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Imagining GTA Online - Diverse Genres In MMORPGs 57

Posted by simoniker from the i-wish-i-was-a-little-bit-taller dept.
Thanks to 1UP for their 'Pray For It' article discussing an ideal, but unfortunately fictional game of their dreams, Grand Theft Auto Online. In envisioning "taking the basic template from Grand Theft Auto III and just adding more than one enterprising thug", as well as players banding together ("Once you get your own criminal operation started - kind of like a clan or guild - you can start enlisting the newbies to do jobs for you"), the author gets into a sure-to-be-controversial mini-rant regarding a perceived lack of diversity: "What's wrong with online RPGs is content. Why are they all fantasy games?... Who decided that you couldn't make an online RPG about anything?"
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Imagining GTA Online - Diverse Genres In MMORPGs More

Imagining GTA Online - Diverse Genres In MMORPGs

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  • Does anyone know of an engine (open source or otherwise) which can be used to create MMORPG games?
    • A quick google came up with this:

      http://www.bebits.com/app/3459
      • A quick google came up with this:

        http://www.bebits.com/app/3459

        Thanks. I came across that one before. Given that it's a self-described 0.1 alpha version, I didn't give it much of a glance.

    • Re:MMORPG engine? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by neostorm ( 462848 )
      Virtools Dev is a fantastic development toolset. They have an additional package in the form of their multiplayer package that is specifically geared towards MMO style games.
      Unfortunately I know of no current MMO titles that use the software, but I work with Dev daily and can't recommend the toolset enough. Fantastic piece of software, so you may want to look into it.
    • Well there's the Worldforge project. They've been working on a framework for MMORPG's for years.

      http://www.worldforge.org/
    • Nevrax, A French developer behind the upcoming MMORPG Ryzom are developing their engine and distributing it under the GNU General Public License. The toolkit is called NEL and can be found at www.nevrax.org. From the site "NeL is a toolkit for the development of massively online universes. It provides the base technologies and a set of development methodologies for the development of both client and server code. "
    • Well, I could plug mine. I call it a MMOOORPGE or Massively Multiplayer Object Oriented Online Role Playing Game Engine. What I feel makes this system unique is the object oriented part of it. You create maps and sprites and stuff just like you would expext with any other system, but where the engine really shines is in the way you define the rules of the game. Rather than hard code the system to support things like "Magic Points" and even "Healthe Points", all the rules are created by coding the objects. S
  • I would give my right arm for this.

    Granted I would have trouble playing, but it would be worth it.
  • Actually, I'm surprised that no one has really looked into this before. Most of the MMORPGs that are out these days are some sort of fantasy (Everquest, Ultima, Asheron's Call etc), or Star Wars.

    What we need is for someone to develop a MMORPG with an espionage theme, or like GTA3 or something similiar. I'm sure that fantasy appeals to a lot of people, but what markets are lying out there untapped?

    (eg how well do fantasy RPGs normally sell compared to the GTA games? who remembers Syndicate? who wouldn't ki
    • (showingmy age here no doubt)

      Golgo-13 MMORPG!
    • Anarchy Online and Neocron spring to mind as non-tolkienesque games - they're sci-fi. Some will argue that sci-fi and fantasy are almost the same thing.

      "Real world", there's obviously the sims online - get up, go to the toilet, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, go to the toilet, eat dinner, watch telly, rinse and repeat.

      There are also non-massivly multiplayer real world scenarios that are infinitely more exciting than the sims crap-a-thonline - things like CounterStrike, Rainbow Six, etc. CS is more j
    • Besides AO and StarWars, there's also Egenesis, A Tale in the Desert. Interesting cooperative game.
  • I couldn't agree with the idea more. The problem lies in history. The first RPGs were tolkien inspired, derived out of wargames and easy to setup a fictional universe in. Fantasy lends itself to easy game universe creation. People get used to imaging elves and orcs - partially due to the nunmber of fantasy games and the sheer number of readers that Tolkien attracted. But personally I always found fantasy to be a bit derivative. Let's here it for alternative genres
  • This would be great, and hugely popular I think. I would advocate being able to play policemen. It may be a slightly different experience from being the criminal element. Of course there has to be the option of being the crooked cop.

    you could also set a promotion system, get on the Vice Squad, get your Ferrari and pastel suit (at least in Vice city) maybe eventually a helicopter.

