Would you play a MMO based on Robert Jordan's series: "The wheel of time" ??

[shepardG]

Pretty self explanatory...

I fucking would, and i'd probably be an Aielman

[Ksandra]

no. 'cause I played the pc game and that ruined me for forever.

[shepardG]

dot dot dot.... holy shit....i had no fucking idea there was a game (a first person shooter???? what the cock?)

released in 1999....this is why drugs are bad...i smoked away that entire year and never realized that game had even been talked about...fml

I think with the depth of history he created before he passed, and sanderson picking up his work, you could probably make a fairly decent game out of that universe.

[Ksandra]

ya you could lol, I'm mostly teasing because that game was REAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYY bad. But I'd probably try an MMO version of it.

lol if you can find a dl of it I'd give it a shot just to see. I don't think I played more than like 5 hours of it and was like "this is utter shit" and has been sitting in my closet ever since.

[Not Kuno]

Fuck yeah Aes Sedai up in this bitch

[shepardG]

you could assume:

the male half, saidan, would be un-tanted (or not depending on how you wanted the game to be...)
-the dark one is still around and his minons are like zone bosses or some shit
-warders would be a class
-wolf brothers
-aiel warrior
-sea folk
-gleeman
-aes sedai and their male counter parts could specialize in an ajah (green for battle mages, blue for support, red for being shit heads to folks, etc..
-you could basically pick your background (soilder from tear or something) and still develop a character that could do anything
-the ways could be a mid to high end dungeon
-you could be an oiger

and square enix should let whoever makes this mother fucka, use the crystal engine.

[Elrina]

I'm guessing you posed the question because they claimed that they will be, supposedly, making an MMO out of the WoT.

http://www.red-eagle-entertainment.com/

Malibu, Calif. – January 15, 2009 – Red Eagle Games today announced they have signed a strategic distribution agreement with Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) for games based on Robert Jordan’s beloved fantasy series, The Wheel of Time.

Red Eagle Games will develop and publish a line of stand-alone games on all major videogame platforms, including consoles, personal computers, handheld systems and wireless devices. The games will be distributed by EA. In addition, Red Eagle will launch and operate a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that encompasses the themes, characters and world of The Wheel of Time, which will be distributed at retail by EA.

Of course, this was ages ago, and there's been no word (that I've heard of) of any progress with any kind of game, never mind the MMO. Universal also got the movie rights the year after Jordan's death, although I've yet to hear anything going on there either. Haven't actually paid attention to Dragonmount in ages, but I do check out Sanderson's website regularly (he has a blog, and I like the annotations he does for his books), and don't remember hearing anything of plans progressing or being nixed.

As far as the actual question of would I play it, I don't know. The amount of lore existing is fairly immense, and you can be sure that every mistake or liberty taken with it will make some people angry (including me, probably, especially if correct information is available), so it would require access to Jordan's personal extensive notes and Harriet and probably Sanderson's being directly involved, at least in that aspect. Not to mention balancing it all properly in an MMO setting to allow people to actually play and enjoy it properly. Because seriously, while playing a Warder, Gleeman, Aielman, etc. could be fun, either everybody would have to be able to channel or nobody could to keep it balanced. Because no matter what excuses are thrown out, it would just be dumb if anybody who couldn't channel was able to put up any real fight to someone who could (discounting surprise attacks, but even then it's unlikely).

Sorry to come in with a pessimistic outlook, but yeah ;x The old FPS made was horrible, and I don't really have very much faith in any movie or game made based on WoT actually being true to the source material, making it basically worthless imo. I don't know, there are just too many ways for it to be bad. I'll probably pirate the shit out of any movie/game made in the future (that isn't an MMO, not really sure what I'd do there) before I actually spend money on it, because while I've bought countless copies of WoT books over the years and would love to support good media based on it, I won't be doing so until I'm absolutely sure it's worth supporting first.

[Araelus]

The tabletop version was fun, dunno about any computer version.

As Elrina commented, there's too much canon and all the cool stuff has already been accomplished by characters in the books. Then again, wasn't that the problem with Lord of the Rings MMO? (never played it)

[Belragga]

With the whole every age repeats itself thing going for it would canon really be an issue?

Oh and I'd play it and be whatever the Mat Cauthon class is!

[Elrina]

Only if it was set in an Age that we know nothing about. And that would be completely pointless, as the draw of using WoT is in using what we know.

Only way I could really see it being successfully managed is setting it in the Age of Legends, during the War of Power, or set like 20~50 years after the events in A Memory of Light. Both time periods would have their pros and cons, the Age of Legends less lore available and more freedom in making shit up around and based on it but less room for expansion, post-AMoL requiring a lot more lore be accurately present but also a lot more room for expansion and for new story. Either way would require aid from the Jordan team, and approval of any major arcs, imo.

Obviously we don't know how things will actually end yet (but soon!), but the Dark One would have to be done away with if it was done post-Memory of Light, although Towers of Midnight introduced plenty of possibilities to explore around that time period (and while I'm sure AMoL will deal with/prevent some of that [IT HAD BETTER >O] I'm sure there will still be a lot of room to maneuver).

Either way, I still don't think it could be balanced properly in an MMO setting. Nationalities could be used instead of races, easily enough (and allow for an enormous range of selectable "races"), but channeling is still the major fix. I just don't see that actually working unless either everyone can, or nobody can. An Age of Legends setting could alleviate that, but at the expense of fresh story and room for expansion (not to mention that, however interesting it might be, post-AMoL would still be a lot more fun to actually experience since all the fans of the series actually know a lot of the world, and there would still be room for new territory with Shara and Seanchan).

