Mass Effect: The MMORPG?
MMORPG.com writer Bill Murphy muses about the idea of a Bioware MMO built off of one of the studio's own unique franchises, Mass Effect.
Editorial By William Murphy on February 02, 2010
BioWare has been a company known for its role-playing fare for nearly two decades now. There are precious few developers more revered for their ability to craft a rich and compelling game-world that players love to visit time and time again. From the Baldur's Gate series on, BioWare has become so well known for their role-playing experiences that in recent times players have been wondering when they're going to do something different than their usual epic tales in the choose your own adventure vein.
With the exception of their first foray into handheld gaming (Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood), BioWare has made nothing but single-player console and PC role-playing experiences since 2000. The critically acclaimed MDK2 was the last time the Canadian powerhouse delved into a different genre. Surely they've combined several types of gameplay in some of their offerings. The recently released Mass Effect 2 is more a third-person shooter with role-playing trappings than its prequel was, playing very much like Gears of War with its heavy reliance on cover mechanics.
advertisement I suppose you could say that BioWare has become the master of the western-style RPG. And like any respectable creative group of people, when you find yourself at the top of one field, you start to have aspirations on conquering another. Now most folks might start off with something that seems in the need of an industry leader. Not BioWare. They're gunning for the big daddy and planning to tackle the MMORPG world with the Star Wars IP in tow. But aside from being so well-known and established across the world, is Star Wars really the way to go with creating a successful persistent online experience?
I have no doubt that The Old Republic will be a massive success in terms of sales, and if past experiences are any indication, BioWare's attention to detail and commitment to creating a relatively polished product will do well to keep the retention numbers high. But we who have been playing these games so long know the perils of screwing with the mythic legacy of George Lucas' brainchild. If you screw things up, the fans will let you know and they will do so very loudly.
Now I know that nothing short of a cataclysmic event is going to stop Star Wars: The Old Republic seeing the light of day. But the gamer in me wonders what BioWare's first foray into the MMORPG space would be like if they chose one of their own intellectual properties instead. And if the title didn't give it away already, I am of course referring to Mass Effect and its already broadly painted universe to draw from. Not only would a Mass Effect MMO please me because I could really delve into the dozens of alien races BioWare has created, but judging by the first two games' enticing blend of shooting mechanics and traditional RPG conversation, I suspect than an MMO set in the same vein could be something quite evolutionary for the genre.
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Not to be too damning, as I no doubt will be buying The Old Republic on release, but I fear that it may be a little too "samey" for my liking when compared to current MMORPG standards of combat. Without having played it myself, the videos make the action look very familiar and I'm of the mind that I'd like to see such a fundamental aspect of the genre mutate and grow in new directions. The duck and cover shooting mechanics of Mass Effect would make for a novel combat experience in the MMO world. The Old Republic could easily adopt a similar form of combat if BioWare was in the mood to break the mold, but the action alone is not why I would personally like to see a Mass Effect MMO.
With just two games, and I'm about to speak blasphemy here, BioWare has crafted a universe that I feel more connected to and a part of than I ever have with the entire Star Wars mythos. I love Lucas' creation, but part of me feels as though it's become too familiar territory, while there is still so much to be explored and told in BioWare's own space opera. It also helps that BioWare is completely in control of the Mass Effect canon, while they have to work closely with and adhere to rules from LucasArts when it comes to Star Wars.
Count me in among the millions who are looking forward to Star Wars: The Old Republic. Don't mistake me for someone just aching to stir the pot and create an argument on the forums. I truly am eager to delve into BioWare's version of such a treasured universe. I'm also sure that there are plenty of things left to learn about and be surprised by in The Old Republic. We are, after all, at least a year away from logging into the live servers. But there's a little part of me that wishes they would instead be aiming for a 2011 release of Mass Effect: Universe which would allow me to pilot my own SSV Normandy from mass relay to mass relay, hunting down Geth and badmouthing the Krogans. Yep, I'm all for the genophage people... call me a Salarian apologist. And who knows, if all goes well with The Old Republic, maybe I'll get my wish a little further down the road.
