E Bioware working on 4e Forgotten Realms MMO

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That's the point, though, isn't it? It's not easy to predict which MMOs will be hits and which will merely be "successful", and which will be dismal failures.

Oh, I'm not saying that they're right, but just that it's how investors think.

Ouch, going up against WoW, WAR, and the ever-potential threat of a "real" D&D MMO seems like a poor plan.

I know Warhammer is a huge brand among tabletop gamers, but I really don't know that it translates terribly well to the general public. Warcraft had 10 years in the videogame space and the Blizzard brand has a ridiculously high retention rate, even between genres and franchises, something obscene like 80 percent.

Going up against Warhammer Online isn't keeping most investors up at night. Lord of the Rings was likely the one they were sweating over (wrongly, as it turns out, since it's a success but hardly a juggernaut).

KotOR would have a chance, because it's space fantasy (which is pretty much what WoW circa Outlands is) more than anything else.

Yeah, KotOR has a really good chance of being a WoW-sized hit. Star Wars, done well, by a development house that's got a proven track record with the license, and two games that, even if they aren't perfect, are pretty much beloved by most Star Wars fans and CRPGers.

 

[Zaruthustran]

KotOR has a chance because it would avoid the biggest mistake SWG made: making the iconic characters of the series (Jedi) unavailable to most players. It'd be like making a feudal japanese MMO and not allowing samurai or ninja characters.

KOTOR is cool, but it's too far removed from the timeline.

I think a Legacy series (takes place after the movies, well after all the movie characters are dead and buried) has a better chance. The famous characters don't get in the way, but the effects of their actions are still felt. All the planets and organizations are still familiar. There are at least three factions (jedi, sith, empire-in-exile). There are plenty of force users.

 

[PeterWeller]

KotOR has a chance because it would avoid the biggest mistake SWG made: making the iconic characters of the series (Jedi) unavailable to most players. It'd be like making a feudal japanese MMO and not allowing samurai or ninja characters.

The biggest mistake SOE and Lucas Arts made with SWG wasn't the rarity of Jedis. It was the fact that the game was released about a year before it was ready. The game was better for keeping Jedi unavailable.

 

[The Little Raven]

KOTOR is cool, but it's too far removed from the timeline.

I think a Legacy series (takes place after the movies, well after all the movie characters are dead and buried) has a better chance. The famous characters don't get in the way, but the effects of their actions are still felt. All the planets and organizations are still familiar. There are at least three factions (jedi, sith, empire-in-exile). There are plenty of force users.

SWG should have gone with the post-Empire era, I agree. You could still have things very much the way they did, with the New Republic (aka Rebels) and the Imperial Remnant. More room for them to maneuver, but still with recognizable characters (Luke now the Jedi Master of the New Republic's Jedi academy; Leia a Senator of the New Republic; General Han Solo, member of the New Republic's military council, etc).

 

[Uzzy]

I've always viewed NWN as much more right about DnD then wrong about it. YMMV, of course. With a really good DM, however, you can get damn close to true pen and paper play, if that's what you want.

 

[The Little Raven]

The biggest mistake SOE and Lucas Arts made with SWG wasn't the rarity of Jedis. It was the fact that the game was released about a year before it was ready.

This is also true.

The game was better for keeping Jedi unavailable.

One of the reasons for the NGE change to make Jedi freely available was because a good number of canceled subscriptions cited the lack of Jedi availability as a problem, especially in light of the fact that hologrinding was the only tried-and-true method of attaining it, and hologrinding wasn't fun. So, in order for the average Star Wars fan to get to the most recognizable icon of the setting, he had to level characters he had no intention of playing. Making a player waste tons of time on character he doesn't want to play just to unlock the ability to play that character (and lose it permanently, unlike others) is game design idiocy.

 

[Hairfoot]

This is a total wishlist fantasy that will never be realised, but what I'd like to see is a turn-based online combat program using the D&D ruleset, with the option of replaying the combat in realtime after it's finished.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The game was better for keeping Jedi unavailable.

It was a better game for the people wanting to play SimMoistureFarmer. Most MMORPG players aren't signing up to be Moisture Farmers (witness how poorly Sims Online has done), they want to be the kickass heroes in an era where most of those roles were spoken for.

 

[The Little Raven]

This is a total wishlist fantasy that will never be realised, but what I'd like to see is a turn-based online combat program using the D&D ruleset, with the option of replaying the combat in realtime after it's finished.

This is problematic in multiplayer. It's one thing for you to pause the game to go and make yourself some dinner in a single player game.. It's another for the other 10 people playing with you having to wait on you to come back to continue combat round #3.

 

[hong]

It was a better game for the people wanting to play SimMoistureFarmer. Most MMORPG players aren't signing up to be Moisture Farmers (witness how poorly Sims Online has done), they want to be the kickass heroes in an era where most of those roles were spoken for.

This is one reason Guild Wars has been working so well for me (to now, anyway). It's MMO, but with a remarkably strong single-player aspect and storyline. I've found it very easy to tune out the multiplayer noise and focus on being the big hero who's saving the world (and, having saved the world, is now farming cash for a spiffy suit of armour).