Disney Pirates of Caribbean MMORPG or why god hates us

[sinij]

How many ways can you spell Jack Sparrow? We will find out definitive answer very soon.

Disney to launch more massively multiplayer games

I highly doubt anything but art will be developed in-house. So what studio gets to develop it or do you think they will go with out-of-the-box solution?

[Etro]

Does Disney not have its own developers, I thought Disney made ToonTown Online themselves and shipped it to smedley for cookies?

[Trippy]

Disney did Toontown Online in-house so I don't see why they wouldn't do Pirates in-house as well.

[Velorath]

The Pirates of the Caribbean MMO was announced about a year ago, so I'm not sure what the point of this topic is beyond "Disney has vague plans to do more MMO's".

[Etro]

Might has something to do with the last film of the trilogy coming out this year, perhaps a marketing ploy for product hype for both the game and film?

[Grimwell]

I think it's more likely that the Reuters guy thought "Wow scoop!" and ran to post without any checking for important details, LIKE DISNEY HAVING DONE MMO'S FOR LIKE FIVE YEARS.

Whoops... so much for 'professional journalists'

[lamaros]

Are you implying Sinij is not a professional journalist? The plot thickens.

[pxib]

Thousands of people can play on the Web at once in massively multiplayer online games, or MMOs, which essentially never end. Popularized by games such as "Ultima Online", many are based on medieval or science-fiction themes that attract male players.

Oh yeah, this guy has done his research.

[damijin]

Thousands of people can play on the Web at once in massively multiplayer online games, or MMOs, which essentially never end. Popularized by games such as "Ultima Online", many are based on medieval or science-fiction themes that attract male players.

Oh yeah, this guy has done his research.

That sounds like something you'd hear around 2000 in a brief blurb about teenagers being driven mad and chasing goblins in the streets.

TELL ME MORE OF THIS "ULTIMA" IS IT ON THE AOL ALSO? OR IS IT WEB EXCLUSIVE? GROUNDBREAKING!

[Yegolev]

Never end?  Hee hee hee!

[Azazel]

Are you implying Sinij is not a professional journalist? The plot thickens.

I thought he was a professional wrestler.. 

[5150]

I think it's more likely that the Reuters guy thought "Wow scoop!" and ran to post without any checking for important details, LIKE DISNEY HAVING DONE MMO'S FOR LIKE FIVE YEARS.

Whoops... so much for 'professional journalists'

SOE Dev!!!!1111oneoneKOS

Where my pitchfork  :-D

/derail

[Endie]

I think it's more likely that the Reuters guy thought "Wow scoop!" and ran to post without any checking for important details, LIKE DISNEY HAVING DONE MMO'S FOR LIKE FIVE YEARS.

Whoops... so much for 'professional journalists'

SOE Dev!!!!1111oneoneKOS

Where my pitchfork  :-D

/derail

Grimwell's SOE devhood has a whole thread of its own for you to troll merrily.  In any case focus your rage properly: taking the SOE shilling is minor next to a PR blunder like vouching for Morgan.

[Slyfeind]

He can't know that much about the Internet. He left out the thing about the tubes.

[sinij]

Are you implying Sinij is not a professional journalist? The plot thickens.

Even I knew that they developed ToonTown, but unlike Ralph I have very narrow definition of what mmorpg is. In my book mmorpg has to have persistent world, player interaction and advancement - if any of thi is missing it isn't a mmorpg. For example puzzle pirates is not a mmorpg, toontown could be if you ignore intentionally limited interaction.

What I find interesting, aside for poorly written article, is that Disney wants to get into *real* mmorpg, as in catass, raids and moneyhats mmorpg, and I'm not sure they have expertise. At best they will end up with Another WoW Clone™ at worst they will discover that doing /giggle and /hug is not such a good core gameplay.

I'm also curious about subscription costs, does ToonTown charges any? How would you go about getting subscription out of such young audience?

[Soln]

Captain Crotchpheasant, if ye plz

[sinij]

Are you implying Sinij is not a professional journalist? The plot thickens.

I thought he was a professional wrestler.. 

I'm a toothless hobo guy that asks you for a quarter every time you get off public transit on your way to work. You gave me one yesterday but today you just shrug it off. Bastard, now I'm quarter short for my lessons.

[Nonentity]

I played Toontown Online.

I remember shooting the bad cog people with horns and stuff.

It just grabs the random people on the street standing next to you and puts you in a fight with them.

[Signe]

Damn "Ralph" and his liberal hippy definintions of stuff!  Actually, I call everything, including my online banking, an MMO.  I prefer the PvP on the f13 MMO, though.  I actually chatted to Xanthippe about this MMO a while back, since she subs to Toontown for her kids.  If I were to find a beta slot for this, I've already promised it to her.  I expect it to be ADORABLE, although it doesn't seem to be geared towards the wee ones.  Maybe it's the Touchstone side of Disney.

Edited to adjust Xanthippe's gender.   

[Nonentity]

I hope it has rape, murder, and open PvP.

And ponies and unicorns.

[sinij]

They should market toontown to pedophiles.

I need my morning coffee or there will be blood before noon.

[Nonentity]

That would be a marketing campaign to remember.

Toontown - It's like a river made out of milk, but instead of fish there are young boys in swim trunks.

...

Ew.

