This Will Never Work
Welcome to the year 2000 2010. As you know, our Big Plan is to bring the best elements of the first-person shooter massively multiplayer online game genre to the console platform.
I know, you’ve heard this before. I know you are not impressed, because every time you hear this it either never happens, or you get a weak port of an otherwise excellent PC title that does not feel at all like a true console game, and then the publisher expresses amazement that it was not successful and blames the console platform. It happens every time, and now “they” are saying that FPS MMO games are just simply better suited to the PC, and that console developers should just give up and go build more Tomb Raider and Madden sequels.
We hear you, console fans. But this time it’s going to be different, because we are willing to chart a bold course and develop an FPS MMO specifically for consoles, which will allow us to take advantage of the unique features of the platform and give you a true console experience. The pundits still say we’re crazy, and that it will never work. I guess we’ll be able to look back in ten years and know who was right.
So, let’s talk about some of these “unique features” of a console FPS MMO…
Okay, that was a bit snarky, but the parallels are striking. I can’t tell you how many industry insiders “just know” that MMOs won’t work on consoles. They also “just knew” that FPS games would not work on console *cough* Halo *cough*, and they “just knew” that any game that required an accessory would fail *cough* Guitar Hero *cough*.
The problem, of course, is that they are looking at it through the lens of the games they can see today, rather than the games that might be designed differently tomorrow. Does anyone really believe you can take a game like World of Warcraft, polished though it may be, and port it to the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 and have a great game experience? Of course not. A great console MMO will require rethinking the fundamentals, starting with the user interface and all the way through the core combat mechanics, social infrastructure, avatar control, world interaction, and sense of pacing and scale.
More importantly, it’s not just about solving problems; it’s about taking advantage of opportunities.
Here are some opportunities we see for MMOs on consoles. These aren’t necessarily things you can only do on consoles (although many of them are), but they are instead things that are expected by console gamers and naturally supported by the platform hardware. We’ll be exploring these in greater depth in future articles. Take a look, ponder, and feel free to share your own thoughts on the best ways to leverage the console gaming experience into the world of MMOs.
Social Gaming (No Really)
Everyone knows that MMOs are social games, right? So why do so many people associate MMOs with the stereotype of the loner 30-something guy who spends all day in his mom’s basement surrounded by old pizza boxes? (C’mon man, that’s not us. It’s our roommate’s house, and we throw the pizza boxes out every day.) In some respects MMOs can actually be antisocial, because the PC is usually in an isolated room of the house, and because you can’t easily share the experience with your roommates, friends, or family unless they bring their gaming PCs into the same room.
By contrast, game consoles are often connected to large-screen TVs in the family room, which makes it easier and more fun to invite friends and family to jump into a game and play with you. A well designed multiplayer console game, such as Lego Star Wars or Lego Indiana Jones, provides a contextual split-screen view and makes it easy for friends to join you with easy drop-in/drop-out play.
Imagine if we could bring that to the MMO world. Imagine tossing a controller to a friend so she can quickly login with her character and join you wherever you are, right on the same screen. Or perhaps she logs in with one of your characters so you can show her around the game. Either way, it adds a new dimension to the “social” aspect of MMOs.
Freedom of Movement
Remember your first few hours with Super Mario Bros., and how the controller seemed to disappear from your hand? You became one with Mario; you stopped thinking about controlling him; he was simply an extension of your will. That’s some beautiful console mojo, and something we hope to achieve in our MMOZ. Leaving behind the mouse and keyboard for the console controller gives us an opportunity to make it fun to just move through the world.
Okay, we’re not going to achieve Super Mario Bros. perfection, but we can get damn close.
Visceral Hand-to-Hand Combat
Click target. Click attack skill. Wait. Click heal skill. Click area-of-effect skill. Click new target. Click ranged attack skill. Power players: Click target. Press ’2′. Wait. Press ’5′. Press ’6′. Wait. Click new target.
