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Otherland MMO Announced
Posted by
Soulskill
on Wed Oct 01, 2008 03:27 PM
from the will-it-have-another-MMO-inside-it? dept.
from the will-it-have-another-MMO-inside-it? dept.
Eurogamer breaks news that German games publisher DTP Entertainment will be making an MMORPG based on Tad Williams' Otherland series of books. As anyone who has read the books will know, this could be an interesting new spin on virtual worlds. Quoting:
"For want of a better soundbite, let's call it the first cyberpunk MMO: a virtual world about virtual worlds, in which your avatar is an avatar, the NPCs play NPCs, and you explore a multiverse in which you might be in realistic historical surroundings one minute, and cartoon fantasy ones the next. Everything changes, even your own appearance, and nothing is even pretending to be real. ... You start the game as one of those consciousnesses in a place called the Land of the Lost, a nightmare scenario which you're trying to escape. You'll run, be killed, and reborn in a 'baby' state as a simple, low-rent sim (though we suspect the game won't be using that term, for obvious reasons) - a blank, featureless avatar that can be male, female or even neither."
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Not interested (Score:2, Funny)
Wake me up when a mutant is using hypnotic mind-control to make me believe I'm actually in the game. Until then I don't think this is going to be a particularly compelling MMORPG.
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Wake me up when a mutant is using hypnotic mind-control to make me believe I'm actually in the game. Until then I don't think this is going to be a particularly compelling MMORPG.
SPOILER TO FOLLOW
Hint to the mods, this is a reference to the books. You eventually find out a psychic mutant is the one responsible for getting the people stuck in the virtual worlds. As for whether it'll be a good MMO or not, well, hard to say. Its greatest strength looks to be its biggest weakness, that is, it's so open ended it's going to be hard to motivate the players.
OMG! (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh my GOD, that is the most awesome news I've heard all week!
No, wait, the other thing. Yet another MMO, cause, you know. There's totally not enough of those around.
Wake me up when... eh, I'll wake up when I'm ready.
Re: (Score:2)
Who is to blame? Perhaps ourselves for saying "programming as a 'service', not as a product" so they decide to host games for a decent cost.
It is still a maturing market, and most MMOs customer support SUCKS, meaning the service itself isn't service. It's more like, programming for a server.
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MMOs were supposed to be The Future of The Internet 15 years ago. I am personally somewhat tired of them. And of hearing about a new one about to come out and how great it'll be, etc. It's kind of old news by now.
Reminds me of an Onion piece (Score:5, Informative)
The onion did a piece on "World of World of Warcraft", where players play a character sitting in a lonely basement playing warcraft. The "your avatar is an avatar" part reminds me of that, though technically they imply different things... and actually that statement doesn't imply much...
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/warcraft_sequel_lets_gamers_play [theonion.com]
-Taylor
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well i think it was supposed to imply that "this is like the matrix, but we can't say just say that"
That makes way more sense than the article summary.
It was a decent story (Score:5, Insightful)
Those were some good books, but the "it's all a dream" aspect of the setting can lead authors into self-indulgences. Essentially, there are no rules for the world. That was the major problem with it. Also, since "it's all a dream", a lot of the drama seemed false. The real characters were interesting but most of the time spent with the dream characters is just that many more pages of inconsequential stuff.
The "no rules for the world" quality would destroy an MMO. You can't just change the rules all the time or all the players will just hang out in the part with the most advantageous rules.
Re: Large Values of Dream (Score:2)
Life's a Dream.
It is by Dream alone I set my life in motion. It is by the juice of green tea & absinthe that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains, the stains become a warning. It is by Dream alone I set my life in motion.
Re:It was a decent story (Score:4, Informative)
It wasn't a dream. It was a nightmare. Then another one, and another one, and another one. Then you got separated from your friends. Then the devil seized control of the system and it got worse. No rest for the weary.
And then they charged your credit card.
Parent
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Few will go use the zones with the hard rules. MMO players respond to risk/reward.
Ugh... (Score:4, Insightful)
I think I "will be making" the first Super Mario FPS. Maybe I should create and post an announcement so I can get on the front page of slashdot?
Can you get out? (Score:5, Funny)
Yet Another Windows-Only Title? (Score:2, Insightful)
Given the fast raise of OS X marketshare in colleges and universities, where the actual gamers are, I still find it incredibly short-sighted that companies continue to insist on making Windows-only games.
Dual-booting is not an option since Macs don't come pre-installed with Windows, and people don't want to pay for yet another OS, split their hard drive in two partitions, etc. We buy Macs to use OS X, there's no actual need to buy a "gaming OS" on top of all that.
Does Windows has a higher total marketshare?
Re: (Score:2)
I knew this post would come up, the Mac fanboys always make at least one of these when anything vaguely referencing a new game is posted. The argument is always "it's gaining marketshare!" - yeah, call me when it has. If it would make them money, they would do it. Obviously the marketshare isn't there.
When Final Cut Pro and all the other Apple software runs on Windows, maybe that argument will have merit. When running a game that doesn't run on OSX means dual-booting a $100 OS, but running specialized Apple
no joke? (Score:2, Insightful)
what it must have is some aspect of a hidden "otherland" built into it... but not mentioned or even hinted at by the makers.
Uh Oh (Score:2, Funny)
haven't tried any MMOs, They look too addictive.
I won't play this
I really like the books.
I won't play this.
I won't play this
I won't play this.
I won't play this
I won't play this.
I really like the books.
I won't play this
I won't play this.
i really like the books.
i will play this.
So, in-other-words (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
We all wish -_-.
