- ROBERTO jh
- |
- Fabled Heroic Member
Posted by: Flaming glacier
Posted by: ROBERTO jh
Posted by: roraj 196
Posted by: RKOSNAKE
You still think it's epic?
I can't believe anyone actually drew that thinking it was a good idea. Why? How is that even Halo?! It's just some cheap rip-off! The chainsaw... I mean, come on, Halo isn't some trashy, Saturday morning try-to-be-cool cartoon! And that AI, I mean seriously?!
If Bungie had done a Halo MMO, I'm sure it would have been great.
And if 343 do one, I have equal confidence in it.
The thing you have to remember about MMO's is that there needs to be all kinds of mind-blowing variety in it to keep it interesting to millions of people, to appeal to millions of people simultaneously. It needs to have the big government factions, and a -blam!- load of options in between the "good and evil" groups. It needs to have every aesthetic from functional to unconventional, to realistic to ethereal.
Bluntly, Halo's universe is not suited for an MMO. It is not diverse enough, it is too streamlined, and there aren't enough possible stories when the entire universe is built only off of one story. It is simply not big enough, and as the backlash towards Halo 4 "not being Halo" from the fans will tell you, the fanbase itself won't let the universe get big enough to ever be suited for an MMO. With that in mind, you can better understand the really bizarre look of some of these concept arts. They're the only way that a Halo MMO could ever work, which is to do something that wouldn't work in the Haloverse.
All that said though, if you stuck to the core of Halo, no stupid stuff that would mess up the timeline, continuity or anything like that, it COULD work.
See you're just proving my point about the fanbase, that they're too preoccupied with "Halo's core" to allow the universe to be an MMO. Star Wars can be an MMO because its universe is infinitely flexible with an infinite potential variety of creatures, cultural designs, and artistic styles. Halo can't be that because it is all centered on just one story. And for a story, it's massive, it built a whole universe. But as a universe, Halo really isn't that big, just decently sized.
Next to MMO giants like WoW or Old Republic, with their vast array of potential stories, alien races, creatures and characters, a Halo MMO would never work because the overall universe itself is designed entirely for one story. Every little tid-bit of canon we have ever recieved was all apart of one massive story. But MMOs need to be extremely versatile, something that Halo's plot doesn't allow. There would simply never be enough possibilities to appeal to enough players, be them in quests, artistic elements, factions (that make sense), gameplay abilities and so on.
We know, for example, how a Marine works in the UNSC. We know what his/her loadouts are and where his limitations lie. From a gameplay perspective, a player playing as a UNSC Marine could never, ever, take on a player playing as a Spartan and maintain canonical integrity. Which is where all of the weird, not-Halo-looking concept pieces come from. There needs to be all of this strange looking equipment to appeal both to the various artistic preferences to various fans and to gameplay, to ensure that a Marine can take a Spartan.
So you wouldn't be surprised if Marines started using acidic rounds, or EMP rounds, or some sort of strength augmenting stimulant or maybe even a special armor that adds +5 to your strength to equalize meelee combat against Elites. All things we know don't exist and wouldn't work in the universe's established context, yet all would be necessary for an MMO to work properly. Look at The Old Republic. Hundreds of various armors all with different designs and different functions, appealing both aesthetically and functionally. A UNSC Marine has only one armor set, and that is the standard issue Marine armor of the time. Yet for an MMO to work, you'll have to deal with hundreds of exotic looking armors all with traits and abilities like MJOLNIR, to equalize Marine combat abilities.
Then imagine the story ramifications. In a universe built entirely off of one story, resolution of any main quest conflict would inevitably impact the Halo story to some degree. The main quest would need to be big enough to feel satisfying, but versatile enough to appeal to everyone. It would also have to be different for each faction, or class. It would overcomplicate a universe built for only one story, making perfect canonical accuracy impossible.
Hell, even adding this equalizing armor that boosts Marine strength would effectively throw the Spartan program's signifigance in the trash.
So, ultimately, an MMO wouldn't work, not with the extreme protectiveness of the fans mixed with the way the Haloverse is designed. An RPG might, but not an MMO.