The Digital Continuum: Let's talk about the Fallout MMO

by Kyle Horner Nov 1st 2008 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Opinion, The Digital Continuum

Fallout 3 is out this week and I've spent a whole lot of time exploring and fighting in Bethesda's singleplayer MMO world. I've always wondered whether a post-apocalyptic MMO would work well or not, which is part of the reason I've kept a close eye on Fallen Earth in the past. But what's always been in the back-burner of my mind is whether or not the Fallout license would be necessary for a post-apocalyptic to flourish. While endlessly exploring our own personal post-apocalypticia is incredible fun, do we want a massive one?

The first thing to address is the why of a post-apocalyptic MMO. The fantasy genre offers us an escape into a magical world. Superheroes allow for all sorts of wish fulfillment. So what does a big, giant wasteland offer up? The human endeavor and the chance to help or impede it. Fallout is a world where corrupt corporations, mislead governments, slavers, raiders, mutants and worse all threaten humankind. Wasteland Earth is practically a siren song for challenging heroics, and an easy temptation for cruel villainy.

We often hear concerns voiced for the surroundings a wasteland would offer up. Cases are made against a vast MMO filled with grays and browns of demolished civilization. For some reason, even though Fallout is founded on a 1950s that lasted until 2077, was blown up and is now full of giant mutated creatures, zombie-like Ghouls and other crazy larger-than-life ideas, it can't possibly be imagined to have diverse -- even beautiful -- locales. Let's not forget that Fallout 3 is set 200 years after the bombs have dropped. Nature is no slouch, it does not rest on its laurels. Give it a couple hundred years and nature will reclaim much of the world of itself, actually. The artistic thing to do would be to take creative liberties, paint important places with greens and other colors. Then, rely on the world to offer you awe-inspiring imagery. Lots of people are familiar with Times Square or the Seattle skyline -- just imagine the powerfulness of that imagery blown up and worn down.

Then we come to the subject of combat. The V.A.T.S. combat proves that RPGs can deal with guns in an interesting way. There's the Tabula Rasa route, where gun-play is handled like an FPS but calculated like an RPG -- although that method seems to please less players than it satisfies. The only reason Fallout 3's combat is so enjoyable is because of the pause action of its combat. Being able to target specific body parts is a huge boon to the game, because it adds a nice tactical layer on top of what would otherwise be a run-n-gun experience determined by dice rolls. So how to deal with the problem of players pausing the game indefinitely? It's simple, really, just add a timer. Allow players to have limited turn-based moments, but keep a timer involved so that the pause can't be abused in PvP. It'd even be worth testing to see if having a timer only in PvP situations worked just as well.

An MMO that offers players a chance to truly experience a world in dire need of help, that's what a Fallout MMO should be at its core. And it needs to be Fallout because of the spirit, lore and ferocity of the world that's been created. Although combat and exploration would most certainly play highly important roles too. There really isn't any reason for a Fallout MMO to work and work quite well. Worryingly, the nearly lifeless husk that is Interplay currently owns the rights to such a thing. So even if it does come to fruition, we may not really care to play it. I hope that never comes to pass, though. I'd rather not ever have a Fallout MMO than see a mediocre or even bad one released.

Tags: bethesda, bethesda-softworks, fallen-earth, fallout, fallout-3, fallout-mmo, featured, fps, interplay, joystiqfeatures, nc-soft, post-apocalytic, rpg, super-mutant, tabula-rasa, the-digital-continuum, vault-boy, vault-tec, wasteland

Related From Massively

Market research company explores MMO gaming
15 hours ago
MMO Family: Virtual worlds for kids
7 days ago
Aika announces closed beta
16 days ago

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

MrGutts said on 9:09AM 11-01-2008

I think it would be a nice MMO, I can't think of any MMO's that have been out that set in the era as FO3.

purkit said on 9:21AM 11-01-2008

I'd point people to "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind". Thats post-apocalyptic, but has many fantasy elements.

As for why so many of us like the PA genre. Its the "Cosy Catastrophe" which we find engaging. The idea that this world can be wiped clean and a few brave souls can start it all again and build a better society. Or just to have the freedom to do and say what we want, without people telling us what we must do. We feel trapped in our day to day lives and the post-apocalyptic genre frees us from those lives.

I'd love to see a great post-apocalyptic MMO, I'm not to bothered if its Fallout, as long as its got some world building elements. After all, who wants to survive the apocalyptic and then have no say how it all turns out?

LaughingTarget said on 9:49AM 11-01-2008

A Fallout MMO has some great potential, but it has to be done right. The world has to be massive. Nothing is more irritating than having a post-apocalyptic world that's crowded. Any area that isn't a shanty city that manages to accumulate a large number of players will kill any feel to the world.

