How isn't there a Harry Potter MMO?

[Xylitol]

Originally posted by: KeithTalent

Originally posted by: Anubis
im assumeing because JKR wont licence it to someone to make one

Yep, that would be my guess. That is, of course, until someone waves enough green (or brown, orange, and pink) in her face.

KT

what about black and white?

 

[skace]

It sounds awesome on paper, but here is the thing, whoever tries to do this would fuck it up. Call me cynical but it would happen. Hogwarts as an MMO has the potential to be more than just a series of fetch quests. The early game play could be completely unique school style persona/bully style game play. Where you are going to classes and being tested on your skills while it teaches you everything you would need to know for later on in the game. Hypothetically this style game play would go on for weeks and not just be an instanced 1 hour tutorial.

But the reality is that anyone who touched this would immediately go the WoW routine. Your classes would be a 1 hour instance and then it would throw you directly into some sort of quest leveling treadmill where you are sent on missions around the academy and it would be exactly the same as every other mmo but with a new coat of paint.

 

[Imaginer]

Originally posted by: SirStev0
4) They already have different examples of specialties or classes in the game. Dueler, Aurors (almost like a caster paladin), Herbalists (could be like a plant based druid), Gamekeepers (hunters with pets), Potion Masters/Poison, Lycanthropes, Wizards (like Dumbledore), Rogue wizards, Animagi (shapeshifters), Pranksters/Illusionist (Fred and George), Dark Artists, so on and so forth.

I wouldnt necessarily have that as your concrete class and forcing everyone to create secondary characters.... I would classify those as "jobs" or "skills" that one can progress. I may hate the entirity of FFXI's gameplay but one thing they done right is that one character can take on many jobs and thats what I see when I read this bullet.

But one question to you, the game you have in mind progresses in year by year in game so what do you do once your character "graduates"? Does it mean the character takes part in the Harry Potter universe outside of Hogwarts? Can you go back to your "early years" and still explore the school if you haven't fully explored it due to real life time of not being able to do so? Does the "school" mechanics work like it does in Rockstar's Bully?

I am sure there will not be any traditional PvP. But one thing is how are you going to work so that peers may be able to take on one another? Have either your character progressively become good or progressively join the side of Voldemort?

And what about the muggle world? Do you plan for characters to go back and interact with that? If so, you are basically recreating our world as we know it. I know that I would wish for such freedom if it is there in the fictional universe.

Other wizarding schools? Surely Hogwarts can't be your only choice? What about schools in other countries? Hence going back to my previous paragraph.

I am sure this will sell like hotcakes over the hotcakes in WoW land and even more so take some of those WoW'ers away. But you are dealing with a whole fictional universe where you probably have to account for everything for the sake of completeness and to leave the player not questioning "why it is not here" mentality.

Oh and did I already mention that your so called class idea kind of sucks? Give the player the freedom to be whatever they so choose anytime they want to and change or take on new things while keeping what is already accomplished. MMOs and multiple characters because of the "YOU MUST BE ONE TYPE OF CLASS FOREVER" mentality just plain suck balls.

 

[SirStev0]

Originally posted by: Imaginer

Originally posted by: SirStev0
4) They already have different examples of specialties or classes in the game. Dueler, Aurors (almost like a caster paladin), Herbalists (could be like a plant based druid), Gamekeepers (hunters with pets), Potion Masters/Poison, Lycanthropes, Wizards (like Dumbledore), Rogue wizards, Animagi (shapeshifters), Pranksters/Illusionist (Fred and George), Dark Artists, so on and so forth.

I wouldnt necessarily have that as your concrete class and forcing everyone to create secondary characters.... I would classify those as "jobs" or "skills" that one can progress. I may hate the entirity of FFXI's gameplay but one thing they done right is that one character can take on many jobs and thats what I see when I read this bullet.

But one question to you, the game you have in mind progresses in year by year in game so what do you do once your character "graduates"? Does it mean the character takes part in the Harry Potter universe outside of Hogwarts? Can you go back to your "early years" and still explore the school if you haven't fully explored it due to real life time of not being able to do so? Does the "school" mechanics work like it does in Rockstar's Bully?

I am sure there will not be any traditional PvP. But one thing is how are you going to work so that peers may be able to take on one another? Have either your character progressively become good or progressively join the side of Voldemort?

And what about the muggle world? Do you plan for characters to go back and interact with that? If so, you are basically recreating our world as we know it. I know that I would wish for such freedom if it is there in the fictional universe.

Other wizarding schools? Surely Hogwarts can't be your only choice? What about schools in other countries? Hence going back to my previous paragraph.

I am sure this will sell like hotcakes over the hotcakes in WoW land and even more so take some of those WoW'ers away. But you are dealing with a whole fictional universe where you probably have to account for everything for the sake of completeness and to leave the player not questioning "why it is not here" mentality.

Oh and did I already mention that your so called class idea kind of sucks? Give the player the freedom to be whatever they so choose anytime they want to and change or take on new things while keeping what is already accomplished. MMOs and multiple characters because of the "YOU MUST BE ONE TYPE OF CLASS FOREVER" mentality just plain suck balls.

