MMO’s are a huge moneymaker in the gaming community. While there are plenty of franchises out there that are getting the MMO treatment, I can’t help but think of other games or franchises that would work really well as an MMO. As such, I thought it’s only natural that I compile them into a list.
The Zombie Apocalypse brought to virtual life
Zombie games are always fun. For some reason, they never seem to get old. Games like Dead Rising and the Left 4 Dead games are good times, but the zombie apocalypse is an event that devastates the entire globe. As such, an MMO seems like a natural fit for the genre.
You’d have different camps of people trying to survive. You can join with others or turn on them to steal their supplies. Speaking of supplies, you’d have to learn to conserve what you have to make sure it lasts you for the long haul.
What better way to prepare for the rise of the dead, than to simulate it the best way we know how? With an MMO, we can see what works and what doesn’t. Even if the dead never do rise, it would still be a great gaming experience and make for a unique experience that tests the gamer on several levels.
Fight alongside the heroes of the Marvel Universe
This was actually going to get made, but it was cancelled. It’s unfortunate, because I was looking forward to it. Granted, I’m more of a DC guy, but I would have no problem fighting alongside the likes of Captain America and Spider-Man.
It has a lot of potential and could make for an entertaining game. If nothing else, it would give Marvel fan-boys something to work with as they may not be interested in the DC superhero line.
You won’t need to call anyone when you’re playing as one of the Ghostbusters
I’m a huge Ghostbusters fan. Whether it’s the movies, the cartoon, or the recent game, I find myself enjoying all of it. The first game did have some faults, and at first, I thought a sequel would be the best way to address those issues. However, considering how iconic ghosts like Slimer and Stay-Puft have become, you’d need them in the game somehow and adding them to a sequel would seem like a rehash.
Making an MMO, however, allows you to use these characters again while not giving consumers a product they already bought. It would also grant players a “sandbox” style game that lets them roam around and battle random ghosts instead of being pulled along by the story. This is something that, while not a major fault, was addressed by various online critics such as James Rolfe and Angry Joe.
You could also bring in more villains like, for example, Samhein from the cartoon or Vigo the Carpathian (who did appear in the first game, but wasn’t featured as a boss for reasons beyond my comprehension). You could even go the Lovecraftian route and have Cthulu act as one of the raid level bosses. The Ghostbusters fought him in the cartoon, so it wouldn’t be completely without precedent.
You would also be able to form teams with your friends and go out hunting ghosts, which was one of the things I was most excited about when I heard that the first game was being made. I’m still perplexed by the lack of multi-player (though the Wii version does have 2-player co-op in story mode), but that’s a rant for a different day.
Enlist and become a member of the Green Lantern Corps
As you probably know, DC is releasing an MMO in the next few months that allows you to fight alongside the DC superheroes or villains. You have to make your own superhero (which makes sense as you can’t have 20,000 Batmen running around), but I’m not sure if Green Lantern is an option. Given that there is a whole army of them, it would make a lot more sense.
It occurred to me that you could make an MMO devoted solely to Green Lantern. There are thousands of them, thus giving you a plausible reason to have several heroes flying around. Geoff Johns recently expanded the mythos to include Lanterns of all colors to represent the emotional spectrum. You could use this as a backdrop. Players will have the ability to create their character and choose the corps that they prefer.
You could have “training simulations” that act as tutorials and where most MMO’s give you a world to explore; this one would give you a whole galaxy, if not universe. Lantern rings are limited only be the character’s will power and imagination. An MMO would allow you to choose from a variety of attacks and utilize them in creative ways. You can also use the standard RPG experience setup to increase your emotional capacity as well as unlock new abilities.
When your character dies, he or she would become a black lantern. This would allow a player to continue playing without having to create a new one, while still adding weight to character deaths.
This MMO would be able to expand the genre far beyond anything we’ve seen before. Players would have options for character types as well as variety in attacks and defensive strategies. The storyline accounts for the wide cast and death would have meaning, making players work that much harder to stay alive.
So, there you have it. A few MMO ideas that I think would work really well and give gamers a unique experience while still catering to familiar demographics and fans of various genres. If done well, they could become huge moneymakers for whoever produces it. Who knows? One might even be capable of toppling the titan that is World of Warcraft.
