Our world is filled with a great many fantasy IPs that have a huge range in how they are portrayed and what is or is not included in their world. Some of them are more of science fiction, where others takes place in our own world. There are already many existing MMOs that are based on IPs that have been around for a long time. One of the most well-known is Lord of the Rings Online, but there are of course thousands of fantasy IPs out there that could be made into great MMOs. We have compiled a list of 7 IPs that would make great fantasy MMOs.
This is a series of books and a TV show that most people have heard of at this point. It is one that would fit great as an MMO and seeing how popular it has become the last couple of years, plans for an MMO cannot be that far away. It is a fantasy world where the monsters and creatures are rarely seen but definitely talked about, and where politics and reign over the lands stands at the core. The world created for A Song of Ice and Fire would make a great faction based MMO. Imagine if all factions in the world were governed by players, where cities where being handled by those factions and if a greater threat came from beyond the wall the factions would have to come together or perish. The best way for this MMO to succeed would be to put it way earlier than the time from in the books, only using the world and all that comes with it.
This is another series that has gone over to be a fantasy TV show with a high budget, and one that there are a lot of split opinions about. Whether you like the TV-show or not wouldn’t really matter in this case, but what does matter is that we have great lore and an interesting world to explore here. This is one of few fantasy IP that takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth. It takes place long after our civilization has gone under and new races, such as the Elves, have come to rule part of the world. This is an MMO that would open up for unique environments and great exploration incentive. Image ourselves moving around a lush fantasy world where you can run into bridges and buildings from our current civilization. Or exploring the underground and finding places from our time that has been saved in certain ways.
This is one of those franchises that has probably already has been pitched as an MMO in some sense but never made it past that point. Harry Potter is read and watched by so many people of all ages that an MMO based on this universe would instantly have a steady player base. It would, of course, be a game focusing on magic, one where leveling up would take players through the ranks of a magic school like Hogwarts. It could also be an MMO with stealth aspects where the player could explore the world of muggles and try not to get caught using magic. Plus having the opportunity to play real matches and tournaments of Quidditch would be a huge plus in PvP and something that alone would bring in players.
Just like Harry Potter, this is also a franchise that is so well known and expansive that it almost comes as a surprise that we don’t have an MMO based on it. This would be an MMO where character customization would be at the core. One of few MMOs where you can play as all sorts of animals, where you could have a tank squirrel and a healer eagle. Even if humans would be playable, I am guessing that the world will most likely be populated by cute animals doing extraordinary things.
MMOs not taking themselves so seriously and having a large quantity of humor is something we are really not spoiled with. And the perfect way to introduce this in a large scale would be with an MMO based on Terry Pratchett’s long-running Discworld series. To discover the humor that exists in his world together by seeing how civilization moves from a classic medieval setting to a more technological driven society would be an interesting setting for an MMO. It would also be great for an MMO that has dragons, monsters, demons and magic in it, but that makes jokes about it during the course of the story. The Discworld series also has a tendency to discuss really serious topics in an easygoing way, something that could make things very interesting in an MMO.
The fact that no one has made an MMO or even a game based on this great world is a real shame. This series combines a high fantasy Arthurian legend with great quests and a classic western world. The series lets you jump between different worlds, which would let you explore all sorts of environments and dress thereafter. Having the opportunity to fight monsters alongside your friends with both swords and good old revolvers seems like great fun from the start. Western MMOs are something we rarely see, and combining western with fantasy would create a game that will include players from both worlds.
The first book in the series called The Blade Itself sets a new standard for fantasy fiction with a great sense of black humor and heroes who really don’t want to be heroes. This is an epic fantasy world full of contrasts and gray choices instead of the regular black and white. There is no pure evil here, only that people do bad things for good reasons and vise verse. Using the classes and their ideals that is brought up in this series would make an excellent addition to the MMO scene. We have a barbarian who hates killing and a torturer who loves everyone. Seeing this implemented in an MMO would be really interesting and flip the class systems we are used to.
There are a huge amount of fantasy manga and anime worlds that would make excellent MMOs. There are so many that they deserve their own list. A few really worth mentioning include: Sword Art Online, .hack//Sign, and Log Horizon. Sword Art Online could be a fantasy MMO with 100 floors and the floor boss can only be killed once which opens the path to the next floor. This would be a unique MMO where the race towards killing floor bosses would be huge. While .hack//Sign is a series that takes place inside an MMO where PvP and exploring new places stand at the top. Last, but not least, among these mentioned is Log Horizon, which takes place in a fantasy version of Japan and has a deep class and crafting system that would become an excellent sandbox MMO.
This is our list of 7 fantasy IPs that would make great MMOs, and as mentioned in the beginning this barely touches on the fantasy IPs out there. What games on our list do you also want to see as MMOs? Which ones could we do without, and what is on your list?
The Final Final Fantasy XIV Fanfest of 2015 .
Listed: 5 Reasons You Should Give The Elder Scrolls Online a Second Glance .
Beta Data: July 4, 2014 .
Blogger Bonanza: Another Week of Blaugust .
Need for Speed World: Different Game Modes, Different Objectives