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Games Entertainment

Marvel Goes MMPORG 210

Posted by Hemos from the mmporg-is-a-terrible-acronym dept.
traskjd writes "C|net reports that Vivendi Universal has announced that they are working with Marvel Enterprises to create a Massively Multiplayer online game. The game has your favorite Marvel characters such as the Hulk. However don't hold your breath as the game is touted as coming out in 2005." Ha. Maybe DC will get their act together, and then CowboyNeal can fufil his wildest dreams as the Green Lantern.
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Marvel Goes MMPORG More

Marvel Goes MMPORG

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  • How long before all the cool characters are used, and you're relegated to Mr. Furious and The Shoveler?
    • The solution is blindingly obvious
      to any /. reader...
      Create a Beowulf Cluster of your Favourite Characters!!!
      (Sorry, could not help myself.)
      • No, the real solution is wait until City of Heroes comes out, and make your own damn characters instead of arguing over everyone else's interpretation of Spider-Man/the Hulk/Daredevil/whoever.

        Kierthos
        • Yeah, but you know that 90% of the player base is going to rip off comic book heroes, that there'll be hundreds each of Spiderman, Hulk, etc. and the Comic Book Guys will still be at each others' throats about how faithful their characters are to the ones they're based on.
          • Oooo. Can I be the Comic Book Guy? That would be way cooler than playing the Hulk.
          • Assuming that I have gotten tired of Dark Age of Camelot by then, I actually plan on buying City of Heroes and seeing what orignal* characters I can make. I already have a couple different ideas, but I'll have to see if the character creation engine and the costume design can support them. (And oh god, I am hoping that they at least put trenchcoats and capes in the game.)

            *In this connotation, original is defined as not being deliberately based upon comic book characters I am aware of. If, through happenstance, I happen to greatly mimic a comic book character that I am unaware of (such as a great deal of independent comic characters, and most of the DC lineup outside of the Batman titles), I am not trying to "rip off" or "copy" this character.

            Kierthos
    • I think both DC and Marvel had a paper and pencil game loosely based on them.

      They both had very similar (from a high level view point, don't flame me with the exact differences).

      You created new characters with sets of powers, each having a cost. You paid for these costs with selecting weaknesses.

      The most fun characters to play had really whacked out weaknesses. Picture building Superman, but having no balance, or orientation problems. Flying to save the day, and suddenly, wham, right into the ground.
      • There has to be some sort of balance though or all of the "weaker" heros will just get wiped out My question is: how can they be super"heros" if they go around destroying each other? You know that it's just going to end up being one big slug fest to see who the strongest superheros are and some have obvious advantages over others. All the while there will be cats stuck up trees...
    • Whoa, hold on there tiger lilly...

      Mr. Furious and The Shoveler are two of the most interesting, unique, and sure as hell funny comic characters ever created. Not only that, but the actors who played there characters in the movie could actually act! (take note toby maguire)

      Just because they don't actually have any super-powers doesn't mean their not cool. Although I don't think any normal person could throw cutlery like the "limey fork flinger" Blue Raja. That's quite impressive.

  • Character limit? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Spazholio ( 314843 ) <slashdot@noSPAm.lexal.net> on Friday September 20, 2002 @07:49AM (#4296146) Homepage
    I've been a Marvel fan for quite some time, and am well aware that there are many charaters in there, however, that number is quite finite. Once people snatch up all the pre-existing characters, how do they plan on having anyone else play? Make up your own character? Give them whatever powers you choose? Maybe have 1,836 people ALL playing Spider-Man (not to mention all the irritating Venom/Carnage/clone divergents)? Sounds like an interesting idea, I'm all for anything that brings comics to the forefront, and dispels the notion that they're ONLY for children. Hope they can pull it off.

    • Re:Character limit? (Score:5, Funny)

      by vjmurphy ( 190266 ) on Friday September 20, 2002 @08:03AM (#4296196) Homepage
      And does Marvel really want the typical MMORPG attracted to this game playing Spider-Man et al? Nothing like having your flagship characters spouting things like "fag" or "u r gay" to other characters.

      I would bet that only GMs would get to play any named characters to avoid such problems. Of course, that would pretty much make the game worthless. Who wants to play Color-Excreter Lad when you really want to play Black Panther?

    • Re:Character limit? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Bilestoad ( 60385 ) on Friday September 20, 2002 @08:19AM (#4296258)
      Did you play "Freedom Force"? There was a wealth of abilities and attributes for creating your own character. Running out of Marvel identities shouldn't be too much of a problem, in fact I wouldn't be letting random players have Marvel characters at all, but I would have all the big names as NPCs or hire people to play them as staff - kind of like walking into Disneyland and there's a guy in a Mickey Mouse suit, if you know what I mean.