Woot first to comment lol. Anyway I too am really hoping for a mass effect mmo and i think they could really pull it off too i mean look how in depth mass effect 2 is with everything and thats only opening up parts of the world just think how much exploring you could do if they made an mmo which would prolly be enough to last you a year or two to just explore all the planets without doing the quests lol. I am also gonna buy SWTOR but if and hopefully when a mass effect mmo comes out i will be one of the first to pre order but i think they should finish the trilogy before they come out with the mmo version.
I too am for the genophage XD
I haven't played the ME2 yet, but I agree with this 100%. Although I do think that it's perfect that BioWare cuts its teeth and learns its lessons on the relatively pedestrian adaptation of Star Wars. Then they can really spread their wings and wtfpwn the MMO world with the ME MMORPG.
Then again, by that time we might see World of Starcraft out of that other company that used to be good at single-player games and went into MMOs.
mass effect online would suck so bad.
the thriving force behind me1 and me2 is the story, in mass effect online everyone would be "THE" Shepherd therefore ruining the immersion the (soon to be) trilogy has.
It's practically impossible to make a good story driven MMO because in story driven games you constantly feel you've achieved something and that you are the moving force...in a MMO you dont feel as unique after saving a colony from dire man-eating bugs because 100 thousand people had done it before you and as you leave the colony you see line of heroes getting ready to do the same.
They are already making this, it's called ToR.
btw like i said they should finish the trilogy then move onto the mmo i think the mass effect universe would be amazing idea for an mmo and i also think that bioware could pull it off.
holy toledo... this is my first time EVER on this site. as i was browsing all the content and reading about all the different MMOs out there i started to think about my latest favorite game of all time, Mass Effect 2, and how it would be an awesome MMO. then, blam, i find this discussion. weird. i just want to say i couldnt agree more. i love Star Wars and will probably be one of the first people playin SWTOR on release day and im a big fan of LOTR lore and ive also been playin WoW for awhile now but, like you, i am completely enthralled with the ME universe and i couldnt even fathom the vast possibilities of an ME MMO... BioWare... please read this and make it so... it would be epic
I agree that it would be a neat idea. The one part i would fear would be similar to what i am skeptical about TOR, the amount of time and story it would take to make all races/classes have their own story would be a bit daunting, then when you play through your 1 avatar, what do you do next? what happens when your story is over?
I totally agree that Mass Effect would make an incredible MMO. I am hoping that Bioware is planning to delve into that once SWTOR has been successful for a few years. If I were them, I would release TOR and then Mass Effect 3 about 6 months or a year later. Then begin development on the Mass Effect MMO. If they did that, it might be ready just about the time that SWTOR has fully matured and the market is ready for another Bioware MMO.
Would have quite a bit of competition from a hypothetically well-made war hammer 40 K MMO FPS however.
I believe we just might see it down the road as Mass Effect is to large of a nest egg for Bioware to leave behind. Also the shear size of the Reaper fleet (a fraction of which is shown at the end of Mass Effect 2) would make it rather unlikely that Shepard and the disorganized factions would take them down in Mass Effect 3. From the looks of it Mass Effect 3 will focus more on Harbinger which is just one of the thousands of Reapers we see in dark space.
I can see this becoming an MMO but taking the TOR path in that you are not Shepard but one of the many people working to stop (or help) the Reapers. There are many factions to join that would support both PvE and PvP (basic example would be Alliance and Cerberus getting in each others way) as well as the idea of starting your own clan as we are constantly reminded of in Mass Effect 2 by NPCs we met in the first game.
I would love to see the story continued after Mass Effect 3 into an MMO that focuses on the war and honestly it seems clear that they would head that direction lets face it we wont see Mass Effect 3 until at least a year or two after The Old Republic goes live (Yes I know they stated an ETA of 2011 but release dates almost always get pushed back.) Which leaves plenty of buffer room for a second Bioware MMO should they start development around the release of Mass Effect 3.
Eh... It's all wishful thinking and I count myself among those who were disappointed when Bioware announced TOR as they were hoping beyond hope for a Mass Effect Onlne but were not surprised with the announcement of TOR and look forward to the MMO.
Cool story, but if they're working on a STAR WARS MMORPG, they had better not have any other focus than such.
What an amazingly well written article. Thoroughly enjoyed the read. As for the hope of having a Mass Effect MMO one day, that's just sweet music to my ears.
