Games that could potentially make good MMOs (or multiplayer free roam)

What games do you think have the potential to be a lot of fun if either they were an MMO, or had an MMO "mode" with a high player count (such as, say, 50 players)?

Free Roam would count as an "MMO mode", btw. So technically, if Red Dead Redemption, which has a free roam mode, upped the number of players to something like 50 or more, it would count.

Anyway, I have several in mind.

The Legend Of Zelda would be the obvious choice. Add in the ability to create your own character, and dump a lot of players online, and give them free roam. It could be fun, especially if there were "instance" dungeons that groups of players could enter. So you could roam through the towns and so on, explore the world and encounter other players as you roam the caves or forests, and tackle a dungeon together as a team in the "instance" mode. Of course, the world would have to be made bigger, as Zelda seems to be more about fully mapped out areas and less about exploring a massive world with, say, forests that you can get lost in and such (the Lost Woods notwithstanding).

But two others might work as well.

Pokemon for instance. You and other players roam around and collect different Pokemon, have your Pokemon fight the ones in the wild, and eventually encounter and fight each other. It could work really great. Having players start in different towns in different parts of the world, and having the world itself be bigger could help.

Another possibility I was thinking of might be... River City Ransom. Yes, that's right. Players are given a much larger city to roam around, fight thugs, use the money to buy items that boost stats, encounter each other and either fight each other (which would fun in its own right) or work together (which would be fun in a different way). The mix of competition and cooperation, all at the player's choice, could be fun. It might be hard to do right, but it would be interesting to see.

What games do you think could make good MMOs, or at least good free roams? And how might they work?

edited 1st Mar '11 8:45:37 AM by BonsaiForest

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Bump.

Any ideas?

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>_>

<_<

Sonic The Hedgehog

How might that work? I would, in fact, love to see an MMO platformer, whether 2D or 3D. Have you pictured in your head how MMO or free roam mode might work in Sonic?

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Actually, Sonic could make a pretty good MMO.

The character classes could be done ala the power sets in City Of Heroes.

For primary, you could have

• Speed
• Tech
• Power
• Hammer
• Animal Friends?

And secondary, you could have

• Speed
• Flight
• Glide/Climb

Etcetera, etcetera.

Can't imagine how it would be done MMO platformer style, though.

Actually, that would work pretty well. Secondary would control how you move, and certain characters can only reach certain areas. Primary obviously concerns how well you fight the robots in your way, and certain robots are weak to certain skillsets, ala Sonic Heroes.

edited 2nd Mar '11 10:18:22 AM by Deathonabun

One of my few regrets about being born female is the inability to grow a handlebar mustache. -Landstander

Grand Theft Auto. Seriously, why hasn't this been done yet?

Why I am afraid of fences.

I thought that's what Multi Theft Auto was all about. Was I wrong?

Also, yes, I can imagine a Sonic MMO. I mean, it would function well, not too sure if it'd be fun though. Other notable candidates would then obviously be Shadow Over Mystara (as the Most Triumphant Example of fantasy beat-em-ups with RPG elements), Mass Effect, the Micro Prose version of Magic The Gathering... What else?

edited 2nd Mar '11 10:26:34 AM by Noelemahc

Videogames do not make you a worse person... Than you already are.

If the Cave Story world was expanded a little more, it'd probably make a good free-roaming game. MMO, I'm not so sure about.

"I've come to the conclusion that this is a very stupid idea."

hmmm, don't think Zelda would work, just becuase it centered around one specific hero. Now Pokemon, hell yeah, that is just begging for an MMO.

Would also love to see a Baiten Kaitos one....or at least ANYTHING new for that series.

Hey, guys, I just had this great idea!

A Warcraft MMO. That would work, wouldn't it?

Why I am afraid of fences.

Probably the one genre I've always wanted to see MM Oified is giant mechs. I mean where the hell is the Battletech (Mech Warrior) MMO? Or how about a steampunk mech game (like Iron Kingdoms or Dragonmech)?

Essentially I want a game where:

• Players design, customize, and upgrade their own giant robots
• Players buy, sell, and trade mechs and parts for mechs and perhaps even player created design schematics
• Has Pv P in the form of instanced Arenas for small scale duels (1v1, 2v2) and instanced battlefields for large scale combat
• Has PvE in the form of instanced missions sort of like Sci-Fi versions of World Of Warcraft dungeons and raids

That would be friggin' awesome.

Beat Em Ups like River City Ransom would be gold, what with the character customization and stat building. Personally, I'd like one based on Shodai Nekketsu Kunio Kun.

ALL CREATURE WILL DIE AND ALL THE THINGS WILL BE BROKEN. THAT'S THE LAW OF SAMURAI.

Preferrably based on the first Mech Warrior, wherein if you don't WANT to pilot a mech, you don't have to (until you do have to, but now have a team and a boatload of moneys, but you could get around that in an MMO format). Join someone's coterie as a support agent and hitman, kill competing mercenary team members when they're unprotected, steal their stuff, do evil dos! Or do good dos, because, hey, why not?

I'd also enjoy a Jagged Alliance MMO, though I've no idea how that would work.

edited 2nd Mar '11 11:34:25 AM by Noelemahc

Videogames do not make you a worse person... Than you already are.

Wild West MMO.

So basically the Grand Theft Auto idea, but with Red Dead Redemption instead.

The blind man walking off the cliff is not making a leap of faith.