      Or, auction the Marvel characters, or compete for the right to play them. You could use a ladder system like Bungie did for Myth online, top player of the month gets to pick a Marvel character first, and so on.
    • dispels the notion that they're ONLY for children

      aaaHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

      Yea, and pokemon is geered towards the intellectual masterminds such as Knuth. I remeber during one of his lectures he had a freudian slip of, "Alpha-Beta, I choose you" when he was doing a proof.

      Thanks man you made my day, bro. True they're not only for children, but you have to admit they're made mostly for children. So don't get too surprised when blood doesn't spill and you can't rip people's heads off.

    • Well, duh.. (Score:2, Funny)

      by Havokmon ( 89874 )
      Everybody knows your mutant powers don't surface until you reach puberty.

      If you join NOW, you can practice throwing fireballs in 2018...

      For those non-mutant wanna-be heros, there will be radioactive spiders, and gamma-ray explosions randomly througout the game... If you're lucky, you can take 99% damage, and have your gamma-irradiated friend heal you, greatly increasing your strength and agility (and breast size) permanantly (rather than just when you get pissed).

    • Re:Character limit? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by shut_up_man ( 450725 ) on Friday September 20, 2002 @08:37AM (#4296337) Homepage
      These are the same problems Sony & Lucasarts are going to have with Star Wars Galaxies [sony.com]. What stops people from ALL becoming Dark Jedi called Darth l33t with double-ended red lightsabers? I'd expect Marvel start players as fairly weak heroes and allow them to improve their powers and run factions (superhero groups) up to the point where the highest level players might be in the realm of the X-Men, Alpha Flight, etc. If they want to be Spider-Man, yay... they'll just suck compared to the real thing. Sony have also indicated in Galaxies that heroes like Luke Skywalker and Han Solo will make the very very rare appearance, but will be impossible to kill, to prevent lame stuff. Of course, that didn't quite happen with Lord British on UO [noctalis.com]...

      • Re:Character limit? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Zathrus ( 232140 ) on Friday September 20, 2002 @08:51AM (#4296399) Homepage
        What stops people from ALL becoming Dark Jedi called Darth l33t with double-ended red lightsabers

        Presuming that there's interdependance on other PCs, then people will discover quickly that role-playing an "evil" character is no different from being an asshole. And in MMORPGs most assholes don't make it because they get a rep and can't advance by themselves.

        So while there may be a preponderance of dark jedi (although I think SOE claimed they would be "limiting" the number of people playing Jedi somehow), they'll virtually all wind up being really nice guys, just like Dark Elves did in EQ.

        Of course, as a reformed EQ addict, I can't implore people enough to stay away from EQ or SW:G or pretty much anything else like it. There are people who can balance something addictive like a MMORPG and real life, but most geeks don't fall into that category -- goal-oriented, highly focused personalities tend to get sucked in to this kind of thing, especially since it fulfills a social interaction need often not found elsewhere in geek life.

        Of course, I appear to have replace the EQ addiction with a somewhat lesser /. addiction...
        • It would be better if Marvel worked with other comic companies like DC and Dark Horse. The more characters and diversity the better. Batman versus Lobo, that would be interesting...Lobo would win though...
          • That must have been some good shit you were smoking this morning... It's got you believing all KINDS of crazy stuff. Lobo would get soundly thrashed by The Dark Knight.

            Kintanon
        • "Presuming that there's interdependance on other PCs, then people will discover quickly that role-playing an "evil" character is no different from being an asshole."

          Yes, but you're assuming the stereotypical notion of evil (similar to D&D's 'Chaotic Evil'), rather than the more interesting types of evil expressed in both Marvel comics and Star Wars.

          For example, in the recent X-men movie, the bad guys weren't fighting others out of greed. Rather, they felt it was their only means of survival. Now I'll admit that they had distorted, extremist views, but they honestly did believe that what they were doing was the only way to ensure that they live, "by any means necessary".

          Similarly, "evil" in Star Wars generally implies alignment with the Empire -- an organization attempting to bring law, order, and control to the galaxy via military means. At the end of the day, they merely want to make the trains run on time.

      • Its going to be just like UO and Evercrack. You start as a useless little "hero" wannabe with barely noticable powers, and in order to succeed, you need to quit your job (or just not show up, like a former coworker did until he go fired for... not showing up) and/or setup some scripts so your hero can fish/knit all day to develop skills. Then you script repeated selling behavior of the fish or knitted products so you can raise money to build your secret lab, hideout, or whatever.