This reminds me of WoW's new MMO. They said that it's a brand new IP that will allow WoW players to play both games. This inherently indicates that the two games are going to be so different as to not be in competition with each other.
Similarly, StarWars' heavy emphasis on RPG elements and "wow" like gameplay will likely be very different than Mass Effect. From the video's of gameplay I've seen, it doesn't look or feel like Mass Effect. If Bioware should choose to make a Mass Effect MMO down the road, it will not necessarily be in competition with their other gorilla in the room (SW -TOR). There also exists the possibility that Dragon's Age may become an MMO. But in reality, we're talking about things 5-6 years in the future, and that's a lifetime in the video game industry.
As for Mass Effect 2... Let me start by saying that I havn't played console games for 2 years. I was primarily a console player from middle school to the end of college. Started playing MMO's and never look back at the end of college.
Mass Effect 2 is the first game where I'm so hooked that I havn't played an MMO in 7 days. I can reasonably say it's one of the best games I've ever played. I WANT TO talk to everyone. I love hearing what they say. There are a lot of controversial issues in the game (i.e. indentured servant/slavery dialogue on illium). The STORY matters. I dont' have a very good imagination and I'm a realist/pragmatist. I rarily get immersed into a game. Mass Effect is the exact opposite. I feel a part of the game, and I feel my decisions matter.
The Mass Effect universe they've created is so rich and has so much depth that it's perfect for an MMO is less about copy/paste and more about true originality.
Anyone else think the unique team members in Mass Effect 2 are brilliantly designed and engaging?
Winner, winner! Chicken dinner!
Mass Effect MMO would be awesome, maybe too awesome if they pulled it off with the same, or better quality than the single-players.
Let's call it: Massive Effect, olol.
I agree that an MMO would be great. I wrote a blog entry here on this site back at the release of ME1 after I completed it.
www.mmorpg.com/blogs/MMOPlaya/122007/803_Mass-Effect-Would-Make-A-Great-MMORPG-Candidate
Whatcha think? Please keep in mind, I wrote this over 2 years ago :) I think after playing a bit with ME2, it would still be quite possible.
After they will have finished ME3 i think there will be the freedom for a MMO.
There are so much untold stories and there are so iconic races that it whould be shame not to try to make a great MMO.
The combat from ME2 should work good in a MMO i think - and add a more coustomizable ship to this and it should work. Maybe there should be only ships for "Teams" (Teams could be a sub-structure in a guild system) and not for every player.
The potential is there ....
No, No, No, No. This should never be done.
Mass Effect is designed to be a single player game. It was written that way it should remain that way. The point of Mass Effect (as a previous poster mentioned) is Commander Shepard. That's it. Yes it has a full universe but its focused on Shepard, start to finish and that's the selling point and the immersive point - Shepard and the quest for the galaxy.
To create an MMO, then everyone will seek to be a Shepard of some sort, they'll want to save the galaxy and fly the Normandy. There is to much riding on that and I for one (even though I completely love BioWare and I am proud of them) will probably have a full-fledged destroyed experience of Mass Effect and would never be able to look at the same again (and not see it in a good fashion) there's too much riding on that. The key aspect (as stated before) is the storyline Mass Effect 1 to 3, and your choices as every Mass Effect play is different for everyone there's too many variable.
The only good thing I can feel on the Mass Effect MMO side is if it was designed as a Sandbox, much like Star Wars Galaxies (classic) and to be placed BEFORE Mass Effect 1 (or way way way way way into the future when Shepard's deeds are no longer looked at - which probably would never happen - he's a hero after all), when everything has yet to occure, so all we have is the world and nothing else - no heroics, no story. Just you and the galaxy with many others living a life for yourself. That's it.
Id rather see them working hard on SWTOR, bringing new content etc. No need another sci-fi game. Star Trek online is out, SWTOR will be out in 2011, Jumpgate Evolution and Black Prophecy. Thats just too many of Sci-Fi games. Tabula Rasa "played into a box" and then again it was pretty good sci-fi mmo. Problem is that unless there is a huge IP behind the project (Star Trek in Star Trek Online, Star Wars in SW:tOR, Lord of the rings in LOTRO) it may not survive the competition of all kinds of other MMOs on the market. Sci-Fi MMOs are a niche games.
