http://www.massively.com/2009/03/11/zenimax-media-hiring-for-mmo-division/

I find the above very interesting for a couple of reasons:

• Firstly the apparent loathing that Bethesda had for multiplayer games ... especially when it was mention on the forums, and
  
• Secondly the apparent loathing by the dies hard Bethesda fanbase has for multiplayer games as "creating multiplayer would divert resources away from the single player experience".

I find this also interesting in that, as Bethesda owns the Fallout IP and as there is a dearth of medieval/fantasy MMOs out there (anyone would be crazy to just create another one), what else could they be building but a Fallout MMO?

Have Bethesda finally realised that people LIKE to play with their friends online rather than just be limited to single player experiences? It's not exactly like their jumping onto the wave right now as the MMO market is pretty much flooded with games right now. Has the wave passed? And will the diehard fanbase who so vehemently opposed simple LAN based multiplayer gameplay in Oblivion feel fundamentally betrayed by this move?

Fallout Online is in development at Interplay, which licensed the rights to a Fallout MMORPG when they sold the Fallout franchise to Bethesda. See:

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_Online_FAQ

ZeniMax Online is likely working on The Elder Scrolls Online.

Well I don't know the opinion of most Bethesda fans, never being one myself and only realising their exsistance through Fallout 3. But an MMO doesn't detract from a single player experience so much as offers a multiplayer one. I understand people's disdain for an evolution of what should be a single player experience, but if someone was disappointed with an MMO because they were expecting something a little less 'social' then they clearly didn't see the big MMO in the title.

In short I don't think there will be much of a problem. I mean Zenimax have an online division it doesn't mean they're going to become an exclusively online company. They just seem to be branching out, esspecially when you realise the insane money that can be made from a successful MMO.

However Bethesda don't own the rights to Fallout MMO. Interplay do, they kept the MMO rights when they sold Fallout to Bethesda, and Interplay are already in the process of creating a http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Project_V13_FAQ

Unless that is unsuccessful, Zenimax wont be making a Fallout MMO anytime soon. They could work on a TES-style project though, who knows.

Zenimax Online Studios isn't part of Bethesda, it is a sister-studio of Bethesda's, just like Vir2L (the developers of The Elder Scrolls Travels games). It's also about a two hour drive away, so while their is certainly collaboration they're not exactly down the hall.

They've been working on a project for some time now. I'd have to agree with Ausir, an Elder Scrolls MMORPG seems most likely. Given some recent teaser art the province of Hammerfell has been kicked around a bit. Then again if they're doing an Elder Scrolls game it's quite possible they'd have small sections across the entire continent, rather like Arena.

It's certainly possible that they working on a new setting, but the MMO market is hard to crack, so the name recognition of the Elder Scrolls (rather like the name recognition of Warcraft) would go a long way.

I'd imagine that if they are developing an MMO (and I'd agree, an Elder Scrolls MMO sounds more likely,) that it's alongside of, not a replacement of, their single-player games. For example, I'm assuming they're working on an Elder Scrolls 5, which will be single-player - and if they're doing an Elder Scrolls MMO it'll be a completely separate game; not trying to cram both an MMO and a single-player into one game. So I don't really see any relevance to taking away from the single-player experience - it'll be a completely different team. So the single-player fans will have their games and the MMO fans will have theirs, and there really isn't any conflict to be had at all.

That makes sense, but I bet it hasn't escaped them that should IPlay fail in their attempt, which, frankly, has always seemed likely, it wouldn't be a bad idea to at least have some infrastructure in place to take advantage of the FO franchise.

I'm actually rooting for the Fallout MMO. Because of the two guys in charge of it, I think there's a good chance they might actually have something resembling the ruleset that I wanted

Obviously still realtime, but that's to be expected for an MMO. And if it does, I'll make sure as many people play it to help it do better then Fallout 3 just so I can thumb my nose at Bethesda and their silly changes!

I seriously doubt any traditional Fallout fan is going to get a ruleset they like out of any MMO.

HA! I'm far from traditional. I've made it clear elsewhere that my beef with Fallout 3 boils down to the equations they used. Besides, I still think there's a small glimmer of hope in the form of Chris Taylor and Jason Anderson. It's a last ditch hope, since it's very clear Bethesda has no interest in a balanced SPECIAL

Fallout MMO. Ok. Van Buren had a online mode too. But, it seem's like it whould have svcked. If Inter. uses the jefferson engine on this, then im happy.

Van Buren had a co-op mode, it wasn't a MMORPG. And they won't be using that engine.

A classless S.P.E.C.I.A.L that isn't broken should be enough

Now let us have our moment. If Interplay lose the license, then you can gloat and cavort all you like. Right now it doesn't matter what people think, possitive or negative. Whatever will be, will be.

Let me get you a bigger brush, you missed some spots., heh. I do hope that the Interplay FOOL gets underway, though, as someone mentioned, it'd be interesting to see what those two can do. I admit I thought Chris Taylor from TA/SupCom was involved when I first heard, heh.

That's an unfair representation of my post. I am not gloating about this. I would rather see more depth in these games, but MMOs are not the place to be looking for mechanics depth. If you think the franchise was ruined by the compromises required to attract the console players, you aint seen nothing yet.

So, EVEN if Iplay pulls this off, and frankly, I hope they can, you STILL won't get what you want. That's not gloating...I likely won't get what I want either.