Damn! (Score:2)
The Books... (Score:3, Insightful)
like many other SF/Fantasy series, Otherland started strong, but it became obvious in the second volume that the author hadn't thought it all through and just started making it up as he went along (ala George Lucas).
there should be an exception to copyright rules that would let someone step in under these circumstances and write the sequel that the initial story deserves.
as for the online game aspect, why should we expect it to be anything other than one more level grinding bore with pretty graphics? when it's gotten to where character classes have generic descriptions (tank, etc.) no matter what they are supposed to represent, all that's left is changing the pictures.
MMOs have become a lazy way to make games.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: Cyberpunk MMO (Score:2)
Make sure to give both the books and the MMO the benefits of the doubt. I am prepared to accept if the publishers wind up with only a mediocre translation.
Re: Book or Four! (Score:5, Informative)
I will be replying the daylights out of this thread since I really liked the series.
It is a tetrology of 4 books, all gorgeously detailed! I really liked that a crucial feature is two AFRICAN characters as lead heroes! One from a modern province, and one a classically trained Bushman.
Tad W. does a brilliant job of showing how the Old Bush Ways could provide crucial insight into our modern era.
I hate MMO's, but I'll probably have to get my own little corner of this one solely because of the books.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Be prepared to spend the next several months or possibly years on it. I read all the books back to back and found them in dire need of editing. Some posters will probably jump on me and claim it was all about depth, but there was quite a bit of fat in every one of those books. Things that took far too long to develop and had an insane level of verbosity. Just like this post is getting to be...
Re: (Score:2)
Eh, you were being nice. I got about 2/3 of the way through the first book, to the point where the plot literally began to repeat itself almost verbatim from what had happened earlier, and shortly after the guy who was playing the Diablo-Hardcore-Mode MMO where you die once and you're gone forever died because of some weird portally bullshit, and I gave up. Nothing interesting happened in all those pages, only bare mentions of the "Otherland," whatever the fuck that ended up being... ug, it was horrible. Ju
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually Anarchy Online had all that stuff a loooong long time ago (up to and including a scary overabundance of gender non-specific sexy clothes for your virtual crossdressing needs).
A pretty good MMO actually, for it's era...It's still around, and they've actually been pretty busy with expansions lately, but the core product is pretty dated. The major flaw of the game was twinking, imho, because everything was based on character stats, and there were ways to increase your stats dramatically out of proport
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Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You forgot to answer the most important question.
No, I think the summary answered that already. It implied that this should be sufficiently different enough from WoW that I could enjoy both games.
I played LotRO and it was feeling too much like WoW so I quit. Same with Warhammer. Buggier versions of WoW. I have high hopes for this as it sounds like the concept, classes & lore will be far enough away from WoW to provide me with entertainment.
This is going to shock and appall you but there can be multiple successful MMOs. You might think y
Re:But will it be a WoW killer!?!?!? (Score:5, Informative)
Anyway, the important thing is, that for the purposes of something like this MMO, Otherland isn't really a single world with lore, rather it's more of a meta-world in which the players randomly get dropped into one of many worlds each with their own lore.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
so there's no coherent universe, history, storyline? sounds like a really shallow book if that is true.
Re:But will it be a WoW killer!?!?!? (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
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Stay Tuned [imdb.com] is the name of it.
Re: (Score:2)
"Driving Over Miss Daisy" was the highlight of that film.
Re: (Score:2)
This makes me want a DonnerJack mmo.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The basic premise of the book was that the internet has evolved to the point where a few people can interface via a VR interface and it's experienced as a immersive 3d world with avatars etc., but that something weird is happening and some people who are connecting to a very specific location, eventually dubbed Otherland, are getting "stuck" in the virtual worlds, even though they aren't using neural interfaces.
Fixed that for you. Did you even read the series? Your description is way off.
Otherland isn't
Re: (Score:2)
You forgot to answer the most important question.
42
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Wrong. The most important question is:
"Will it run Linux?"
Hmmmm.. no, sorry! It is:
"Will it run in Linux?".
Re: (Score:2)
Or, will it run on linux, AND run linux?
Kinda like how in a few fantasy games they poke fun at themselves by having the characters play video games.
Re: (Score:2)
You must be kidding. Furry areas are a very small part of what there is in SL.
Not sure what you mean by "the whole island", if you mean the mainland, then certainly not.
Re: (Score:2)
How do they compare to the flying penis areas?
Re: (Score:2)
Griefers seem to be getting tired or something. Lately I see much less of that sort of thing than there used to be.
Re:Brainstorming session gone wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
So, you want a realistic, down-to-earth game... that's completely off-the-wall and swarming with magic robots?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
...Which is why it's going to fail spectacularly. The novels are a decent read, but the 'cyberspace' aspects of it are as shallow a
Re: (Score:2)
MMOG's attempting to fill a sci-fi niche have been fewer and further between, and have (for the most part) been failures. Or at least they're not getting the subscriber base as fantasy MMORPGs.
Personally, I'm looking forward to the rumored WH40K MMORPG...and I wouldn't mind a good Shadowrun MMORPG. Or even a Dresden Files based MMORPG.
Re: (Score:2)
40K and Shadowrun are both great fictional settings, but I think they would make poor MMO's due to the permadeath issue. Permadeath is poison for MMO's, but absolutely necessary to keep the thematic feel of those settings.
Shadowrun, for example, loses a lot of steam when death is merely an inconvenience. What's the big deal about getting betrayed by your teammate when it just means you spend 5 minutes running back from the hospital? Yeah, Trauma Teams, sure, but that only goes so far before you have to a
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Disclaimer: I read the first book in the series and decided not to go any further and in the first book the main characters are just getting going in the virtual worlds.
Virtual Second Life (Score:2)
It sounds like a game about Second Life, where you get to play being Ordinal Malaprop or Cubey Terra, for people who don't have enough skill... I mean telemorphic ability... to be Ordinal Malaprop or Cubey Terra.