Monday, January 30, 2006

Wonderland: Take one IP: should you or should you not turn it into a MMOG?

Wonderland: Take one IP: should you or should you not turn it into a MMOG?

A-Tay is pointing to a discussion about the suitability of known IP for MMORPG worlds.

It occurred to me that the 'Jedi problem' (ie, the Star Wars Galaxies' problem in that most people signing up to live in a Star Wars world are going to want to be the ub3r l33t Jedi, thus throwing the balance of the game right out of whack) - as I was saying, the Jedi problem is almost completely missing from the world of Star Trek. Trek is about regular old human beings, with no special powers, just some sufficiently advanced technology, exploring the universe. Success happens through smarts, organisation, and following 'Star Fleet protocol', or your basic Milk-of-human-kindness thing.

Because the characters are just regular joes, there's no balancing problem. Like the American dream, you succeed by working hard and having a modicum of talent. You don't need to play Kirk, or Picard. Play the game well enough and you start writing your own, new mythology; you become a legendary Star Fleet captain. It's all about the pips.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

C'mon Kim...

This was just a "Star Trek is better than Star Wars" rant, masquerading as a post about intelectual property within emerging realities!

:)