The books had already setup that people will have strengths in one area and and a basis in most others. Think about Haggard, Snape, Neville, etc. All had the basis but they had a main concentration.

Speaking as someone whose only MMO experience was WOW where I played for 2 years starting in beta, being one of the first rogues to 60, hardcore raiding with server firsts in the first 3 dungeons, ending before the Sith mess.

People don't like to be the Jack of all trades, master of none. They want to focus, become badass, and kick zeros and ones.

The best strategy in any RPG is to focus. When you can do everything, you are only just barely able to do them. If you keep your moves low you can level them to considerable levels. Think of tree progressions. It is what makes games great.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: SirStev0
Speaking as someone whose only MMO experience was WOW where I played for 2 years starting in beta, being one of the first rogues to 60, hardcore raiding with server firsts in the first 3 dungeons, ending before the Sith mess.

People don't like to be the Jack of all trades, master of none. They want to focus, become badass, and kick zeros and ones.

The best strategy in any RPG is to focus. When you can do everything, you are only just barely able to do them. If you keep your moves low you can level them to considerable levels. Think of tree progressions. It is what makes games great.

You're speaking from a very very shallow experience pool. In games without classes people like to be hybrids. UO is a good example. Nearly every character in the game has a magic casting skill and a wepaon skill. Nobody "likes" to specialize, they do it in games like WoW cause it's the only route to power. If given the chance of being just as powerful and haveing a diverse skill set and, thereby, more diverse things you can do in the game, nobody is going to pick to be a one trick pony.

 

[SirStev0]

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor

Originally posted by: SirStev0
Speaking as someone whose only MMO experience was WOW where I played for 2 years starting in beta, being one of the first rogues to 60, hardcore raiding with server firsts in the first 3 dungeons, ending before the Sith mess.

People don't like to be the Jack of all trades, master of none. They want to focus, become badass, and kick zeros and ones.

The best strategy in any RPG is to focus. When you can do everything, you are only just barely able to do them. If you keep your moves low you can level them to considerable levels. Think of tree progressions. It is what makes games great.

You're speaking from a very very shallow experience pool. In games without classes people like to be hybrids. UO is a good example. Nearly every character in the game has a magic casting skill and a wepaon skill. Nobody "likes" to specialize, they do it in games like WoW cause it's the only route to power. If given the chance of being just as powerful and haveing a diverse skill set and, thereby, more diverse things you can do in the game, nobody is going to pick to be a one trick pony.

I also spoke of many of the RPG's I have played in the past. Think about D2 (as it has been very popular on these forums lately). You need to invest in a tree.

Now I am not saying that you couldn't make a game with infinite possibilities. Hell it would be fun, but it isn't simple and there has to be a good way to balance.

Not to mention this would make it slightly more true to the book (as i mentioned, Neville specialized in plants. Harry specialized in kicking evils ass. The only real jack of all trades was Hermione and she needed an illegal artifact) and in the long run much simpler to the new gamers.

 

[Imaginer]

Originally posted by: SirStev0
People don't like to be the Jack of all trades, master of none. They want to focus, become badass, and kick zeros and ones.

The best strategy in any RPG is to focus. When you can do everything, you are only just barely able to do them. If you keep your moves low you can level them to considerable levels. Think of tree progressions. It is what makes games great.

And that my friend is what is wrong with how this is dealt with. You are making it like a CHORE to play just like that and it is not remotely fun if you don't even have the freedom to break out of that mindset. A game shouldn't force you to play like that for the sake of being great. Who the hell cares about wasting time and possibly not have fun doing so? Especially in your typical MMO fare, every single one of them.

Your experience only adds more to what I think. The hell cares? Why should a game force me to play just that way?

It is not about being master of none, not about focus. It is about playing things different when one thing gets boring after a time period. To switch or create new characters of which you probably invested some time in because "you have to play that way you noob lololol" just makes me sick. Meaning you have to do all the same things over again for each new character to create if you want it to have just the same in game access as did your first one.

That model is just frustrating and in my opinion, needs to change.

I also spoke of many of the RPG's I have played in the past. Think about D2 (as it has been very popular on these forums lately). You need to invest in a tree. Now I am not saying that you couldn't make a game with infinite possibilities. Hell it would be fun, but it isn't simple and there has to be a good way to balance.

Stat based games or one where it heavily focuses on it can pretty much go to hell. All involve just pure time sink. Diablo 2 is indeed a good hack and slash but the only reason why one would need to invest heavily is to pump out 9999999 dmg in PvP.

Playing the game normally, you can get by without investing heavily on one or two skills. Sure it makes things a bit slower but you would have a friend or two in some areas to help you out so having that 9999999 dmg may look impressive, but to have an inflexible way of doing this? If you are talking about balance, it is only that way because the game is focused on stats, not the actual gameplay that makes or breaks people.