    • Re:Cop Land (Score:2, Interesting)

      by PainKilleR-CE ( 597083 )
      Actually, something like that seems optimal for a GTA-style MMO game. There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to choose a side, whether cop or criminal. Furthermore, you could have informants and cops on the take, so that not all the cops are good guys, and not all the criminals are bad guys, so everyone has to decide who they can and can't trust.

  • MCO (Score:2)

    by jafuser ( 112236 )
    The only non-fantasy MMO I can think of was Motor City Online, but most of you know that game was shut down for lack of interest...
  • One non-fantasy game coming up is a Matrix on-line game...I'm kinda looking forward to that one.

    http://thematrixonline.warnerbros.com [warnerbros.com]

  • The problem with all MMORPGS as I see it, is that you can come up with the an amazing, dark, intriguing background, and your game will still be full of 13 year old kidz who in5i57 on 1337 haXX0r speek.

    • What, just like playing Quake online? It's right out of friggin Lovecraft, and Trent Reznor did the soundtrack. Guess what; if you can still find a server you're likely to find 13 year old kiddies being annoying.

      Make a popular game, and it's a safe bet that it'll eventually be overrun with 13 year old homophobic kiddies who think in terms of dominance while remaining unable to exert influence over women more substantial than the Playboy Centerfold [playboy.com] or the latest [Boobies] link on FARK.

      These are the same ki

  • Want to see GTA Online demo? (Score:5, Funny)

    by gnovos ( 447128 ) <gnovos@noSpaM.chipped.net> on Thursday October 09, 2003 @08:09AM (#7170659) Homepage Journal
    Get the PC version of GTA three and use the following cheat codes:

    itsallgoingmaaad
    weaponsforall

    You'll see an EXACT demo of what GTA MMORPG will look like.

  • The never-ending problem of content and MMORPGS (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Sierran ( 155611 ) on Thursday October 09, 2003 @08:30AM (#7170788)
    The problem with imagining online versions of games with cool worlds is that the online version will always suffer (and if history is any guide, usually fatally) from the fact that 95% of players are lazy and can't be bothered to participate in them. The fact that Ultima Online, the MMORPG with perhaps the lowest-tech engine, survives and thrives is because it demands more from its players than just appreciative ooh-ing and aah-ing at the eye candy and content that the dev team has slaved to put together. Players are actually required to interact, transact, form social arrangements and the like, and are 'encouraged' to do so 'in-character' if for no other reason than the game mechanics make it easier to do that than to sit around an l33t-ch4t with yer h0m13z. At least, they make that relatively boring.

    One of the great things about GTA is the world that has been set up by the developers. Player behavior is guided much more subtlely and much more pervasively by the use of single-player storylines and rewards/penalties than it first seems. GTA Online would, in fact, make a decent game initially, but (IMNSHO) there would need to be some carefully thought out mechanisms that would provide for the formation of (and motivation for) player-to-player social structures, both dyadic and multiple-party (partners and gangs).

    I would think GTA has an advantage in this arena in terms of immediate playability, because the game world is presented as pretty much an anarchy (well, with limited law). The problem, however, is that much of the 'fun' of GTA is the fact that you (and your immediate interactions) are stand-outs in the world, because everybody *else* is mostly law-abiding...which is what makes it so much fun to hear them scream in terror when you mow 'em down with the ambulance. :-) If everyone in the environment was behaving like you, it wouldn't be GTA anymore, it'd be a demolition derby with bystanders - a DeathRace 2000 with missions. While that isn't necessarily a bad thing, I would tend to believe that it's going to pall a lot faster than the secret joy of running over that old lady while chasing down a hooker for a little of the old bouncy-bouncy life renewal.

    Now, what *I* want is someone to extend the GTA system into vehicular weapons. Then we could FINALLY have a worthy online Car Wars environment. Heehee. Uncle Al's catalogs, here I come...
    • ) If everyone in the environment was behaving like you, it wouldn't be GTA anymore, it'd be a demolition derby with bystanders - a DeathRace 2000 with missions. While that isn't necessarily a bad thing, I would tend to believe that it's going to pall a lot faster than the secret joy of running over that old lady while chasing down a hooker for a little of the old bouncy-bouncy life renewal.