[Slyfeind]

In my book mmorpg has to have persistent world, player interaction and advancement - if any of thi is missing it isn't a mmorpg. For example puzzle pirates is not a mmorpg, toontown could be if you ignore intentionally limited interaction.

Puzzle Pirates has more persistence, interaction, and advancement than Toontown. Unless you're using your own definition of those things, as well...?

[sinij]

Maybe I don't know enough about PP - give me one example of persistence, interaction, and advancement that doesn't revolve around solving a puzzle.

[Yegolev]

I'm on board with Signe's idea that RL is a MOG.  Driving on a busy highway, standing in line at McDonald's, have to belong to an uberguild/corporation to get the phat lewt, devs/congressmen that don't give a shit about popular opinion; there are parallels everywhere.

[HaemishM]

Maybe I don't know enough about PP - give me one example of persistence, interaction, and advancement that doesn't revolve around solving a puzzle.

What does solving a puzzle have to do with those things not being an MMOG? I think you've borked my mind.

It's a PVP MMOG with skill-based gameplay. One would think that'd be right up your fudgey alley.

[sinij]

I'm not trying to knock puzzle pirates or toontown, there are people who like and play these games. Still they are MOGs, not MMORPGS.

For example CS is not a mmorpg, even if you set up your server to *never* reset money, switch map and you always play with the same people and get to know them. Diablo2 is also not a mmorpg, even if you add graphical lobby to matchmaking area.  Its not enough to have one aspect, like character advancement, you need to have a minimum set of them.

[HaemishM]

You make me a sad panda. The things you appear to be advocating as necessities for a game being an MMOG are exactly why most PVP in MMOG's is a soul-crushing shitpile.

[Xanthippe]

Damn "Ralph" and his liberal hippy definintions of stuff!  Actually, I call everything, including my online banking, an MMO.  I prefer the PvP on the f13 MMO, though.  I actually chatted to Xanthippe about this MMO a while back, since she subs to Toontown for his her kids.  If I were to find a beta slot for this, I've already promised it to her.  I expect it to be ADORABLE, although it doesn't seem to be geared towards the wee ones.  Maybe it's the Touchstone side of Disney.

Fixed it for you. 

In fact, I still support Toontown (2 accounts even) despite rarely playing and still not having a maxed out toon.

Toontown is definitely a MMORPG by Sinj's definition. 

Persistant world - check
Player interaction - check
Advancement - check

Also, now, there are "raid instances" if you will, and also "crafting."

Raid instances:  Cog Headquarters require groups of toons to defeat.

Crafting:  Aside from fishing, toons may also grow gags at their estates.  Gardening and watering are crafts.

Minigames:  In addition to the jelly bean trolly games, there is Goofy's Speedway, where you race other toons in order to earn points to pimp your ride so you can win more races.

They've also raised the "level cap" on gags and added a new level to each.

Toontown continues to impress me as a grade A mmog.  They get way more right than wrong.  Some of the big guys could learn from them.

[sinij]

Lets not take what I say out of context. For example I did not say that character advancement should be long, level-based or main yardstick of your abilities. It doesn't even need to have positive effect on your character. Still there should be a way for your avatar to change with time and be different from other players. Similar argument applies to other aspects.

Ether way - my original point was that Disney might have great artists, writers and even coders but they lack experience designing MMORPGs since they haven't done one yet.

Player interaction - check

This is where I disagree and why I was hesitant to call TT a mmorpg. For obvious reasons TT has all interactions limited to a small subset of allowed activities. For example you can't have a conversation with other player and you can't decide to work together or avoid each other - so all other players conceptually boil down to 'an object' that you can interact with in limited way. Again, I do not subscribe to TT and my experience with it limited to brief tour of early beta.

[Xanthippe]

I'm really not getting what an MMORPG is according to Sinj then.  More precision on the terms, please.

[sinij]

I'm really not getting what an MMORPG is according to Sinj then.  More precision on the terms, please.

How about we start from other end, you tell me what MMORPG to you and why TT/PP are MMORPGs.

[Xanthippe]

I'm really not getting what an MMORPG is according to Sinj then.  More precision on the terms, please.

How about we start from other end, you tell me what MMORPG to you and why TT/PP are MMORPGs.

I already did, see above.  What is missing?

[sinij]

I'm really not getting what an MMORPG is according to Sinj then.  More precision on the terms, please.

How about we start from other end, you tell me what MMORPG to you and why TT/PP are MMORPGs.

I already did, see above.  What is missing?

For obvious reasons TT has all interactions limited to a small subset of allowed activities. For example you can't have a conversation with other player and you can't decide to work together or avoid each other - so all other players conceptually boil down to 'an object' that you can interact with in limited way.

[Sunbury]

"Persistant World"

The "world" part is critical for me to consider it a MMORPG.


Has (had)(is) a world:  AC1, AC2, SWG, Horizons, AO, DAOC, EQ, EVE (from what I gather), Planetside

Barely a world (just makes it): CoH, CoV

No world:  Diablo, Diablo2, DDO, Guild Wars

If the 'world' is just a series of smallish instance dungeons, linked by instanced 'towns', and areas are totally blocked from access unless you pass some quest - that is 'not a world'.   Which is why DDO, and GW are on my 'no world' list, besides the obvious Diablo.

CoH/CoV is borderline, because every square zone in the city is instanced, but they are large enough, and you can travel between them freely enought that it 'passed' my definition.

So what is Toontown and Puzzle Pirates?