Fallen Earth is a good example that while it may have a core of loyal players (few thousand maybe) the majority of players stick to the games with the Intellectual property behind the project. In other words people stick to things they know. Like almost everyone knows and likes Star Wars, a lot of people like Lord of the Rings and there are a lot of trekkies who enjoy themselves in STO right now.
While Mass Effect has a good story its not as major to have many people to follow it and earn some top place in gaming market. Like I said I'd rather see Bioware work hard on making SWTOR fun and enjoyable, full of story and very fun presentable game, add a space missions and combat as an expansion later on than waste their efforts on a niche game that may not even be popular due to drastic changes that will take affect during conversion from single player to MMO world of Mass Effect. It won't be much different than Global Agenda for example. After all Mass Effect is a lot about shooting.
If they do make a Mass Effect MMO, they need to wait until after the release of Mass Effect 3.
If they can manage to work in a decent story with the MMO I think it could work pretty well. They would need to diversify the classes more, though. In the current games there's not much difference between the six classes.
I wouldn't mind seeing this in the future, if not just to see how well they pull it off.
Yes it would be a fine world (universe) to play in. Those thinking a million Shepards running about wouldnt be the case any more than a million Conans running about in AOC. The limits to a game of this scope would only be limited by the devs imagination.
The more I think about it, the more I actually like the idea of being able to make a custom character of any race.
In the games you've thus far only been able to play as a human. I wanna try playing as a Krogan or something.
I just thought of something.
If Bioware decided to go with Mass Effect MMO, it would be one of the few MMO's that could work perfectly on the Xbox. FFXIV is one mmo that will work perfectly for the PS3.
Due to Xbox 360 (or whatever the new xbox will be at that time), will have a headset/voice support to be able to communicate with other people in your guild/legion.
The more I think about it, the more I believe that a Mass Effect MMO designed for the Xbox and PC, just like ME2, will be perfect.
Here's hoping it happens one day.
If they would do it, it would be as a prequel to the series (or a sequel in a later age), because the choices and the amount of different endings in the series is just way too big.
A ton of the choices in ME1 came back to me in ME2, with the huge choices made in ME2, those will again haunt me in ME3 etc.
If they were to make an mmo set in the same age, they'd have to canonize all of that and thus, butcher the story.
I agree it would be a great idea though; but lets just wait and see how TOR turns out first, I'm sure BW is doing the same.
No, they'll ruin the entire single player series for me. I don't want other people in my Mass Effect.
Do what you will with Star Wars, that series has already whored itself out to any willing buyers in every way imaginable. Mass Effect would literally be ruined by an MMO installment because the entire appeal of the game would be taken away. No one plays for the amazing gameplay, everyone plays for the story and decisions first gameplay second.
An MMO would have no decision making that impacted anything. Simply taking the universe is also stupid because the factions are not at war with one another unless you want to go back to the past with the first contact war or the krogan rebellion.
It's simply a bad idea.
If SWTOR turns out to be exactly what they claim. You will see a lot more people wanting a Mass Effect MMO because they know Bioware can pull it off.
The gameplay between Star Wars and Mass Effect is so different that you can release both within 3 years of each other and still not be in competition.
I don't see any reason why you can't have "Shephard" like story arcs, decisions, dialogue, and individual story lines, in an MMO. It's a great idea.... but it won't be done for a really long time if at all.
One thing is for sure, after playing Dragon's Age and Mass Effect, I have more faith in Bioware than I ever did before. If I get the same "feeling" playing SWTOR as I did playing Dragon's Age and Mass Effect, I'm sold... for years and years.
only if they can pull off TOR will ME2 be a good MMO..I agree that due to the story of the player being THE hero would hurt the game. but this is reflecting my doubts in TOR...
Would rather see a huge RTS the likes of which would rival Warhammer 40k... i think that would be a stronger off shoot of the ME universe..
But i still LOVE the mass effect world and cant wait for ME3
Now, before I get to the actual point of the article, I just want to say that The Old Republic is not a "star wars" game. It a "Knights of the old republic" game. That means that the combat and events all take place in the KOTOR time slot, which is several hundreds of years before any of the movies or *shivers* the show in the George Lucas universe. I'm not saying it's not star wars, I'm just saying that the movies and such don't have the same characters and sometimes don't even have the same technologies as the old republic games. The games have a particular way that the combat and conversations work in all the games. The only thing that would anger fans is if they did adopt a third person shooting mechanic or something similar because it is not in the spirit of the original games. So I disagree with you on those points.
