GameTruth

Since I am not at GDC I have been reading coverage of it from many different sources. This question comes from a blog post on Terra Nova, which can be seen here. It is the summary of a panel discussion about the future of Massive Multiplayer Games. The second question down asks if MMOs are headed for consoles and there is a unanimous “yes” from the panel.

This is something Seth and I have discussed this before. I cannot wait for MMOs to hit the console for many reasons. The first reason is that moving MMOs to the console will force them to be simpler. There is no reason that in World of Warcraft each class has over 40 different spells, I would like to see it go more the way of Guild Wars with tons of spells but only being able to carry 8 at any time. Reason 2 is that I prefer playing games on my couch, using my TV over sitting at my desk staring at my screen, may just be my preference. Reason 3 is that the current gen of consoles has the ability to patch and send out episodic content just as well as the PC so there is really no reason to not them on consoles.

The whole panel summary was good. Seth said he was actually at the talk so maybe he can comment some more.

-Mark

This question has two parts, I will start with the first. Its a pretty simple question: if you could make a new IP into a game what would it be? I am bringing this up because of this. Go ahead and click on the link and then give it a try, the game has a 5 minute duration and it is worth your time. In an industry saturated with sequels and licensed IP I love seeing whacky, edgy, and completely different IPs bursting forth. So what would mine be? Seth knows this, probably sick of hearing about it but I want to make a survivor game. A game where the player is forced to survive, you know make fire, a shelter, get food, etc. The main reason I want to do this is because I think it would be fun and also because Les Stroud is my hero. I would also make a survivor game based on his IP (Survivorman) but I would rather do the survivor game as a new IP, in light of that thought is the second part of the question.

That second part being: what established IP do you want to see made into a game? A while back a Ghostbusters game was announced, also just last week an Ender’s Game game was announced. So which IP would I pick? I am a huge Battletech/Mechwarrior fan, huge, HUGE fan. I want to see an MMO. I want to get with a group a friends and not be some girly elf or ugly orc in some sewer, I want to be stomping around piloting a robot the size of a building in the open air showing fools the business end of my shoulder mounted missle launchers. The Battletech universe is more than diverse enough for an MMO and has tons of rabid fans of everything from the books to the tabletop games.  I would love to see it done because it would not be just another fantasy DPS/dungeon based MMO.

-Mark