A Wild West mmorog would never work.

[Raven]

Because players love the l3wt, and there's only so much phat l3wt that can be acquired in a semi realistic Old West setting.

Still, a well done Wild West mmorpg could be intensely fun, if only for a short time.

[Ringo]

Er, about half of Western movies and stories revolve around the acquisition of phat lewt, whether it's the location of a silver mine, troop payrolls or treasure stolen from the natives.

A wild west MMORPG could be huge.

[PPatty]

What spawned this discussion?

[camrael]

El Dorado, Seven Cities of Cibola, Stagecoach delivered gold trains, Wells Fargo Gold, the list goes on...

There are numerous books about fabled and lost riches on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Buried-Treasur...173049-1908143

[Ringo]

For good phat lewt Western movies, check out The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (with Humphrey Bogart!), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and the Wild Bunch.

Phat lewt and PVP combat would be in a dead heat for importance in a Western MMORPG, IMO.

[Lysandor]

For good phat lewt Western movies, check out The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (with Humphrey Bogart!), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and the Wild Bunch.

Phat lewt and PVP combat would be in a dead heat for importance in a Western MMORPG, IMO.

No doubt. Plus, as a former "Boot Hill" player, I would totally eat it up!

[Cantatus]

There is a Deadlands MMOG in the works. Seems to be sort of a mix of Western and zombies. Could be interesting.

[Vdou]

For good phat lewt Western movies, check out The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (with Humphrey Bogart!), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and the Wild Bunch.

Love the Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Great movie.

An old west theme MMORPG would be great, but I assume only in the US? Don't know what kind of appeal it would have to our friends to the North or other countries.

[Droigan]

the thing that the OP touches on, which is correct, is that the "loot" in most western movies/stories/whatever revolves around "monitary" loot. As in gold, silver, treasure, etc.

Not items and such.

So, what I would agree on is that a Item centric mmorpg in a purely western setting would not work all that well. Tho a Firefly, as discussed in earlier threads, themed mmorpg, would work better due to the removal of the "old" part of the western theme.

If you were to go a full on western realisticish (in terms of items) mmorpg, you would have a very limited amount of armour / weapons in the game.

[Pilsain Silverback]

However, you could make it more like CoH, where, you can get skill ups from doing things. You know, quicker on the draw, or, better horsemanship. Stuff like that.

[Fyrie]

That Will Smith Wild West movie had ph4t l3wt.

[Ringo]

Love the Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Great movie.

An old west theme MMORPG would be great, but I assume only in the US? Don't know what kind of appeal it would have to our friends to the North or other countries.

People in Europe are comparatively crazy for cowboys and Native American stuff, far moreso than the average American, IMO.

And as for getting phat lewt in the form of gear, that's what the Sears Roebuck catalog is for! Buying better guns, having the local gunsmith improve them, stealing a better horse, breaking it to the saddle, etc., these are all things that emulate a lot of stuff in traditional MMORPGs just fine.

[Fyrie]

It would be really cool if they could include land claims and prospecting somehow. I still know a couple guys who keep land claims on areas searching for a mine that there's a legend about from the late 1800s, it's supposed to be cursed (a good way to populate a zone), heck even my grandpa spent years searching for the mine.

Areas like this would be easy to incorporate, some of the details of the time not so easy.

[Ronin]

Yeah, I'd have to agree with most here and say that would be a really fun genre. Of course that is assuming it was well made.

The loot would be interesting though for sure. "check out my new 6 shot" and abilities/feats/talents would be fun too. reflex for quicker draw! haha

yeah and on that note i had a flashback to back to the future 3... yeah don't ask.

[Faustus]

I think how to handle player character death in a realistic Old West setting would be much more problematic than anything itemization would bring to the table.

[Vdou]

People in Europe are comparatively crazy for cowboys and Native American stuff, far moreso than the average American, IMO.

That's interesting. I never would have thought that.

You couldn't do an old west game without Natives though, right? And wouldn't that just be a total shitstorm?

[Ringo]

It's a game, not an exhibit at the Museum of American History. As long as the developers don't pretend otherwise, it shouldn't be too bad.

And yeah, it was a surprise to me too, but seemingly every bookstore I passed when I lived in Europe for five years had cowboys/Indians in the front window and I don't think I've ever run into an American who has as much obvious enthusiasm for Westerns as a number of Europeans I knew.

OTOH, they probably get tired of our weird obsession with the Middle Ages and anything even pseudo-Celtic.

[Ikeya]

The ability to rob a train is all that would be needed for success.

[Raven]

the thing that the OP touches on, which is correct, is that the "loot" in most western movies/stories/whatever revolves around "monitary" loot. As in gold, silver, treasure, etc.

Not items and such.

So, what I would agree on is that a Item centric mmorpg in a purely western setting would not work all that well.

You hit the nail on the head.

All the examples miss the mark, because the intended goal, in those stories, was to get rich and retire.

Ok, so players acquire gold, jewelry, and silver, then what.

Players want gold in mmorpgs, so they can buy special items or power ups, and that's the point I was making. In a pure Old West setting there's only so many ways to trick out a gun before it stops being realistic.

Let's examine this more closely.

regular horse
fast horse (with extra endurance)
mythical horse, such as Trigger (which everyone would..uh...eventually get)

regular lever action rifle
quality lever action rifle

regular Colt 45
quality Colt 45

double barrel shotgun
quality double barrel shotgun

pump shotgun
quality pump shotgun

regular knife/saber
quality knife/saber

Ok, now what?

Like I said; there's simply not enough phat l3wt to keep a traditional Old West mmorpg going.

At least not for long.

[Rooster]

I love almost anything from the old wild west genre, but as I was pondering this very subject a couple days ago I began to wonder who would fill the roles of things such as tanks or healiers?