Shadow of the Colossal MMO

[General Mostly Electrified Steel]

It occured to me.

Legend of Zelda is freakin' awesome. So I was thinking...

An MMO based purely around dungeon crawls with nothing but your gear. No levels, no stats, just the treasures you find crawling dungeons.

Obviously the major consideration with any MMO is profit. To this end, it may seem as if a dungeon crawler would have a very limited life. If someone took more than a month (or even just a month) to beat, say, A Link to the Past or Twilight Princess, I'd be very worried.

So this poses the question: how do we flesh it out? And what other problems would face what could well be the greatest game ever?

 

[lightbulbthief]

if at any point you think to yourself how do i flesh this out thats when your game starts going down hill

 

[Facey McFace]

Wise words from lightbulbthief, and i have to agree.

 

[Shamtee]

The main thing about MMO's is the idea of levels and stats - that mainly the reason people play then really, you want the best charater wether dungeon crawling, PVP or PVE or what ever it is. I've play ton fo diffrent MMO's and really without the raising your level/stats they'd become boring to quickly, I can see it working only with normal offline games but no mmo's

 

[Bodb]

Hate to burst your bubble, but that would be kind of boring, wouldn't it? I mean, gear is great, but then you would get no feeling of accomplishment out of making your character an unstoppable killing machine. I mean, how would you determine the difference between a player who's played for months, earning their own set of awesome armor, or someone who' s bought the equipment off of ebay? I know that you can hire people to powerlevel you in other MMO's, but this removes another aspect of character uniqueness. So while it would be kind of cool for a little while, it would quickly get old because you'll end up exactly like everyone else sooner or later, and not have the hard work to show for it.

 

[Yaotl]

MMORPG's are about grinding, Star Wars Galaxies was even about grinding, altough I gotta say early SWG was bloody sweet. Nostalgia aside the idea of being rewarded in an MMORPG by getting gear is something that has crossed my mind but that concept really only works in single-players games, like well... Zelda. Imagine Zelda with a bunch of other players? That's a trainwreck right there.

 

[Sib]

on a sidenote to Yaotl there is an SWG emulator that is free to play, mind you it is a little buggy but it still works, you may want to check it out. PM me if you want to know where to download.

 

[Braxxis]

MMORPG's are about grinding

The day they get around this is the day hell freezes over and WoW goes off line.

 

[doughnut]

Thread title: Shadow of the Colossal MMO

Legend of Zelda is freakin' awesome. So I was thinking...

Hehe.

My first thought when I read the thread title was "that'd be a huge world and a whole lot of not seeing anybody but your horse".

 

[Lightbulb]

if at any point you think to yourself how do i flesh this out thats when your game starts going down hill

*scared*

Don't steal me!

While i agree with you in one sense I disagree in another. I agree that taking a shallow idea and adding bit isn't going to make a great game. However with any idea you have to start and then develop it - i wouldn't doom a game that said:

"I want a free form RPG based in the world of the Culture (Iain M Banks books) how do i flesh this idea out?"

---

Adventure game MMO?

Won't work:

MMO's survive (or rather keep people playing them) because people want to get better. They want the best stats, the best weapons, the best armour, the best house, they want to get to the next level.

In short the only thing that keeps people playing MMO's is grind - or sometimes online competition (ie Guild Wars Guild battles etc).

I can't see how this kind of game would work as an MMO...

More importantly:

What is gained by making this game an MMO? Unless there is some reason to get a party together why bother?

Also if all your equipment is won through dungeons do you only get one item if you finish the dungeon? So for a party of say 4 do you have to do the same dungeon 4 times? Will it be exactly the same 4 times?

I just can't see a good game in this idea...

Thats not to say there isn't one there i just can't see it...

 

[Flangle]

I HATE GRIND

 

[Shamtee]

You mustn't like a lot, when you think about it mostly all games have at least some grind to them. Just MMO's its a bit more obviously that you are just grinding as its lengthed dramatical.