Okay, it’s not that bad, but it would never fly in a console game, so it won’t fly in a console MMO. We want to get in there and mix it up with the zombie hordes. We want to fight with crowbars, chains, spoons, and, well, banjos. We want the action to be in our face, hot, and bloody.
This is tough to pull off in an MMO, because you have to consider latency when designing your combat system. Having said that, we have to do it. This will be part design magic, and part technical magic, but rest assured that making a combat system that feels more like a console than an MMO is one of our top priorities.
Vehicle Combat
You’ll be fighting for survival surrounded by the abandoned products of 21st century civilization. Will there be cars, motorcycles, and trucks? Of course. Should you be able to drive them, crash them, and splatter zombies with them? Yes, please.
Destructible Environments
Would you accept anything less? Neither would we.
Fun With Physics
You may have noticed that zombies are kind of stupid. Sure, they can rip out your beating heart and eat it in front of you if you let them get you cornered. Or if they sneak up on you at night. Or if there are just too many of them… But they still behave according to known, or at least discoverable, rules, and you should be able to have fun exploiting those rules.
Building traps from objects you find in the world (yes, including crates, but probably not pressure plates), or channeling the shambling hordes through your murder holes and across your cleverly (or even poorly) concealed pits is part of the fun. By integrating physics not only for combat and vehicles, but also for the way the zombies interact with the environment, we can give you the power to use the environment to your advantage when fending off an attack.
Invisible Interface
I’m sure you’ve seen worst-case-scenario examples of MMO user interfaces that are cluttered with countless rows of buttons, status bars, notification windows, chat messages, and icon docks. (I wish I could post an image here, but our lawyers would probably shoot me.) This is one of the main reasons that hybrid games attempting to play well on both PC and console often fail. In general, console gamers expect interfaces to be more transparent and to “get out of the way” of the game world. Moving into the console world allows us to rethink the MMO user interface and design something that is leaner, lighter, and less intrusive.
Voice Chat
We often hear that the biggest design challenge to MMOs on console is the lack of a keyboard. It’s true that people are accustomed to chatting by text, and that there is a certain comfort in the anonymity that a text communication interface provides. However, we view the fact that real-time voice chat is both ubiquitous and expected on the console platform to be a huge opportunity to bring new community and teamwork dynamics into the MMO genre. A challenging opportunity, to be sure — do you really want the badass ex-Marine in your party to sound like a 13-year-old? — but we have some good ideas about how to solve those challenges. In any case, voice chat is the gold standard in the console world, so you can bet we’ll make good use of it.
This is by no means a comprehensive list of console-speicific features, but it’s a good start. We are excited to have the opportunity to rethink the MMO from the ground up so that it is, before any other consideration, an excellent console game.
We’d love to hear your ideas as well. Tell us what you’d love to see in a console MMO!
Next up: Zombies.
Jeff
Any games mentioned in this article not owned by Undead Labs are trademarks of their respective owners. No endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation between those companies and Undead Labs is intended. Please don’t sue us kthx.
I’m not trying to burst your bubble, because I very much look forward to the release of this magnificent game, but Sony Online Entertainment has already made an MMO for the PS2; remember Everquest Online Adventures? So, to all you nay-sayers, HA! It can, has, and will again be done. I also hope it doesn’t take you guys 10 years to finish it, I don’t think I can wait that long! I’m expecting a full scale zombie apocalypse in 2012, and, well, why dismember zombies on a TV screen when I can go out and kill them in real life?
When making the User interface please think to yourself “is this necessary?”, instead of having a crazy huge complex menu for buying weapons hows about you just have no menu at all. Just look at the gun you want, pick it up, and bring it to the cashier. This is just an example you might not even have shops in your game, but its a good example of how to evolve away from any menus at all.
Sounds like a bang up job! I still would like to see a garbage can used as a shield and a baseballbat as my sword. or a basball bat with knives in it.
If your making a city can we hop from roof to top to roof top to avoid the horde? and enter these building to raid them?
How about sewer systems?
I know it’s a zombie game but having a a mission where you goto hospitals and/or the mall to hunt a muntant zombie and bring its head to the market for money.