        Its a revolution in gaming! Systematic boredom, but with superpowers! w00t!

      • Sony have also indicated in Galaxies that heroes like Luke Skywalker and Han Solo will make the very very rare appearance, but will be impossible to kill, to prevent lame stuff.


        If you can't kill Jar-Jar, what's the point in participating?

    • Re:Character limit? (Score:4, Funny)

      by artemis67 ( 93453 ) on Friday September 20, 2002 @10:09AM (#4296826)
      Will there be a nuclear power plant near by? Radioactive fallout from a nuclear accident should be good enough to generate a few hundred thousand Silver Age heroes.

      Or, maybe a hole in the ozone layer allows the city to be bathed by those mysterious Cosmic Rays(tm).

    • That's easy -- CLONES! (Score:3, Interesting)

      by mblase ( 200735 )
      Spider-Man's been cloned at least once, maybe twice. One clone of Cable. Two of Marvel Girl (if you count Phoenix). The villain Carnage had, I think, six "spawns" with basically identical powers. If you need to re-use the same Marvel character more than once at a time, it's insanely easy. The technology's there. :)

      I foresee two big problems with a Marvel MMPORG, though. First, the resurrection factor -- it's impossible to keep ANY Marvel character dead, whether he be good, evil or civilian. So there's no danger to the player, right? Get killed, come back a few days later, repeat ad nauseam. Want to fight? Just run in, guns or powers blazing, and expect to get resurrected next week if it turns out to be fatal.

      The second is the power-upgrade factor. This is a corollary of the death factor -- ninety-nine percent of the time, in the Marvel Universe, a super-hero's resurrection is ALWAYS accompanied by an amplification of his powers, if not a completely new set of them. So there's actually an INCENTIVE for players to rush in and get killed -- they'll increase their level status that much more quickly, possibly taking entire quantum leaps with each successive death.

      I'd like nothing better than to play a Marvel mutant super-hero online, myself. By skillfully employing the above tactics, I'd be at god-level powers in a month, no sweat.
    • It would be like "The Tick" in Capital City. There are no villians, because there too many superhero's. Everyone will just hangout at disco clubs, arguing over who is the real "Spider Man" or who the real "Hulk" is. Every once in a while two super hero's with the same name will break out in a fight with the winner being the true *superhero name here*.
    • This game will end up just like "The Tick", with thousands of superheroes, all with useless abilities. Me, I'm SlugMan, oh no ! Salt ! AARRGGHH....

  • You can already do this! (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 20, 2002 @07:50AM (#4296149)
    Try freedom force -- www.myfreedomforce.com!
  • "Maybe DC will get their act together, and then CowboyNeal can fufil his wildest dreams as the Green Lantern."

    I see dead universes...

  • I've got dips on The Beyonder character. GOD-mode! Let's rock!

    • Re:The Beyonder (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Ubergrendle ( 531719 )
      Oh yeah, well i have the Infinite Gauntlet, so there! Actually, no, wait, I'm the Anti-Monitor so there! No, wait a sec -- no, actually, I'm Dr Manhattan...

      The problem with comic book universes is that they're always trying to one-up the past and come up with the REAL ultimate threat. Take a took at the X-Men. Magneto was the real badass mutant...but hold on, if you think HE was bad, just wait until you tangle with the Hellfire Club. Whoops, never mind...those Sentinels are even WORSE...except, well, for that Mutant Massacre thingy with Mr Sinister.
    • Ah, the secret wars are my fuv story. The only thing that came close was the Onslaught just some years ago.
    • I've got dips on The Beyonder character.

      The Beyonder can seriously mess you up, so you won't see me putting dip on him, much less more than one. Unless it's his favorite dip? Mmmm... French-Onion.

  • i should be... (Score:5, Funny)

    by bje2 ( 533276 ) on Friday September 20, 2002 @08:10AM (#4296224)
    well the girls have always told me i'm like "The Flash" in bed...oh, wait...
    • well the girls have always told me i'm like "The Flash" in bed...oh, wait..

      Really? What a coincidence, people say I'm like The Flasher in the park.

    • I always wondered how superpowers would work in bed.

      I don't think sex with Superman (DC I know) would be nice. Can imagine it would be rather lethal for the average girl. Picture this:

      girl: how about this?
      supe: nope, nothing..
      girl: and this?
      supe: still don't feel a thing
      girl: but I'm biting in it!
      supe: well... urm..let's try some Viagronite then

      hulk: here it comes!
      girl: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarch!! aaaaaa..*

      On the other hand:

      Girl: WOW! is that your hand??
      Mr.Fantastic: guess again baby!

