The Evils of MMO licencing

Occasionally I'll get the itch to go back to games I used to play. It's for this reason that I own, including the original release, no less than 11 copies of Sonic the Hedgehog. I'll be browsing the internet and will come across reference to some long forgotten franchise that has been pushed out of my head by modern games, by Bioshock, Call of Duty and Mass Effect. When this happens, there's only one solution: play, play, play.

Lately this very thing happened with the Dungeon Keeper series. Checking GOG.com, I saw advertised that they'd got the title working with Windows 7 and it took me seconds to start downloading.

Dungeon Keeper

Dungeon Keeper, for people too young or too console to remember, was a strategy/management game from Bullfrog in which you had to obliterate the forces of good with your own evil army, attracted to your dungeon by your clever use of room types and resources. It's famous for several things: its dark humour, its addictive gameplay and the inclusion of a trailer for the third entry in the series on the second game's disk. It goes without saying that the trilogy was never completed; the closest we ever got to a full-fledged sequel was this annoyingly vague trailer. Bullfrog became Lionhead, made Black and White and The Movies (and later some small release called Fable) and the series fell into the grey area known as abandon ware.

Don't forget the loyal fans

Actually, that's not entirely true. A few years ago EA announced that they were licencing the series (along with all its trademarks) to a Chinese MMO developer. Imagine the widespread disappointment. Dungeon Keeper might never have had the backing of some AAA titles, but it had and still has a very loyal following. In recent years, in fact, fans have taken it upon themselves to create a new game from scratch, using new graphical updates, new creatures and new voice work (as well as a new story). So this isn't a series that nobody cares about, it remains important to countless people.

The change in genre?

And while there's nothing at all wrong with MMOs (nothing that we don't touch on in our reviews and in these articles, anyway), the change in genre was hardly something to widely celebrate. It had gone from a witty dungeon management sim to a third person quest grind without anybody really understanding why. No doubt money exchanged hands and no doubt the Chinese developers were good at their jobs, but it wasn't a game on which you could base an MMO. At least, we thought it wasn't a game on which to base an MMO, but we were fairly wrong.

Losing the soul

Last year, after more than a little while of quiet, EA announced that the MMO was still on track for release and that, fate allowing, people would have access to the game within the following twelve months. They released trailers, they showed exactly what the plan was for the game and, earlier this year, and they’ve been running closed beta tests in the hope, presumably, of having an open test before 2012 is out. Screenshots and videos show something that doesn't look terrible but ultimately doesn't manage to retain the soul found in the original two games. Concept art looks like a fan-made mash-up of World of Warcraft and Dungeon Keeper and, while I have no doubt the finished product will be at least passable, it won't nearly be enough to outdo the bitterness of never getting that third title. It's not the first time a beloved series has been taken online, to the chagrin of its fans.

Shenmue was always supposed to be a trilogy, and from the very get go the story was split into three. This becomes all the more obvious when you finished the first title. It doesn't tease a second game, it out and out announces it and, unfortunately, the same thing happens at the end of the second one. There aren't just a few loose ends that might help with setting the tone of a sequel, the story was supposed to be spread over three games and, when the first game just ends, the second one starts immediately.

Frustrations

So the fact that we've never gotten the third game is more than a little frustrating, but more than that is the frustration we've gotten from the two attempts at taking the series online. Yu Suzuki, the man behind Shenmue (and countless other SEGA titles), seems hell-bent on making an MMO or social game out of the series. Now I understand gauging interest, I understand raising awareness, I even understand that the equivalent of a Facebook game is going to be cheaper than reviving a series so highly held in the gaming world's esteem, but the fact that that both these games have failed, one even before release, doesn't bode well for the series.

Shenmue Online was to be the first revival of the series. Taking place around the second game, you were to join one of the gangs featured within the story. You'd do all the bits and pieces Shenmue is known for - fight enemies, do menial work - while at the same time learning more about the story. It was an ambitious project and, as you can see from the screens, it seemed to be going pretty well. I suppose someone at SEGA must have gotten cold feed, because it never saw the light of day and, as far as we know, nobody outside of SEGA ever got to play it.

The second game, Shenmue World, was slightly more successful. Only released for mobile platforms in Japan, Shenmue World was quietly put to sleep without ever really making a splash. You'd own your own dojo, from which you could fight with enemies and socialize with friends. There'd be little tasks to do and sometimes you'd even come across characters from the main series, not least of all protagonist Ryo Hazuki, but ultimately it had little link to the games that spawned it and was a poor replacement for and actual sequel.

Favorite franchise turned into an MMO

People seem genuinely upset when they find out that their favourite franchise is being turned into an MMO and given the track record, some outlined above, and who can blame them? From Age of Empires through to Civilisation, it seems every major series is getting an MMO/social spin-off and it never manages to live up to the quality we expect. Despite knowing that I can't possible enjoy the Dungeon Keeper MMO, I know that I have to try it out and, however unlikely, if they ever bring a new Shenmue MMO to this part of the world, I’ll be readily convinced to try that out as well. I just don't expect to have too much fun.