Massively Multiplayer Grand Theft Auto

Voodoo Extreme has the story that earlier this week Grand Theft Auto creator David Jones announced the upcoming release of APB, a massively multiplayer game in the vein of Grand Theft Auto. It won't be out until 2007, but will make an appearance at E3 this year. Business Wire has details on the game's developer, Webzen, as well. The company sounds as if it's going to be making a major push into the market. From the article: "In addition to APB, Webzen, Inc. plans to bring multiple online game titles to the U.S. market. The titles include the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), SUN, releasing in the third quarter of 2005, and a massively multiplayer online first person shooter (MMOFPS) called Huxley, that leverages the latest Unreal 3 game engine and is scheduled to release in 2006."

MMOGTA

[clausiam]

Given this story: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/17/13 40222&tid=123&tid=10/ [slashdot.org]

Does that mean we will also see massively parallel lawsuits (I guess that will make them class action lawsuits).

Killer App

[Golias]

I just got rid of my one and only Windows PC, since my current MMORPG choice, World of Warcraft, runs on my Mac, and I mostly game on the X-Box other than that.

However, if APB turns out to be a Windows-only game in 2007, I will run out and build a brand new Intel or AMD whatever-the-hell-version it is up to , slap in whichever nVidia or ATI card is the new hottness at the time, and install Longhorn (which just might be out by then)... for no other reason than playing this game!

That said, it would rock if I could just play it on my media-room Mac.

Re:Dare I ask.....

[Golias]

For the first half of GTA-3, you play a bottom-rung flunkie for the mob, fresh from a jailbreak.

Unlike fantasy RPG's, where the whole point (for most people) is to be a big-shot hero, I don't think it will hurt the story at all to have PC's play as one of a thousand mafia errand-boys, doing the dirty work for low-ranking made men.

Being a nearly faceless scoff-law trying to build a rep for himself is what GTA is really all about.

Oh my God, the *cycles*.

[fm6]

There are a lot of MM games out there. But do any of them even try to emulate real-world physics to the extent that GTA does? The amount of computing power to make this work is mind boggling. Maybe SGI will survive after all!

Re:Dare I ask.....

[Golias]

Actually, the crowd of superheroes in CoH was not a problem for me. It was a fun sort of "The TICK" vibe.

What bugged me was that the game's rewards system encouraged you to behave exactly as you would in any other out-for-yourself RPG.

There's something wrong (within the context of Silver-age comics) with seeing an NPC old lady being mugged and crying out for help, as dozens of high-level "superheroes" simply dash right by her and the attackers, ignoring the situation completely, on their way back from their last "door mission" to level up and/or shop for enhancements.

Re:This sounds cool, if.....

[Golias]

If you followed the link, you would have seen that cops can be played... although from the promo shot it looks like they are supposed to look like the cop from the Villiage People.

I've found that I've been able to "create and define missions" for lowbies in just about any MMOG. It started in Everquest, when my barbarian shaman needed snake skins and bat wings for spell components. Instead of running around hunting level 2 monsters (or looking for somebody who already gathered some for sale), I would invite some 1-5 level characters to take up a "quest" for me, rewarding them with a platinum coin for each stack of 20 they gathered.

Since then, I've found that it's kind of fun to send players on errands. You would be surprised the lengths some people will go to for a "free" Sword-of-killing-pretty-touch-monsters, as long as you roleplay it out to make it seem like a "mission" to them.