Apparently a lot of people think Blizzard's "Project Titan" is StarCraft's evolution into the MMO universe. I would actually love to see this happen... if it is done right. From the sound of things, Blizzard is sounding pretty confident about whatever it is they're working on. I imagine them raising the bar of sorts for the MMO genre as a whole-- in a way future MMOs will continue to imitate them. When I think "Starcraft" and "MMO" combined, I imagine a new kind of MMO gameplay that combines RTS and shooter elements.
Reviewing all the cinematic from Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm, it feels almost like a Starcraft MMO is inevitable. It seems almost certain that after the Protoss have their round about, the next step will almost certainly be an MMO, whereas the Xelnaga are the main antagonist and mutual enemy to everyone, kind of the same way the Scourge/Burning Legion was to Warcraft, secretly working behind the scenes.
I keep thinking, if it is Starcraft, there could be squad-based commands where individual players could possibly control large groups of "pets" or NPC allies to assist them. I'm also thinking they might take a page from the Star Wars MMO and have a sort of space-combat side system-- just hopefully more realistic/immersive and worthwhile... not a cheesy rail-shooter.
Another thing I've been thinking about is how the various races/factions could work. Terrans and Protoss are pretty easy to imagine, but not so much Zerg. Would player-characters of the Zerg be infested Terrans perhaps?
This is not to be confused with the"World of Starcraft" mod. About a month ago some modders came out with their own fan-made StarCraft MMO using Starcraft 2 as its foundation. I have not had the opportunity to try it myself, but I'm assuming it can only do so much that hasn't already been done with MMOs in the past.
·Theme
- Forums
- Cross Site
- General Video Game Discussion
- StarCraft MMO speculation
StarCraft MMO speculationFollow
Galkaman wrote:
Kuwoobie will die crushed under the burden of his mediocrity.
I think balancing three factions in a MMO is going to be difficult. Not only that, but having two factions tends to split a community up quite a bit; three is going to divide it too much for a MMO to last a long time, in my opinion. You could try making players only be able to play Protoss or Terran, with Zerg being a common non-playable enemy, but then you'd have the uproar that you can't play Zerg. All in all, I think it would be difficult to pull off.
Spoonless wrote:
IYou could try making players only be able to play Protoss or Terran, with Zerg being a common non-playable enemy, but then you'd have the uproar that you can't play Zerg.
I think the actual elements of the stories are different enough that an MMO transition makes less sense than a SC MMO would.
In an odd way, WCIII was more about the actual people of the WC world. Even though all the "heroes" of the SC universe are actually more "common" than any of the WC heroes really were, WC was the story of empires crumbling, of desperate attempts to save their people. Even if the actual lives of the people weren't highlighted too much, all the most poignant moments of the series were the times when the people were most featured--the Culling of Stratholme, the sacrifice of the Night Elves, the impending genocide of the Blood Elves, the fall of Grom's people, etc. The heroes were primarily playing parts as representatives of their people.
Jaina's desperate bid to save her people was symbolic of humanity's will to survive, Arthas' fall was a testament to the vulnerability and frailty of the spirit, Grom's the orcs, etc.
SCII is a LOT more about politics and the plight of the characters, which is ironic because the characters are important because they're largely normal people. But it's their unique experiences as people that make them important. You care about Kerrigan's fall because you cared about Kerrigan as a person, not because she was this fallen symbol of justice and the people of Lordearon. And Kerrigan is, likewise, the only true "character" for the zerg at all--they're just cogs of the overmind, with minimal will of their own. And the Protoss believe in uniformity, so they're not super varied.
I'm not saying this is true across the board, of course, by any means. A lot of the story of SC takes place in places where people actually live. I'm just saying that the story and gameplay don't really transition smoothly into an MMO. It absolutely could be done, but it would be super difficult. I don't personally see the current games as being a good launching point. Maybe if they end the trilogy with some signficant level of liberation for human worlds, it would work. But I have a lot of trouble envisioning any system that allows you to play as a zerg. It just doesn't work.
Humans, sure. Protoss, MAYBE. Zerg, no.
In an odd way, WCIII was more about the actual people of the WC world. Even though all the "heroes" of the SC universe are actually more "common" than any of the WC heroes really were, WC was the story of empires crumbling, of desperate attempts to save their people. Even if the actual lives of the people weren't highlighted too much, all the most poignant moments of the series were the times when the people were most featured--the Culling of Stratholme, the sacrifice of the Night Elves, the impending genocide of the Blood Elves, the fall of Grom's people, etc. The heroes were primarily playing parts as representatives of their people.
