Shadowrun Finds a New Home 72
After the disastrous Xbox Shadowrun title and the closing of FASA Studios, it's not surprising to see Microsoft pushing the rights to videogames made in the Shadowrun IP off to greener pastures. Their new place of residence, though, is a bit of a pleasant shock: a new company founded by Jordan 'Zapper' Weisman. Gamasutra reports: "FASA, WizKids and 42 Entertainment founder Jordan Weisman has announced, via the website of his newest venture-backed startup Smith & Tinker, that he has licensed the 'electronic entertainment' rights to his MechWarrior, Shadowrun and Crimson Skies properties back from Microsoft ... It is unclear as of yet what form Weisman's plans for these franchises might take. But given the transmedia nature of his recent ventures, and job advertisements asking for experts with Web 2.0 and online game expertise, online world/MMO elements to the company's projects seem likely." Simon Carless has a few extra comments on the news over at GameSetWatch.
Not to be confused with (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.smithandtinkers.com/ [smithandtinkers.com]
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A New Mech Warrior or Shadowrun MMO? (Score:4, Funny)
-Rick
Re:A New Mech Warrior or Shadowrun MMO? (Score:5, Insightful)
A Shadowrun MMO on the other hand would make perfect sense. The game offers classic magic as well as high-tech weapons, character customization out of the box (implants and magic buffs), a stronger focus on non-fighting professions than the BattleTech universe, different races, cyberspace and hacking, politics, etc. pp. ad infinitum. It's all there already, waiting to be implemented.
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There really aren't any "classes" in Mechwarrior. You can seriously stat out a shopkeeper or a CEO with no weapons skills whatsoever. Or you can stat an engineer and intrigue in a corporation, or any other person that would exist in 3050. The
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WTF are you smoking? (Score:2)
Elemental suits / IS Armor if you want. Tanks and Hovers and the rest, if you want. Participate in mixed-army fighting.
Mechs, if you want. Build your way up in the fights on Solaris...
Aerotech - in both the atmosphere, and in space battles where 'Mechs are mostly sitting ducks.
Or take over being a gunner in one of the naval-class Dropships or JumpShips...
Properly designed, this has so much amazing potential! Think about it - people are still playing Mechwarrior 2 and Mec
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EA had just gotten a new CEO, who had no experience in the video game industry. The first thing she did was shut down every project that wasn't a triple A title. This of course included Multiplayer Battletech 3025. The game was in open beta and it was substantially complete. The only thing that had to be done was flip the retail switch and start collecting subscription fees.
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A typical PnP campaign would have combat team in place, and then all the players would sit around and twiddle their thumbs while the guy with the cyberdeck would try to evade and defeat all IC. Unless the GM was kind, those rolls started to take their toll, and a half hour or more could go by before the dec
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Shadowrun/Mechwarior/Crimson Sky games all sound as if they would be better as massivily multiplayer FPS's as opposed to the current MMO crop that is primarly RPG with mock FPS stylings added on top.
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I also feel that, if done right, even infantry fights could be interesting, but only if you can reasonably with a good amount of skill take out a mech with the proper teamwork.
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Chris Mattern
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While people who post as Anonymous Cowards are so cool.
Signed: PhoenixOne
Umm... what? (Score:2)
What? Are you the type of person wants that plays Jimmy Olsen in a superhero game or Mrs. Moneypenny in a spy game? You don't make a superhero RPG that starts you
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But how are we going to make the 1-2 percent of the elite "uber-gamers" feel special if we don't make 98% of our paying customers suffer? ;)
But, seriously, that was the thing that hooked me on City of Heroes. In less than an hour, I could jump from roof-top to roof-top and beat up 2-3 armed thugs at once. And I never had to kill a single damn rat!
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You do realize there are many people who play RPGs to, you know,
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I really don't see the problem by making everyone a Mech pilot...let NPCs be the tank and helicopter cannon fodder. I honestly think it would translate well into a MMO. Lots of parts and upgrades to buy and get as drops, large number of worlds, tons of sto
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The way I see it, yes, most people would want to run mechs. It's Battletech and mechs are the big draw. I don't see a problem with making it a class choice situation, same as aerospace pilot, armoured infantry, tanker, etc. Each of those professions require years of training to become truly good at (and the point of MMO's for the most part is to play the heroes, not the regular cannon fodder) so it is reasonable to me to just pick what
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GIVE ME MECHWARRIOR or DIE.
Er, yes. Achem.
If I say please?
Thank God (Score:3, Interesting)
Couple of corrections (Score:2)
Second, in order to clarify your use of the word "original" game. . the first "game" was the pen & paper game. the first "original" videogame was the SNES version. The genesis version is a second videogame unrelated to the SNES version.
And I liked the SNES version quite a bit. Haven't played the Genesis version.
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Also: Weisman was the one who invented Shadowrun. I have no fear that he will treat the game right. Weisman hasn't been involved with a bad product yet, to my knowledge (I Love Bees, Shadowrun, Crimson Skies, Mechwarrior, etc.).
