Is Harry Potter the Next Big MMORPG IP?

Excluding games currently in development, what Intellectual Property (IP) would you love to see come out as a next generation MMORPG?  My answer is easy and to some it will be cheesy, but I’d like to walk around in the world of Harry Potter. 

I’m a big fan of the books, listen to the popular podcasts and own all of the movies. For literary value alone, I give more credit to The Lord of the Rings.  However, the characters in HP are more compelling.  One of the criticisms leveled at LOTR when it was first published, was that Tolkien’s characters were very one dimensional – a little too stereotypical in nature.  I can agree with that to some level.  I don’t feel as though we know the central characters on a deep and intimate level, whereas with HP characters, I do feel as if we know them.

I’d be much more fascinated by roaming the rooms and halls of Hogwarts or strolling in and out of the shops in Diagony Alley, than seeing the locations of Middle Earth.  Not that the world of HP is any “better”, it’s more that it’s a road less traveled.  I’ve read LOTR so many times, re-watched the movies and every fantasy world that I’ve ever visited was to some degree, a road from Middle Earth.  For that reason, I don’t find the idea of seeing it’s sights and sounds nearly as compelling, as being a fly on the wall at the Weasley’s.

Any attempt to bring HP to the gaming masses would face the same issues as LOTRO.  You can’t have a thousand variations of Harry, Ron, Hermione and Voldemort clogging the hallways.  And since there can be only one, they have to somehow set the players in parallel paths to the main storyline.  You won’t be Harry or Dumbledore.  I’m certain of that fact.  No, you’ll just run into them some where along the way.  You’ll turn a corner or enter a room, and there one or all of them will be, mumbling repetitive non-sense to the adoring masses.  It’s rather demeaning in a way.  That in order to be a part of their world, we must trivialize them – almost dethrone them from the pedestals on which they should rightly stand alone, so that we may stand along side.  Similar to the player killing of Illidan in World of Warcraft for epics, I do and don’t want to be a part of it.  I want to see Illidan but I don’t want him pwned for phat loot.

Hmm, so maybe as much as I’d like to be a young wizard learning her craft in Hogwarts, and racing to the aide of Harry and his companions, it’s probably better for them, the books and Rowling’s legacy, that I never get that chance.

Comments

[ogrebear]

I talked about an harry potter mmo last week on my blog http://ogrebear.com/?p=72

I think it is possible, but EA owns the right for all games for harry potter, and EA dose not have the best track record for MMO's

[JoBildo]

The storyline stuff would be simple. Make it take place after the 7th book. Of course, Rowling would have to for sure be done with that universe for it to work. But when dealing with an Licensed IP, all those problems can be avoided if you do this. The problem with that solution then becomes... will people still be interested in the world without said characters? I think they would in Harry Potter's case.

[Sehlena]

Universal Studios in Orlando is opening a Harry Potter themed park in the next year or two. They're building Hogwarts Castle and a section of Hogsmeade. Could be interesting.

[Saylah]

@ Ogrebear ... EA and console games I have faith. EA and MMORPGs, I'll pass.

@JoBildo ... Hmm, not so sure Jo. If both the primary protagonist and antagonist are gone, the story losses a lot of it's appeal. There might not be a conflict after book seven. I guess they could have rogue followers become the problem.

@Sehlena ... Yes, I've heard and am excited. I don't have any little kids but if it gets good reviews, I'm going to have to wrangle some folks together for a visit.

[Derek]

I hope to God that Harry Potter never makes it into the MMORPG world.. I love the fantasy world - but I would hate to see that in a game.

I watched the first movie, and I will never watch another one of their movies... Just my opinion though.

I vote no for harry potter.. =P

Does my vote even count? haha

[Saylah]

Soomehow Derek, I'm not thinking so. ;-P

[WolfAversB14]

A Harry Potter MMO would be the only MMO that I'd buy.

Think about it. The underlying moral about magic in JKR's world is that you can do anything that you put your mind to. With that 'do anything' mentality, that could serve as interesting game play. Technically, anything in your field of vision could be manipulated...a tree, rock, bird, water, chipmunk, hair, excrement, ...not to mention people.