      Girl: WOOOOOOW!
      Vision: Yea I know. I've upgraded it with the new Vibro Pro Powerpac. Btw, I'm using the lowest setting...
      Girl: AAAAAH!

      Girl: Impressive!
      Collusus: Yep. Wood is overrated.

      Girls (in-sync): AAAAAH, so soft!
      Beast: He, he, he well, in this case soft is a good thing!

      Flash: Quit the crappy remarks!
      Flash2:..I'm..
      Flash3:..so fast..
      Flash4:..I can be..
      Flash5:..6 guys..
      Flash6:..at once!..
      Girl: I only got 3 slots!
      Flash1-6: Thats what you think!

  • City of Heroes (Score:2, Informative)

    by aculeus ( 21460 )
    There is a super-hero MMORPG already in the works that will let you roll your own hero. Should be out sometime next year. It is called City of Heroes [cityofheroes.com]
    • I can't help but think that the MMORPG bandwagon is not likely to live into 2005 anyway.

      I'm tired of games that just put a new candy-coating on games I played before. Every time a new FPS comes out, my response tends to be "thanks, but I already played Quake." To hook me into a multi-player shooter these days, companies need to be a little more creative.

      Likewise with the MMOPRPG's... Simply putting it in a new genre (SW Galaxies, City of Heroes, Lord of the Rings, etc.) is not going to get me to re-play EQ. The act of slapping a first-person view on top of a MUD has been done. If the mechanics of the game don't offer something new and original, I'm not going to pay $60 + $10/month just to look at the new purdy pictures.

      • >I can't help but think that the MMORPG bandwagon is not likely to live into 2005 anyway. I'm tired of games that just put a new candy-coating on games I played before.

        It's not so much about the game mechanics or the graphics as it is about the community. Just look at all the text muds that keep on going...

        The big difference between Persistent worlds and the rest of online gaming is that PW have real communities that can interact inside the world by other means than shooting at each other.

        That alone makes me believe that not only will MM games be there in 2005 but there will be many, many more. Each catering to their community in their own unique way. Eventually, there could even be one persistent world for every economically sustainable niche...
  • *yawn* Sorry, but MMORPGs that let you be specific characters seem to defeat the purpose. 200,000 jedis running around or 300,000 spider-men. Fun.
    • 300k spider-men, or hulks, or some such wouldn't work. In SW, Jedi is a profession not a unique name. In SWG it will be the culmination of a lot of hard work to build your character to Jedi but it would still be your own unique character and not "Luke Skywalker".
      • or you will eventually be able to purchase a maxed out Jedi for 29.95$.

        There is no "own unique" character for MMORPGs. Unless the servers each have a few megs of data on each characters, I don't think a population of +50k players will each be unique.

        They may not be wearing the exact same color of hat, but the stats will be the same.

        Maximization of a character is always what it gets to, in the end. That's according to my personnal experience, of course.
  • It would be really nice if the MMORPG resembles the old Marvel Superheroes RPG. It's been a long time since I've played it, but it was a remarkable easy RPG to get into, easy to create characters, and focused more on comic book action and storylines than something as deep as Neverwinter Nights. That might draw the crowds intimidated by EverCrack et al.

  • hyping up for hulk.. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by gl4ss ( 559668 )
    .. is all that this looks now, seriously, if somebody announces a game FIVE years beforehand, it is nothing yet except first level talks and maybe some sketches to show to top level officers that so that they can have something to chat.

    there is no mention of platform, gameplay, or anything really.
  • Well it looks like MMORPGS are about to go the way of the fighting game and the first person shooter. gimmick games suck ass. You know 1on1 fighting games where going the way side when everyone from marvel comics to F`ing sesame Street were duping it out. the same held true with the first person shooters.
  • Thought it said "then CowboyNeal can fufil his wildest dreams of the Green Lantern."
  • X-men movie came out, Spider-Man, and soon Hulk. And Now, Finally, a MMPORG.

    The Article speaks of "wondering how big the market can get," though and I think that statement is kinda silly -- it will end up similar to everything else, Blazingly Popular for a while, then gradually reducing to the dedicated players as everybody else moves on to the next great thing. It'll have to follow the path and example of Quake/Quake 2 [idsoftware.com]/ etc. and similar type games in order to keep in the "market."

    but then thats just my $0.02

  • I'm a little skeptical (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Metaldsa ( 162825 ) on Friday September 20, 2002 @08:18AM (#4296251)
    I love games, I love comics, I love Marvel. However, this just doesn't sound that great. The point of being a superhero is that you are unique. Its not really strength, but relative strength, that people desire.