And I'm telling you that of the many MMOs I have played, the trend, since WoW, has been to dummy down mechanics so that any one can play. Heck, in WoW, you don't even allocate skill points...you just choose a perk.

And with IPLAY, this MMO is a make or break situation. They can't afford to deviate from mainstream design, because they need every scrap of revenue they can generate out of this. You aren't going to see much new, from an MMO standpoint, in this game. I'm expecting something that works in a similar fashion as FO3 mechanics wise, AT BEST.


So, heh, believe me now or hear me later.

Oh you meant a Fallout MMO. "Any MMO" is a bit unclear, heh. I don't know if they can't afford to deviate from "mainstream design" though, a nice chance for glory if they can break from it and get a decent reception. I'll wait to see more information on it, but I'd rather Interplay (is it really hard to type nter?) give it a go over Beth. But who knows, maybe you are the prophet you think you are, heh.

Not prophet. You can check it out yourself. Go to MMORPG.com and see if there is anything new you would like to play. Just about every MMO that has come out has moved away from complex character development, has moved to simple "click and wait for recharge" combat, and automatic point allocation on advancement. Considering the cost of developing any MMO, I just don't see IPLAY even trying to think out of the box on this one. The agreement specifies a development budget threshold of something like 40M. That's quite an investment for a company which effectively has nothing except borrowed money, with, one presumes, worried investors. "Decent reception" is not an option if IPLAY want to continue to exist.

I play 3 MMOGs. I'm well aware that no MMORPG is going to have the quality of character developlment of a single player RPG - although I guess EVE comes close in terms of complexity. I wish I had tried UO, actually I still can, hm. Given that next to no information has been released about the game, I can't really form an opinion on how it will be, they might very well try something risky - who knows what their leadership has in their minds (well you seem to think you do). I'm hopeful for it, and if it does get released, I'll see how the game plays before I automatically assume it's a pile of trash (back to your big brush, heh).

Your putting words in my mouth is annoying. I didn't say I thought it would be a piece of trash. I said that I though folks who are looking for traditional Fallout type character dynamics are going to be disappointed.

Never said you think it would be trash. You still can't say that Fallout fans won't like it though, unless you know something about the game no one else does. And I guess your original post gave the sort of "oh you Fallout people won't like it", later posts helped bolster that. Even so, "traditional" Fallout fans might not be that disappointed, I doubt most are going in to a MMO expecting SP RPG quality.

There's a lot of space for a new game to shake up MMORGPs in the market.... But if someone like Richard Garriot and NCsoft couldnt succeed with Tabula Rasa, then I too cant see a stuggling Interplay making the breakout game that is so desperately needed.

And it would be silly to expect that level of quality. As for the style of MMO's out there, not everyone uses WoW's model. The D&D MMO actually had a fairly faithful ruleset, with changes to accomodate an MMO. I might still play that one if my friends actually played it lol...they're all WoWers however, and D&D Online requires a decent commitment of friends, I found.

So it's not impossible for FO:OL to have a decent ruleset, and if they capture the wasteland feel, it could be quite fun. I just hope they don't require huge 'raids'. I hate that in MMOs.

Considering the general murderous reaction at NMA to any way, shape or form of Fallout MMO, I'm going to disagree with you. Heck, untill the IPLAY project was announced, no one was even allowed to mention a Fallout MMO over there.

I'll also stand by my argument that MMOs tend to shallower character mechanics, and MMOs tend to simplify combat mechanics, AND, MMOs tend to feature systems that award player skill over stats, itemization over characterizaztion, and collective play over solo play, at least in terms of end game, and also tend to contain PVP elements.

And I stand by my prediction that IPLAY will be going for the gold on this, which means a mainstream type game.

I agree that no MMO will approach a single player RPG. Yet, we have several posters around here who just can't help themselves turning just about every thread negative.

So, I add these point sup and come to a conclusion that seems rather solid to me: Traditonal Fallout fans will not be pleased with ANY Fallout MMO, and many of them will not even consider playing ANY MMO, Fallout or no.

Save this post. Lets see if I am correct.

I'm going to have to agree with you on that. I don't see a Fallout MMO working the way I, as a fan of the old series, would want it to work. There have been a lot of threads on this forum talking about a possible Fallout MMO and none of them convinced me that it would work in a way that would both please new fans and old ones. The whole principle behind Fallout is gone with an MMO. The desolate wasteland should remain empty and desolate, a town filled with 500,000 people would just not fit the atmosphere and themes of the Fallout games. Skills and SPECIAL stats would become obsolete, since every little kid will want to kill things with the weapons in the game and things like Speech would have no impact on other people. A Fallout MMO that is or tries to be faithful to the traditional series is not going to happen, and of course I don't like that. Therefore I have no faith in a Fallout MMO being any good for me, but they could make it fun for new people I guess.

As a fan of the old series, I can't help but be overwhelmed with curiosity. The series definitely has the infrastructure to support an MMO, it's just upto the player and the community to provide the RPG immersion. I doubt there would be 500k+ congregated at any one location at any one time, but maybe I'm just naive. If there was an emphasis on a great expansive wasteland then the population could easily be more scattered, I honestly don't know. But more than anything I am curious at this point. In my opinion it has potential, at the very least.