You start out in Hogwarts...or one of the other two if you wish, and progress through the '7-years' until you find yourself in the wider world. You can choose to be good or evil, you can choose an area of magic to specialize in, (though pretty much everything is within your grasp if you so choose). The trick would be to find someone to teach you the advanced techniques like occlumency, legilimency, animagus, and the unforgivables, (which should be the most difficult to achieve).

Death would be entirely different in this game. Seeing as JKR has enforce a 'What dies stays dead" kind of policy...that should roll over to the game. When a character of yours dies...it stays dead. All items you owned could then be taken. It would be easy to start a new character. After you find all of the secrets of the game, getting them for your character the next time around would be simple.

Also, the concept of the schools could be really intriguing. The longer you explore the schools, the more powerful and fluent in magic you become. Staying in school would be an easy way to level up your skills. Progressing through the years should just be quests that go really quickly, (each time you do, your character goes through a metamorphosis to look older...also allowing more character customization).

Dueling shouldn't be to the death. A person should be dueled into submission, (and when you've learned the killing curse...only then can you kill them).

[Saylah]

You've obviously thought this through and I like the sound of it. Some personal additions...If you die, you have the option of coming back as a ghost!!! You can haunt anywhere on the school grounds. You can't kills the players or become a nuisance but they should find something interesting for ghosts to do - like lowers a players magic skills while in your vicinity, lower morale or can assist friendlies on quests, etc.

I'd also like to see a method for becoming a teacher/mentor, choosing a career in the ministry or becoming a free agent. If you're a teacher you get your own room at Hogwarts, Ministry personnel get offices at headquarters and free agents can open up a shop! Damn, this is sounding fun and I want to play!

[WolfAversB14]

Damn, I didn't even think of the ghost aspect. That's kind of cool. And now that you bring up ghosts, I have one theory left over from before book 7 came out that could make being a ghost fun.

Again, this would be something that you would have to find, (I would like the bloody barron to be the teacher for this), but what if poltergeists are actually 'spells' cast by ghosts. It's the only magic that they can cast...to create a semi-solid being that can meddle with the living.

The BB is the only character that Peeves listened to, so possibly the BB created Peeves.

Oh, and we both forgot to mention Werewolves and Vampires.

[Saylah]

I definitely like the sound of being able to create Poltergeists. Hmm, if they want to keep it PG 13, I'm not sure if you can allow players to be werewolves or vampires.

[IFan]

They could make a really good mmo out of harry potter. The leveling process could take place at one of the schools. then when u hit wizzarding age u could pick a craft and go out into the wizzard world and get a magic job/quest. would be alot of fun.

[Ethalon]

There is
www.apareciumonline.com
a team putting together a harry potter mmorpg, and there is
www.freewebs.com/hogwartsmmo
they are also putting together a harry potter mmorpg, take your pick!

[Saylah]

Thanks for the information!

[Rohan]

I'd say that EA Games should hand down Harry Potter to BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT (World of Warcraft makers). As they do have the biggest MMORPG in the world with 15 million players.

Blizzard would do a better job than EA. Especially with graphics and gameplay.

[AurorDylan]

Yehyeh, i like my name too, :D

uhh, i agree blizzard should be handed the rights.

Peopleare selfish [EA], they don't care about how the game turns out, they just want their name and label on it, nor to mention the money profits, there should be a vote between these two, and admins for both companys should put their heads together. ty :]

[Darren Coleman]

I personally think a Harry Potter MMORPG would suffer the same problem as The Matrix Online - the main character is too dominant, everyone would want to be the next Harry just like they would want to be Neo.

[AurorDylan]

Yeah, that's true, although, having it able to make your own avatar, face, hair, etc.

Would minumise this problem.

[Saylah]

I purchased and played LOTR online where there are obviously very famous characters which the players aren't allowed to be in the game. Personally, I didn't find that to be a problem. We all realized that you can't have 500 Frodos running around Middle Earth.