But I think a Mass Effect MMO would be awesome! As long as they made it story driven and stuff...I think that a non-story driven game set i n the mass effect universe would be a horrible mistake and take away from all the games as a whole. Also, it would be cool to form little strike teams and whatnot. Not everyone is a Spectre, but everyone is in a team with one. That sorta thing. I think it would be very hard, but if done right, also very rewarding.
I freakin' love the Mass Effect games and universe. In fact, I'd be more excited to play an mmo in this setting than Star Wars.
/quicklyhidesbehindcouch
Should be easy enough for them to come up with a Great MMO as they have all the Races and Classes and Designs of the main storyline, planets and mostly Romancy.. However there is a limit on who we are fighting against, who's good who's evil.. Will we end up with a major Universal War? Will there be crafting or a form of trade?
Tabula Rasa would be a prime example for ME 2 MMO, Humans vs Everyone Else?
Ugh. No, please no.
Not every world should be "MMO-ified". What makes ME1/ME2 work is the STORY, and it remains to be seen whether an MMO can pull off having an immersive story in an MMO environment. Only Guild Wars came close to achieving this, and this was ONLY because Guild Wars allowed players the option of playing either ALONE or in player GROUPS to complete all missions and dungeon content. SWTOR may also work; we'll have to wait and see. But if SWTOR *forces* me to group with other players to progress through the story, then it will be a major FAIL for me, anyway.
As anyone who has ever tried to RP on any WoW RP server knows, multiplayer is the absolute enemy of any degree of RP/immersion. All it takes is some moron running around with some really stupid name to ruin immersion for me.
I really wish LotRO had been designed as an online single-player RPG. I actually would still be playing it if they had, and I would have subscribed to it for much MUCH longer.
An ME MMO would only work for me if ALL of the multiplayer content was also single player accessible (as most of it was in Guild Wars) through the use of AI. Unless the multiplayer portions of an ME MMO are totally optional for them that want it that way, the ME franchise would be totally ruined, imo.
As long as I can take Garrus, Thane, Grunt, and Tali along with me instead of random player 2, 3, 4, and 5 to complete the group content, then I'd be OK with an ME MMO.
Otherwise, no thanks.
Heh, I can see it now.
"MEO is a crappy ripoff of ToR!"
"They use the same engine you twat. Somehow, Bioware landed proprietary rights of their own engine!"
Agreed.
Bioware has created some pretty deep lore, and I'd much rather explore this setting than yet another Jedi-fest. Of course, I'm sure 90% of the people in a Mass Effect mmo would be biotics because they're the closest thing to Jedi, but I'd still rather see an original IP than more Lucas-trash.
We know. ME's story only took up how much more of the first game than the actual action did? =P
In any case, I'd rather see a Mass Effect MMO as well, simply for the reason that Star Wars had its chance as an MMO and ultimately fell flat on its face.
I really think a Mass Effect mmo could work, but realistically it would be 7-10 years in the future. It will be another 2+ years before the final Mass Effect single player comes out and then add in 5+ years of conception and development time for an mmo.
All the things are there for a hugely successful mmorpg game no doubt about that.
What I really want to see from the Mass Effect series though is for it to hit the big screen in 3D Avatar style type of shooting, it would be f'ing amazing I think.
To transform this game into an MMO would tranish the best parts and ruin the whole charm of the game.
For me the best part of mass effect is the replayability, the different choices you can make through dialog and how that effects the overall game. That can't transfer over to a static open world mmo and would force the game to be very linear, with few choices, and that's really not what mass effect is all about..
The name is Mass Effect after all, which implies the massive effect the player has on the game.
You sure you played the games? That's not what Mass Effect is :P
A ME mmo would be amazing, though since i have no idea what happens to shepard in the 3rd effect, the ability to play Salarians, Turians, Krogan, etc would be a welcome change to playing a human all the time, and of course we would be fighting reapers or each other (aka saren vs shepard, or allies{all aliens] vs the Rachni) or something like it and changing the mmo during updates and expansions while i will alsio TRY to play tOR. While having a story mmo would be good(if they coudl pull it off) i would suggest a NON-persistent ever-changing world for ME mmo as it hasnt been done that i've seen which would make playing more dangerous and realistic in an entire galaxy.