Channeling is just so ridiculously powerful that balancing in any kind of pvp way against people who can't would just be silly, and the first time I saw/heard about some Warder or Aielman or whoever beating an Aes Sedai or Asha'man, or even just being as/more powerful in some way PvE, I'd be done. In a tabletop you can build encounters based around the players to make sure everyone has a purpose, but in an MMO they all need to be balanced (or as close as possible), and it just isn't possible (at least not without it being blatant that people who could channel the One Power were more powerful, or making it so that either everyone uses it, or nobody does) with this source material without destroying it.

[shepardG]

You do bring up a good point, what if it was set in the time of legends, with lew therrin floating around, possibly just before he went insane, if my memory serves me (and i'm re-reading the entire series now, just started into the great hunt, so i'm rusty) I thought that was a time when there were much more folks who could channel, as well as more angreals, and things of that nature.
I'm sure with enough thought and planning they could make everything as balanced as any other MMO, and maintain the actual lore of the books. It is a shame RJ passed, as he could have possibly wrote then entire setting. His wife seems like a strong woman though (i would think so anyway with the way he depicts women in his books) and i haven't read any of sandersons work yet (i've been slacking i'm like 3 books behind, hence the re-read)
Maybe a time when fox head shaped medallions where plentiful and in differing strengths /shrug
I think maybe 10 years before the breaking would be a decent setting, then you would have the basic idea of the setting, and with some skill from the folks who read and studied his work you could write the others. Ilyena and lews therin might be king, they wouldn't have sealed the dark one and the forsaken in yet, there would be plenty of trollocs and fades to contend with.
For dungeon content you would have to invent some new places/ideas i think since the ways wouldn't be corrupted, the nations would all have different names, etc.
I guess most everyone agrees it would be awesome, but it really comes down to how the game would be. if it wasn't fun, i love WoT series but i'm not playing a shit game...

[Elrina]

The Age of Legends would be a good setting. It would give them a reasonable excuse for why players could only make characters that could channel, have a large variety of potential "jobs" each character could have since it was a more "modern" setting and there were an enormous range of talents and positions the Aes Sedai held. They do factions, if they wanted, by letting characters make "Forsaken", since iirc there were at least several hundred of them during the War of Power. The 13 known are just the most infamous, and the only ones that were sealed in the Bore.

There is much less lore available, only the back history Jordan has revealed in the books and whatever personal notes he has. Enough to give a solid setting, and some general descriptions (maybe a few quest lines that would be pretty awesome to play out, having read about what had happened in the books, then actually playing out what happened) that would still give the art department a lot of freedom. They would have a lot more freedom as far as making stuff up, since there would be less pre-written lore defining specific places, meaning less chances of them screwing something up and more ability to create some of their own settings.

The two big problems with using the War of Power (the years before the breaking, but several decades after Mierin and co. had drilled the hole in the Dark One's prison), despite all of the good, are that: 1) The story is mostly pre-determined. We know exactly what happens, the Light loses, Lews Therin seals the Dark One imperfectly leading to the Breaking and the taint on Saidin. Complete economic breakdown and worldwide destruction and reformation as a result of the male Aes Sedai going batshit crazy. There is plenty of latitude they would have with writing specific scenes, and creating different battles/encounters that weren't written into the books, as well as using those that were. But it's all determined and done, and creates an ending point they can't really go past, which leads me to ~

2) They couldn't really make any expansions. I mean, I suppose they could, but they'd be crappy side-grade expansions, or alternate universe/time travel shit. Dragging on a story that is already going somewhere pre-determined through expansions wouldn't make sense, it would almost destroy the point in including the story at all, since it would just be endlessly dragging on so that they could make expansions. And they couldn't expand past Lews Therin's final battle, because what are they going to do, make all the male characters go crazy and blow shit up? The taint was serious business during the initial backlash, hundreds went mad immediately, and most of the rest didn't take long. There would have to be some kind of madness dynamic that could effect you, at least while in those expansion, post-breaking areas, and I don't know how well that would work in an MMO.

It could prove interesting, I suppose, depending on how it was done, but I can't envision people who aren't comfortable and understanding of the lore from having read the books to be very thrilled with buying an expansion so that their characters can gradually go insane when playing in it. And even then, I could see maybe one expansion working before even that idea wouldn't work anymore.

Nah, after thinking about it, post-A Memory of Light is the only real way they could do it while leaving it open to expand in the future. It would still leave them a lot of room to create stuff, especially in Shara and Seanchan, it would just require a lot more careful attention to the lore, and limiting characters to being able to all channel or preventing any from doing so. I'm not really sure which would be better, one way would allow for a lot of different types of classes, and the other would require a measure of the same across them all while allowing them to branch out with different Talents to differentiate them. That might help them balance them better, but would leave less variety, so idk. And I've already ranted a bit as to why I think channeling is just too powerful to try balancing on an even level with those who can't utilize the One Power.

Can the game be made, can it be done? Yeah, surely, there's more than enough material there to support it and allow for the possibility. Will it ever actually be made/completed? I've no idea, and I sort of lean towards hoping not simply because of the difficulty I see in it being done properly. I would just hate seeing it made, and crappy liberties taken with the lore, or with what characters can do to create an artificial balance that destroys the concept of what the characters should actually be capable of in the world.

And seriously, EA has the rights. If it was ever made, it would probably be bastardized as hell, and screw that noise.

[Charismatic]

No.