What Turbine did instead was to integrate the presence of these legendary personalities into the game - and very early on. So you got to meet them and assist them by completing quests of various types. I think people would be fine seeing Harry and the gang, and helping them out in small ways to further the cause. Either that or they move the story forward to a time when they would be middle aged adults or earlier before they were born or just still babes.

[AurorDylan]

Yes, exactly, we can't have 100 million harry potters dancing up and down throwing curses at each other, but also, them as NPC's, siging up for quests and helping you along and etc, would also be good.

You could have people can have their own name, join a legion bad or good, have pk tournemants etc.

You could have a house elf that cost money buy gears and wands, change your looks etc.

I can't wait, i'm excited as heck, hopefully one comes out, although, there's this youtube vid showing EA are makeing one for 2008? not sure about that just yet, more research into that, :D

keep posting, let's get talking.

[Saylah]

Unfortunately, EA doesnt have a good record with MMORPGs. Hopefully, their are only involved as a publisher. I dont think any HP MMO could materialize in 2008 that we hadn't been hearing about for the past few years. I've read that it takes 3-5 years to build and launch an MMO. :-(

I think it may take the time for the books and movies to slow down a bit before HP might be considered for an MMO IP. Not sure how well the video games that EA publishes does. I downloaded a beta or two and they were too childish to suit my tastes. And then there's the theme park ride/area coming to...is it Disney World or Universal?? Either way, it will be something I hope to visit.

It seems like with the growing popularity of MMOs someone will get around to HP. I just hope that I'm not a lil old lady by then.

[Saylah]

Unfortunately, EA doesnt have a good record with MMORPGs. Hopefully, their are only involved as a publisher. I dont think any HP MMO could materialize in 2008 that we hadn't been hearing about for the past few years. I've read that it takes 3-5 years to build and launch an MMO. :-(

I think it may take the time for the books and movies to slow down a bit before HP might be considered for an MMO IP. Not sure how well the video games that EA publishes does. I downloaded a beta or two and they were too childish to suit my tastes. And then there's the theme park ride/area coming to...is it Disney World or Universal?? Either way, it will be something I hope to visit.

It seems like with the growing popularity of MMOs someone will get around to HP. I just hope that I'm not a lil old lady by then.

[Adam]

I wouldn't get too excited though guys. Even though EA games might hand the rights to a MMO producer, the game would take a while to make. There are a couple of 'Text-Based' or 'MUD' Harry Potter Rpg's around but can't imagine them obtaining the success as much as a real time game would. I would love to play and i really like these ideas, although we are aiming at high hopes here ;P

[Saylah]

MMOs take anywhere from 3 to 5 years production from what I've read. So there's nothing coming for HP anytime soon. It's an environment that I'd love to play in but I'm not holding my breath.

Is it Disney or Univeral that is adding the HP themed area in the park next year??? I hope to make it out with the family to see that at least.

The EA RPG HP games aren't very good from my perspective so them doing an MMO would worry me. I tried a couple of the HP MUDS a year or so ago and it didnt stick for me. I'll just have to keep hope alive that some day before I'm an old lady HP will come to the MMO community.

[Saarah]

What if the game was based before Harry, Ron and Hermione were born?

In the books all we see of the world is based on Harry- 'The boy who lived', 'The chosen one'. Essentially, the world (as we see it) revolves around this one chracter. So what would happen if we took away this person- what if the world had never heard of Harry Potter?

Personally, I would love to be in Grindlewald's time. There would be no limits to what could happen, no boundaries! (there would be no 'canon laws' to stick to). We could create any character, give them a wand, and- literally stick them in the big bad world!

I've heard of a Harry Potter MMORPG called 'Chamber of Chat'. Worth checking out?

Sadly, any attempt to recreate J.K Rowling's world would, most likely, turn into a mess. Oh well. One can still hope.