    An example is how Wonder Woman is not unique in her amazonian land. However, when she is off fighting against normal criminals she is unique. Imagine living (as an amazonian) in the land of the amazonians? Everyone is the same strength so it would be quite boring.

    The only way to alleviate this problem would to make the server size limited compared to other MMORPGs and the size of the maps huge. If you could visit 30 cities, average of 50 heroes to a city, it would be fun. That makes only 1,500 per server. I have heard the new Star Wars MMORPG might have 50,000 per server (but I could be deadly wrong). If you end up in a city with 1,000 heroes it would seem like you wouldn't get that unique feel you read about in the books.
    • Not only that, but I think she was also unique among the amazons. Wasn't she their princess and greatest warrior or something? i don't remember if i got that from the comic book or the tv show with linda carter, lol.

      I never really followed the comics at all... although I did buy an issue that George Perez penned. awesome artist.

    • Re:I'm a little skeptical (Score:5, Funny)

      by squaretorus ( 459130 ) on Friday September 20, 2002 @10:53AM (#4297097) Homepage Journal
      Imagine living (as an amazonian) in the land of the amazonians?

      WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO TO ME!!!!!!
    • Current MMORPGs fix this sort of issue by promoting crafts as a non-heroic activity.

      Who's gonna play the non-heroes is another issue - It's gonna be a shitload of heroes and villians fighting for control of a city. It makes sense in Dark Age of Camelot - three lands, lots of heroes becoming an army and the armies fighting each other.

      Oh well, I gave up MMORPGs several months ago and don't intend to go back. They were mostly a banal experience - I met some interesting people online, but I'm a gamer and I don't consider it a game if I can't end it (apologies to Scott Kurtz :)
  • I can just imagine it now. They only let one person have spiderman, another hulk, etc. So it's first come first serve. Schrewd investors grab characters up early, and a few weeks later auction them off on ebay.

    Some variants:

    1) Marvel auctions off the popular characters. Everyone else gets no name characters. Long standing characters in the game who reach past a cerain level or accomplish a certain quest get to have their character appear in a comic book Imagine how much money Marvel would make if they auction off the popular characters?.

    2) The big name characters are NPC's who move the plot. You play a created, unknown character that interacts with them. If you get to be famous (achieve a certain level/prestige, accomplish a certain task) you get to team up with Spider Man, or join the Avengers...

    3)Big name characters are awarded people via a lottery process. You enter the lottery via a) accompilshing a big task with your created character or b) paying for lottery tickets online. If you win spiderman, you keep him until you die, or you fail to maintain the character properly (like a tamagotchi, or that fish video game)

    Just some possiblities that I like better than 50 000 different peter parkers living in New York And what do I have to do to get to play Galactus? I'll send the ultimate nullifier to the end of the universe, and then chow down on earth... bwa ha ha!

    • And what do I have to do to get to play Galactus?

      Now that is an idea I can get behind! What a great MMORPG a "Marvel Villians" game would be. Play a super-villian, and try to cause as much mayhem and distruction as you can before Spidey comes in to ruin your diabolical schemes. Curses! Foiled again!

      Being a bad guy on a server with 1500 other bad guys, all trying to plunder the city, would be a blast.

      It would certainly be more fun that being in a League of Heroes so big that you gotta carry union cards, which is what this announcement sounds like.

      • Being a bad guy on a server with 1500 other bad guys, all trying to plunder the city, would be a blast.

        You'd think it would be, wouldn't you?

        Just check with the guys who play 'Teams' PvP on EQ. On the servers were the alignment works as 'Good', 'Evil' and 'Neutral', there is a massive number of evil characters, a few more 'Neutral' characters and a really small percentage of 'Good' characters. The evil characters are so numerous that they don't really get into the whole PVP vibe until much later in the game and then only to make sure that the other teams can't havea successful raids or dungeon crawls.

        PVP is just not enjoyable for people who enjoy roleplaying (as compared to people who like player-killing) in the context of MMORPG's.

  • Reverse the characters (Score:4, Funny)

    by squaretorus ( 459130 ) on Friday September 20, 2002 @08:21AM (#4296267) Homepage Journal
    Rather than playing a super hero, the game could be based around inhabiting the land of the superheroes - and trying to get yourself into positions where you require their attention.

    I'm not into Marvel, having been a DC kiddie, so forgive the character references. But if you kick some ass outside a cinema you get a pounding from Batman, if you don't wash for like, a year, you get a fungus on your toes that Swamp Thing has to come and eradicate. Say 'Im gonna shag that Lois Lane good' enough and eventually Superman will kick your ass.