Awesome Jeff lots of new info and graphics. Time to update mmozed’s wiki
I am really *very* excited about the possibilities for this game. I have been following the MMO market for a long time now and eagerly await decent console MMO’s. I am currently tempted to buy a PS3 just so I can try out DCUO. I am eagerly awaiting more news about your game!
I feel very excited about this, and I’m eagerly following all of your updates! I know it’s a long way to go, but I can’t wait to see some gameplay videos. I’m convinced that they will be awesome!
One thing I’d like to comment on, when it comes to keyboard versus controller, is the huge advantage a controller gives for character movement. In fighting games for instance, or sport games like SSX, or adventure games like Zelda or God of War; there’s just no comparison. A controller lets you be acrobatic, and more connected to your character. You are a puppeteer rather than a commander, and it’s a huge difference.
Obviously, one could connect a controller to a PC as well, but for some reason that’s just as awkward as connecting a keyboard and mouse to a console. While both options are possible, I prefer to think of it as a cultural thing, rather than just a hardware issue. It’s a difference in standards, not in possibilities, and I think you are approaching this project from the right angle. I appreciate your perspective and ambitions very much!
What I’d like to see is a complete shift away from traditional traffic areas. One thing I’ve never liked about many MMOs is that the world is too static. For example, you have a town in zone X permanently under repair from an invasion.
Imagine instead the world is a recreation of a dense city, say Manhattan, in a downtown grid. Now at each end you have safe zones, fixed and permanent and likely where players begin their lives.
Outside of those two safe zones everything is fluid, without the traditional concept of towns and fortresses that exist in most MMOs. Players group together, close off an area and clear it of zombies. Someone with build skills starts walling off the access points while his friends watch his back and bring in more materials.
Once the area has been zombie free for long enough, it becomes a safe zone. It appears on navigation maps and NPC trainers/traders start moving to the area (likely giving someone an escort job in the process).
In return for their efforts the holders of the safe zone can choose to either charge an access fee (think bartertown in Thunderdome) and/or they can take a percentage of the trade that occurs in the safe zone.
Over time it will get more and more difficult to hold the safe zone due to the attention it attracts, eventually it gets overrun and everyone moves on to the next zone, making the world more dynamic.
Oh my god.
I love you. Well not actually, but this sounds absolutely excellent.
Polkm: One thing to consider is that you’re not dealing with a one-way buying experience. If this is a survival game it will involve a lot of scavenging and gathering of items that you trade for items that you need.
If it was one-way trade you could look at something like GTA4 where you walk around the shop, stop in front of something you want and push a button to buy it. You could still have such an approach, with a stop at the shopkeeper to sell something, but that would involve a menu and at that point you might as well buy while you are selling. Think Fallout 3 where you sell what you don’t want and buy what you do, all from a pretty straightforward interface when it comes to a console controller.
What Mike Hillyer said sounds pretty good!
I wonder though if it’s possible to make a game with as little information as possible of what’s going on in the world. For example, you could have a map, but it doesn’t update automatically. You need to explore and keep track of changes on your own. Kind of like Silent Hill 2, but with a more dynamic landscape. Also, you might not even have a map until you find one. Steal it from a bus stop perhaps? Now, where do you find a compass?
Communication between players should only be possible if you’re within an audible distance, or have acces to some type of communication system. You could put up signs, write on walls, or transmit messages by radio, but only people who find the right frequency will hear it.
Also, as your HP decreases, your character could become slower, weaker and less accurate. Remember cardio! Maybe this could be indicated without a health bar?
When it comes to User Interface… less tradition MMO, more Dead Space. Take the UI off the 2D screen and put the information right in the game.
the “visceral hand-to-hand combat” is pretty much what will make the difference for me. My biggest complaint in MMOs was “if I hit this button, I should be hitting the monster every time I press it.” instead of letting the character do all the work on auto attack. looking forward to what you come up with.
