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View Full Version : Cyberpunk MMO 'Otherland' Revealed


modeps
10-01-2008, 02:55 AM
There haven't been too many entries into the cyberpunk arena for MMO games but German publisher dtp Entertainment will be giving it a shot. Eurogamer is reporting (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=249119):

The game - detailed in a full preview on Eurogamer (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=249125)- is based on the series of science-fiction novels of the same name by American author Tad Williams. It's due to be released for PC in 2010.

Otherland takes place in a near future where the super-rich have their own private virtual worlds on the net, peopled both by AI, and unwitting humans who don't know that what they're experiencing isn't real.

The game takes place entirely in virtual reality as players travel across a varied series of worlds, with themes ranging from mythology, science-fiction and fantasy, to historical, contemporary and cartoon settings. The appearance of players' avatars will alter as they go, and the game worlds will change dynamically around them.

There will be scope for co-operative gameplay and player-versus-player conflict, as well as a wide variety of casual and social minigames in a hub area called Lambda Mall.

Klade
10-01-2008, 04:22 AM
Should be interesting to see if they can pull it off. I'm not aware of too many german rpg's to have any idea what kind of gameplay they might try to implement in the final version.

humanliteshow
10-01-2008, 05:29 AM
They might be able to do something really cool with the various worlds that were in the books. The "evil wizard of oz" setting would be a god place to start :cool:

humanliteshow
10-01-2008, 05:30 AM
/good. Whoops.

Brinstar00
10-01-2008, 06:24 AM
Big fan of the books. This is a massive scale of world to pull off and do it effectively.

abso
10-01-2008, 07:17 AM
I hope they can pull this off. The article says the dev team is mostly Australian, but they set up shop in Germany. In any case, I'll be keeping an eye out for this one. Hopefully it doesn't become the topic of a Vaporware post by the end of next year.

net7runner
10-01-2008, 10:08 AM
Each of the universes in the books could be MMOs in their own right. It'll be interesting to see how much they have to limit them.

Mmmmm post-apocalyptic wizard of oz genetic workhouse gone mad.
Mmmmmmm Baroque/Victorian house covering an entire world...
Mmmmmmmmm model of Mezoamerica if the Europeans had never shown up....
MMmmmmmmmmmm Steampunk airships on Mars

workerbee
10-01-2008, 04:15 PM
One of my very favorite series of books! I fullly expect to be disappointed, but here's to that sliver of optimism...

workerbee
10-01-2008, 04:16 PM
Oh, and anyone care to place wagers on whether the Yellow Room shows up or not? :eek:

DangerousDaze
10-01-2008, 04:22 PM
I'm a bit torn on this one. On the one hand the story behind Otherland is fantastic with endless possibilities, but on the other hand after a while I got really, really tired of world after world after world where nothing at all happened except for the following:

1) Arrive in new world
2) Wouldn't you know, but it's weirder than the last!
3) Get chased
4) Go to another world
5) Repeat

The story just stopped for huge periods of time and was replaced with "hey look at my imagination!" Having said that, I guess it makes it dead-on perfect material for an MMORPG. ;)