A new episode of our "Imagining MMOs" series is here! Last time we had fun designing a hypothetical Mario Bros MMO game for kids and families but this time it's better to put the kids to bed because things are going to be a little darker and grittier as we try to imagine a Game of Thrones MMO game. Yes, you heard that right, with the 5th season airing these days what could be better than imagining a Game of Thrones MMORPG where it's possible to personally live the intrigues and the action already seen on screen or read in the books?
Game of Thrones is a franchise that, right now, doesn't require an introduction. Born as an intriguing and crude fantasy saga called "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R.R. Martin, this niche product's popularity rocket-jumped to the stars and reached the mainstream market when it became one of the most watched HBO TV series ever: Game of Thrones. In the books/TV shows, several noble houses fight alongside or against each other in a world of honour, battles, alliances, betrayals, hidden pacts and murders to try to put their chosen Lord onto the throne and make him king of the Seven Kingdoms.
There's no need to say that this is pure gold as MMORPG material, and we are not talking about your usual themepark MMORPG, but a full-featured PvP-centric old-school sandbox game where the players' actions and interactions actually matter and where they can really change the game's world and story, living their very own adventures and stories, whether they are a simple knight, a powerful lord, a mercenary or a skilled trader.
We would try to get the result we want by taking inspiration from three games which offer features and mechanics in certain ways similar to what we are aiming at: Ultima Online, Darkfall Online and EVE Online.
From Ultima we would take the general feeling of freedom, the player housing and the character progression system. Just imagine to explore Westeros being able to buy and furnish one of the available preset houses in King's Landing, where you can maybe plan your next assassination with your friends, or build a brand new house from zero next to Winterfell in order to serve the lords of the North. You would be able to play as a crafter, farmer, fighter, trader, guard or outlaw without classes or quests that force you to stay on a fixed path, upgrading your skills by using them so your character will gradually be tailored to fit your playstyle.
From Darkfall we would take the combat system, improving it. For those among you who don't know it, it is basically a third-person action/shooter system where you have to aim each one of your attacks, block moves (with shield or weapon), arrows fly following a realistic trajectory arc and there is mounted combat and naval warfare with different moves and the possibility to destroy/steal the mount/ship to leave your enemy on foot. In Darkfall the fights were already cool (take a look on youtube), but we would improve the system with better animation, removing the magic due to the setting and adding a nice set of siege weapons. Just think about this: you are leading your army making it charge from a hill toward the enemy's army. Horses start to gallop when you give the order to the archers in the back through teamspeak and arrows start flying, while the enemy ones start raining around you, then the armies clash with each other and you try to make your men stay in formation while dodging and blocking enemy attacks waiting for the mercenaries (other players) you hired the day before to show up and flank the enemies as planned, hoping they didn't double cross you and that this is enough to manage to conquer the enemy stronghold. Amazing.
From EvE Online we would take the player-driven economy, where players can be real traders, buying resource from the farmers in a region, selling them to the crafters in another location and maybe becoming the key role in a war by giving the lord of a region the resources they need to maintain their armies (steel, wood, horses and more). Moreover, crafters and traders would need to transport resources, creating caravans that can be attacked at any moment by robbers and bandits (other players), so they may want to hire mercenaries as guards, creating more gameplay for the Sellswords (other players as well) without the need of quests or other themepark-style features.
Territory control would play a huge role in the game as well. At a certain point, players can decide to swear loyalty to one of the main noble houses of the game, each one having a single starting HQ that can't be conquered, where the main characters from that House live as NPC (e.g. Casterly Rock for the Lannister or Winterfell for the Starks) and from that moment, each stronghold or city or castle conquered by a Guild will be property of that guild but under the Lannister influence. Each house will have a specific colour representing it so by opening the world map you can immediately have an idea of how the "game of thrones" is going, who's winning and who is losing (something like the Planetside 2 map if you know the game). This is interesting as it could bring to strange alliance and friction as two rival guilds can find themselves forced to fight along in order to protect a territory for the very same house they fight for. Moreover, in order to further increase the gameplay opportunities, we would give the possibility to change faction with a 2-month cooldown, to allow betrayals, strategies implying undercover agents and more. Strongholds and Castles would give their owners different bonus and benefits like resources (like a daily iron income if there is an iron mine nearby, or wood if there are a lot of trees).
And of course, we wouldn't ignore the role-players out there, giving them the maximum interaction possible with environments and other characters to support and actually encourage their play sessions.
As Game of Thrones isn't your typical high-fantasy setting (no elves, dwarves, orcs and drag... no, wait, dragons are OK), PvE would be a little limited but we would still implement it without ruining our sandbox flavour, such as wild animals to hunt for meat and hides, rare creatures like occasional Direwolves and maybe Wildling invasions to face off against (without forgetting the white walkers, of course), NPC bandits and more. However, PvP would be the main feature of the game, and we would also offer a classic "red name" PK system with wanted characters, player-created bounties and bounty hunters. Rules in the cities will be decided by the players controlling them, while the starting/Houses cities would be always a safe place with guards and towers ready to kill criminals. Regarding the tricky full-loot/not full-loot question, we were thinking about a partial loot system, where you lose 1/3 of your equipment (randomly picked) on death if you are a "good boy" but the number of dropped items will increase according to your "PK score", with the most vicious PK players risking everything they have.
Speaking about graphics and environments, we would use the latest technologies and engines to create a living, Skyrim-like open world where players can risk their life during a fight because they are distracted by the jaw-dropping environments. We have an unlimited budget after all, so why not?
So, these are our best ideas for a Game of Thrones MMORPG. We know that many players could be a little disappointed and would prefer a classical themepark game that holds their hands while playing, but we honestly think that, although not being for everyone, this kind of sandbox game would be absolutely perfect for the cruel world of Westeros, fitting the books'/TV show style like a glove.
Deja tu comentario
You must be logged in to post a comment.