For cardio you go with a stamina bar. You can sprint, but the duration of your sprint will depend on your endurance level. Run out of stamina bar and you find yourself back at a walking pace and hitting softer in melee. For added realism you let the stamina bar go down when you haven’t eaten in a while, making food both a healer and a rejuvinator.
As for navigation, what I think would be interesting is making GPS available, but only once you have bought a unit, and only as long as you keep fresh batteries in it. In fact, make batteries a valuable commodity used for GPS, certain weapons, flashlights and for radios (imagine if streaming radio was an in-game information element, with staff announcers who play music but also broadcast news such as safe zone locations, in-game events, etc).
Hopefully for visceral combat we see something similar to Dead Rising, where you can grab random items from the environment and use them for combat. Zombie in your way? Look around, grab a 2×4 or tire iron off the ground and bash its head in. The early-game could revolve around fighting with what you have lying around while more experienced players start being able to afford the guns and ammo for advanced combat (which is when you start facing off against more frightening enemies like fast zombies and organized marauders).
Implement project Natal! game, using it as the main controller, maybe selling a separate device (fake sword or gun) for the natal device to recognize as a type of controller to complement each other in the gaming experience, maybe even implement button on those devices to interact with the game as well? You want to develop a game by thinking into the future.. look towards project NATAL!
This game will be an amazing creation by mankind.This is the game me and my brother predicted humanity will make.I just hope my console doesn’t explode in my face because it’s stated to have physics,vehicles,and realtime combat in an MMO.I wish the team the best of luck.
And offcourse there was Final Fantasy 11 on xbox, ps2 and pc.
I must agree with everyone that i’ll be looking forward to it and probably will pre-order it as soon that’s possible.
The most interesting part you wrote is i think the ‘Social Gaming’ paragraph, couldn’t agree more.
Good luck on development
One issue springs to mind: Loss.
Loss is one of the major themes of a zombie apocalypse. Loss of friends and family, loss of civilization, loss of power, law, and safety.
Death should matter in a zombie apocalypse. But death can’t matter in an MMO.
I have to say this is going the way of fallout 3 but as an MMO, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I’m more concerned on the fear aspect as to how your going to retain it and the abilities that will have us coming for more, the idea of the more you use a weapon the better you get at it comes to mind simplifying it to the extent that if you use a revolver you’ll get more head shots then someone who just picked it up.Its gonna be a tough road but I’m cheering for you guys to give an experience that will have us defiling our pants and coming back for more
DC Universe Online is also trying to push the MMO brand onto the consoles with the PS3 version. They are going to try to put the console and pc servers together and combine the experiences. It is due to be released later this year and I am wondering are ya’ll going to do something similar or just console. Also seeing as this game is still in the early development stage, if an new generation of systems come out as this generation is entering the fifth year are ya’ll going to be able to port it to new systems easily?
@Maxwell, many MMO developers have announced plans to release a PC port on console, but to date we have not actually seen one. I’m not convinced that an MMO designed for PC and then ported to console can be a great console gaming experience. For what it’s worth, I think the converse is true as well. For the record, I love both PC games and console games, but while the PC has several top-notch MMOs, the consoles have none. Thus, our mission.
One of the main things I’ve been fearful of when it comes to creating an FPS MMO for consoles is the lag. Multiplayer online games like Halo or CoD work well because they have small maps with a set number of players. But when there are a “massive” amount of players, it feels like lag would definitely pose a large problem for gameplay. Personally, I’m tired of the point-and-click style of most PC MMOs, but I have to admit that it’s nearly impossible to mess that up with lag. But twitch-based gameplay requires targeting, timing, etc, things that would be horribly murdered with the lag that comes with many MMOs. Fallen Earth almost had it right, but in the end it’s still point-and-click. I would love to see a way around this lag vs. twitch-based gameplay thing.
“But death can’t matter in an MMO.”