Jaina's desperate bid to save her people was symbolic of humanity's will to survive, Arthas' fall was a testament to the vulnerability and frailty of the spirit, Grom's the orcs, etc.
SCII is a LOT more about politics and the plight of the characters, which is ironic because the characters are important because they're largely normal people. But it's their unique experiences as people that make them important. You care about Kerrigan's fall because you cared about Kerrigan as a person, not because she was this fallen symbol of justice and the people of Lordearon. And Kerrigan is, likewise, the only true "character" for the zerg at all--they're just cogs of the overmind, with minimal will of their own. And the Protoss believe in uniformity, so they're not super varied.
I'm not saying this is true across the board, of course, by any means. A lot of the story of SC takes place in places where people actually live. I'm just saying that the story and gameplay don't really transition smoothly into an MMO. It absolutely could be done, but it would be super difficult. I don't personally see the current games as being a good launching point. Maybe if they end the trilogy with some signficant level of liberation for human worlds, it would work. But I have a lot of trouble envisioning any system that allows you to play as a zerg. It just doesn't work.
Humans, sure. Protoss, MAYBE. Zerg, no.
IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.
Didn't they say awhile ago that Titan was a new IP?
Raolan wrote:
Didn't they say awhile ago that Titan was a new IP?
Like the one bit of hard info we have about Titan is "it's not World of Starcraft."
Kuwoobie wrote:
This is not to be confused with the"World of Starcraft" mod. About a month ago some modders came out with their own fan-made StarCraft MMO using Starcraft 2 as its foundation. I have not had the opportunity to try it myself, but I'm assuming it can only do so much that hasn't already been done with MMOs in the past.
Actually they had to rename it to "Starcraft Universe" because Blizzard was planning to use the original name in the future.
Shaowstrike (Retired - FFXI)
91PUP/BLM 86SMN/BST 76DRK
Cooking/Fishing 100
"We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."
— James D. Nicoll
91PUP/BLM 86SMN/BST 76DRK
Cooking/Fishing 100
"We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."
— James D. Nicoll
Shaowstrike the Shady wrote:
Kuwoobie wrote:
This is not to be confused with the"World of Starcraft" mod. About a month ago some modders came out with their own fan-made StarCraft MMO using Starcraft 2 as its foundation. I have not had the opportunity to try it myself, but I'm assuming it can only do so much that hasn't already been done with MMOs in the past.
Actually they had to rename it to "Starcraft Universe" because Blizzard was planning to use the original name in the future.
That's a lot of assumption. It's perfectly reasonable for their general branding to not want it named World of Starcraft, even if they have no real plans of making use of the name in the future.
[EDIT]
To be clearer, when you're looking at something from a branding perspective, using the name of an IP in a mod designed for that IP, using modding tools supported by that IP, and solely operable using servers under the domain of that IP, is no big deal. It's actually downright reasonable. It would be absurd if players could end up forced to rename their SC maps just because SC was in the title (For instance "My Best Starcraft Map Ever").
Once you start CROSSING IP boundaries, though, things became WAY less kosher, and the number of people with fingers in the pie just skyrocketed. Now a ton of people, from completely unrelated teams, are involved in the trademark issues that should be contained to one game. Because there's a very good chance that the people who are in charge of trademark control for Starcraft II have no right to use most of Warcraft's Trademarks without approval, and that approval process is probably a nightmare.
TL;DR: When things stay internal to one branding/marketing/trademark area of a large corporation, things are relatively easy to monitor and resolve.
So then you face the choice of either getting some random mod the approval to use another department's TM, which you have almost no reason to do, or you tell them to change the name. The choice is extremely obvious.
It may, of course, be true that there's a specific ban on "World of Starcraft." But there's absolutely no reasonable reason to assume that short of direct confirmation, or at least a reliable leak, from Blizzard.
Edited, Mar 29th 2013 12:16pm by idiggory
IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.
Recent Visitors: 198
All times are in CST
Anonymous Guests (198)
- Forums
- Cross Site
- General Video Game Discussion
- StarCraft MMO speculation
© 2024 Fanbyte LLC