If they did one it would probably take place after the events of ME3. So they'd have a few years to decide on this.
Although the lore is rich enough to support an mmo, I'm not sure if the game mechanics are. Technically, there are only six classes, which would bore people quickly. Though they could mix it up by allowing other races besides human, say an asari adept has certain pros/cons vs a human adept.
Not to mention you'd have the pvp types coming out of the woodwork demanding "meaningful" pvp. Not sure how pvp would fit into the universe of ME, unless you could side with either Citadel Space or Terminus Systems.
I have to say that this spare opera is overly clichéd, but at the same time exceptionally fun IP. It would make a great MMORPG. All the elements are there.
It all depends on how well Bioware does in the MMO market. Not everything needs to be MMO'ed and in fact my wife and I are enjoying ME2 more than any MMO because of one simple fact: PAUSE. We have a 1 year old daughter so we are constantly being interupted so being able to stop the action and deal with reality is a real plus to our enjoyment of the game.
Minus that it would be nice to NOT be Shepard for a change. Though I would be really torn on what alien race to play though you know darn well my first toon would be a Krogan like Wrex.
I know this is all wishful thinking and theoretical, but in all honesty it is ridiculous. Why would BioWare even be thinking of a Mass Effect MMO when they aren't even finished with SWTOR yet?
On top of that, why would they want to create two story-driven MMO's that would only be in competition for the same types of subscribers?
I think that SWTOR will be BioWare's one and only for quite a while, and if we did see another MMO from them in the future, I would be willing to bet that it would be at least 6-8 years down the road.
I love Mass Effect and the universe that bioware has created and frankly I have to agree with all the people saying it would ruin it if it became an mmo. The fun part about the games is the emersion in the great setting they have created and that would be ruined by the nature of mmo's. its all there in the MSRB warning online content may change the experience. I'd rather see them continue making single player games in the same setting with new charecters.
After ME3 of course
Seriously, if it's Star Wars they're making, they'd better not be focusing on anything else until it's perfect.
They were working on Dragon Age: Origins, TOR and Mass Effect 2 at the same time. Bioware isn't a couple of guys working in a garage, they have over 400 employees. Tey probably have major teams on DA:O (expansions, patches), ME2 (expansions, patchers), TOR (pre-release development), their Sonic game, and whatever else they have in the works that will be released 2-3 years from now.
http://www.bioware.com/bioware_info/about/
Mass Effect would be a great IP to build an MMO around. The gameplay style is fresh and fast paced, the lore is compelling and immersive and the characters are interesting and well fleshed out. (My only disappointment being I never got to see Tali's face while we were doing the horizontal mambo.)
I don't agree that everyone would want to play Shepard. I've already played him, and most likely will play him again in ME3. I'd rather have a chance to play one of the other races, or have the chance to create my own.
There's just so much going on in that universe that could translate into an MMO. You could be a smuggler, a slave trader, a craftsman, a biotechnologist... You could work for Cerberus and try to make humans the dominate species in the galaxy, or you could work for the Alliance and try to maintain a good relationship between all species, or you could work for the reapers and try to conquer the universe or destroy it... etc.
Mass Effect in scope is very similar to Star Wars. In fact, if you were to strip away the names and simply look at it from a plot and character perspective there are a lot of parallels.
Besides the draw of the Star Wars IP, Mass Effect would have been a better choice for an MMO imo. That said though the similarities may in fact be too close for both a Star Wars MMO and a Mass Effect MMO to coexist. Shepard is pretty much a Jedi. The reapers are pretty close to being the Sith. I'm looking forward to both SW:TOR and ME3. But unless SW:TOR fails pretty dramatically I can't see Bioware competing with itself and making another MMO that so closly resembles it.
Yes please! I am also hoping it keeps the fast paced combat system (which is fun!) and decryption mini games (which is fun, plus can be avoided with "omni gels" for those who aren't dexterious enough for it). Also here's hoping it has more storyline elements that your average mmo if it ever gets under developement. Haven't yet played ME2 to see if there are any changes.