——
More accurate to say it hasn’t mattered so far in an MMO. What if instead of having to find your “corpse and re-incarnate” or “find your corpse and loot it for your stuff” there was no corpse, instead just one more zombie at the spot you died who looks like you. Your stuff is gone, your money is gone. You wake up at home with only the things you had the foresight to put away for such a situation. If death means losing everything you have on you instead of a minor delay while you recover it will have people behaving with the caution that this kind of a world will demand. Of course, an actual scary, fearful environment will still be up to the person’s imagination. I’d say at this point though we’re not talking of a fresh outbreak scenario but rather a world where zombies are the norm. Look at ZombieLand; in a world of survivors you’ll have more people like Tallahasee who consider zombies a nusiance rather than a source of terror, otherwise they would not survive.
As for lag, I don’t think it will be too much of a challenge. While the world may be full of thousands of players there generally won’t be more than dozens in close proximity at any given time.
Its nice to see another update in a short space of time!
You raise some points that I’m glad you’ve touched upon as well. I know for a fact in my house that as a console, its the main TV that gets used, so preferably I like games with a 2 player options so my Girlfriend can join in too!
I wonder if there is anyway in which you can alter the voice feed on games? like change pitch? Could be an interesting addition to try and combat the scenario you raised?
Regarding physics? Rag-doll physics are always welcome in games as far as I’m concerned.
Still wondering how you guys are going to approach this..
I keep picturing something like Left 4 Dead, from a 3rd person perspective, in a Crackdown/GTA4/Prototype Environment with something like Dragon age levelling up abilities, and a strong influence from the ‘Zombie Survival guide’ and ‘Urban Dead’. If that could be done, it would be the best zombie game to-date, bar-none.
Yes! As few onscreen HUD stuff as possible. There’s nothing more aggravating than sacrificing crucial visual space for unnecessary character info. I have really enjoyed games that are straying away from this design. It’s fine to have while introducing a player to the game, but you should have a pretty good idea how much damage you’re taking or how exhausted you are by the condition/behaviour of your character.
I’m so excited about the Social Gaming part! I really hope you get it done and that it forges a new standard in the (console) MMO market.
Nice comparison with the FPS discussion back then. When bringing a genre from one platform to the other, it’s necessary to think outside the box (or rather inside the box in term of consoles). A simple port which does not take strength and weaknesses into account won’t work. I am sure MMO’s will work on consoles but they will be different to MMO’s we know from PC’s now.
(Sorry for my bad english, i’m french.)
I’m glad to see that you’re taking risks to make a good MMO. I agree with making a minimalistic interface because i think the atmosphere is very important in a zombie game. I have no problems with menus that can be removed from the screen, but i think that health and stamina bars should be avoided.
Voice chat could be very interesting in that kind of game, especially if zombies react when players talk too loud.
Finally, I agree with Mike Hillyer : it would be fun if players could clear an area and secure it, restore the electric current…
I hope that your project of making an MMOZ will work, because there are tons of players who wait for a game like that one. The number of zombie mods created by players in various games reflects that fact.
I’m really excited to see how you address all of these points in game, and I harbour a secret hope that the UI decluttering has some reverse impact on the PC MMOs that follow.
One thing I’d like to see you address is regarding chat. With voice chat totally replacing text chat, it’s hard to imagine any kind of general discussion channel. Also, please bear in mind that for some people, internet anonymity isn’t just about comfort or being able to post trolling comments without consequence; it’s about freedom from harassment. (Just log onto Xbox live with a young, female-sounding voice sometime and you’ll see what I mean.) Since female gamers are a growing MMO demographic, I hope you’ll provide us some way to weed out the groups we don’t want to game with, without having to put up with hours of frustration first.
undead labs ftw, u guys rock and i cant wait to see what elce u come up with
and now that ive fully read everything
, would be interesting of there were main buildings (mall, army base, school) so on that players could aquire in raid style of play (clear our the place, fix it up, build defenses and so on) makeing a new hub to trade and try to survive the zombie mayhem.
In that sence it would give players a place to call home that they would in turn have to defend and supply to get the various perks such a place would give. (place to fuel up and customize vehicles, craft new weapons and so on)
For that though regular zombie attacks against it would have to happen and in such a way to make it a challenge keeping it, maby a mod could manage the horde and some way to up the difficulty if it seems too easy.