[Christian]

It seems kind of simple. Instead of the name "Harry Potter Online" call it "Hogwarts Online" dont involve main characters, involve "create your own" appearance character.. Yes magic, but make different magic classes... More spells, and make it so you start at Hogwarts to learn basic skills (tutorial island) pretty much, and let you venture into the magical world of Harry Potter.. dont include any characters from the book, it would drag off a bit, but just becuse it doesnt have characters from the book doesnt mean it cant be done.. say tis 50 years after Harry Potters time.. You got Levels, Classes of Magic, Robes, rings, jewelry, attribute points to spend into your own skills you prefer..

Comment on this

Thanks!

[AurorDylan]

Wow, alot has been said since i posted last, i personally think to have it in Harry Potter time through the voldemort stage would be crap, to have it 50 years before/after would be great, make your own characters, buy wands, robes, etc as Christian has said, i would personally hope it would come out, just like WoW, or eudemonsonline.com being able to have that aspect of an mmorpg would be good, no text-styled games, they bore me, but eh, let's hope for something good. :)

[AurorDylan]

Hmm, alot has been said since i posted;
1. having that players die, and stay dead is stupid, there should be 'pk' spots, in and out of the citys, out of the citys should be pk zones for advanced players, and items can be dropped, like; if you kill 5 players, you go red name, kill 10 players, you go black name, only when you have coloured names can you drop something if someone more advanced kills you, this aspect is like, you kill, you are vulnerable to dieing also losing your stuff, but staying dead, or comeing back as a ghost would be crap, because no doubt, either EA or Blizzard will make you pay to play or to get money/equiptment.

i think, there should be different servers, like;
server 1: Year 1.
server 2: Year 2
etc etc.

then after all the 7 servers through school, you advance to the 'Ministry' or 'free world' server, where you can go beyond hogsmeade, and hogwarts.

tell me what you think =]

[Saylah]

Hmm. I rather like some way of becoming a ghost and causing mischief. If not from a character dying, I think it would be cool to select ghost as a character type. Sort of like how LOTRO has monster-play, where you do PVP as this separate entity in a specific zone and can still progress your monster. Ghost progression sounds like hella fun!

As for the setting I'm not too particular one way or the other. As long as you can go to Hogwarts to learn/grow your character and then choose a profession upon graduation. Personally, I think I'd like to either teach at Hogwarts or open a shop!

The only problem is... where would you fit everyone?

[firemyst]

The complexity of the world sounds good, but what about the spells? All the spells are practically latin-based so there would be thousands, right? Then there is also the certain charms like chocolate for dementors-attacks and the Fidelius Charm. Saylah said something about altering the environment, like transfiguration. Would there be limits on what you could conjure or alter, and would every one be able to buy an invisibility cloak?

I was also thinking that 50 years later is excellent, I hadn't thought of that. I just figured that Harry, Ron, and Hermione would be positions given to the actors. And don't forget the magical creatures like in the lake, or dragons from distant lands, the giants from the mountain, the centaurs from the forest. Some could be just bots, but centaurs are sentient creatures, who gets to control them, Staff?

And your right saylah, obviously Hogwarts would be a prestige school and everybody would be at other schools, that is if they chose school. What about muggles? or walking among their world? Are those options too? Maybe we just use port keys or learn to apparate.

Also would we be fighting dark cults and wizzards or just unruly monsters, and if so there would be your choice of which side to pick. Or maybe there are choices like becoming a giant or a house elf (you know they have different rules). Dark arts were taught at Durmstrang, there must be some corrupt schools and ministries, and how would crime be reported?. But the chance to work with the ministry or St. Mungo's would be awesome.

I was also thinking that maybe limits would restrict how advanced you can get in one field versus all the others. Like your skill would increase in all fields (transfiguration, charms, potions, etc.) but if you used dark magic more than charms, you would slowly increase skill without leveling or anything, but only to a certain degree.

Just a few ideas, there should really be a poll created.

[Saylah]

I miss the Harry Potter series. It was a magical form of entertainment that I could count on every 12 to 14 months or so - some element of mystery and adventure still waiting to be discovered. Having that fantastic world of fantasy to look forward to is something that I miss. :-)

[SoE]

I highly doubt any scouts from EA will be monitoring this thread, but who knows - someone from this thread could create a great game. So here are my thoughts on some great things that the Harry Potter MMORPG should have:

In terms of servers or "realms" of sorts there should be the three mentioned wizarding schools: Hogwart's, Beauxbaton and Durmstrang. Each player can select a school/realm and create a unique type of character for that server.

