Over at Gamasutra there’s an article examining the top 20 underutilized licenses. You know, for games. Included are The Venture Brothers (I agree — I’d love to see a VB game) and Groundhog Day (I… huh?).
They leave off one that, despite my generally negative feelings about MMORPGs, I personally think is prime for the MMORPGifying: Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.
I’m know I’m not the first person to think this, and I know there have been other Discworld games, but it’s perfect for an MMO, and it’s the perfect time for it with every gaming company on the planet wanting a slice of that sweet Blizzard pie. Why not Discworld? They’re trying everything else under the sun. A Tom Clancy MMO is a possibility, and there’s apparently a Lego MMO coming. So, you can run around as a Lego man. For $15 a month. Yay, or something.
Discworld already has everything a MMO player could want. Want to play as a tank? You could be a troll or a golem. If stealth is your thing, you could be a vampire. Brawler/tracker: werewolf. Healer, you could be an Igor! If you prefer to be human, you could play as a City Watch Sam Vimes or Captain Carrot type. And of course you could be a wizard (or even a WIZZARD).
There are plenty of monsters and creatures running around, too. Zombies, imps, gargoyles, dragons, ghosts, Death… pretty much everything from fantasy and sci-fi appears at some point in the Discworld continuity. And I know there are pets in most MMORPGS. Who wouldn’t want a large sapient pearwood chest on little legs following them everywhere?
Of course there’s Ankh-Morpork, as colorful and crusty a capital as you could want in a game, and the perfect player hub. Join the Watch, or the Assassin’s Guild, or the Thieves Guild, or the Beggar’s Guild. Or the Clown’s Guild. If you’re the seventh eighth son of a seventh an eighth son, attend the Unseen University. There are plenty of foreign lands to visit as well, like Klatch, Uberwald, EcksEcksEcksEcks, Djelibeybi, the Agatean Empire, just to name a few.
Hell, it’s even got natural, logical gameworld borders — the Rim. No need to stack up mountains or end roads with piles of rubble to contain players, there’s the edge of the Discworld right there doing it for you without breaking immersion. Plus, in at least one book they went over the edge, so hey, expansion pack.
I recall an interview with Pratchett a couple years ago where he sort of brushed off the idea of an MMO, but I really can’t think if a better match than a sprawling fantasy gameworld and the writings of Terry Pratchett. There would be challenges — making it funny, sure, but mainly keeping it funny over the course of months or years of gameplay. I don’t care how well written Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler’s dialogue is, you’re gonna get tired of it hearing it after the 100th time you have to buy something from him.
Bottom line, I really don’t feel like working today so I decided to kill time by writing this. Besides, I’ve had pretty good luck on this blog so far by wishing for things aloud and seeing someone make them happen.
30 responses so far ↓
1 DaltinWentsworth // May 5, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Hell yes, a Discworld MMO would be the bomb and the book series to begin with is awesome.
2 SeanAY! // May 5, 2008 at 2:06 pm
I can dig it :P
3 James // May 5, 2008 at 2:31 pm
That would be really brilliant, you forgot to mention Witches though could be a hybrid healing/debuff class. Could have characters like Death or the Wintersmith as bosses. Maybe it will happen someday.
4 Oliver // May 5, 2008 at 2:36 pm
@James But how would you defeat Death? Give him some Curry? Sounds like a plan actually!
5 Ojive // May 5, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Hmmm… As awesome as that would be (Me being a huge Pratchett fan) there would be some issues. Like, the total lack of a map. Nevertheless, this is the only MMO (Unless the elder scrolls/KOTOR MMO rumors are true) that I could see myself paying for.
6 Punjabi Fury // May 5, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Eh…
I don’t like it. Call me old-fashioned, but I think that Discworld should stay firmly between the pages of the books.
No other writer should be ever be allowed to touch the material, and obviously it would be impossible for Pratchett to write all the script for n entire muhmorpuhger himself.
I don’t want Death and Rincewind and Vimes and the rest drawn up as some artist’s impression. I like the versions of them I have in my head. The same goes for Anhk-Morpork and everywhere else.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of some kind of comedy/fantasy muhmorpuhger, but I just don’t think the Discworld should be the setting.
7 Punjabi Fury // May 5, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Although I have to add, the other point-and-click discworld games were hilarious, and chock full of in-jokes for the devotee. I just had to ignore what I saw as innacuracies.
8 Christopher // May 5, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Yeah, I hear you. The designers would definitely have to be true fans of the material to do it right.
But it could happen. If you look at the care given to Lord of the Rings Online, and how well Turbine translated those books (and movies) into a living gameworld, and how much thought and care they really put into it, you can see an example of how it can be done the right way.
9 Kenny // May 5, 2008 at 4:32 pm
If this was done right - it would be the one MMORPG i would be willing to pay a fee for.
10 Wossname // May 5, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Ditto, it’d have to be done right. - not just the proper injection of character and wit, but also dynamics such as all the guilds. (Player assassinations, anyone?) Plus, AM has constantly been changing in the books (it’s only a matter of time before we see public transport) — would the game world be able to keep up?
I wonder what Pratchett’s daughter, Rhianna, thinks of the possibility, given that she works in the game industry (as the writer behind Heavenly Sword and Overlord). In interviews, she’s mentioned her father’s lack of interest in the adventure games that came out some years back, stating that he’s more an FPS man.
11 Mr_Wizard // May 5, 2008 at 5:32 pm
A Dark Tower action game? That article hurts my head right there. If any developer should get that licence, it should be Cyan, for a Myst like adventure game. If it had to be an action game (Like Stephen King was drunk and signed the contract for more money or something) The only developer that I can see doing it any justice is Valve. Honestly though, the books werent action, an action game can only cheapen the story. Now I have a migrain. Stupid stupid stupid.