Originally posted by: skace
But the reality is that anyone who touched this would immediately go the WoW routine. Your classes would be a 1 hour instance and then it would throw you directly into some sort of quest leveling treadmill where you are sent on missions around the academy and it would be exactly the same as every other mmo but with a new coat of paint.

We don't need another cookie cutter MMO build and I agree with this line inline with your first post OP. Developing an MMO that can break away from this would be difficult especially if you are used to that model for so long. It can be done and some developers are trying. It is that for any studio making an MMO, the cookie cutter build will always be the easiest to do and that just gets old.

 

[Piuc2020]

This is why I don't like playing games online, people take it too seriously, I only ever had the desire to invest the time, effort and study in one game (Warcraft III) to be competitive online and while I really enjoyed myself, I wouldn't really do it for any other game, playing with friends is like 10000000000000x better, it's fun.

In Diablo II you need to make a perfect cookie cutter character if you want to powerlevel and do PvP like crazy, if you just want to play through the storyline then you can make your character however you want and still get through Hell (I completed Hell with the first character I ever created in Diablo II, it was Barbarian and obviously it was skilled like a mess, Hell was pretty tough but manageable).

I really hope Blizzard doesn't injure Diablo III's SP with idiotic stuff like Flagship did with Hellgate: London.

 

[SirStev0]

Originally posted by: Imaginer

Originally posted by: SirStev0
People don't like to be the Jack of all trades, master of none. They want to focus, become badass, and kick zeros and ones.

The best strategy in any RPG is to focus. When you can do everything, you are only just barely able to do them. If you keep your moves low you can level them to considerable levels. Think of tree progressions. It is what makes games great.

And that my friend is what is wrong with how this is dealt with. You are making it like a CHORE to play just like that and it is not remotely fun if you don't even have the freedom to break out of that mindset. A game shouldn't force you to play like that for the sake of being great. Who the hell cares about wasting time and possibly not have fun doing so? Especially in your typical MMO fare, every single one of them.

Your experience only adds more to what I think. The hell cares? Why should a game force me to play just that way?

It is not about being master of none, not about focus. It is about playing things different when one thing gets boring after a time period. To switch or create new characters of which you probably invested some time in because "you have to play that way you noob lololol" just makes me sick. Meaning you have to do all the same things over again for each new character to create if you want it to have just the same in game access as did your first one.

That model is just frustrating and in my opinion, needs to change.

I also spoke of many of the RPG's I have played in the past. Think about D2 (as it has been very popular on these forums lately). You need to invest in a tree. Now I am not saying that you couldn't make a game with infinite possibilities. Hell it would be fun, but it isn't simple and there has to be a good way to balance.

Stat based games or one where it heavily focuses on it can pretty much go to hell. All involve just pure time sink. Diablo 2 is indeed a good hack and slash but the only reason why one would need to invest heavily is to pump out 9999999 dmg in PvP.

Playing the game normally, you can get by without investing heavily on one or two skills. Sure it makes things a bit slower but you would have a friend or two in some areas to help you out so having that 9999999 dmg may look impressive, but to have an inflexible way of doing this? If you are talking about balance, it is only that way because the game is focused on stats, not the actual gameplay that makes or breaks people.

Originally posted by: skace
But the reality is that anyone who touched this would immediately go the WoW routine. Your classes would be a 1 hour instance and then it would throw you directly into some sort of quest leveling treadmill where you are sent on missions around the academy and it would be exactly the same as every other mmo but with a new coat of paint.

We don't need another cookie cutter MMO build and I agree with this line inline with your first post OP. Developing an MMO that can break away from this would be difficult especially if you are used to that model for so long. It can be done and some developers are trying. It is that for any studio making an MMO, the cookie cutter build will always be the easiest to do and that just gets old.

I'm not sure if it is the D&D'er in me or what... but I really think most gamers like to label their chars. I am having a hard time thinking of a game where you could really do "anything" without getting a label at some point.

You need a basis for your char to grow on. You need a game plan; somewhere to start, grow, take advantage, and kick ass.

You start as a rogue, or a barb, or a wizard and you specialize on your attributes. Yeah you can give options and make it very easy to be unique and different, but in the long run people will want to be able to easily make a char that can kick a little ass.

I have rolled plenty of fun and goofy chars in my table top days. I used to be a Bard machine (and remember how useless they are). Sometimes my crazy build would work; other times it was a mess. This worked for tabletop gaming because it was a more relaxed setting.

The selling point of most MMO's and most online games in general is competition. If you exclude "classes" and give everyone the option to do anything it IMO really hurts the "necessity" of certain skills and areas.

I have to give blizzard credit for doing their best to make a group of classes all necessary and worthwhile. It added uniques between players and kept everything balanced. The only way they could do this was by giving certain advantages and disadvantages and incorporating them into the game play. Too many possibilities makes it almost impossible to design cool game moments.

Like I said this is just my opinion. And believe me, I love the sound of the type of game you are suggesting. I would buy it in a heartbeat. I just don't know how you could do it. If there really is an example of this now, I would love to try it.