    You build up 'exposure' points until you earn the right to BE a supe for a while!!! Then you can go around listening out for people saying "Where's little jimmy!"
    • Say 'Im gonna shag that Lois Lane good' enough and eventually Superman will kick your ass.

      Well no. Say that for long enough and eventually it would be Lois Lane that kicks your ass...

      Cheers,
      Ian

  • Massively Multiplayer Playing Online Role Game?

    Slashdot newsflash: "Spelling mistakes attack Headlines too and not only content!"
  • Imagine roleplaying in a gameworld where everyone you meet is a superhero or a monster of some sort. Isn't a key part of the whole comic book superhero thing the rarity of superheroes, trying to save the normal population from Evil with their unique powers? Who are you going to save from Evil, your fellow superheroes? A superhero setting has to be one of the worst settings imaginable for a massively multiplayer game.
    Sometimes I think the current MM craze in gaming is like the early days of the .com bubble - a lot of clueless business types with more money than sense leaping at every idea, however ridiculous, because supposedly savvy people tell them that (idea) is the Next Big Thing. "I don't know what an MMORPG is, but we gotta have one!" MMORPGs I think are suitable for certain types of settings but it seems now that every possible game setting is getting a MM game to go along with it. There are so many being announced now it's insane, and most you can tell at a glance are doomed to fail.
    Still, a superhero MMORPG could have great comedy potential, if only to laugh at the absurdity of it all. For those of you who have played Ion Storm's great game Anachronox, this recalls that Planet of the Heroes where Paco Estrella was from.
    • It would actually work for the Tick (now there's a thought), where the ridiculously saturated super-hero population were relegated to a single block to watch over.

      The only way for this to work well is for new players to either have some base super-powers to start or be normal humans who get the urge to put on a domino mask and spandex tights. Let them fight the small crimes to gain experience (forget the machinations of Dr. Doom and find a child that was abducted a few hours ago), eventually moving up the chain. Marvel's established super-heroes should only be NPCs in this system...or trusted players hired by Marvel.
    • Isn't a key part of the whole comic book superhero thing the rarity of superheroes, trying to save the normal population from Evil with their unique powers? Who are you going to save from Evil, your fellow superheroes? A superhero setting has to be one of the worst settings imaginable for a massively multiplayer game.

      I don't agree. X-Men is a team for a reason. So are all the other teams: X-Force, Excalibur, Fantastic Four.
      You must be thinking of DC. DC is more 'one loner vs them all'. In Marvel, the good guys get their asses kicked all the time, and regularly get help from other characters.

      Look at Spiderman.. He gets help from/helps other 'New York' superheroes all the time. Having 50 in a large city such as NY still makes it a rarity.

      • Bear in mind that the "MM" means "massively multiplayer." We're not talking about a team of 4 heroes or a superhero population of 50 in a city of 12 million. We're talking about 10,000 or more heroes (players) in the city. Everyone in the game is a hero. That's quite a difference from what you are saying.
        • But what defines a hero? Like someone else said, Wonder Woman is unique in OUR cities, but not on that island of her's. Same goes for Superman. Wasn't Supergirl 'on vacation' when the planet blew?

          Everone will start as equals (that doesn't necessarily mean equal to you and me - see my other post [slashdot.org]

          Just like any other MMORPG, there will be a slew of 'normals' and then a small number of higher-ups. Even on UO, 'normal' is much more advanced than a 'regular person'. I sure as hell can't make myself invisible ;)

        • >Everyone in the game is a hero

          Of course. Who wants to play Leo the Newstand Guy?

          Normal people are represented by NPCs.

          Nobody in Ultima Online wanted to be a goblin foot soldier, did they?

          -l

    • Re:Comic book setting not appropriate for an MMORP (Score:4, Funny)

      by mccalli ( 323026 ) on Friday September 20, 2002 @08:58AM (#4296429) Homepage
      Who are you going to save from Evil, your fellow superheroes?

      Yes. You see, it's all in a day's work for Bicycle Repair Man...

      Cheers,
      Ian

  • Oh, great. A game we'll most likely call "MarvelCrack" in a few years.

    It's all good, I prefer getting my online drugs from Captain Picard in a Wheelchair (TM) than some silly EQ dwarf.

  • I want to reverve the character "Orgasmo"
  • ...when they get more mutants than they can handle they'll have a big war and kill lots of the less popular ones off to make the Marvel Universe managable again.

  • Did anyone ever read Zenith? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Hobbes_ ( 78793 ) on Friday September 20, 2002 @08:50AM (#4296396)
    2000AD comics.