Also count me into the group who would like to play aliens in addition to humans. I'm probably one of the few people who were seriously dissapointed when they announced their new mmo was about star wars and not mass effect (when swtor was announced).
Bioware is far too busy with their current MMO to be even thinking about a project like this.
Way to go Bioware.
First We had KOTOR and its not-as-good sequel KOTOR II.
Then KOTOR III as canceled in favor of half-assed money grab MMORPG.
Now we had ME and its not-as-good sequel MEII.
Now they will cancel MEIII to go develop yet another crappy mmorpg no one wants.
to sum it up: no one wants "tor mmo" or "me mmo". Give us the part IIIs of both franchises and gtfo.
Stick with what you know. In my opinion, Mass Effect Online (or whatever it's name ends up being) won't be a boom headshot because like someone said before, Its concept, Sci-Fi shooter/RPG is not unfamiliar territory. Unless BioWare really nailed it, which I doubt they will because they've perfect RPG's not MMORPG's, the game will just end up being more of the same maybe even less.
Character Creation would be interesting, seeing as how you could pick your race, race-specific classes, etc. People could spend hours in creation perfecting their Turian to somehow resemble William Shatner.
The questing is what really gets me. It would be extremely hard to have every quest and every action affect your story-line. then again, I'm not a game developer so I don't know what I'm talking about. It just seems that the quests would have to end up being linear, and linear= kill x of y to get z then go talk to v, rinse, and repeat.
I'd be interested in seeing how they would plan to make the game work as a persistent game world with each player influencing the game environment, but most likely I would not buy it.
Haha, this is awesome. Just on the 1st of February me and my buddy were wondering when a ME MMORPG would hit the shelves. Fair enough whe never considered if.
I mean, every Jonny and Miranda has an MMO to their lore nowadays, the message of a CoD MMO merely shocked me, but it's nothing I would have considered as way out there. I'd love a ME MMO, for I can really agree that ME found a way to entangle you in its lore more than any other game every did (well I did also love Oni, an ancient game nobody probably every played) but besides that ME has its very own charme and attracts women and men alike.
I probably won't play TOR, although having BioWare as the developing studio is a BIG HUGE argument to try it, I'm kind of stuck on the FFXIV and GW2 track, but who knows.
NO FUKKING WAY!
No please, I am dead serious. I LOVE Mass Effect series, ME2 was one of the best games I played, but for that reason I want it to STAY a single player, story driven series. I am zero interested in this wondeful cosmos becoming another "fetch me 20 Salarian ears" MMO rubbish. I hope they stay on the road of making great story driven single player games.
NO THANK YOU!
BioWare got where they are today by starting with licensed IPs, using them to test the waters and build their talent, and only then moving on to original IPs.
I expect BioWare Austin to be no different. TOR's success will determine whether or not they move on to MMOs of their own IPs. If TOR doesn't live up to their expectations, they'll tweak it until it does, and adapt that formula to their existing IPs (whether in the form of MMOs or mutliplayer RPGs) when their respective single-player trilogies are complete.
Mark my words. No, really, bookmark this to tell me off if I turn out to be wrong.
Yeah, I just thought about it and wanted to talk to someone about it. Mass effect universe is easily my favorite fictional universe of all time and I would be devastated if it ended with ME3. So I thought that it would be great if they released a MMORPG which they could constantly update, to forward the story. Though it would be hard to pull off, but I am confident in biowares skills. It would need to remain the same shooter with rpg elements and a sandbox with story depending on every players choices.
On another note, I'd like to see a possibility of Shepard dieing in ME3 and one of his old team members taking over. I would like to play someone else, very much.
P.S. Bioware if you stop with ME3 I will come for your blood. :D
I'm pretty sure Bioware has stated that Mass Effect won't end on ME1-3. Mass Effect 3 will wrap up the commander story line, but from what I hear, they plan to do more with the franchise. I even hear a movie is in the works.
If they were to make it an MMO, they probably should put it a 100 or so years into the future, to kind of muddle the events that happened in the Mass Effect games, since they are choice based and most people don't go down the same path over and over.
But I think this franchise would fit well into the MMO genre. It's a good new Sci-fi IP with enough lore to support its self.