 

[General Mostly Electrified Steel]

The only way to flesh it out would be to add so much shit to it that it wouldn't even slightly resemble Zelda anymore. Zelda would not work with other players. If you make a Zelda mmo, it isn't Zelda. There just isn't enough to do. I know that grinding is monotonous, but it's a proven formula to keep players addicted. What you're suggesting would be less popular than maplestory. And that's not bad, Maplestory is one hell of a smart game idea and it's fun as shit too, but a Zelda mmorpg where all you do is collect stuff in caves is not my idea of pulse pounding action that will keep me addicted for years to come. Don't even try it.

1) Maple is terrible. For 40 levels of three wasted days of my life, I have done nothing but hold down one button for a minute, hit another twice, then resume holding down the first button.

This says nothing about the real Maple "Experience". Those three days would become three weeks. Two months even? Add to that the much larger population of pubes and girlies, and you have a volatile concotion of utter failure.

2) This would not be Zelda, I do not intend this to be Zelda. I imagine Shadow of the Colossus with a very, very unhealthy dose of what Myst Online should have been, fleshed out with the gadgetry and reckless plundering of Wario Land II.

 

[Terramax]

The main thing about MMO's is the idea of levels and stats - that mainly the reason people play then really, you want the best charater wether dungeon crawling, PVP or PVE or what ever it is. I've play ton fo diffrent MMO's and really without the raising your level/stats they'd become boring to quickly, I can see it working only with normal offline games but no mmo's

Agreed. I played FFonline for 9 months solid, and it was for the white mage abilities of being able to transport where I like, wander around where I like, helping lots of random people.

I played Uru Online (an MMORPG with no levelling) and was bored within about 30 minutes. The story seemed boring, as did the locations, and really no one appeared to be doing any work, just wandering around aimlessly.

It occurs to me that levelling is the equivalent of work in real life. When you see most people rushing around, it's because they're at work, going to work, or working for family or themselves. If you were to take this away most places would be deserted and boring.

With an RPG, without the fighting and levelling, it's the same thing. Back to the original poster, if you were running around for treasure, that would be cool, but it would all be about what you'd gain. I'd say exchange treasure to buy bigger and better houses, then you could invite your friends. Maybe the items you have in your house/ mansion could be the items you won from dungeons.

Zelda meets Animal Crossing I guess.

Just a thought.

 

[xMacx]

Prolly the main thing to remember is that almost all MMO's are just big behaviorist experiments. Manipulate the tokens provided to the users to provide motivation. Good times.

so the question is - how would getting gear - or dungeon crawling in general - motivate your players? You answer that well, and maybe you have something awesome.

 

[General Mostly Electrified Steel]

so the question is - how would getting gear - or dungeon crawling in general - motivate your players? You answer that well, and maybe you have something awesome.

The drive to collect things.

Maybe it's just my quivering mess of a personality speaking, but I love the idea of having stuff. Useless stuff, but stuff nonetheless.

I mean, the main reason I kept playing WoW for so long was because, as a healer, I could kick back and do my daily dungeon run and get stuff.

Plus, you have the reward system of solving puzzles. I don't know if anyone here has played either Wario Land I or II, but the idea of solving devious puzzles to collect my delicious, precious, tasty stuff made those two games instant and profound classics for me. Wario Land III even moreso, since the stuff actually unlocked newer and more interesting puzzles, rather than being stuff for stuff's sake, as in Wario Land II.

I mean, I know of no-one that has actually played Wario Land III, but I'm sure those that do aren't motivated by the paper-thin plot (comical as it is--we still love your avaricious ass, Wario).

That's your question answered, I believe.

Also, rehashing the dreaded "but": I'm a natural-born hoarder, so obviously my impressions of a co-operative puzzler involving mass-scale loot collection are incredibly skewed.

 

[portuga-man]

i like the idea. The dungeons just need a lot of replay value.

for example, you get a tool from dungeon number 5 that you can use to advance more in dungeon number two.

after all, what are mmo's besides item collecting? Good old ultima online days are gone forever.