Spells are one aspect I've thought a lot about, and I feel that you should learn spells in a variety of ways: 1) in class from a teacher, 2) from a book in the library/restricted section, 3) from other classmates or 4) experiment (or based on actual spells in the book). This would work by having a small textbox that requested the name of the spell. You type in the name of the spell and if it is correct, it gets added to a list of spells that you know. You then have shortcuts (like in WoW for attack, skills, etc) for each spell that you can drag to a shortcut bar (corresponding to the number keys).

These and many more of my ideas are what I feel would make the HP experience truly immersive and true-to-cannon.

Thoughts?

[DaFatalGigabyte]

HP magic can be done without levels. If you know the words, have the blood and energy, and do the wand motion, you do a spell. Knowing the words is no problem. Blood is all about natural family/character skill. Energy is about fatigue level. Do more work, or just be an energetic person overall, and you'll have more stamina. The more you do a spell, the better you get at it. Your wand may be better at some spells over others. And wand motion is the perfect player skill aspect.

HP is the perfect magic system for having zilch levels. Magical innovation comes by discovering a new way of doing things, magical wordplay?; specific items channeling magic? Like certain items could never be used as your horcrux for instance. They are too much of a character that is not you; could runes be the mixing of those last two?

There's such depth, there's astrology, psychiatry, psychology, even geology and politics involved.

It is not something EA is capable of, nor currently any developer and budget; except maybe blizzard -_-. Although, some might just be holding back knowing that HP is just too deep to kill off as a WoW-clone.

[Saylah]

I would so jump all over the opportunity to play a HP MMO. I dabble on Harry Potter Live which is a MUD (text-based RPG). The elements are simplistic and there's very little freedom to explore and yet, it's just enough to keep a steady stream of people playing. How many more would play a graphical version? I wonder what the sales are like for the EA HP RPG games? I've played a couple of the demos and it was just too static for me to enjoy.

With no development announcements, leaks or hints of any sort concerning such an MMO, it's not likely to be something we'll see in the next 5 years. *Cries big salty tears*

[James]

I think it'd be great! but they'd have to set it in Voldemorts first rise to power, that way you can meet sirius and james and lily etc, but tehre's some freedom fromt he story we already know, you can be an unknown xitch/wizard and you have to do stuff and comlete missions for a variety of people, and the wa you complete these effects how good/bad you are... i.e. if you blast your way through everythig to complete a mission you're not going to end up alongside dumbledore int he order are you?

I really think it could be a great game, but it's all in th execution of it.

-James

Note: i didn't read all the other comments...

[James]

Saylah.. i bought the fith game onthe wii (yes for the wand action) and its a much larger wider roaming game with open spaces etc, MUCH better than the other games, I'm hoping this is the way they'll continue to go

-James

[Saylah]

@James... I'd so love to play an HP MMO. I hope that they do something about it or make the current game more open as you've mentioned the wii game seems to be.

I was so desperate for a time to do something HP that I actually started writing a MUD as a pilot. I got pretty far too but I couldnt find many things to do that didnt include killing which is something most of my friends won't do in a game and I wanted them to play it with me. Oh well.

[James]

Saylah, I've just finished reading the seventh book (again) and can't help but think that maybe a "quest for the hallows" might be a good pretext for a game, but it would need a good story/plot to drive it.

I think setting the game during Voldemort's first rise to power would be a nice mixture of freedom and familiarity. I'm not sure if it'd work as an MMO... maybe just an RPG would be better, with some PvP online capabilities?

-James

[Eric Lisle]

IMPORTANT_____________************************

www.mugglenet.com --------

Harry Potter mmorpg announced

[Saylah]

HOLY COW!! Thanks for alerting me to this development!! That logo is a mimic of The Sims Online. Let's hope they do better with HP than EA did for Will Wrights much beloved franchise.