    It's about a superhero who couldn't give a toss about saving the world.

    One point in the story line was that there were multiple universes. In one of these universes it was all populated with superheros and only one normal person, who was being pestered the heck out of.

    In a world where everyone wants to be a hero, who plays the normal people?

    One of the things, well really the only thing that makes MMORPG's is the human element. I think this alone is what may stunt the growth of such games. If all the normal characters are NPC's then there are no worries about secret identitys and a lot of players will treat the NPC's as fog of war.

    By the way, anyone who can't wait until 2005 I recommend you check out City of Heroes [cityofheroes.com] which plans to Beta test in early 2003 and has some nice movies of the gameplay. They also have a very indepth FAQ [coh.com] (Geek level :)

  • Who wants to be a super hero... (Score:4, Funny)

    by clickety6 ( 141178 ) on Friday September 20, 2002 @09:00AM (#4296448)
    ... when you be a super villain instead, and get away with using cheats because it's only acting in character ;-)

  • Mosts MORPGs seem to lack real content - a fact that is hidden by a grueling leveling thread mill and a hundred colorful cape-designs.

    To keep players and collect the monthly fee, the games make character advancement slow and painful for the casual gamer. In a fantasy game, your character advances by killing monsters and doing quests. He starts as a lv 1 rat basher and eventually becomes a lv50 nut crasher. But a super-hero who starts at lv 1 is about as much fun as Clark Kent with a stick of kryptonite stuck up his ###. You need to start as the real Superman, otherwise it just sucks.

    In a superhero-game you would want to be -- a Hero! And this entails being better than someone else or at least being able to do something that is remarkable and exciting. If 1000 players do rescue Ms Nobrains from stepping into doggy poo, there is very little heroic about this, even if they burn the offending substance with laser eyes or push it out of the way by their flatulent power move.

    You could play a superhero RPG with a couple of players, but having a Massive Multiplayer environment of hundreds or thousands of would-be-heroes? A Hero is something unique. Make a 1000 of them, and you have... Munchkinland.

    What is next? A MMORPG chess game?

    Of course, a Slapstick MMORPG with weekly replays of the most funny things the players did...*g*

  • The problem with licenses such as Marvel, Star Wars, or LOTR is that they were never created with MM (Massively Multiplayer) games in mind.

    Take Star Wars: most people will want to be a Jedi, right?
    But you can't have 100k Jedis running around choping heads with their light sabers: that just wouldn't work nor would it be true to the license. So the designers have to come up with game design tricks to limit the number of people that can be a Jedi at any given time. And that's just one example of the hundreds of problems that will pop up when you to stick a license on a MM game: it's like trying to force a square peg in a round hole.

    Persistent worlds are communities. As such they have dynamics of their own and the best way to stick to these dynamics is to craft a world specifically around them.

    I believe that, in the long run, MM games that will be the most successful will be the ones that take into acount the nature of online communities and tailor their game design accordingly. Unfortunately, licenses that come from other media aren't flexible enough to do this...

    • Re:The problem with these licenses (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Kintanon ( 65528 ) on Friday September 20, 2002 @10:42AM (#4297032) Homepage Journal
      Star Wars RPG takes care of this nicely. In the Star Wars RPG most people end up being more like Han Solo or Leie, or a Storm Trooper than a Jedi. Each party of 6 might have 1 Jedi in it. Some parties will have none, and in some rare campaigns you'll have 5 Jedi and a noble. I think that with the range of character classes available the Mass Jedi problem won't be quit as big as people think. I personally would rather be Han Solo than Luke Skywalker (Whiny farmboy....) but then, that's just me.

      Kintanon
    • You might want to check out http://www.starwarsgalaxies.com

      They are building a community within the continuity of the Star Wars Universe. The game will be huge and well accepted. Even if everyone can't be Jedi.
  • I'd look forward to a VS fighting game from Capcom that would pit DC characters against Marvel characters (this was rumored a while back but nothing ever came of it... anybody at Capcom listening? Put this out!)

  • Marvel/DC (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Apreche ( 239272 )
    Green Lantern? what crap! seriously. Marvel has always been the company with the best heroes. Spiderman, the hulk, x-men, etc. But marvel villains were all crap. Except for Doctor Doom, Thanos, Magneto, and Mister Sinister. Look! I can count the good marvel villains on one hand! DC however, have very few good heroes Batman, Superman, that's about it. However, all of the DC villains totally rock the house.
    I don't think the comic book industry is doing as well as it once was. I mean didn't marvel almost go bankrupt a few years back? Now it seems as if they aren't really competing anymore. I mean they both have Heroclix http://www.wizkidsgames.com
    Both companies should merge and pit the marvel heroes against the dc villains. it would be like the second coming of the golden age of comics.

