While the prospect of transforming its popular sci-fi RPG into an MMO is “daunting,” BioWare still finds the idea “really interesting.”
Many Mass Effect fans are sure to feel some mixed emotions when the series’ third installment is released on March 6th. While most gamers understand that an enjoyable story must eventually reach conclusion to actually be enjoyable, the act of reaching that final credit roll remains bittersweet. The characters, their story, your story, is over. Still, BioWare has already said that Mass Effect 3 will not mark the end of the franchise, just the story of Commander Shepard, so the question must be asked: With the primary trilogy over, what’s next? According to a recent interview held by the Penny Arcade Report, perhaps the answer is a new MMO.
BioWare founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka discussed the idea of moving their popular franchise into a persistent multiplayer world, having just completed one of the most successful MMO launches in history with Star Wars: The Old Republic.
“[The prospect of a Mass Effect MMO] is daunting, but the neat thing is it would lend itself to a different type of gameplay,” said Zeschuk. “It’s fun to think about. I imagine people think it would be just like Mass Effect as it is… but there’s lots of people there. It’s really interesting, I don’t know. It’s a tough one.”
It’s hard to say if a new combination of BioWare’s two most recent successes would sound more or less appealing to the busy dev at this exact moment in time, but at least one thing is certain: Mass Effect is easily well-developed enough as a narrative universe to support the format and, though new to the genre, BioWare seems to know what it’s doing when it comes to MMOs.
“When you deliver a game, and you deliver it for a player, you have to capture what they think is the possibility space,” Kuzyka added. “You need to let them do everything they think they should do, and you can’t block them from doing anything they think they should be able to do. You have to nail all the features and content that should be in that possibility space … Mass Effect is a big possibility space.”
Source: The Penny Arcade Report
