Stephen Erikson's Malazan Empire *Potential Spoilers*

[ELD3RGoD]

Basically, i'm curious. I'm curious as to who has read these stunning and expansive books, who hasn't read them, and why on Earth these books haven't been made into either an Elder Scrolls-esque title or perhaps even better, an MMO.

If you have read them, you'd know just how huge the Malazan world is, not to mention all of the other realms, islands, places which aren't part of the empire. There are a number of 'factions';
The Empress and her Empire.
The Rebellion
The Tribes folk
The Tiste Ande/Edur
Assassins
God factions

Not to mention all the undead, Gods, DemiGods, Barbarians, Demons, Assassins, Adventurers, etc etc. And all the places, potential quests, potential character customisation, crafting, summoning... It is literally the perfect setting for any RPG/MMO.

It has (off the top of my head) atleast 7 major cities, not to mention all the small towns, prisons, deserts, expansive feilds, farm steads, forest etc etc. It is just so well written it could be stunningly made into a game.

They also have (what would be assumed as) Mage classes, with the different cards and Gods AKA:

Shadow
Darkness
Light
Death
Life
Fire
Water
Earth
and so many others, I can't recall them.

Seriously, if you get the chance, buy one of these books, read it, and then wonder why it hasn't been done. Seriously hoping an amazing developer discovers these books and asks if they can be made into a game.

 

[Crayzor]

The Malazan world was originally created to be a D&D setting, if I remember correctly. While I agree that it would be an amazing setting for a video game, I don't think any developer could really do it justice.

EDIT: Sorry, GURPS, nor D&D.

 

[ScoopMeister]

I think I spy me a fanboy...

But seriously, I've never heard of these books.

 

[manythings]

Well if they are that good then that is exactly why no one would make the games. You need popular, well known shit to make games. Like Harry Potter.

Also at the first sight of any of the concept art or early materials it would immediately be labelled a WoW clone like every single MMO that involves doing anything ever.

 

[Maetrix]

The first book in the series was written as a script to be movie/tv series. When that failed to go anywhere, Steven Erickson (a pseudonym of Steve Rune Lundin) and his best friend,Ian Cameron Esslemont. Yes, they plotted out the world using GURPS/DND but went that extra step further and created a long-lasting series out of it.

The awesome thing about this series is the author is extremely approachable and frequently answers fan questions in a variety of mediums from the re-read at TOR.com. He's an amazing author with an deep understanding of the art of writing and has given some really good essays here: http://lifeasahuman.com/author/stevenerikson/

If you want to know more about the world itself, there's a really good fan-operated forum and support site here: http://www.malazanempire.com/site/ as the series is quite in-depth and easy to get lost in. But, honestly, the books get better with every re-read. If you're new to the books or picking them up again, I recommend this read-along at Tor: http://www.tor.com/features/series/malazan-reread-of-the-fallen if for no other reason than for the commentaries.

As for future game aspects of the series, Steven had this to say: http://www.stevenerikson.com/index.php/the-world-of-the-malazan-empire-and-role-playing-games/

Anyway, apologies for the links but this series is now into it's 10th book (plus or minus depending on if you count satellite books) and each coming in around 800-1200 pages and is hugely addicting to fans of epic-fantasy series.

One final word of warning, the series is Tragic literature at it's best so expect your heart-strings to be plucked.

-Mætrix-

 

[Shio]

The Malazan world was originally created to be a D&D setting, if I remember correctly. While I agree that it would be an amazing setting for a video game, I don't think any developer could really do it justice.

EDIT: Sorry, GURPS, nor D&D.

No harm in trying, right!