Anyway that’s my two bits, good luck
i agree with anto that is my vision for 2012! but all the same the game will take a long time to develop considering all the awesome ideas such as making traps for zombies and such. but i dont see how you can seamlessly blend the destructable enviroments in an mmo. there will be permanent changes on each server unless you have set respawn times for the enviroment wich could cause people glitching into the floor or a wall thus making them frustrated that they lost their best weapon because of a bug. also the realism would be sacrificed if you went the way of traditional mmo in which quests are the main. PLEASE don’t do that. maybe have like some events in game on special days or more EXP on the weekend. also you can’t have specific rooms for each game*such as CoD* because it would be horrible! sorry if im rambling but ive been waiting years for this game and i want to help get it right! 3 more things and ill finish. voice chat is a wonderful idea! also i think a pet system later on would be genius! imagine rescuing a dog from the clutches of a zombie horde and training it to fight by your side! or to detect infected refugees trying to enter your safe house! or even to breed to have puppies for future members of your group! lastly for deaths you should be able to insure your favorite 3 items for your next live.*such as your pet* *wink* and there could be production skills for traps* or growing food. sorry that was 4 but still i love what u guys are doing and good luck!
I’m excited.
I am curious as to how you plan to deal with the voice chat feature with people running around you.
specialized chat groups? Party/Guilds/Friends/General?
And even still a general group you would probably need to address it as a distance between the player from another player. So that if you walk into an area with 1000 players, you don’t hear all 1000 yapping away.
And obviously we’ll need some quick block tool for when the annoying people come about. Maybe like.. having the nuisance player highlighted and pressing the ‘back’ button on the xbox controller causes instant block.
Sounds good guys! I can’t want.. A 3rd person mmoz would be endless fun with friends!
Sounds Fan-Tastic! I think that by now [2010] that the “ideal” zombie game has been thought out. I dislike current MMO’s because everybody feels so impressives killing lvl 30′s by pressing 1. 2. 3. and …. maybe 7 if hes got magic auras. But Magic IS VERY COOL, it glows on the screen. Lets get in the action already and not be dangling on a ledge like in Prince of Persia.
Beutiful cities ecksite me and duke nukem zero hour multiplayer is one of my favite games! ~~~~~
This is such an awesome idea that the OP and this company are working on. I will be anxious to keep reading more updates on this topic.
I see (in my opinion) a major flaw in a console bazed mmoz, what happens when theres a guy on an xbox playin with a guy on a ps3? the xbox controller has way more buttons therefore giving him an unfair advantage?
sorry said that wrong ment over way round
Think of a left 4 dead and borderlands combo. Also the idea of making “safe zones” is great though you would need to think about feudal Europe
Hearing all this talk about “making safe zones” makes me cringe. With a zombie survival game you don’t want to focus around winning, but survival! I want to be gunning down undead with 3-4 friends only to have the largest horde I’ve ever seen run us all down. I don’t want to survive, I want to die fighting or have to run blindly through abandoned houses while crying over the fact that I shot “Tom” in the knee first to make sure I’d have a good gap of time to get away.
Am I the only one who would like to play a zombie MMO as a zombie? I love the ability to play as the bad guy and liked what they did in Left 4 Dead, but I would love to see something like an MMO with it.
It would also add to Mike Hillyer’s idea and make the game feel like an all out war. I think that this dynamic landscape would make the game way more intense and deeper than any game ever seen before. People could help to build defenses and secure the locations,and if one side or location became too powerful there is a simple solution, natural disasters.
lol @ anto, TOM..NOoooo ,
I do think people are making these “safe zone” ideas way too complex. Everyone needs to keep in mind this is an MMO, not LEft 4 dead or Fallout 3, there will be hundreds if not thousands of players logged into each sever. There will be certain zones that will be safe and probably defended by NPC’s, but other than that this game should be about killing zombies and trying to gain possesions needed to survive in a post apocalypse zombie ridden world. That said, it would be a neat idea to have end game content for players who reach maximum level. Personal Outposts with defenses for themselves and their friends to hang out at and attract zombie hordes? They could be constructed from materials obtained via end game quests or enemies. Lastly, I really like everything the Undead team said in their article, a great start on things that need to be adapted for the console MMO, keep it up everyone, cant wait to see some solid content reports in the future!
