Exploring the Marvel Universe Online

In the wake of yesterday's formal announcement of the Marvel Online title, Gamespot has an interview with 'Cryptic Studios' creative director, Jack Emmert, and Marvel Entertainment's vice president of Interactive, Ames Kirshen — as well as Microsoft Game Studios' senior director of business development, Frank Pape. They discuss the details of a game on Windows and the 360 (both will play in the same world), how the game will reflect the comics, and why Cryptic is involved. From the article: "Cryptic with their great pedigree, their great track record on the City of Heroes franchise — it was the perfect partner. We have access to all the characters in the history and lore of the Marvel universe to put into this game. So we're super excited. I mean this is, for an MMO player and for folks on the console that want to play an MMO and bringing in a new audience, it's as compelling a statement as we can make." And here I thought they were going to talk about that little multi-year lawsuit between Cryptic and Marvel.

RPG or Twitch?

[the computer guy nex]

The only way I see a MMO doing well on a console would be twitch-style gameplay. Anything with hardcore RPG elements is better done with a keyboard.

The only twitch-based MMO I can think of is Sony's Planetscape (I believe). I hope they go this route, it would be fun on a console.

Re:Online World of Warcraft Style

[wolf369T]

Neah, I'm more into DC stuff. Never liked superpowers like magnetic force, storm control or incotrolable eye lasers. Superman, Batman and their gang are much more rafinated. What it would really be interesing will be a DC vs. Marvel MMORPG. With time control implemented, although I have no ideea how it wil suppose to work, but it would be nice. With secret identities and day jobs, off course.

Re:I never got the "men in tights" thing...

[Chris Burke]

I'd couldn't prove it, but my thought is that the skin tight suits is a result of the historical necessity to keep art costs down in comics.

Drawing clothes is extra work. First you draw the body, then you have to draw the clothes over that body such that they appear to hang naturally.

Or you could just draw the body, and then color it to look like the hero is wearing clothes, maybe add a couple pieces of flair. It's faster, ergo cheaper. Add fifty years and maybe it isn't financially necessary for publishers like Marvel but it has basically become a tradition.

I understand there's a similar explanation for why characters in Japanese comics have crazy-colored hair. Everyone in Japan has black hair, so in B&W comics it made sense to just leave the hair blank to save money and prevent printing problems and their readers just naturally filled it in with the expected color. When they started using color printing, the artists thought why fill in that blank space with black when you could use pink or blue? This, too, then becomes a tradition.

It could work

[Chris Burke]

Also, a superhero game with a license is the silliest idea ever. Either you have 200 spidermans zipping around (beyond silly), or you can't allow players to play 'name' characters, at which point the whole point of a license goes out of the window. People play license games to 'be the hero' so to speak, and that doesn't work in a MMO. The concept is just broken out of the gate.

Expect a weak ripoff of City of Heroes with marvel (tm)(R)'s added all around, with some weak license-tieins like 'name' heroes giving missions to the player characters, and maybe villains as bosses to whack. With zero endgame gameplay at launch and nearly zero post-launch content.

If Spidey and Wolverine are just hanging around handing out quests and tossing out catch phrases, it will be stupid.

However if they involve these characters in the actual gameplay, it could be pretty fun.

Imagine taking your original hero character, working your way through the ranks, proving your mettle, such that you become a full-fledged X-Man and get to go on missions with Wolverine. Would that satisfy the desire to "be the hero"? It sounds like it to me. Best of both worlds: My own creation, my personal avatar, I am a bad-ass super-hero, and look there's my favorite Marvel characters kicking ass beside me!

Of course practically speaking I'm not expecting anything that involved. It will probably be as you describe, and be crappy. Yet it is possible, if Marvel decides to give Cryptic a serious up-front cash injection so they have enough developers to handle it. Hopefully Cryptic made money of Co(H|V) themselves and can afford more developers. If they take it seriously, spend the money, and do it right, a Marvel MMO could be great.

I'll start holding my breath right... now.

Re:Competing Against yourself?

[Jarnis]

CoH/CoV are dead. They will continue to run the life support and token 'additions' as long as it's financially sound, but it's obivious that Cryptic's main devs will concentrate on the new stuff.

Just look at DAOC after Warhammer Online was announced. I rest my case.

Re:Competing Against yourself?

[vonPoonBurGer]

According to the president of NCSoft North America, Robert Garriott (brother to Richard Garriott of Ultima fame, who now works as a game designer at NCSoft Austin), they're not competing against themselves. They're making churn their friend. From their insight into the MMOG space, they see customer paying and playing for around 10 months, then they move on to some other game. By having lots of MMOG games in their stable, they increase the chances that that, the next time you're looking for an MMOG, you land on another NCSoft product. In this particular case, I don't think they care that they already have a superhero-themed MMOG. Maybe people get sick of CoH/CoV, and they want a different superhero MMOG; in that case, NCSoft's got another option to sell you. Or maybe you go on to Guild Wars, or one of their other products. They don't really care which. At the same time, it allows them to get the Marvel lawsuit off their backs; even if the game barely breaks even, they'll come out way ahead. You can read more of their thoughts on these topics in this Escapist Magazine article: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/63/28 [escapistmagazine.com]