What does a Mass Effect MMO look like?

"Daunting but interesting" is how they're describing the potential Mass Effect MMO. So far, it's as nebulous a statement as you'll ever come across. The Doctors have already gone on record to say what amounts to yes, maybe, not entirely no, it's possible, and no comment about the possibility of bringing Mass Effect's universe to a Massively platform. But with that fantastically vague "It's really interesting, I don't know. It's a tough one," Greg Zeschuk opened the door for thousands of fans to imagine their Shepard-driven world expanded by a population of – if lucky – millions.

They've hinted that the game would "lend itself to a different type of gameplay," possibly a reference to how similarly its sibling MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic plays to Mass Effect's single player.

And that there is the rub – BioWare has already birthed its Space Opera MMO. While Star Wars: The Old Republic is clearly a direct descendant of KotoR it also exists in large part because of Mass Effect, a game whose genetic code is in your face throughout the whole of TOR. Its ship and planetary navigation system even look like variations on Mass Effect's own designs, and with both games sharing the standard BioWare stamp of morality/conversation trees, companion relationships, and single-player focus. The difference is largely branding.

Is the Mass Effect universe enough of a unique selling point to set it apart from what TOR has already taken from BioWare's arsenal and put into a Massively format? Imagine that question from the position of a designer, rather than a fan.

Following World of Warcraft's success we saw a tedious ebb of clones that adopted Blizzard's format for success and clogged any creative drive rival companies might have had.

It's likely Mass Effect Online would follow what will now inevitably be considered an Old Republic MMO formula, and this rings of a similar creative bankruptcy. Could it legitimately depart from the path of companion relationships, which TOR has adopted? Could it veer away from the planet-hopping shared between both games, or the hard focus on narrative? Could a Mass Effect MMO exist without its fanbase being reminded of TOR's shadowy presence?

And by extension, could Mass Effect Online really lend itself to "different" gameplay? These are all part and parcel of BioWare's established take on game design, and varying from it would break from years of design tradition.

Ray Muzika hints at what this difference might look like, however – and it sounds like a strangely non-linear MMO.

"You need to let them [players] do everything they think they should do, and you can't block them from doing anything they think they should be able to do. You have to nail all the features and content that should be in that possibility space. Mass Effect is a big possibility space."

Where TOR embraces the corridors of a plotline and only occasionally allows its users to experience a world outside of their narrative, Muzyka's Mass Effect Online sounds like an open world.

Could a supposed Mass Effect MMO follow World of Warcraft, which encourages user exploration? Or EVE Online – equally Space-based, with its own planetary mining system? Neither of these sound like BioWare in style.

But it's worth pointing out that the firm has experimented with different styles of design already.

BioWare Montreal spent months designing a Mass Effect first-person shooter which eventually developed into the co-op mode seen in Mass Effect 3. The goal had been to create a multiplayer mode which combined the universe of Mass Effect with the styles of Unreal Tournament and Battlefield 1943, to release as a downloadable title.

However even the idea of BioWare veering away from its standard narrative formula circles back to the issue at the core of Mass Effect Online. The essence of the current Mass Effect franchise is its story and characters - varying from that would be ludicrous - yet this is something we've already seen in within an MMO in the form of TOR.

Whether the universe of Mass Effect alone is enough to fuel the game, well, we'll see.