Do you think an FPS MMORPG could work?

[Jacco]

I was thinking today how neat it would be to have a WoW style MMORPG of something like Killzone. Since WoW players take so strongly to their factions there, I think it would be kinda neat to have an FPS game like that but where the factions are the Helghast and ISA.

Thoughts? Think it could work? Why or why not?

 

[rokaraged]

Take a look at Defiance and Planetside 2, while the games aren't perfect, it shows the format can work.

Just needs quite a bit of fleshing out.

 

[Magix]

I've always been interested in it. Depends how similar to a traditional MMORPG you want to make it. Planetside is massive alright, but really it's just a huge multiplayer game with loads of people.
And Defiance shows what happens when you want to just blatantly copy some of the MMORPG mechanics (such as mobs kind of just ignoring you until you 'agro' them or get close, which doesn't make nearly as much sense in a FPS setting)

But I would love some sort of actual MMORPG-FPS. Good story, guilds, skilltree (you could level up skills similar to the skills in Mass Effect for example). Or how about this - shoot an enemy to tag them, and then you can press a button to debuff the tagged enemy.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Sure that would be fun. Take Borderlands and make it "Massive." That's all its missing, right: the massive amount of players? I wouldn't pay $15 a month for it but I'm sure plenty would.

 

[Zhukov]

It's already been done. Planetside 2.

Three huge maps, each divided into territories that are fought over by three somewhat distinct completely player-driven factions. Infantry, AFVs, tank and aircraft. Think Battlefield, make it 10x as big, but without the fancy visuals and sound.

Pretty much the only MMO to ever get and held my attention.

 

[sanquin]

Do you remember Hellgate? Yeah, not really, that was from 2007 I think, and it was a F2P MMORPGFPS.

It's still kinda going as an f2p game. I tried it. And it's not the fps part that makes that game bad. It's the rest of the game that does so.

 

[Rob Robson]

Open world? No, won't work. Maybe an indie dev could make it work with A LOT of passion, but no AAA dev will ever properly design a sandbox FPSMMO.

The Division looks like it's going to try to have RPG in it's mix, but reading between the lines of their promotional material I'm guessing it will be just a tech demo and NOWHERE NEAR worthy of the hype it has. Expect like 10 hours of content. Tops.

 

[Tom_green_day]

I heard of this game recently which fits the bill, it's called 'Call of Duty' you get 32 people in a small area all shooting each other up. It's fun if you're good and sometimes if you aren't (like me).
But it fits the bill really. Loads of people play it, as you play more you unlock new stuff that's arguably better but not so much that it breaks the game (like pro perks and easier to use guns) of course there isn't much of an RPG element beyond perks and appearance and guns and killstreaks etc, but it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for the developers.
Also a trademark of most MMORPGS I find is an open world which is probably something that CoD doesn't need.

 

[DazZ.]

Whys no one mentioned actual FPS-RPG-MMOs yet?

Fallen Earth. First person post apocalyptic MMO with quests like WoW and FPS combat with guns. Standard problem that the hit detection was horrendous and I couldn't play very long before getting horrendously bored.

Firefall. Much more promising, and currently in beta. Jetpacks and Guns and cartoonyish graphics, in my opinion it seemed like an excellent start but my problem was there wasn't a lot to do. The teamwork of finding a harvester thingy and everyone comes along and helps out and gets loot for it was like Rifts rifts, and they were an excellent way of doing MMO FPS teamwork. But that's all there was in the game really currently when I tried it.

I think Planetside is big enough to be massively multiplayer, but not big on the RPG fronts or anything like traditional MMOs, FE and Firefall are.

The main problem these games face is hit detection and net code won't be as smooth as BF4/CoD/TF2 ect with a stupid amount of people, once a company comes along and fixes that the FPSMMO games will be amazing. Till then you're subtracting game feel for a huge amount of people, and both are fun but together would be something special we haven't got yet.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

The key acronym there is RPG. Planetside 2 has demonstrated that an MMO shooter can work, but how do you apply RPG mechanics to that? One of the key draws of RPGs is the feeling of progression and becoming stronger over time through building your character. When you apply that directly to a shooter, which are for the most part meant to be fast paced, you get a few players at lvl 60 who take entire ammo dumps to the face while one-shotting new players. And that's just the tip of the iceberg with the implementation problems: How do respawns work? How does having one high level player on your team reflect on the team balance? Are you going to sort the servers by player level? How do you balance the input of stats and other numbers with player skill?

IMO the 2 genres are too far from each other to find a decent sweet spot, and even then it'd likely be for a niche audience.

 

[michael87cn]

Absolutely, if it had gear, stats etc the way its played doesn't matter too terribly. An MMORPG is fun for a couple of reasons:

Social aspect (though lately these are more negative as people become even more soulless on the internet)
Addictive repetitive elements
Uh, that's it really.

 

[Windcaler]

Having played Planetside 2 and firefall (which can be played in FPS or 3rd PS modes) I can say yes, it can work and it can work quite well. You should check those games out if you havnt yet, they are even free to play

 

[Lucyfer86]

Having played Planetside 2 and firefall (which can be played in FPS or 3rd PS modes) I can say yes, it can work and it can work quite well. You should check those games out if you havnt yet, they are even free to play

I second this one.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Competitive games no RPGFPS can't be balanced even something like someone having 15% damage increase or rof increase breaks balance. Sure you could do perks like cod but even then there are certain builds that will be the "best" to the point of dominance( ie the fast builds in cod)

Plus there can be a lag issue once too many people get involved. once you solve all those issues it can turn into a zerg fest which while it can be fun usually isn't.

Non competitive fps sure easy cause balance and lag become much less an issue

 

[Jacco]

The key acronym there is RPG. Planetside 2 has demonstrated that an MMO shooter can work, but how do you apply RPG mechanics to that? One of the key draws of RPGs is the feeling of progression and becoming stronger over time through building your character. When you apply that directly to a shooter, which are for the most part meant to be fast paced, you get a few players at lvl 60 who take entire ammo dumps to the face while one-shotting new players. And that's just the tip of the iceberg with the implementation problems: How do respawns work? How does having one high level player on your team reflect on the team balance? Are you going to sort the servers by player level? How do you balance the input of stats and other numbers with player skill?

IMO the 2 genres are too far from each other to find a decent sweet spot, and even then it'd likely be for a niche audience.

What if, instead of getting physically stronger, you get "promoted" and put in charge of people. If you could design the game where you have a hierarchy of commanders on each team that run larger and larger parts of the battle, that's kind of like getting stronger, yes?

 

[Alssadar]

Eternal Crusade looks like Space Marine multiplayer with the size of Planetside.
We await it with baited breath.

 

[skywolfblue]

Does Planetside 2 actually have gear stats, leveling up and role playing? /curious
It was to my understanding that it was an MMO, but not an RPG.

In my opinion, 3rd person suits gear progression, character interaction, and other RPG mechanics (like position-dependent abilities, such as how far your point blank AOE will spread) then 1st person does.

 

[Grach]

Does Planetside 2 actually have gear stats, leveling up and role playing? /curious
It was to my understanding that it was an MMO, but not an RPG.

Yeah, in the Battlefield or Call of Duty way. The more you level up, you gain more certification points, which are used to buy either better weapons, accessories, level up the classes abilities, and buy weapons for the vehicles.