Great Concept- I figured it was only a matter of time for a zombie MMO. Pretty bankable right now.
The console is pretty much an untapped market as far as MMOs go as well. Its a natural progression, considering consoles are just little PCs now anyways.
My only gripe is that voice chat is the worst thing to come along to gaming in my lifetime, and given the demographic- this is likely going to have a horrible community unless some major steps are taken into moderation.
Keyboards work for people like me, because I don’t type something unless its worth saying.
Anyhow, good luck and enjoy the creative process.
I can already hear the roar of my souped-up dump truck squishing zombies…. That is, if you can customize vehicles (pleasepleaseplease). But if I could only ask for one thing in this game, it’d be good shooting, stabbing, slicing, splattering and thwamping mechanics. Like you said in the article; I want to play AS my zombie-killing-bad-a**. Not tell a zombie-killing-bad-a** what to do. Anyways, you guys (and gals) are doing a stellar job and I hope for your best success.
P.S. Sorry for the wall of text.
P.P.S. Gameplay video?.. Had to try.
P.P.S. I just want you to know, if it were physically possible, I’d bare this games child. Destructible environments, awesome combat, non-complexed HUD, physics, exc… As for the voice chat problem, just have it were you can create a squad, and talk to everybody in that squad. anyways, sorry for double-post.
I have been an MMO/FPS Gamer/Zombie Enthusiast for the lion’s share of my life. I am putting all of my eggs into your basket and I trust you to make my dreams come true. You may think I am crazy but put out some cool merchandise so I can start supporting you guys.
@Andro – lol you just summed up everything that should be in a dangerous zombie apoc mmo experience. You are totally right and kind of funny too.
I want to say, I wish you all the best Undead Labs with your creation. I must say that outside of the recently released Red Dead Redemption, my most anticipated game genre for multiple reasons is a brave dev team to bring an MMO to next generation console in a proper way. Being able to drive with moving suspension in a vehicle that barely runs as a i drive frantically away from zombies and run over friends just to survive all within an MMO dynamic zombie infected world.. gives me the chills. I’d pre-order this game as soon as I’m able to.
If i like the early screens and videos you show, i’ll be a good person to have promoting your game. I’ll tell everyone about it. Not to mention all the public attention you will Naturally get being someone who is saying this WILL come out on consoles. I don’t want to hold my breath but i might need to.
Lots of great ideas on these comments too.. fellow zombie lovers rejoice!
Undead Labs,
Please forgive the length of this comment but it’s all there to prove a point. You guys are brilliant.
About a few hours ago, I had a really great idea. I was thinking that all MMO’s are really the same these days, even the FPSMMO’s follow much of the same formula. They are missing something, a way to pull you into the world and the lore without taking out the most important element, fun.
Obviously I’m not the first one to feel this way, countless MMO’s have tried to change it up, but sadly, most fail.
I figured a FPSMMO is on the right track, they have lots of action and almost forces teamwork, which I think is essential in any Multiplayer experience. However, I’ve found that the action is repetitive almost immediately, which is inevitable for a FPS in some ways (there are only so many ways you can shoot a gun after all).
They need two things that no MMO I have ever played can give. An immersive experience, and choices that affect other players. Yes, you may have chosen to cast “Sunder Armor” and that affected your parties’ damage but that’s not my point. What if you could choose to leave your party behind while you make off with all the ammo and your life? What if you wanted to group up with someone for the extra ammo or health etc. but you’re worried he/she will slow you down? No MMO could bring that kind of an experience quite like a ZMMO could (sorry guys, it just makes more sense).
