General Discussion

All I can say is I hope its sci-fi or some other new genre.  Fantasy mmo's are a dime a dozen now... that market is oversaturated.  Whereas how many decent sci-fi mmo's are out there?  Lots of potential market space there.

From a business standpoint it'd make more sense to go with where there's the biggest potential market... I think.

Originally posted by Terminus-Est

I don't understand why everyone is so excited about Bioware making an MMORPG. They have absolutely no experience in the genre and quite frankly haven't made a decent game since Baldur's Gate. What makes you guys think it will be any good?

Blizzard had no experience making an MMORPG.

Pretty clearly, we want another incarnation of a Star Wars MMO. Frankly, SWG would be in a very very good position right now had they not peeved the playerbase (looking at upcoming and past Sci-Fi MMO's, who would compete?). I just think many people are going to be disappointed with the end product if it is a star wars mmo without 150% of SWG's second year options. A cookie-cutter mmo with an unavoidable story line just won't cut it with this crowd. To make a simple mmo out of star wars would only turn that community against Bioware, and damn wouldn't soe love that...

Originally posted by Sloane66

1. D+D 4.0 is a complete rework of the rules, they have been streamlined for faster combat and to be more usable with computer games.

2. D+D rules books have never sold anywhere near the amount of copies that the Video games have, or the Drizzt and Dragonlance novels. This has given the Computer Gamer generation its view of d+d in Bioware's eyes mostly.

 

3. Turbine only is liceanced for 3.5 and Eberron. Forgotten realms is the flagship campaign however and 4.0 rules will be up for grabs. Forgotten realms would draw in a much greater audience and Bioware produces good games unlike the pieces of crap no one pays for from Turbine.(They flop on Asherons call and use the same damn engine and use big Liceanses to draw people to play the piece of crap again)

 

4. Bioware hired 6 world creators that where selected based on a Neverwinter nights one modules completeion.

 

 

D+D sees Everquest and World of Warcraft make the real money, Wizards and Hasboro want a piece of that action. Eberron flopped because of Turbine. Forgotten realms MMO would be a huge hit if created by Bioware and they have real use of all the charcaters, and places we have read about or played with in the past.

 

Possible NPC's

Eleminster(If he doesn't die in the spellplague when Mystra dies to explain the complete changes in magif for 4.0), Drizzit(we knew he is alive from the Orc King), Cadderly,  Jara'axle, Tosun, Lady Aliestriel, ect ect

And even then I would probably rather go to AoC instead unless it could really sell to my interests.  There's just simply more chance of success among SciFi... I hope they'll start talking about the MMO oncce Mass Effect is out... otherwise its just kind of weird they should remain so secretive, no?  Unless they don't wanna step on toes [SOE?] until its really time to stomp on a foot [death of SWG?]

its kotor 3 online just think.....boware made #1, game of the year, #2 was mostly not as good as #1, makes sense to let them do another one.........why not online, which is where all games are going nowadays...a couple single/ mild multiplayer to get name and quality out then mmo to make thier money......its kotor 3 peeps, and besides swg is dead...swg is their best option and they are not stupid, after all they ARE multi-millionaire/bilionaires

Originally posted by Scriar

I doubt it is star wars, how can you have 2 mmos out using the same IP even if they are completely different it wouldn't work since they would be competing against each other I doubt the people who own the star wars IP would want that. ( I think it is lucas arts but i am not 100% sure ;p )

Anyway, mass effect isn't a proven IP yet so i doubt they would start work on a mmo based on a IP that people could potentially hate.

Balders gate would be to much like all the other everquest generic fantasy mmos, i pretty sure they said they want to be very different in a keynote.

Never heard of dragon age, although i probably have and the game just escapes my memory :)

Jade empire was a crap game, but who knows they might make a good mmo out of it so i think it might choose that, especially if it was aimed at consoles first pcs after since it is a populer console rpg after all i dont think the pc game version ever did that well.

Personally i think if they make an mmo it will be their own IP since they dont have to many of their own IPs to work with so sounds like a good idea to make a new one specfically aimed at a mmo universe.

Personally I dont really care what the game is based off of, as long as it is nothing at all like any of the mmos we have now.

Why would the game have to prove it self with a popular IP to become a good MMO.  Everquest came out the first time as an MMO if I am correct and that had a lot of success.

