This seems to be the year of "What IP will be turned into an MMOG

next?” target="_blank">Everyone

and their mother has been jumping on this dog

pile recently and I have to admit, I couldn't resist doing the same

this week. Of all the ideas being batted about I can't believe no one

has mentioned the href="http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page"

target="_blank">Forgotten

Realms setting. Is it because href="http://tentonhammer.com/ddo" target="_blank">Dungeons

& Dragons Online hasn't been the raving success geeks

across

the world hoped it would be? Perhaps, but if so, that's like saying

BioWare's upcoming target="_blank">Star

Wars: The Old Republic has no chance of being a

success because of the turbulent history of Star Wars Galaxies.







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Beloved by

millions.

Players and industry insiders alike are always talking about how an

MMOG has to have a fully realized setting to be a success. It has to

have a sense of history, solid lore, and unless you want to count on

hitting a miraculous fluke by creating an original world, you'd also

better be sure the IP you’re using has href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/62152" target="_blank">an

impressive

following. If you take all these things into consideration

you'd be

hard pressed to find a more popular setting for a game than the

Forgotten Realms.







Before the collapse of TSR and the subsequent revival by Wizards of the

Coast, there was one last hurrah for Dungeons & Dragons in the

form of the most popular campaign setting ever devised - The Forgotten

Realms. Published in 1987, it marked a high point in the game's history

and has met with far greater success than its creators could have ever

imagined.







The Forgotten Realms may have been inked out and gathered into a

campaign boxed set in 1987, but Ed Greenwood originally created the

Realms for his personal D&D campaign over a decade prior in

1975. Twelve years of gaming and play testing is a long time to create

a mind blowing amount of lore and history for a world, never mind the

fact that Ed continues to run his campaign to this day.







For years, he also wrote a number of articles for Dragon magazine in

which he was visited by Elminster, a mage of unimaginable power from

the land of Abeir-Toril, to learn the secrets of undiscovered spells

and ancient artifacts. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/62142" target="_blank">The

truly

geeky among us remember those articles

with something approaching reverence. With more style than I'll ever

possess, Ed brought Elminster into the land of the living and a new

Golden Age of fantasy was born. To this day, Spellfire is one of my

favorite books. And Ed's writing wasn't the only reason the Forgotten

Realms exploded onto the world like a 250 megaton nuke.







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When he's

not whining, is there a cooler character?

In the spring of 1988, a little known author by the name of href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/62128" target="_blank">R.A.

Salvatore released a book (the first of many set within the

Realms)

entitled The Crystal Shard. The world of fantasy has never been the

same with the birth of Drizzt Do'Urden and we've been tortured with

every possible iteration of that name in every MMOG since. Along with a

string of books detailing the origin and exploits of Drizzt and his

friends, R.A. also penned the Menzoberranzan boxed set, visualizing the

famous Dark Elf city. In it, he fleshed out the Dark Elf culture in

more detail than ever before, complete with its intricate political

structure, every geek-loving statistic needed for Dark Elf characters,

and the driving force behind their fanatical religion driven city, the

Spider Queen, Lothe.







People of all ages have been playing Dungeons & Dragons for

over thirty years and it would be a crime to ignore the potential of

such a powerful fan base. Sixty million pizzas plus one hundred and

twenty million cans of Mountain Dew equals a staggering number of geeks

begging for the chance to relive their favorite memories. The argument

can be made that this has already been tried, but aside from creating a

nearly completely instanced world, Dungeons & Dragons Online

also made a mistake in choosing to use the newly conceived campaign

setting of target="_blank">Eberron.









Herein lies another critical reason why DDO was destined to face an

uphill battle straight out of the gate. Aside from the number crunching

mechanics behind the classes, races, and combat of Dungeons &

Dragons, there was nothing familiar enough in the world of Eberron to

hold the interest of the average D&D player. The setting was

too new, too little was known about it, and to be frank, it wasn't the

setting fans wanted to play in.







We've been reading, dreaming, and arguing about everything within the

Forgotten Realms for over twenty years; now give us the chance to play

there. I want to explore the dungeons of Undermountain, engage in

political intrigue in the city of Waterdeep, and brave the horrors of

the Underdark. There are more places to see and trouble to get into

than most people can imagine, and they've all been discussed in great

detail for years. All this just covers the background of the Realms as

it stands today, let alone the staggering possibilities for adventures

that have yet to be realized.







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A classic

tale.

EverQuest chose to involve the gods and goddesses of Norrath with the

players, even directly interfering and changing the scope of the lands

in its earlier years. A Forgotten Realms MMOG could take this concept

to the next level and precipitate more conflict than any developer

could ask for by recreating the Time of Troubles. The gods had been

forced to walk the land in their avatar forms, but without the safety

of a body back in their home realms. Gods and goddesses died, while

some mortals rose to power, taking their place. Imagine a system in

which each year, a select few players could ascend to godhood through

trials and exploits or simple luck. The new god characters could reside

on their chosen plane, still interacting with the world in avatar form,

putting them at risk as well. Tell me the opportunity to become a god

or goddess wouldn't drive even non-D&D fans to the game.







I think the possibility to play a truly evil character would be the

final step necessary to solidify their base of players. I'm tired of

playing "evil" races that whine and cry and are about href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/deathknight"

target="_blank">as

dastardly as

Gargamel. Give me a character and let me actually *be* evil.

The

Forgotten Realms has multiple races that would be perfect for such an

endeavor. Not only are there various races readily available, but

cities and nefarious undergrounds already created and detailed beyond

belief, all just waiting for the chance to be realized in a three

dimensional world. The premise and execution of such characters has

been noted and categorized in great depth throughout numerous Forgotten

Realms source books (as well as novels), so the creation of these

aspects should not prove traumatic to the soul of any potential

development team.







There's a reason the Forgotten Realms setting has endured so well and

continues to expand its history and future. I talk about it all the

time, but until publishers realize that it’s an honest sense

of depth in a game that keeps players engaged for years on end, MMOG's

will never realize their full potential. Talk about your Halo, Harry

Potter, and Fallout MMOG dreams until you're blue in the face, but they

just can't compare. The Forgotten Realms is bursting at the seams with

all the lore, content, and fans any company could wish for so I have

just one last question... Why am I still waiting?





