Five of the Best Games That Should Be Made into MMORPGs

Although it could be argued that the effervescent and sometimes nauseatingly saturated MMO market doesn’t need more dark fantasy or derivative mashups in its library, there are certain games that have a propensity and disposition already in keeping with what makes a good MMO.

Here is a look at some of the games that would make for a great experience or adventure if turned into one and reasons behind why I personally would like to indulge in a massively multiplayer iteration of the series mentioned on this list.

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Therefore the idea of selling what is essentially a porous and more time consuming version of their previous titles seems redundant on a Nintendo console or product.

However, the elite land of pokemon pacifiers have a different view, one which I tend to agree with. Pokemon should be made into an MMO, if only to give further context behind questing and the ability to PvP without something akin to friend codes.

There is certainly something to be said for the core idea of Pokemon as an MMO. You play as a trainer who receives his first pokemon, from there you travel the world collecting the gym badges by defeating it’s leaders. Therein you attain all the badges and begin PvP battles in true Pokemon Battle style.

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The foundations of a multiplayer version are visibly apparent within the gameplay itself. It really isn’t a big stretch to make an MMO from this game. Graphics upgrade (think Battle Revolution for the Wii), quest upgrades, tweak the levelling system and lengthen the overall game time and you have the online game that a lot of Pokemon fans have always wanted, that’s why this make the top 5 MMO list.

Just to note, I'm aware there is already a Pokemon Online game in the style of the series earlier Gameboy entries, but I'm taking a full scale, Nintendo invested, adventure.

Anyone who has played GTA before can surely see the potential in creating a fully realised multiplayer equivalent from this Rockstar series. Just a few changes could alter the whole experience into something memorable and playable for years.

For instance, take GTA IV’s solid if unspectacular online modes and add them to a PvP environment, add a faction/guild mechanic, travel to multiple cities and areas around both America and perhaps the world, modify the quests to incorporate more than one player character and maintain the great satirical nature of the previous games.

With those additions and ideas from the creative minds of Rockstars designers, this could be the megaton bomb of massively multiplayer games (with the obvious exception of WoW) in the future.

A sticking point to its success would be the longevity of the gameplay and levelling system. As GTA doesn’t have a specific advancement system, it seems hard to imagine Rockstar creating a legitimate advancement map, at the first attempt no less.

However, if that could be remedied with external help from MMO veterans (Blizzard, Cryptic etc), then a solid foundation for weathered players would help greatly in cultivating a strong community and experience.

The idea of a fully persistent city is a very lucrative one, and although the tech needed to attempt such a feat maybe out of reach as of this articles writing, the prospect of eventually having an enormous hub city in a GTA game is mouth watering.

It makes this top 5 MMO list more for its stupefying potential as opposed to the practicality of effectively creating the project.

While former GTA developer David Jones and his Scottish company Realtime Worlds work off the success of Crackdown with their own GTA influenced MMO attempt in APB (All Points Bulletin), it seems getting the real thing from Rockstar may be the more engaging option if they are willing to create a massively multiplayer experience for their flagship franchise.