Anyway, I like the idea of a Discworld MMO, although I hate all MMO’s, so it doesnt really matter to me.
*one of my brain cells conjures up an image of a Dark Tower MMO. I take that brain cell and forcibly rip it from my skull and smush it against my monitor*
12 Snooglebum // May 5, 2008 at 5:33 pm
I tend to agree with Punjabi Fury. It’d be weird (for me at least) to see all the character that have always stayed in my head by transformed into videogame characters.
That said, I’d love to see all the various environments of Discworld given life. I’ve always wondered what Ankh-Morpork looks like.
13 Ghurka // May 5, 2008 at 5:42 pm
There is a Discworld MUD out there at http://discworld.atuin.net/lpc/ for anyone who can setup telnet and handle an entirely text based mmorpg. It’s been around for several years now, and I believe has been visited by the man himself a few times.
14 chris12 // May 5, 2008 at 9:58 pm
hey, what would be bad if dicworld was a mmo
15 chris12 // May 5, 2008 at 10:01 pm
also dark tower could be graet as a game/film
16 ttancm // May 5, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Whereas I agree with the whole “I’d rather not see discworld as an MMO” line of thinking, since there are already more or less official images of all the discworld characters from Paul Kidby and Josh Kirby, on top of which none of the representations in the older games, the animations or the live action TV specials has bothered me enough that I would think yet another artist’s interpretation would destroy the images I have in my head.
17 Lack_26 // May 6, 2008 at 12:17 am
Hmm, as much as I would love it (and I would) Pratchett has [early stage] alzheimer’s disease, so by having him help with the game it would limit the number of books he (currently wants to do) before he succumbs to the disease.
18 Joe Snuffy // May 6, 2008 at 12:19 am
The hardest part of making a MMO for discworld is that you always feel that you’re not doing it right, they seem so perfect on paper and might be uncomfortable to see in the flesh. The possibilities that is discworld is phenominal, I wonder how long it would take to make such a game since it’s so full and content but then he does it again and puts in something that fits right in. Some books are as flexible as two short planks, but Discworld feels like the whole nine yards.
It’ll need some heavy duty, burning the midnight oil dedication all the while the devs must be avid fans of the books too otherwise , dang it all to heck!
19 Ludo // May 6, 2008 at 5:00 am
It’s about time someone attempted a Discworld game again after Discworld Noir was criminally overlooked. If they could recreate the moody, dangerous and darkly comic feel of Ankh Morpork portrayed in that game then you would have a virtual world I’d be willing to spend a lot of time and money to be a part of.
20 Oliver // May 6, 2008 at 6:37 am
@ludo Yes! Discworld Noir was full of win. I loved that game, but i can’t make it work on XP :(
21 This Guy // May 6, 2008 at 11:02 am
Did you write that tag in ook?
22 gryffinp // May 6, 2008 at 11:45 am
I do kind of feel that the only way it could be good is if every single bit of written word was created by Terry Pratchett himself, and that’s an insane amount of work for any one man.
But we can dream. Oh yes, we can dream
23 Dante // May 6, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Hmmn, I’m in two minds about this to be honest, although I’d love to wonder around a virtual disworld as much as anyone, I can’t help but feel the repetative, combat driven nature of most RPG’s wouldn’t really fit the universe. Discworld isn’t about epic adventures and battles, it’s about failing to have epic adventures and battles in an amusing way.
That said, a discworld MMO would have some great classes to choose from, Monk of Time anyone?
24 Evan Crawford // May 6, 2008 at 3:50 pm
“If you’re the seventh son of a seventh son, attend the Unseen University”
I’d hate to nitpick, but it’s the eighth son of an eighth son in Discworld.
Other than that, though, I can see nothing wrong with the hypothetical game in this article and I’d happily quit WoW to play it.
25 Akirasfriend // May 7, 2008 at 8:54 am
You’re Armpit.
26 Scott // May 7, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I’ve had the idea of a Discworld MMO kicking around my head for a while as well.
Everything you have described is how I thought it should work as well.
I thought perhaps when a player dies they could meet Death and for whatever reason (probably connected to some main story) he turns-over your hourglass.
I’ve not been a fan of the TV episodes but maybe they will help to make Discworld more noticed and something like this could happen.
27 Joe // May 8, 2008 at 9:38 am
I’d love to see another discworld game in any form, but I agree that an MMO would be perfect for the Discworld universe. I think Paul Kidby would need to be kept nearby, because his drawings of the discworld are exactly what I imagined when reading the earlier books. It would be really great just exploring the world and every so often coming across NPCs you recognise from the books, even if they were minor characters…
@ Ojive - There is a discworld map published. I dont have it, but it’s there.
28 bluewyvern // May 15, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Brilliant! That’s one MMORPG I’d definitely get back into the shelling-out-fifteen-bucks-a-month game for. You’re right, it’s the perfect setting!
29 thechosen2nd // May 20, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Awesome idea, And Terry doesn’t seem the stuffy humorist like Bill Watterson (of Calvin and Hobbes) to not allow something like this to happen. I just wouldn’t be able to bear it though if a game like this grabbed my idea of the characters and locales, took them out behind the woodshed, and beat them with a cel shaded graphics engine or overly realistic graphics, but neither could it look like WoW. Ugh. That would just be sick.
BTW, I’m nitpicking here, but it’s the FOOL’S guild. Had to tell you.
30 Urbanebula // May 24, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Well, if there are no game development companies out there who are going to make this happen then I guess I’ll have to do it myself!
…someone give me fifty thousand dollars.
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