So that was my genious idea I had this afternoon. Naturally, the first thing I did was look up Zombie-MMO and found out you have already realized my dream and more. You have some great ideas and what I’m really happy with is that you seem very concerned about player feedback and the game has only just been announced.
That said I would love to discuss more ideas with you and the other fans who share our passion for the living dead. I’m no developer by any means (would be a dream job but not an easy field to get into), but I feel I have some good ideas and would love to hear more of yours. Please keep us/me involved!
P.S. Since I am mainly a PC gamer and sad to hear it is console only (though I would seriously buy a 360 just to play this if it’s good) I have to give you guys credit. It takes major cojones to say “We’re developing an entirely new genre of MMO. Oh yeah, and it’s console only too.”
@Jeff,I’m so glad to hear this game is still in the making! I been dreaming for a game like that for a long time!I just want this to work out,because every time I hear a MMO coming to console it’s canceled and they just make a PC well let’s not have this on PC.Make a console ONLY they get all them.I just tired of following a MMO to just find out they ditch it for the PC like the game APB(All Points Bulletin) which I followed for close to 6 years! I felt like a big waste of time. What I would like in this game is too have the customization that’s in APB where is is total everything I would like to have my character if you could have clothing for Police Officers,SWAT,and much more? Also drive police cars like Dodge Charger and Crown Vic’s.
I cannot wait for this to make reality! I see some lofty goals are set for how the fundamental game design will be brought to a console, I feel voice chat, clean screen, extended use of physics, destructible environments,vehicles, and real time interaction between the players and the zombie hordes is all key.
Now a console point of PVP, PVE, grouping, social interface, and the like needs to be implemented correctly. I know Undead Labs is having intense meetings right now on how to make this work.
Thanks for the update, sounding good so far!
OK, so I’ve been pondering on a few game mechanics that many MMO’s have that simply wouldn’t work on a ZMMO. Things like dying. It wouldn’t be a survival horror if you could just turn into a ghost and run off to find your body and possessions (plus it just doesn’t correspond with the plot).
However, killing off a character entirely, (forcing them start all over again as I saw in another comment on here) isn’t really an option either. Though it’s an interesting way to encourage teamwork and survival, I can only see too many people becoming frustrated that they just lost all the weapons and ammo they spent hours gathering.
What I propose is this:
Jeff had mentioned that he would like to see zombie players incorporated into the game somehow and many people have already suggested that if you die as a human you come back as a zombie. No brainer (hehe) considering the plot really, but it doesn’t solve the issue of losing your beloved character whom you have spent countless hours on.
Soooo, I was thinking what if there is an antidote of sorts. Now hear me out on this. Let’s say you and your friends are blasting away at some zombies when some manage to flank you and you die. You then become infected and have a certain amount of time until you become a zombie (maybe more time for less experienced players) with the option to become undead right away. In this time another survivor (friend or maybe just passerby) can revive you with antidote he/she found on a dead hazmat dude or something. You then wake up with all your loot and character.
Now, let’s say you aren’t revived in time. You become a super fast zombie with high damage and all that good stuff, and you hunt down survivors in that area. All the survivors with the antidote will show up on your radar/map/compass what have you. Once you kill a survivor (bear with me on this) you can take his/her antidote and become human again. Maybe the virus is slow moving and doesn’t fully take over the brain for some time, I’m not really sure on this part so ideas are welcome.
Another thought I had about this method is what if when you find a dead survivor you press A (Or X
) to interact with him/her and you are prompted as to whether you want to revive him (assuming you have antidote) or loot his corpse. If you loot his corpse you lose the option to revive any other players for a long time and when that corpse gets up, it’s only YOU that shows up on his map. Therefore if you loot someone you may have to face the consequences later and a player that is looted still has a chance to get his stuff back once he kills you and uses your antidote.
Personally I think it’s a great way to solve this problem and add originality to the genre. The looting also creates a sense of morality and mistrust, something we all know zombie tales are full of, but MMO’s are sorely lacking.
If Jeff or anyone has any ideas on how to improve this I’d love to eat…er, pick, your brain.