Movies That Would Make Great MMOs .

Movies are one of the stronger artforms available to us in these modern times. They can prove to be powerful, emotive, moving, and philosophical, urging viewers to dig deep into their soul, tug at the heartstrings, or make milk come out from their noses. These marvels of modern culture and technology are often so popular that people obssess over anything related to them. A lot of companies recognize these and take the chance of developing a game that could cash in on beloved franchises. But, oddly enough, there are some that are ignored despite the potential in them. We’ve listed just a few movie franchises that would make great MMOs, categorizing them not by concept, but by the sheer awesomeness of their lore.

 

1. The Aliens Franchise

The iconic Xenomorph has haunted memories and dreams, and captivated many imaginations since the first movie came out in 1979. A marvel of technological accomplishment in movies at the time, it is one of the most authentically terrifying pieces of horror ever created. Yeah, there have been many games created based on this franchise, but none have ever come close to replicating the amazing claustrophobic horror (putting aside Alien: Isolation).

LOOK AT IT! IT IS SO FREAKING COOL!

With the arrival and awesome popularity that games like DayZ and Nether have garnered, a game similar to the survival MMO design is a good fit for Aliens. One can imagine being stuck inside a massive ship where players have to survive not only the elusive Aliens, but also the other nutjobs that find it more profitable to take all your stuff and make it on their own. Xenomorph encounters would be, of course, the highlight of the actual game, especially moreso that there are so many different kinds of Xenomorphs to come across, blending on walls, skittering through air vents, and even on their death, they might even kill you with their crazy acidic blood. Sure, it may just be another DayZ clone, but, come on, Aliens! Their shape, form, and ferocity are a thing to stare at in wonder as they dig in your flesh with their crazy mouths or bring you back to the hive to get face-hugged.

 

2. The Jurassic Park Franchise

With trailers already out about the upcoming Jurassic World, people are once more excited about the classic film that shaped and weaned generations on the greatness of scientific advancement, paleontology, and how freaking cool dinosaurs are. Also Guardians of the Galaxy guy can control raptors! That in itself is already what a possible class could be for a Jurassic Park MMO: Raptormesiter! One can even fit in a sort of faction war within an MMO like this, along the lines of between poachers and, uh, I want to say tree-huggers, but let’s go with non-poachers.

*Cue Peter Griffin Jurassic Park Theme*

There could possibly be world events of the large and terrifying dinosaurs like the Tyrannosaurus and Spinosaurus wreaking havoc on the populace of the game world and players must band together to either catch them or kill them outright, each providing different rewards and affecting how the community’s world will evolve. With survival being the number one priority, players can have randomized encounters that involve helping other dinosaurs, NPCs needing rescue from the tall grass, or just randomly ganking someone for their dino bones.

 

3. Transformers

Yes, there was a planned MMO that got canned in the beta stages, so it technically never came into existence. It would be amazing to be able to create and customize your own transformer ala Armored Core Style with your own decals, paint job, and customized transformation as some special gimmick. One can imagine this to be as an action MMO in the same vein as Archage; and open world sandbox with an entire planet to roam as a truck, dinosaur, or gigantic iPod.

He really should have turned into an iPod.

Who wouldn’t want to be able to fight the Mighty Megatron and his annoying sidekick, Starscream, in an epic, fast paced raid as those exemplified by Wildstar’s action or what little we know of Everquest Next? Large and spacious areas and a multitude of ideas as to what a single transformer could be just has so much potential, that it doesnt even have to be limited to a single kind of game. Holy Trinity, arena-esque gameplay, squad-based combat; the possibilities are endless for this franchise. With years of story and content, as well as spin-offs that can also be spun into a nice meta MMO thread, a good Transformers game can give every other competitor a run for their money.

