Creator of Dreamfall to create MMOG

Games
1

Ragnar Tornquist, creator of The Longest Journey and Dreamfall, has made a looong post about his next project, some sort of MMOG:

I have a problem. I don’t know what to call the project that I’m currently working on, because the name is secret, the working title might also be secret, and since I don’t want to mess up any plans, let’s start by just calling it ‘The Game’.

Okay, so what is ‘The Game’? ‘The Game’ is:

  • Online, massively multiplayer, and persistent. (Might as well get that one out of the way.)
  • Completely original.
  • Not at all what you’re expecting.

What ‘The Game’ isn’t:

  • In any way related to The Longest Journey or Dreamfall. (Sorry, guys. That’s not happening yet. That does not mean, however, that it’ll be three years until we start working on the sequel. It could very well happen sooner - if it happens at all. Because I’m not saying it will. But I’m working on making it happen, one way or the other.)
  • Your standard elves-and-dwarves fantasy MMOG.
  • Ready to be revealed yet.

Unknown if one has to grind on cutscenes or not.

2

“Creator of Dreamfall to make MMO”? That’s like “ophthalmologist to invent new language.”

PS: “Completely original” MMO = “you still kill mobs to level up,” right? If so, your AMAZINGLY INNOVATIVE game might be, just a little bit, exactly like what I’m expecting.

In fact, couldn’t those bullet points describe Anarchy Online?

3

Isn’t he already involved in the Conan MMO? Same company, anyway, isn’t it?

4

Conan is the same company, yeah, but I don’t think he’s involved in it himself.

He should not be allowed to do anything else until after he finishes the second half of Dreamfall.

5

Ragnar: “W-what? You guys already know about the Conan MMOG? Shit!”

6

Uh, isn’t Tornquist’s company the same one as made Anarchy Online?

Why is his being involved in a MMO suprising?

7

Because of Anarchy Online? I KEED.

8

Speaking of Dreamfall, I literally just started it about half an hour ago. So far, it looks good, but man the controls are a pain in the ass. Jesus…

9

Tornquist wrote the backstory for Anarchy Online, which was eventually published as a book, “Prophet Without Honor”.

I wonder if this is a resurrection of Midgard.

10

You can switch the horizontal mouse axis in the settings. The game is essentially unplayable on the PC without it. It actually plays best, I’m told, with an xbox360 controller.

Whatever happened with anarchy online, anyway? Wasn’t it supposed to have an epic 5 year storyline, and then stop? It’s been 5 years since release, hasn’t it?

11

Get your ass into the options and invert the mouse axis and fix the camera behind your character. You’ll love it, seriously. The control scheme is backwards to the usual.

Oh, and yes, RT’s gotta finish Dreamfall first, and soon. I don’t think I’ve ever played so incomplete a story-based game.

[Edit] stusser beat me to it by a couple minutes as I reread some PC control threads in the official Dreamfall forums. Fascinating stuff. ;)

12

I fuckin’ don’t. I’m totally not interested in these guys making an MMO. Make Dreamfall’s sequel you fuckers.

Invert both mouse axes and you’ll get used to it.

Edit: Beaten. A lot. Almost as much as an Iraqi!

13

I played through Dreamfall on the PC using a Logitech PS2 controller ripoff. The game didn’t feel right with the mouse at all.

14

Funcom will soon take the place of Turbine:

“Bit more than they could chew.”

15

Is anyone else seeing a problem with RT’s new direction in genre? The guy makes games with awesome stories that keep us playing despite the gameplay. Now here he comes with an entry in a genre in which his strong suit is almost meaningless and his weakness will make the game an utter failure.

GG.

16

Did you ever read his ideas for the (now cancelled game) Midgard? I think he has quite a bit to add to the stale MMORPG genre.

17

Even after inverting the mouse the controls are a pain. I hate not being able to look up and down, often making it hard to look at things that you both want to and should be able to look it. Worse is the camera control, which handles close quarters poorly, combined with fights set in close quarters. I’ve had to reload several times because the camera panned to an angle where I could see nothing.

I’m a big fan of fighting games, and actually thought the action sequences might work out ok, but I now just wish they’d left them out. They’re poorly done, unresponsive, frustrating, and add nothing.

I still find myself kind of liking the game. Although the puzzles so far are all afterthoughts, the story is fairly interesting (for a computer game). I suspect I’ll finish it, but it’s definitely not one of my favorite adventure games. Maybe my hindsight is a bit too rosy, but I remember liking the Longest Journey better.