Wheel of Time MMO?

[Erkki]

So, there's going to be a WoT MMO (and possibly films and other games).

Since I'm currently reading the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, I have actually been thinking that it might be a good property to base a fantasy RPG on. Some aspects of the world and character interactions in those books are described in more detail than usual in fantasy novels (hence all the books are bricks where not much happens for hundreds of pages) and I think this is a good opportunity for some developer do an RPG that is a bit different. Not that I really hope that Red Eagle Entertainment (a new studio apparently) will handle it well, but I'm going to post my thoughts about what I think a WOT RPG should be like anyway (warning: long post).

First and foremost, the most important feature of any WoT RPG must be a Clothing Simulation Engine -- the engine has to do clothing better than any game before. I mean, the most repeatedly occuring thing in the books is women adjusting their shawls and deferring to other women, possibly both at the same time. A WOT game just wouldn't be the right without it.

But really, I was only half-joking. Even though I never quite managed to visualise all the attire described in the books, they are described in rather a detailed way and I would like to see that detail put to use in the supposed game. So a WOT game should take the clothing physics into the "next level" and possibly even make characters somewhat aware of their clothes: they should walk and behave differently depending on what they're wearing, etc.

This game should preferrably be in first person, with full body awareness, like Mirror's Edge, but you should be able to see your character more often than ME (cutscenes, mirrors, optional third person perspective?). The reason is that while the books often change between characters, the writing style is very much from inside the character's head, detailing their thoughts in quite onerous ways. In the game you should occasionally hear those thoughts in your head.

But more seriously, a WOT RPG would be a great opportunity to create a somewhat more interesting magic system that focuses equally on player skill and character skill. Player skill would determine the effectiveness of your magic and even what magic you can use, while character skill would adjust the difficulty setting.

To use the One Power the player would use mouse gestures or even play minigames, weaving the flows into certain patterns. It's the player's skill to weave them as best they can, but character skill will make it easier eventually (slowing down time while you draw the patterns, autocompleting complex parts). This allows the simpler "spells" to become more and more easy to cast, while more powerful magic would actually be quite hard to weave at first, being made up of more complex patterns. Making a portal for Travelling should be almost like a minigame, but warding against eavesdropping should be doable with a simple gesture. Of course, players shouldn't be forced to memorize the really complex patterns completely, so the system should give hints, maybe displaying possible known patterns while the player is weaving a flow.

Another side to the magic would be reading the weaves and their residue: you can learn new "spells" by watching the patterns woven by others, but it's the player who has to memorize and try to replicate them. Character skill can effect the readability of magic cast by others: how clearly the residue and active weaves are seen, for how long the residue is visible.

Magic should be something that is relatively rarely used, but powerful. For male characters, the Dark One's taint should make magic even more difficult to use.

Besides the magic system and the appearance of characters, I think another important thing would be the character behaviour. This should also be something that surpasses any RPG done before, as the WOT really is about the characters. I would expect awesome NPC AI, including group AI. For example, in case you would play a leader, you should have bodyguards that behave in a somewhat realistic manner (moving ahead of you etc.) but don't get in your way too much.

[mr.miffmiff]

There already is a WoT MUD (if you know what a MUD is). Actually there are plenty of them. As for MMOs... well... not seen one, but if you think there's one coming I believe you. Not that I'll play, I haven't even read the books. I was once just searching for a random MUD, and I found WoT MUD. First MUD I ever played.