      The key is to keep the number of NPCs fairly high, even if their interaction with the players remains fairly limited
    • The problem with imagining online versions of games with cool worlds is that the online version will always suffer (and if history is any guide, usually fatally) from the fact that 95% of players are lazy and can't be bothered to participate in them. Huh? I don't think it's a matter of being lazy, it's a matter of being bored. Just because someone doesn't want to put in the million mouse clicks to level up doesn't make them lazy, it just means they aren't obsessive compulsive. The fact that Ultima On
    • The problem with imagining online versions of games with cool worlds is that the online version will always suffer (and if history is any guide, usually fatally) from the fact that 95% of players are lazy and can't be bothered to participate in them.

      Huh? I don't think it's a matter of being lazy, it's a matter of being bored. Just because someone doesn't want to put in the million mouse clicks to level up doesn't make them lazy, it just means they aren't obsessive compulsive.

      The fact that Ultim
      • Let me clarify. When I say 'too lazy to participate' I mean 'too lazy to role-play.' The mindless leveling-up is pretty much the lowest common denominator.

        Ref. your points about UO being a large existing fanbase, sure it is. However, I know a great number of UO players who never played single-player Ultima (anecdotal evidence, ignore at whim).

        In regards to the world GTA and its impact, I should have emphasized 'story.' Not in the sense of a gripping narrative, but in the sense of a continuous set of (
        • Let me clarify. When I say 'too lazy to participate' I mean 'too lazy to role-play.'

          Do you think it's that they are too lazy, or that they don't want to? Do you think they play MMORPG's for the roleplaying, or for the game itself. It sounds strange, but think about it. I think a lot of people play just for the game with little interest in Role Playing.

          I must disagree with your contention that 'players will make the content/storylines.' If anything is true across the board of the current crop o

  • Multi Theft Auto (Score:3, Informative)

    by GeorgeH ( 5469 ) * on Thursday October 09, 2003 @08:32AM (#7170800) Homepage Journal
    If you want to see what GTA3 would look like with more than one enterprising thug, check out Multi Theft Auto [mtavc.com], the first (but not only) multi player mod for GTA. Only having the PS2 version, I can't speak for the quality but I've heard really good things.
  • This GTA-Online type idea just extends the concept of playing cops and robbers that we used to play as kids. This would definitely play out well, where you can be either a criminal or a law-enforcement officer, and ala GTA-style, battle it out in a MMORPG environment.

    Talk about a nostalgia trip. I think above all MMORPGs, I might consider playing something like that... I wanna be a cop, so I can pop a cap in the ass of some badass dude for beatin' up an old granny walking down the street! Then I can be
  • Released:
    The Sims Online (not a traditional RPG, but definately 'role' playing)
    Star Wars Galaxies

    Incoming:
    The Matrix Online
    City of Heroes
    Tony Hawk Underground

    I'm sure there are more. This is just off the top of my head.

    It seems to me, the article author is already too narrow in his definition of what a RPG if he can't consider The Sims Online (which he must have heard of) or Tony Hawk Underground.

  • This really could work (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The more I think about it, the more I realize this really could work!

    I know the immediate thought is that you have everybody just shooting up everything and each other, and it would be crazy anarchy, but the thing is, like all well-balanced MMORPGs you have to have consequences to your actions.

    For example, you would still have police in the game, and in fact I would keep police as NPCs (though still give the option for player cops as well.) The idea here is that you DO NOT want to go to jail. You'd lose a
  • well maybe not you and I but as consumers we all buy into what we want. I am sick of everquest but still play. I tried Anarchy Online, Eve, MotorCity, Earth and Beyond. NO ONE PLAYS THEM...

    Why do movies suck, because we go to them.

  • Would you pay 10 bucks a month to play MMOGTA?
    Would it be fun enough to spend significant time playing it?

    The reason why there so many MMORPGs is the fact that RPG players are used to long sittings with a game whilst the more casual player finds RPGs to be too long and tiring. MMORPGs are about almost infinite length and there is a lot of endurance nessecary to reach the higher levels of the game which casual gamers usually do not have.

    Also MMORPGs are social games as well, I imagine that wouldn't work we
  • Personally, I think the Matrix would be the ultimate killer app for MMORPGs. I'm not saying its possible to make.....but it would be interesting, especially if there were different servers with different "world rules". Such as a world where you could do whatever you wanted. I'd LOVE to do things in real life that I can't.....now I could in the game, and it would be realistic.

    Also, it would be a game where you could mimick other games if you want. Want to play a "fantasy" MMORPG? Grab a computer in the

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