I love playing MMOs. Well not all MMOs actually… just the top two: World of Warcraft and Guild Wars since they provide the best of both worlds, which is PVE and PVP (respectively). Anyway, the whole reason why MMOs are so popular right now is that they’re, for lack of a better term, EPIC - Tons of players inhabit vast gaming landscapes, alliances are formed, items are collected and video game addiction begins (LOVE IT).
With the influx of MMOs right now, the tried and true formula of swords and sorcery is getting old and many games have tried another route but failed miserably *sneeze*Matrix Online*sneeze*
Check out this list. Maybe I might be on to something here
1. Pirates of the Caribbean Online
No this won’t be like an extension of the franchise. Instead, the game will be focused on the world created by the movie. Personally, I really think that as far as rich settings and lore go, PotC is at the top of the list. Of course, this is not based on real life (duh!). Imagine, playable races would be fish people (the guys that run with Davey Jones), the undead (care of Barbossa), and of course, the humans.
As for classes, you could be a Royal Guard (limited to humans) and a sort of “exclusive” race, a Pirate (REALLY?!) which is probably a cross between a fighter and a thief which specializes in hand to hand combat and ummm twirling and tumbling, a witch/shaman (like Tiadalma/Calypso) that can call upon the power of the sea and storms, and a Gunner which shoots… ummm… guns.
The Royal Guard is an exlcusive race/class because obviously, Royal Guards can’t be Pirates. Instead, they have their own sub-class: Rifleman, Soldier, Medic
You could visit locales such as Singapore, the swamps, heck, you can even visit World’s End with all those rock crabs. To be set in a “Pirates” setting, it is IMPERATIVE to have a ship and crew. People of the same race can band together to form a crew and one gets to be captain (yay!). With a crew formed, you have to pool your resources together to buy a ship and you can challenge other crews and the winner gets the loser’s ship. As your crew gains more ships, your fleet grows (as does your crew). Get the picture?
And lastly, crews of the same race can put aside their differences and band together to duke it out against other races for control over certain territory. Fish people (I shoudl really stop calling them Fish people) vs the Undead, vs the Pirates vs the Royal Guard. Yum.
Heck maybe you can butt heads with the ever scary Kraken so you can tame it and use it for your own nefarious plans. Mwahahhahaha.
2. Mechwarrior Online
Ah the long lost Mechwarrior series… I miss it so much. The glory of Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries will forever be emblazoned on my mind. The way I see it, if they ever made an MMO, think Guild Wars with big robots. Well, I really don’t see anything that fits between grinding and hulking robots so it’d be more appropriate if you start off with a crappy mech (a Raven or something like that) and then work your way up by salvaging mechs (you still remember how to salvage, right? aim for the legs!). The whole “story” of this MMO would be protrayed ala Mercenaries where you are presented with various “jobs” (quests) that you can take and of course, you get paid for every successful job. Jobs can be done with other players or henchmen. Most of your moolah would come from completed jobs but also you can do “resource runs” where you raid mining facilities or weapon bays that are controlled by NPCs. You, as a pilot, will learn new skills and techniques as you level up and you can also buy new weapons, parts, mods for your mech. You can also form clans and fight it out with other clans for glory and cash.
With a massive game like this, the PVP will be MASSIVE (or just really, really, really huge). 10 vs 10 matches on a battlefield with sizzling lasers, screaming rockets and mechanized footsteps is nothing short of glorious.
3. Starcraft Online
My childhood would never have been the same without Starcraft. For me, it’s the first RTS that introduced (and subsequently pulled off) a three-race game which at first seems unbalanced but after playing and understanding the game, you’ll notice that they’re in perfect harmony.
Now, take the highly perfected (sans massive grinding) formula for World of Warcraft and graft it on to Starcraft (with a little tweaking) and you got yourself a hit. Once again, you can play as either the innumerable Zerg, the benevolent Protoss or the scrappy Terrans. Thing is, I can’t really picture what kinds of character classes that are playable? I mean for the Terrans, the only choosable classes are Marine, Reaper, Ghost, and Medic. If you’re playing Terrans, then you’ll have a whole plethora of toys to play with. Feel like piloting a Banshee? A Siege Tank? A Viking? Do you have enough balls to man a Thor? It’s all up to you.
If you’re leaning towards the Protoss, you could play a Zealot, Immortal, Dark Templar, High Templar. Hehe I guess it’d be weird if you and another High/Dark Templar decide to fuse to form an Archon (or its Dark/Twilight cousin). I guess you also get to pilot a Carrier, or Warp Ray or even control a Reaver (if they still have it in StarCraft 2).
The Zerg… well… I don’t really know how to play as the Zerg. Are you stuck as a Zergling forever? That’d be lame. However, if I was a Marine facing down 50,000 Zergling PCs, RUN.
There are a WHOLE LOT of other possibilities out there. This is just my wishlist. What’s yours?