I think I mentioned this in another thread somewhere. But I'd love to see a Deus Ex game that was set as an MMO.

Different players join different conspiracy groups and take on missions to try to further their interests in different areas. You could have a lot of backtabbing, also ecnomics type stuff for folks that love the WOW auction house. Biotech takes care of any magical spells/abilities. The universe is already pre-built and has a big fanbase to start out with.

Scratch the surface of a cynic and you'll find a dissapointed idealist.

Zelda was already made into an MMO. Then they got sued and had to remove all of the Zelda appearance. The game still worked like Zelda in its time.

Graal Classic

So, free roam is lighter than an MMO? Not sure I understand the oncept fully, but Fallout would be neat as a multiplayer free-roam.

Not sure how you would scape up difficulty for when you're paired up with another player or two, and VATS mode (Bullet Time) would have to be seriously tweaked.

Maybe make the outside world one big freaking area, but inside areas and stuff that required a loading screen would be like dungeons in other MMO's...

Happiness is zero-gee with a sinus cold.

Yup. Graal proved that online multiplayer free roam (or MMO) Zelda could indeed work... more or less. Once you've done all the quests and got everything, what was there left to do?

But I'd love to see an official version of it be done. Nintendo experimented with local multiplayer Zelda - Four Swords as the multiplayer add-on to the GBA release of A Link to the Past, and Four Swords Adventures on the Gamecube, a good game killed by its idiotic hardware requirements (each player needs to own a GBA and link cable) and long levels that force a time commitment on the players. I did play it 2-player with my brother, but after we beat it, it wasn't much fun to come back to again.

An MMO or free roam online Zelda could probably use some random elements each time you play, or if not an MMO, maybe have you start with a set number of hearts and items every time you join the game, so you don't carry over items and ugprades persistently and make the game way too easy to max out at. Instead, each play session could be a unique quest or whatever, based on what you feel like doing. If they truly wanted to make a persistent MMO, they'd have to make the world massive, and have a ton of things to do.

But picture Twilight Princess, except with a character creation feature, slightly larger overworld with some more places to go to that are more mazelike and harder to navigate, and with you starting with, say, 6 hearts and no items every time you hop online, and a 16-player total limit. It could be fun to get together with the other players and find some different purpose, a different thing to do, each time you play. It would be fun in its own right, I think. If the game was opened up and linearity (i.e. you must beat this dungeon to be able to access this area) removed.

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Haha, Graal! Man, that brings back memories. I played that game for about 6 months friggin' years ago. It was the first MMO-like game I played, so it sticks out.

There actually was stuff to do once you did all the quests. There were guilds to join, but also the kingdoms, which had big fortresses, which would sometimes go to war. I remember when Dustari Castle was attacked by a guild of orc roleplayers. And Karakaze was always stirring up trouble... good times.

Anyway, I think a sidescroller Metroid MMO could work. Imagine multi-phase boss fights that require five or more players to kill, or corridor battles between groups of players.

edited 2nd Mar '11 1:26:23 PM by Talby

@pvtnum, I assume you only played the Bethesda Fallouts? Much Broken Base about them being In Name Only in there =) You might want to look up Fallout Online, it's a free fanmade online adaptation based on Fallout 2.

Yeah, I'm all for any Metroidvania with multiplayer, ackshully. Still sad that the first foray into that is X-Box only =(

edited 2nd Mar '11 1:30:09 PM by Noelemahc

Videogames do not make you a worse person... Than you already are.

I actually played 2 over a decade ago. Still play it on occasion. 3 and NV were a nice change of pace, but that's for a different thread.

I think one could go either way - isometric style, with turn-bsaed combat (based off of sequence score) or do it up in the more modern first-person format. I'm good either way.

Happiness is zero-gee with a sinus cold.

These aren't actually ideas I personally like, but I've heard them suggested before and would like to hear them broken down critically on a forum not exclusively populated by socially-retarded 14-year olds.

Dragon Age MMO.

Harry Potter MMO.

Go.

"You can only come to the morning through the shadows."

Re: MMO platformers (including Metroidvanias):

Since Maple Story came out they're a dime a dozen on the PC with a healthy helping of Sturgeon's Law. You know you've made it big when you have a local ripoff from Malaysia. Most of them follow the Metroidvania formula.

I want more online Dynasty Warriors clones. 3D free-roaming MM Os of today love the mouse sooo much for some reason.

edited 2nd Mar '11 5:26:59 PM by Recon5

Aside from taking place in Thedas, I'm not entirely sure how it could differentiate itself from World Of Warcraft. Granted, I never got very far (just Redcliffe, which was my first destination), although I'm starting to get back into it — but unless the pitch is something like "Darker and Edgier World Of Warcraft," I don't see how it would work. Now this could have tons of potential, and the magical school setting is just ripe for such a thing. Heck, maybe have different servers for the different wizarding schools — you wouldn't have to be restricted to Hogwarts. However, they'd have to break school rules a little bit because forcing people to conform to a schedule in an online game would be ridiculous. I think ideally you could take classes at your own pace, rather how you would take an online college course in real life. I'm not entirely sure how character advancement would work past that, though.

...To slightly expand on my Wild West suggestion, I want that Firefly MMO to be made because hey, space cowboys.

NO I DID NOT FORGET THE QUOTEBLOCK MARKUP

edited 2nd Mar '11 6:52:31 PM by WildKnight

The blind man walking off the cliff is not making a leap of faith.