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Comments: 159 +- Games: Command & Conquer MMO a Possibility? on Tuesday October 13, @05:46AM
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TheProphet92 sends along a speculative piece about the future of EA's popular RTS franchise, writing:
"EA's real-time strategy games don't have the luxury of extensive funding the way some other franchises do. EA has been milking their game engines for all they're worth and then some. They have been using various versions of the 'Sage' engine for the past half-dozen or so RTS games, and they need money to make a new one. Perhaps an MMO is the way to go for EA, using none other than their famous Command & Conquer franchise."
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What about Sims? (Score:4, Funny)
I for one would pay to see fifty sims battling a gargantuan chromatic dragon, with epic furniture.
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Good point (Score:5, Funny)
Good point. And in the spirit of lending a helping hand to the publishers, here is my own list of franchises which have been sadly overlooked when it came to making an MMO.
1. Zorro. Just think about it. For a start, you don't even need to pay the artists for more than one outfit for the players. You just need to figure out a way to need 25 Zorros for the final boss, and you're all set.
2. Tom and Jerry. This could be huge. Just think of the millions of children who have grown up on seeing the cat and mouse (and occasionally dog) hit each other over the head with frying pans, lead pipes, and just about everything except the kitchen sink. Actually, wait, I think they used the kitchen sink too. It could make the perfect PvP MMO. (And you may think that it would be limited to have just two races in an MMO and have it all happen in one house and its yard, but AION launched literally with one race per side and the zones aren't much bigger either.)
I for one can hardly wait to grind for the Epic Frying Pan Of Power, and whack a cat over the head with it. What? You're saying it's just me?
3. Barbie. Well, Mattel already proved that you can make money with Barbie games for little girls. (Mostly because the one buying the game is the father, whose idea of what game would a little girl want is a little fuzzy.) Now imagine the many possibilities in a MMO. Not only you can dress up your Barbie and pretend she's a fashion model, you can sit her together with other people's Barbies and have a tea party. Won't that be fun? Little girls love having tea parties with their dolls. (At this point if you're a father, you're supposed to nod and reach for your wallet.)
4. Debbie Does Dallas. Perfect for the few horny 14 year olds trying to cybersex every female character in sight... and for the many 40 year olds pretending to be a horny 14 year old. 'Nuff said.
5. Harvest Moon. All the fun of watering crops and brushing your pony, except in a massively multi-player setting. And if you get a 40 man group you can brush an epic pony.
6. Dallas. I believe more housewives worldwide have watched that soap opera than nerds have watched Star Trek. If they can make an MMO out of the latter, I don't see why they can't make one out of Dallas.
7. The Bible. Yes, you've heard that right. It sold more copies than all 6 Star Wars episodes and all SW books combined. And if you don't think it has MMO potential, you haven't read it.
E.g., the siege and genocide of Midian (not kidding, read Numbers) would make a great battleground. E.g., imagine the fun of an escort quest to get Lot out of Sodom. For that matter, of trying to get to Lot's house with your sphincter intact ;) E.g., for a FedEx quest, recreate Jeremiah's treck to the Euphrates to bury his loincloth because the Lord told him to. (Again, I'm not kidding.) Etc.
Parent
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Or, some legitimate MMO ideas based on franchises...
Total War
Starcraft
Fallout
G.I. Joe
And some less legitimate MMO ideas....
Tetris
My Little Pony
Teletubby
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2. Tom and Jerry. This could be huge. Just think of the millions of children who have grown up on seeing the cat and mouse (and occasionally dog) hit each other over the head with frying pans, lead pipes, and just about everything except the kitchen sink. Actually, wait, I think they used the kitchen sink too. It could make the perfect PvP MMO. (And you may think that it would be limited to have just two races in an MMO and have it all happen in one house and its yard, but AION launched literally with one race per side and the zones aren't much bigger either.)
I for one can hardly wait to grind for the Epic Frying Pan Of Power, and whack a cat over the head with it. What? You're saying it's just me?
7. The Bible. Yes, you've heard that right. It sold more copies than all 6 Star Wars episodes and all SW books combined. And if you don't think it has MMO potential, you haven't read it.
E.g., the siege and genocide of Midian (not kidding, read Numbers) would make a great battleground. E.g., imagine the fun of an escort quest to get Lot out of Sodom. For that matter, of trying to get to Lot's house with your sphincter intact ;) E.g., for a FedEx quest, recreate Jeremiah's treck to the Euphrates to bury his loincloth because the Lord told him to. (Again, I'm not kidding.) Etc.
I would play these. I'd never thought about the bible as source material for an MMO, but there is a lot of source material there. You'd have to have some balls to actually make it though.
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Balls, but no foreskin.
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They said the same about pinball ;)
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5. Harvest Moon. All the fun of watering crops and brushing your pony, except in a massively multi-player setting. And if you get a 40 man group you can brush an epic pony.
I would absolutely play this. I love farming games.
"Hey guys, I just got [Fire-Seared Plow of the Hellforge] offa this sweet turnip mob!"
But seriously, a Harvest Moon Online game has been rumored for years. It's a beautiful form of self-expression, akin to a digital zen garden, which is probably why the Facebook apps FarmVille and FarmTown are so popular.