 

4. Men in Black

Aliens? Jay and Kay? Tiny laser guns that go “Kablooey!” unexpectedly? Sold! The universe that contains the Men in Black franchise holds infinite potential. Hear us out; it’s not going to be something similar to Wildstar, but something more on the lines of DCUO and Grand Theft Auto. A sprawling and massive sandbox of a city could be the playground for would-be agents as they attempt to keep the peace despite every alien disturbance, advancing towards a common story to thwart an invasion of some sorts by bug people or even the time travel gig of the last movie. It should also have a party system of two players to mimic how agents work in the lore of Men in Black, heightening the depth of gameplay as a player and his/her good friend attempt to make it to the top of the progression chain. One can also imagine some pretty awesome PvP setups between different partnerships.

Black suits and big guns. Life is sweet.

Equipped with the Neuralizer and a bajillion guns, agents have to make sure they know how to cover their tracks by sneakily confronting the earth-society-integrated aliens without alerting the general populace to their existence. Doing so could compromise the state of your server and could be host to a bunch of random world events based on every agent’s actions. The Holy Trinity seems like it wouldn’t work here, so action or shooter is definitely the way to go. That and slick black suits.

 

5. Avatar (Nickelodeon Series)

No, it didn’t start out as a movie, but it does have one, albeit a very bad one, so it should have an MMO that is the polar opposite of it. The idea of benders manipulating the natural elements can spark quite a lot of ideas in terms of gameplay. Earthbenders could specialize on tanking, firebenders as dps, waterbenders as healers, and airbenders could be wildcards where they could possible be jacks-of-all-trades or just plainly support classes. Factions would be awesome, but I can’t imagine any developer being able to balance four different factions before exploding into a sorry pile of goo a few days after launch.

SO COOL

The classic skillbar gameplay could very well fit nicely with how benders have associated powers and roles as in the series, but the action style of MMO gaming could be just as good, or perhaps, even better. It doesn’t even have to be based on the Last Airbender or the Legend of Korra, but it could explore the past, much like SWTOR, or the future past the main series. It has an expansive, colorful world where so many stories and experiences could come about due to its Asian theme and steampunk motiff (as of Legend of Korra).

 

Honorable Mentions

There are a couple more movie ideas we had, but some of them seem difficult to craft an MMO around, but they do seem pretty plausible and could possibly become something great.

1. The Ocean’s Series

There’s just really something badass about being a theif and being classy about it.

If you are familiar with the Payday games, you know how possibly great the bank robbing motif can be. As good as a game as that is, it’s no real MMO and no way at all reminiscent of the sophisticated heists of the Ocean’s franchise, simply being a sneaky shooter with some depth of the real thing, like taking hostages and yelling at them to get down on the ground. It’s a longshot, but an MMO focused on intelligent and clever theft with several different classes to further the goal can be awesome, but definitely not going to be something for everybody. Also, if the would-be game developer for an Oceans game attempt to be faithful to the original movies and actually require 10 to 13 people to participate in the heist, well, I don’t see that going too smoothly.

2. Highlander

I AM IMMORTAL! I HAVE INSIDE ME BLOOD OF KINGS! (Yeah!)

The popularity of the Highlander series is an odd one, most especially since the youth of today have no idea who Duncan Macleod is, and is primarily the reason why it wouldn’t make the list above. But past all that, the idea of creating a character in a Skyrim-esque world and expansiveness in an openly hostile world of other players trying to become the only one. One would imagine that combat is a free-for-all, with an almost inexhaustible list of sword fighting styles of both historical accuracy and fictional wonder. Hey, the Highlander has been living for like, forever, so I think he/she is welcome to invent their own style. Fighting another player in the game would end in the loser’s beheading, with the victor absorbing half of his skill points, experience, stats, and fighting styles, bumping down the loser to either perma-death(which is kinda awful from an average player’s standpoint), or just getting a decrease in overall level. It sounds hardcore, because the life of Duncan Mcleod is no cakewalk, and I can imagine the idea to cater only to the hardcore PvP crowd like those who were into Wizardry Online.