[Luiz Costa (17 yrs, Brazil)]

Well, after readin all these comments i feel compelled to leave my opinion here.

I have played some MMOs lately and i can say i have a little experience. But this book-based MMOs are a two-edged knife, you may hit or get hit. And when i think of HP as an MMO i definitely can`t take Lord of The Rings Online out of mind, the guys from Turbine had some great ideas on that game, and i feel it is totally related to middle-earth world and is important to remember they did this fantastic job without the official author help. So if i was asked to choose a producer i would choose Turbine, if asked to choose a publisher i would get rid of EA, as they would only work as money retrievers.

Now to the game, i think it has gotta have a good plot/history, in a way that you could feel your character is really part of the story, the instance idea i`ve seen in LOTRO would be of great use, maybe when you start the game you are at your first year at Hogwarts that 3-7(this should be carefully analized) years before Harry Potter would get into Hogwarts, and then as you advance in quests an instances, for you the story is advanced, but for others it may be at another spot, and then when you are out of school it is cronologically adjusted to the world, you then may have a main plot that you follow 'slowly' advance in time.

Well, these would be just a start point in the story, but i believe an HP MMO would take at least 4 years to be launching, and if it launches before that i would get worried as i see HP's world as very large one to be well represented. The possibilities of skills, feats, jobs, professions, studies and spells would make it really complex. So i hope a good developer takes the lead on production, and i wish i could be in the production team.

Well, i am studying to be a good programmer and i know a lot about HP, maybe later i still can be part of the team.

For now, i expect some new good ideas and comments here, and let's keep our hopes high because hope must be the last to vanish.

[saylah]

Luiz - You bring up some really good points. I like the idea of a single player experience for Hogwarts, maybe interspersed with multi-player just like they've done with AOC. Prior to that game I would have said, hell no! However, I find that I really do like the single player mode that I go into for the Destiny Quests. What I do there feels important and the ending of the first chain at level 20, felt pretty damn epic to me. It was more engaging than the LOTRO version because it's on a much bigger scale.

Possible implementation is maybe the first 5 levels are required in that single player experience and you gain some skills from your learning. At that point you can go into the multi-player world to do stuff. From then on you can choose to go to school (Hogwarts) when you want thru out your levels as the only place to go to learn new skills. People can pace as they like but no sure what you do in the multi-user world if you dont want to learn?

I so want this to be a game that would appeal to adults but given the reader audience I won't blame them if it's not for adults.

[Charles]

I dont know if anyone said that before but the main characters could be played by Game Masters.. It would solve the problem ;)

[Charles]

I dont know if anyone said that before but the main characters could be played by Game Masters.. It would solve the problem ;)

[Rydmer]

No Characters from the films would be NPC`s and give you quests and like.
I would guess you will just be going on Hogwarts being a student doing homework(not litterly(SP?) I hope, god daim I am getting tierd of homework) getting in time for class to learn and get better in that section ( magic= divertion,dark arts,flying(?) and other classes cant name them all on english.
But what I would like is one version wich is for when Harry goes in 5th-7th gerade since it is then he starts his battle and the sides are drawn.
And one for post HPDH and one for the first Wizard War. but I guess it will be the two first rigth and in the Post HPDH you attend Hogwarts with james potter and can interact with him askiung to meet his dad or other things.

[giWrGo$s]

what about creating a game before HP facts actually happen...let's say some years after Gryffindor,Slytherin,Hafflepuff and Ravenclaw built Hogwarts......or it could just be after the 7th...you get to know harry's children @ hogwarts etc...

[Saylah]

I also thought about after but we'd need a new super powerful bad-guy. The story doesn't work without conflict and fear. Since we now have seen Harry defeat the greatest Wizard of all time, we know he can defeat anyone currently living so there isn't the same level of urgency.

I'd personally would have read a book about that period to see the group grow-up, chase down the remaining followers and see them actually get married but I not sure that era would work as a compelling game. Voldemort is as important to the story as Harry.