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What, you mean fundies would be _against_ a game that teaches the Bible? I would have thought they'd be all over it like clap on a cheap hooker ;)
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What, you mean fundies would be _against_ a game that teaches the Bible? I would have thought they'd be all over it like clap on a cheap hooker ;)
I'm sure they would be in favor of a game that teaches their warped, selective view of the bible. A book that taught you what was actually in the bible would not go over well.
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Hmm, good point.
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This is silly. (Score:5, Insightful)
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I hear the new city will have a Starbucks on every corner!
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and if you walk to the end of the block, there sits a Starbucks. And directly across the street — in the exact same building as that Starbucks — there is another Starbucks. There is a Starbucks across the street from a Starbucks!
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Ob: Idiocracy (Score:2)
get your Starbucks fix.
Yeah, well I really don't think we have time for a hand job, Joe.
Re:This is silly. (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Better Option (Score:4, Insightful)
EA fails at DRM and Quality Control with C&C (Score:2)
Same thing for me here.
I'm a a pretty big nut of C&C games, but the DRM on C&C3 (fantastic game) gave me a ton of greif. I actually had to go and download no-cd images and use damen tools + YASU (yet another secure-rom utility) just to RUN my own game.
My dvd drive struggled to read and pass the dvd check at boot because their dvd was non-standard.
Nothing like having to crack your own game, just so you could play it, then worry that your online account will be banned as a result.
Lets not forget how b
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Generals had the same "game out of sync" errors - can't remember exactly what they were called, but it soured us on playing it. And my group of friends LOVED the game.
Age of Empires (and Age of Kings) had this set-up to where on a game sync-loss, everyone would automatically save a current snapshot. Then one person could at least re-load their snapshot and continue the game. I never figured out why EA didn't do something like that.
Oh yea, +1 for RA/RA2. Westwood was the SHIT at making these fun.
Why not as an iPhone app (Score:2)
Okay so in the wild speculation list its not that far out to say 'MMO' but its not crazy enough. I mean you could actually see some marketing exec think it was a good idea. The other ideas on the list were
* iPhone app - sod a new platform just port the old one and sell another million copies
* Use the FIFA 10 engine - [Foot|Soccer]balls become grenades and you add some more scenery. Tanks are just "heavy" player right?
* Use the Sims engine "you can be any genocidal maniac or army general you want"
The end
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Yeah an iPhone app is a good idea - ANYTHING to make it not just "yet another MMO".
We have too many MMOs already. The likes of WoW get to be the popular one and the rest of the population is shared between about 20 different MMO games, making them nigh on empty. IMO, it worked better in the days when we only had a few to choose from - a bit of choice, but without saturating the market.
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there is an iphone version of C&C in development
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There is a CNC knockoff for the iPhone called warfare inc. It is actually fun if limited. The screen is too small so you can't have hot buttons. But unit moving and selection is easy. Personally I would love to play the game on something large like msft surface multi-touch with a bluetooth keyboard so you can have quick keys. To control units and movements. Or at least an on screen keyboard off to the side.
Mice need to be upgraded. Multi point interfaces whether based off of touch or new mice are much bette
Eh? (Score:4, Interesting)
The article makes no sense at all. Using one game-type to fund another is okay but hell, an MMO is a company in itself, not just a product. It's also complete speculation.
And, the C&C series went downhill after Red Alert (and, as others have pointed out, EA's purchase of Westwood). I can hardly bring myself to play anything after that at all. I wanted to have a look at Red Alert 3 but wasn't going to buy without a demo. By the time a demo came out that I could actually find and download, it was 1.8Gb and I had lost interest. And the min specs looked scary for something quite benign in terms of gameplay.
The best way for EA to make money on that franchise would be to stick the entire C&C / RA back-catalogue on Steam, with a new system for multiplayer lobbies... I know I'd buy it and compared to even the demo of Red Alert, it'd be small to download. I know RA itself is "freeware" now but just the hassle of keeping the CD images around and the multiplayer, plus the various expansion packs, has got to be worth a little bit. A lot of people times a little bit is quite a chunk.
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I started C&C with C&C:Generals (which I really enjoyed, along with Zero Hour and now C&C3:Tiberium Wars). I later found Red Alert, and really did not enjoy it, especially since I didn't start with it.
To each his own.
I'd say the best money is to just keep pumping out expansion packs. I'd buy em.
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I started C&C with C&C:Generals (which I really enjoyed, along with Zero Hour and now C&C3:Tiberium Wars). I later found Red Alert, and really did not enjoy it, especially since I didn't start with it.
To each his own.
If you didn't start with the original C&C, were teased by the included C&C2 trailer (google it), disappointed by it being cancelled, then grudgingly admit having fun with RA, then pre-ordered the next tiberium-themed C&C when it came out years later, with the little pewter action figure, and.. well.. if that game didn't rip your heart out..