    • Re:Marvel/DC (Score:2, Interesting)

      by tedrlord ( 95173 )
      I don't know if I agree with you about the villains. I was having a conversation about this at the local comic store. Most of the villains in the DC universe are custom-tailored to be the arch-nemeses of the heroes that they fight. Usually pretty one-dimensional, and often totally useless against anyone but the one particular good guy that happens to go up against them all the time.

      There are a couple of exceptions, though. Lex Luthor is a pretty damn good villain in any book, and the Joker is my favorite bad guy ever. He's a shining example of how pure unbound psychosis can overcome superhuman abilities. Serves as a shining example to the common man trying to get somewhere in life.
  • Soon the rarity will be the companies not producing MMORPGs. I'm really surprised people haven't become totally bored with the saturated market already. I say saturated, because with what a dozen D&D style RPGs out there, who the hell has the time and money to play more than one or two? Now we have the upcoming Eve and Earth and Beyond to satisfy the cravings of the spacefarers out there, and Star Wars Galaxies for the uberdorks. Then what?

    Dunno what the point of this post is. Maybe I don't see the reasoning behind a MMORPG based on a comic universe? I can just picture some NPC running a red light in an urban area and a couple thousand superheroes obliterate the area to catch him. Then sit around doing nothing while their superpowers recharge. *snore*

  • Woah, I glanced at the title and thought it said MMPr0n and got excited for a second.
    • I'd definately subscribe to that. Just imagine how you'd gain experience! Think of all of the cool silicone and leather gear you could collect. And no more "player killers", instead you'd have "player f*****s"

      Seriously, I'm surprised it hasn't been done already.

  • Earth - Smoking hole of hellish torment (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Chase ( 8036 ) on Friday September 20, 2002 @09:43AM (#4296664) Homepage
    Ha, what a riot. It will be a realm with a few super heroes and thousands of super villians. How much fun is it to sit in your Heroes Hall when you could be out throwing cars around and knocking the top of mountains off.

    The major problem will be PvP. You can't really have a Marvel story with out Super-hero vs. super-villian.

    Chase
  • ...to be a bad guy.

    Dr. Doom? nah, not enough vision.

    Galacticus, now there is a serious bad guy....

    Jaysyn
  • If you read the article, it really doesn't say much except that Vivendi is looking at putting a game together. I would expect that if they do build this, it will be modeled the same way as other MMORPGs, where "main" characters are not available for the masses... maybe you could sign up to be Aunt May or Jarvis where you get to come into contact with the actual heroes, but for the most part you're looking at corner store owners and cops as your core characters. I would like to see how they render the typical/average women in the game, tho - will they be like all of the heroines in the actual mags (ie barbie doll proportions)?
  • Nowhere on the CNet adver^H^H^H^H^Harticle does it mention that players will *play* famous characters like the Hulk, Spidey, X-Men, etc, they'll likely meet them (then again, a really cool feature would be to give control of famous characters to players who are particularly good or well-liked; or, better, have famous actors guest star as famous characters)...I'm assuming that players will develop their own super-powers as they play the game, making each character unique. 'course, if they're really smart, they'll allow player-developed skins/models.

    ('course, I'll only play this game if they bring back Nightcrawler, I still miss 'im.)

    Anyone see the actual press release? (www.vivendiuniversal.com gives me a ColdFusion error, heh!)

  • Weighty subject (Score:3, Funny)

    by Dirtside ( 91468 ) on Friday September 20, 2002 @11:27AM (#4297310) Journal
    Maybe DC will get their act together, and then CowboyNeal can fufil his wildest dreams as the Green Lantern.
    Don't you mean the Green Lighthouse?

  • also on CNN (Score:3, Informative)

    by dirvish ( 574948 ) <dirvish@@@foundnews...com> on Friday September 20, 2002 @11:54AM (#4297481) Homepage Journal
    Also on CNN [cnn.com]

  • 2nd rate heros (Score:5, Funny)

    by phriedom ( 561200 ) on Friday September 20, 2002 @01:13PM (#4298162)
    The very first thing I thought of when I read this was: Mystery Men. Since it just wouldn't do to have everyone be Spider-Man, most of the players will, at least at first, have to throw forks or swing shovels. Then I realized that if people create their own characters and make their own names, it will be more like The Tick because if people can't be Batman, then there will be a Der Fliedermouse (spelling?) I think I would choose something like The Mutterer or The Umpire if I were to play.
  • Particle Man!

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