The turn based combat system can be done. With a world of the size it would need to be, combat can be done with the turn based system easily. Much like the original Fallout and Fallout 2, combat can be done in zones. As you're wandering the world and encounter an enemy, either alone or in your group, it could set up a combat zone border (probably given a green, transparent wall to show where it is), in which the player engages in the traditional Fallout turn-based game. They'll use their AP, the next player goes, the NPCs go, then it gets back to you, letting you use your AP again. Aimed shots take more AP than wild shots, much like the original game. Players crossing the green wall can get in on the combat.

I think it can be done. However, a Fallout MMO will have to make liberal use of ALL of the skills. Skills like science, which are best used for hacking, need to have a value beyond just knocking out robots. The world needs to be littered with bases, quests need to have a combination of people with great science skills, great medicine skills, barter skills and speech skills to complete, or at least get all the bonuses for completing it. They have to mean something. High speech skills get you access to better quests for example or boost the reward.

MeowCat said on 9:51AM 11-01-2008

Easy to say, hard to do, but I think it could be done. One way is to set it up so that 5% (or whatever) of the world is reclaimed by humans and those areas are the plush, green ecosystems. I suppose you could even have the "dark faction" always pushing against your global process of reinvigorating the planet. Did that even make sense? ....more coffee.

Tialla said on 12:16PM 11-01-2008

Also, remember things like GECKs. It isn't hard to bring that some places may exist that were created by such things--which /would/ give rise to more lush areas, when so transformed. After all, that was the entire idea behind the opening quest of Fallout 2.

InfamousBrad said on 11:50AM 11-01-2008

Neocron.

Look how well that worked out.

torak said on 6:09AM 11-02-2008

So because Necron didn't work out, no PA MMO's should be made?

Remember Horizons? When that didn't work out they should have stopped making fantasy MMO's...in fact when all these boatloads of fantasy MMO's didn't work out, maybe someone shoulda stopped making them, period. (AoC, Vanguard...) The genre is litered with garbage fantasy games and one or two PA low budget games.

Angel said on 12:09PM 11-01-2008

This is not an if there will be a FO mmorpg, it is more of a question of when it will come round. Does anyone remember the white paper that was released just over a year ago... The white paper that stated Interplay received something like 85 mill for the FO mmorpg they are developing?

Why really postulate the possibility of something coming to be when it already is in the works? A FO mmorpg will surface... lets just hope they do it well.

Tialla said on 12:20PM 11-01-2008

Angel, the problem does come up, however, that Interplay is under some tight restrictions--rules on how soon they must create the MMORPG, or rights will revert to Bethesda. So unfortunately...it not being released / being released before it is truly ready...is somewhat more likely.

That being said, there'll definitely be a Fallout MMO. The question is whether it is Interplay that releases it--or whether Bethesda will gain the rights to it instead due to those conditions, and will release the game instead. If they do, it'll be quite some time into the future before we see it.

sikk said on 6:25AM 11-02-2008

It can work as long as the IP can support it. After beating fallout 3 and seeing very little variety of npc's this would be a question I would ask myself if I were gonna be making the game. There's only so much an IP can offer until you use it all up and you have to first figure out if the IP can even support a MMORPG. Unless there's ALOT more stuff in the fallout world fallout 3 didn't show us I have a feeling that unless the game would be a sandbox mmorpg it would be hard to pull off. That's the great thing about creating your own IP for an mmo. There's no limit to the content and creativity.

Saerain said on 11:52AM 11-02-2008

Zenimax is the MMO studio attached to Bethesda, and the engine they have licenced is HeroEngine. Somehow I just don't see the Fallout setting being rendered in such a cheap, lightweight, 'maximum accessibility' kind of engine.

Saerain said on 11:55AM 11-02-2008

Never mind. I'd forgotten that Interplay retains the Fallout MMO rights. Zenimax's HeroEngine project is clearly something different.

PeterD said on 7:29PM 11-05-2008

The gameplay engine of Fallout 3 would not work for a Fallout MMO. Any system that results in the rampant pausing of another player's gameplay would have people quitting in droves. It doesn't matter if there's a time limit on the pause of an individual, if you have 10 people engaged in combat and each of them pauses to prepare their actions when they can, the battle will be paused virtually indefinitely, unless their is a cooldown on the ability so long that you might as well not have it.

Most MMO players don't have the patience for a true turn based system either, though Wizard101 seems to be doing passably well for a kids game. As much as I would prefer a turn based fallout, it's not a good fit for an MMO. Plus, it's interplay developing it, so expect it to be WoW in Fallout clothing.

Kyle Horner said on 3:01PM 11-07-2008

Wizard101 is a prime example of how a turn-based system can work. If kids (who often have the attention spans of squirrels) can handle it, adults should be able to as well. You're right that the V.A.T.S. mechanic as it stands now wouldn't work in an MMO, but i could be retooled to avoid waiting a minute-and-a-half every time people want to do something.

Stwalpurgis said on 2:38PM 11-10-2008

Correst me if im wrong but if i read right the second or third comment said it should be turn-based.... NO!! turn based mmos do horrible and as i saw the free motion of fo3 did much better than 1 or 2 so like i said, turn based mmos are horrible...