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Well, seeing as he is the creator of Shadowrun, and made the earlier version of the video game, I think I can call him "competent".
"The genesis version is a second videogame unrelated to the SNES version."
But way more related to the P&P version, which IMHO is better. Also, I never stated that the "original" video game was the Genesis version, I stated that the Genesis version was my favorite game for the Gen
One simple request (Score:2, Insightful)
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Although as a pen-and-paper gamer, I must disagree that an RPG needs to come pre-packaged with a story. For pen-and-paper gamers, part of the enjoyment is coming up with the
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Crazy talk. (Score:3, Insightful)
Not everyone needs a module to script out and hold the hands of a play group to enjoy a game. In f
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Shadowrun WoW (Score:4, Interesting)
The big problem that I see is generating a credible world. WoW works because it is a fantasy world and so they can have these huge open spaces and towns that are comprised of a couple of buildings. Shadowrun on the other hand is all about the urban sprawl and dense urban environments. I could be wrong but I don't think that there is game engine out there that can handle all of the NPCs, plus a bunch of players, plus all of the various vehicles operating both on the street and in the air. The WoW model when you are dead and running back to your corpse could be expanded upon to create the seperation between the astral space and the physical world.
What do you guys think? Can a model be created using the current hardware that could accurate recreate an urban game world that would be required for Shadowrun?
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Whatever system they come up with would have to take cover, etc into account. As much as I hate to say it, it would necessarily have to have elements of a FPS.
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I've never played City of Heroes so I can't really comme
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That doesn't sound too bad. Like you said the terrain w
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Yes, I hope someone does something intelligent with the property, in terms of games. If that meant an MMORPG, I'd play it, if they had the same people working on it that they had doing the fiction/artwork for the rulebooks and they got the vibe right.
Personally, I'd want an SR2 setting...I used to have that rulebook, and I
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Instanced Dungeons (Score:2)
Another huge challenge for a Shadowrun MMO would be finding useful roles that Deckers and Riggers can pla
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For fixers/Johnsons to work there would have to be a somewhat complex NPC system that worked on reputation and some other factors. The best model is Grand Theft Auto. In GTA you spend the entire game jumping from person to person, following a story line as contacts introduce you to their contacts. Shadowrun has the benefit of having two distinct world, the corporate world with the corporations and the criminal world with the mafia/yakuza and gan
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Easy Money (Score:4, Interesting)
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It's a Video Game? (Score:2, Informative)
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Did the Shadowrun game actually fail because...? (Score:1, Interesting)
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"Jizz-Wailer Hero" or "Sabacc", while they might be very good games, would completely fail to come close to doing justice to the full spectrum (or e
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Irony (Score:4, Insightful)
They mean the Shadowrun *Video Game* (Score:3, Informative)
I still got Shadowrun btw. (2nd Edition I think). Gosh, were those rules crappy and incoherent. And gosh did we have fun with that RPG.
To all you out there who've never played an RPG (I mean the real ones, Pen & Paper): If you come across Shadowrun in an RPG store or somewhere else: Buy it. The rules are mostly totally braindead, but the entire setting, it's lighthearted, frictionless approach to RPGing and the RPG sessions it leads to are pure fun. And a RPG newbie can pick them up in ten minutes. Roleplaying is an ideal way to have fun with your friends and get away from the screen once in a while. And Shadowrun's a far better alternative than D&D imho.
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I've been selling off my RPG collection, but I've still got some first ed, and most of the second ed, and some of the first few 2.5 ed, sourcebooks available, if anybody's interested.
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I still got Shadowrun btw. (2nd Edition I think).
You should try to find a copy of 3rd edition.
It's largely a clarification and expansion of the 2nd edition rules, which were very good. I still have several books for both editions. Where 2nd edition rules are vague or incoherent, 3rd is pretty polished. It follows the history of the 2nd edition rules, and takes some of the content of various sourcebooks, with some brand new stuff and adds it all to the core book.
It's also compatible with 2nd edition material, which is awesome, but the comparable thir
Mechwarrior Reporting In! (Score:1)
Go back to the RPG roots.... (Score:2)
A quality game engine, incorporating all of the popular concepts of the game - magic, cybernetics, vehicle combat, and cyberspace.
But I fear the task would be too big and risks too high for most game companies to even consider, it'll be a dream of many who have played the RPG version of Shadowrun.
Xbox Shadowrun is good game (Score:1)
Keep It Simple, Stupids... (Score:1)
You know what the last good Shadowrun game was? Shadowrun for the Sega Genesis.
You know why that was the last good Shadowrun game? They used the already existing pen & paper system and incorporated it within a new story. It was a top down RPG featuring all the different areas of Seattle: Redmond Barrens, Renraku Arcology, Downtown Seattle, even the Native American reservations, as well as the familiar locations: Lone Star Police Department, Hollywood Correctional Facility.
It had dozens of weapons