You probably don't know the heartache real C&C fans have. EA killed them :\
PS
All you talking about lore... rofl. Which one? The one with disk chucking
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Yeah, RA was the last one for me too. Age of Empires III killed the "age of" series. Rise of Legends killed the Rise of Nations series in it's infancy. I love RTS', but they keep trying to reinvent themselves instead of building on what they did right.
The RTS gold standard right now has to be Supreme Commander. If it wasn't for the sucky AI, I wouldn't need any other. But it got a few things right that should now be incorporated into every RTS out their. First is the stragtegic zoom. Don't give me some tigh
The problem is EA (Score:5, Informative)
If EA came up with an MMO, could you really trust them not to make it Pay-to-Play and:
If my previous experience with Online PvP gaming using EA products (Battlefield series on the PC) is any indication of their behavior, I expect them to release the game buggy (yet strangely with great reviews from certain well-known gaming websites), have a 6 month period with a couple of bug-fixes while they "hook as many players as they can into the game" and then proceed to do all the "returns enhancing" ideas listed above.
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It's worse than that. EA actually has a long history with MMOs. You may not realize it, because none of except the original Ultima Online survived. Ultima Online 2 (and UO X). The Sims Online. BattleTech 3025. Earth & Beyond. Motor City Online. And others.
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EA did not develop or deploy DAoC. They only acquired Mythic. Mythic hasn't deployed any expansions for DAoC since EA acquired them. Warhammer Online has been...less than successful.
Tiberium Farming (Score:5, Insightful)
Give that Idea a NOD (Score:2)
A great big tower of NOD! ZZZZzzzzzzzpppppp! Now get what is left of your harvester out of "MY" tiberium!
Choice of /. imagery (Score:3, Interesting)
How fitting that the /. icon for this article should be a warcraft picture. God, I miss the time when there were two types of gamers in this world: C&C and Warcraft II.
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I thought it was left-clicker or right-clicker?
So sad that right click won. You can hear thousands of 90's RTS games crying from the grave. The slow death of PC gaming... giant mega games and a forgotten past :\
Uggg (Score:4, Insightful)
If this was being done by the guys of the old Westwood, then I'd say go for it. Because you know if those guys did it, it would be awesome. But EA has done nothing but destroy the C&C franchise, so I don't really want to see them try this.
On the other hand, it would be extremely interesting to see how they would pull off something like that. If done well it could be very good. But it's EA, they don't do anything well.
Am I supposed to fucking cry, or what? (Score:2)
Translation - they've made a shitload of money with minimal investment and have spent it all on [censored] so have none left to make a new engine.
EA, the CA [wikipedia.org] of gaming.
Evil in an MMO (Score:2, Funny)
The only problem is the arguments over who geets to be the Horned Reaper and who gets to be the Keeper...
New RTS Games? (Score:2)
I have not purchased a new game in years, why? Because they are the same old shit, the mechanics and basic rules of the games are all the same, which makes all the units basically the same regardless of whether you call it an Archer, a Musketeer, or a Rifleman.
Not only that but the twitch reflex keeps showing up in this games as well the standard build. In other words, having to time your production clicking while issuing orders like a madman to your combat units. Hell, at what point am I actually enjoyi
Re:donotwant (Score:4, Insightful)
Warcraft managed to get RTS -> MMO RPG transition just fine, and it is not surprising.
RTS tradition creates rich lore (past conflicts and battles, locations and settings - each map can equal to explorable area, iconic bad and good guys, enough rectcons to give lorephile hardon) and identifiable image (there is reason why wow town building designs are pretty much directly takes from its RTS roots.). MMO gameplay already has standardized features, so that is nobrainer too.
Parent
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Not after the very first one. Completely lost interest.
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Reply in true *seeing red* spirit of AC I guess.
Yes, there is nothing special about RTS ... except that is is good lore source. I guess there is really nothing special about having settings already described in quite fine detail with maps and whatnot which is also familiar to players which will get familiar feeling when they enter zone which they can actually navigate because they saw it from birds eye view is useless. Yes, totally pointless.
And yes, 3D models in MMO being exactly same as 2D version sprites
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I would love to see that happen. Imagine you can pick any class and evolve in it. There must be a mechanism that gives you an incentive to keep playing the same class. You get rewarded with specialised weapons, e.g. an improved tank or mechinfantry. Not only do you get rewarded for frags but also for following orders and pre-battlefield instructions. Over time you can become higher in rank which actually gives you authority over other players.
Basically this would be the perfect balance between the excitemen
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Uh, most of the "classic" MMOs are 3/4 isometric view.
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For DUST 514 the commander plays an RTS version of the FPS game.
Re:Hmm (Score:4, Insightful)
Remember that C&C is based upon the engine created for the game Dune II. If you want an MMO based upon the style of game, go after Dune! It's a hugely rich history, with larger than life chracaters, epic battles, and vast spaces. Remember that the collection of Tiberium was originally the collection of the Spice, Melange, upon which the whole Universe runs on...it allows the Navigators to fold space, and Paul Atreides, aka Muad'Dib, later to see the future. That could be a whole lot of fun! About the only Universe richer than the Dune is Star Wars, which, of course, borrowed from Dune in the first place.
Parent
Speaking personally (Score:2)
The introduction of chracaters would get me back into the scene.