for anyone who wants to read it, I'd like your opinions.
I've been sweeping the forums for other
opinions on this, and it seems like there's pretty mixed feelings
about making an MMO for the Mass Effect universe. The biggest and
most common reason against the idea seems to be that Mass Effect fans
wouldn't want it to be another game based off of WoW's structure, and
on that I completely agree.
WoW is definitely not a bad game, and
it's damn successful, but that's the reason nothing is strongly
competing with it for players. Blizz is gigantic, very successful,
and very attentive to keeping the players happy. They do a good job
catering to the players who like that style of game. Other games can
copy the mechanics, but they have to compete with a company that's
already been doing it right for years. On top of that, WoW didn't
start from nothing, it started from the Warcraft RTS series that was
already hugely successful and had a fanatic fanbase. Right now, Mass
Effect is in the same position, and I think they could do something
amazing with it.
Just to say it again, I absolutely do
not want Bioware to try making a macro-based, overhead camera,
select-your-target-and-mash-moonfire WoW clone. That would be a
terrible idea if they want to appeal to the core Mass Effect fanbase.
But an MMO doesn't have to be like that. There are other models, with
varying levels of success, that Bioware could take ideas from, and
with the amazing backstory that the Mass Effect RPG's established, I
would absolutely love it if they could make a game that lets us
explore that universe without losing some of the best aspects of
game-play. Let's break those down first.
-Fun, fast-paced TPS combat with powers
and abilities that can be used creatively.
This doesn't even need to be changed.
The only thing that would have to happen to fit this type of combat
into an MMO is to instance the combat areas the way the RPG's already
do. You get a mission, it sends you to a planet/station/other ship,
you land and you kill things. To make it more adapted to a
multiplayer, lets say you get double exp/credits for doing it with a
three player group, but that you can solo most missions with npc
squadmates. Frankly, so long as combat isn't changed much on the
ground, playing solo or in groups would both be incredibly fun using
the current system. Your view point outside the ship would be the
same, and for all intents and purposes it would be like playing the
RPG's, just that some of the people around you are players too.
-A huge, well written story that lets
the player pick their attitudes and allegiance.
This is the perfect chance for Bioware
to expand the ME story. Obviously, there can't be thousands of
Shepherds running around. You pick your race, you start on the
homeworld/flotilla of your species of choice with the a tutorial
boot-camp where you pick your class, then you leave in a starter ship
to join whatever faction you want. It doesn't seem like a WoW-style
opposing factions system would work as well here.
Lets say you pick Turian and join the
Blue Suns, that shouldn't mean you can't land on the Citadel. Maybe
have faction allegiance give bonuses, and world-event skirmishes and
battles that players in their factions can take part in and
participate in the continuing story. On the other hand, let players
stay neutral if they chose, and act as mercenaries, explorers, or
traders.
At this point its up to Bioware. They
would chose how the galaxy's politics play out, and the players would
choose how they want to take part. Hypothetically, the Batarians
decide to oppose the Council in open war. You're online, and a
bulletin comes up that an attack on [planet name] is underway. Rush
there, take part in land based or chip based combat, etc. The story
could go on with the players acting as ship captains for various
factions and player-run group(like guilds).
The other point is companions. ME is
really well driven by your attachment to your crew, and an MMO can't
perfectly replicate that. I had an idea though, imagine if every
certain amount of levels, you received a message from your faction
saying that someone was interested in joining your crew. The race,
gender, and class would be randomized, so it might say “A salarian
engineer has been asking for you, he seems interested in joining the
crew.” You can chose to accept or decline, and if you accept you
chose their looks, name, and background. The issue here would be
making enough personality types so that they don't often overlap. If
you reject all the offers as you level, or lay off your crew mates,
there could be missions at max level to get new ones.
-A gigantic universe and history that
feels both original and exciting to explore.
For this, I look to EVE. Personally, I
think EVE is incredibly boring, but many players enjoy it a lot.
Anyone who reads the notes when scanning planets in ME has seen how
much work went into making them unique, and how many possibilities
there are for exploration, colonization, archeology, etc. With an
entire galaxy to work with, there's no restrictions on how many
systems and planets they could make. Borrowing EVE's economy, system
security ratings, and even some of its travel/combat might be a good
idea.
Let's say Council space is safe at all
levels, and any players who attacks you is immediately flagged and
will be hunted by security on sight. In Terminus space, maybe the
player is flagged as having attacked, and will show up on notices,
but only your faction will attack them on sight. Venture into less
secure systems at your own risk.
A lvl system could be used to
determine what ships and technologies you have access to, and at max
level it could be like the EVE system in that players could buy any
ship they can afford.
There's a massive number of
possibilities here, depending on how much work the company wants to
put into it. Infinity
is making a game-world with entire textured planets, so it isn't
impossible if that's what Bioware wanted to try. Building and
maintaining one's own station is a possibility, or colonizing and
protecting one's own planet, if they can afford it. Randomly
generated artifacts, valuable deposits, instanced NPC bases, it goes
on. The citadel alone would be large enough to warrant an entire MMO
if fully skinned, as would Omega or any of the in-game cities. Make
them real, make them whole, and give players instanced missions on
foot too.
This is a giant block of text, and it
barely touches on the possibilities here. I think an MMO could work
amazingly, but only if Bioware is willing to risk starting a new kind
of MMO entirely. Tabula
Rasa tried the idea of a TPS MMO, but it didn't have the back
story, or anything but ground-based combat. ME definitely has the
back story, plus near as many fans as Warcraft did when WoW launched.
A Mass Effect MMO wouldn't have to,
and should be, like WoW in its mechanics. But if it let players feel
like part of the ME world, building their own wealth and firepower,
and acting as an actual members of the societies in that world, I
would drop everything to get it on opening day.
Ideas? Responses? If nothing else, I'd
like to get this up here for other people to see and think about. I
like how cedgedc is thinking in this
thread, so other people have definitely thought about it If you
read the whole thing, kudos.
http://social.biowar...-7027880-1.html
Modifié par Argable, 25 mai 2011 - 08:18 .
Retour en haut
