General Discussion

Hi All
My initiation to fantasy began way back in 1986 with the advent of the legendary Fighting Fantasy books written by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. Who remembers Warlock of Firetop Mountain...the concept of a book that was an adventure game with dice was mind blowing ...for me it was truly revolutionary. I collected dozens of the books and remember fondly Deathtrap Dungeon, Scorpion Swamp, Caverns of the Snow Witch and other titles.
Now to my point, these books also offered a rich and immersive fantasy experience .Why not develop an MMO around this world and its lore? I understand there are royalties and other hindrances but Steve Jackson has his own games company now .I guess for me nowadays I see new MMO’s that are being developed and I think “ why not use what’s already there...something people can identify with “
 

Yes, use whats already there and is not protected by lincense and ownership; Mythical Europe, set in the dark ages around 6th century. Its the perfect setting in my eyes and is pretty surprised no one has used it yet.

Any opinions around this ?Surly I'm not the only one who read these books :)

My initiation to the fantasy genre started there as well, they were great books when I was a kid.

They covered a very wide variety of subject matter from standard fantasy through to sci fi and horror.  The lore isn't homogenous though, they would have to pick one book and base it on that.

My particular favorite was House of Hell, it scared me shitless when I was 9 hehe .

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Hell

I haven't read any of those books but i feel that you have a good idea there.

I have just discovered in wikipedia that Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone founded Games Workshop, I was quite surprised that this was unknown to me as I was a big fan of both when I was kid.  At least their later works have been reproduced in video game format.

Ian Livingstone is on the board of directors of SCi, makers of the Tomb Raider series of games, so is perfectly positioned within the industry if he ever feels the urge to make Fighting Fantasy game.

Steve Jackson co-founded Lionhead Studios with Peter Molyneux makers of Fable and Fable 2.

Originally posted by bcrankshaw

Hi All
My initiation to fantasy began way back in 1986 with the advent of the legendary Fighting Fantasy books written by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. Who remembers Warlock of Firetop Mountain...the concept of a book that was an adventure game with dice was mind blowing ...for me it was truly revolutionary. I collected dozens of the books and remember fondly Deathtrap Dungeon, Scorpion Swamp, Caverns of the Snow Witch and other titles.
Now to my point, these books also offered a rich and immersive fantasy experience .Why not develop an MMO around this world and its lore? I understand there are royalties and other hindrances but Steve Jackson has his own games company now .I guess for me nowadays I see new MMO’s that are being developed and I think “ why not use what’s already there...something people can identify with “
 

When you take someone out of a book and use its lore to attempt to achieve the same type of immersion, two things can happen.  One and the most common, you fails miserably since MMORPG isn't something so easy as to just transfer the lore and just acquires instant immersion.  Two and rarer, you achieve the same type of immersion, however, due to you content is based on existing work, your gameplay might suffer if the existing work limits the creativity applied on the game.

That is my opinion, however, if you can prove me wrong.  I will happily admit it.

Originally posted by Blodpls

I have just discovered in wikipedia that Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone founded Games Workshop, I was quite surprised that this was unknown to me as I was a big fan of both when I was kid.  At least their later works have been reproduced in video game format.

Ian Livingstone is on the board of directors of SCi, makers of the Tomb Raider series of games, so is perfectly positioned within the industry if he ever feels the urge to make Fighting Fantasy game.

Steve Jackson co-founded Lionhead Studios with Peter Molyneux makers of Fable and Fable 2.

Lionhead....that's interesting.So they are  already involved in PC games and Games Workshop is the basis for WAR .Okay  they putting there considerable talent to good PC use :)