Originally posted by Cabe2323

 

Originally posted by Abstruse

Facts:

1) BioWare now prefers it own IP's, of which it has three, Jade Empire, Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

2) Jade Empire has no known lore development beyond the original game, and there are current MMO's with a similar theme.

3) Mass Effect is XB360 exclusive for the forseeable future, and planned to be a trilogy.

4) Dragon Age has received extensive lore development over several years.

Speculation:

I conclude that Bioware's MMO is Dragon Age Online.  SP Dragon Age could be released in 2008 while DAO is being finished and polished for 2009/2010 launch.

 

This is basically what I have been saying but with one change.  I think Dragon Age is going to be released as a MMO and not a Single Player game.  Or they will somehow combine both a single player campaign and a MMO.  I think that is part of the reason why we haven't heard much about Dragon Age.  For a game that is supposed to release next year where are all the game trailers?  Where are all the interviews and screenshots, etc.  I remember reading about it in one of my gaming magazines around 6+ months ago and that is about it. 

 

I think the fact that Dragon Age has become tight lipped is because they have turned it into a MMO.

 

dragonage.bioware.com/

 

According to the listed awards/hype on Bioware's sight about Dragon age there isn't anything newer then 2004.  That is plenty of time to change the game into a MMO.

 

 

 

From Gamespot's Q&A with Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeshcuk on the EA acquisition:

Quote: 

GS: Now, you just mentioned Dragon Age. Since Dragon Age wasn't mentioned in the acquisition announcement and so little has been heard about it, there's been some speculation that it was canceled.

RM: Oh, no. We were just playing that last week as well. It's one of the more enjoyable things I've done in the past few weeks, by far. I could not stop playing it. I meant to play it just for a little bit just to check it out, but I ended up playing it all weekend. I wish we could say more about it, as the team has been putting in some late hours on the project, and they've come up with some amazing stuff. We're gonna be revealing some more about Dragon Age very soon, I think, and I think you'll be excited to hear about it.

From the same intervew as posted above, in another section:

GS: Now one of the main reasons EA gave for acquiring BioWare/Pandemic was the upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game you're developing in Austin. After listening to John's comments in the conference call, one walks away with the impression that said MMORPG is a wholly owned IP of BioWare--and therefore EA. Is that correct?

RM: We haven't revealed any details about the game. It's super secret right now. It's got all the characters and story arc that BioWare is known for, and I wish I could say more. It's the best of breed of MMO, with the magic BioWare's associated with, and our goal is to make sure people can't stop playing it.

GS: Right, but judging by John's enthusiasm, it sounds pretty safe to say the MMO is an all-original IP. Would that be fair to say?

RM: [Long pause] We haven't revealed any details about the game. It's super secret right now. It's--

GS: OK, OK, I get it.

GZ: I can say one thing: It looks awesome! [Laughs.] We can say a second thing, too: It's really fun to play. We're already playing it. We were playing it just last week.

-- Anyone know what conference call/comments the HS guy is talking about? If anyone has a link pls post. Thanks!

Originally posted by DeaconX

From the same intervew as posted above, in another section:

 

GS: Now one of the main reasons EA gave for acquiring BioWare/Pandemic was the upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game you're developing in Austin. After listening to John's comments in the conference call, one walks away with the impression that said MMORPG is a wholly owned IP of BioWare--and therefore EA. Is that correct?

RM: We haven't revealed any details about the game. It's super secret right now. It's got all the characters and story arc that BioWare is known for, and I wish I could say more. It's the best of breed of MMO, with the magic BioWare's associated with, and our goal is to make sure people can't stop playing it.

GS: Right, but judging by John's enthusiasm, it sounds pretty safe to say the MMO is an all-original IP. Would that be fair to say?

RM: [Long pause] We haven't revealed any details about the game. It's super secret right now. It's--

GS: OK, OK, I get it.

GZ: I can say one thing: It looks awesome! [Laughs.] We can say a second thing, too: It's really fun to play. We're already playing it. We were playing it just last week.

-- Anyone know what conference call/comments the HS guy is talking about? If anyone has a link pls post. Thanks!

Its funny in the other conversation about dragon age he said he was playing it last week, and now on this one ab