GTA MMO

[Vorthaaa]

I know there aren't any plans per se but some one needs to take the GTA engine and make it an MMO where every person in the GTA world is a player character. It's like they built the best MMO ever but stopped short of opening it up to more than one person.

 

[Elga]

That would be awesome! :gun:

 

[Bardie]

hell ya it would be, now come closer so i can throw you out of your car...

 

[TheCookieFamily]

I've always wondered what it would feel like to stab someone in the chest with a trench knife, virtually of course! Then put an M4 (BOMB) in someone's car. Virtually...duh.

Then I could steal all the crack I wanted from the people on the street.

 

[Torrent_of_Fire]

GTA is seriously the best gaming franchise that has ever existed.

 

[ChewingGumWarrior]

I don't really think GTA would make a great MMO... the whole point of the game is that the NPCs are fairly dumb and weak. A city full of intelligent uber strong other players wouldn't allow for much mayhem.

 

[ValenceTrident]

I don't really think GTA would make a great MMO... the whole point of the game is that the NPCs are fairly dumb and weak. A city full of intelligent uber strong other players wouldn't allow for much mayhem.

I think that's the point It would feel like a real community.

 

[Kunou]

I don't really think GTA would make a great MMO... the whole point of the game is that the NPCs are fairly dumb and weak. A city full of intelligent uber strong other players wouldn't allow for much mayhem.

Personally I feel it would entirely depend on the social tools built into the game. Implement a great guild.clan/gang (whatever you wanna call it) system into the game from the start with the ability to buy property to use as your gang base of operations, the ability to "take over" businesses (strongarm them into giving you protection money) to expand your turf, etc. Basically turn it into one huge turf war.

Or even better, since you have a much more limited area of play, and I can see it definitely getting crowded with 500+ gangs running around, and everyone's turf is only one building large... Have preset gangs (or factions if you prefer), basically the Russian Mafia, the Italian Mafia, the Yakuza, the Irish and maybe the American Gangsters (just throwing out random example names here) and players pick a faction to join during character creation. Then the goal of the game is to expand your factions turf, take over as much of the city as possible, etc. Guilds could be "branch families" of those main factions or whatever.

Dunno, just rambling off some ideas, I definitely think a GTA style MMO could work, it just needs to be more than just the Free Roam online mode available in GTA4.

 

[Lynk]

Solid idea for an MMO - I would buy it for sure.

Only problem I see with it is skill gains. I hate the leveling system, they should set it up to be more like UO where you get a skill cap and you have a choice of skills.

But how do you work skills for shooting a gun? Maybe the crosshairs are more steady the higher your skill is. You could have rifle/pistol/machine gun/ etc.

Driving skills that improve your ability to turn tight corners?

Or possibly no skill levels at all like it is set up now?

I dunno, however they do it, if they ever do, it I can't wait.

 

[Torrent_of_Fire]

Maybe an MMO without any skills or levels wouldn't be a bad idea. Something where power is derived from social contacts/networks and perhaps propery rather than the seemingly inescapable skill/level dynamic.

 

[Kunou]

The problem with no skills/levels is with an MMO you're expecting people to play longer than your typical single player console/PC game, even those with online components. With an MMO you want to hook players and hopefully get a couple years worth of play out of them. Without an escalating sense of accomplishment it's hard to keep people hooked. Granted, there have been exceptions over the years (Starcraft prolly being the biggest).

Generally, fighting back and forth over the same turf isn't going to give people the same sense of accomplishment and involvement as having a character that improves over time, either by gaining levels or skill points to spend, etc. If you're building a character over time you become attached to it, involved in it, you want to keep playing more to get better, etc.

 

[Torrent_of_Fire]

They might not log the same # of play hours but I think you'd get more players precisely for that fact. I think there's definitely a place for an MMO where people can log in, play, have fun and then log out without having to worry about maxxing out skill y or getting to level x.

 

[ChewingGumWarrior]

There have already been a ton of games like this. Guild Wars arena combat for one.

 

[Kunou]

Well you can have a skill based system without having it be the end-all-be-all, specially in a game like this. You can award skill points over time which can be used to unlock the ability to use upgraded weapons/vehicles, etc. Kinda like the unlockables in games like the Battlefield series, etc.

In one way you're right, you would have more players initially probably, but like most FPSes that have been released, there's a huge spike after release then it dies out over time. That's great for console/PC FPS games, their business model is based on initial box sales. MMO's rely on subscriptions, keeping players around for longer periods of time. With most players, you have to give them something to invest in, a reason to stick around, etc.

All that being said though, just having the GTA name on the box is going to sell it at this point regardless.

 

[ZorZorZor]

More people are playing CounterStrike online right now this moment than WoW. And that's, what, eight years old?