Sweet. Not the video posted on the main page. Shame about the quality though. This game seems to be turning out really well. Are they already beta testing?

Potentially, sure. I find it strange that it's being done by the same company behind City of Heroes though, considering Marvel's lawsuit against them for that game. I sorta suspect it will have a lot in common with CoH really, just with the Marvel backdrop.

What they don't have, that Cryptic did have for CoH and is potentially a big deal, is Starr Long. He's now back with Richard Garriott, hopefully making the online world a better place with Tabula Rasa.

I don't even get how the Marvel MMO is going to work. Surely the appeal of any Marvel game would be to play your favourite characters, but uh, will a bunch of Wolverines and Spider-Men be running around beating up rats?

Those characters will most likely be NPC characters within the universe, just like in Starwars Galaxies, you can't play as Luke or Han, or in Lord of the Rings Online you can't be Frodo, etc.. Pretty easy concept to understand really :)

Well in Star Wars you've got a universe with certain rules for powers and whatnot. There's this whole "logic" behind the Force and stuff. Likewise in LoTR you've also got a world with set rules, objects and attributes with different races and characters, and even Matrix has that with the whole bending spoons and kissing Carrie Ann Moss.

But Marvel is like this GIANT catalogue of completely and utterly unrelated powers, rules, stories. I just don't see the coherency in a Marvel universe that could in any way offer the notion of being part of it. I mean, if you could become a character with adamantium claws and healing factor it'd just be about whoring out the unique powers of beloved characters.

I'm not seeing the problem. Think City of Heroes with Marvel NPC's, cities, and villians. There ya go, you've got yourself a Marvel MMORPG. Who knows, maybe you can even join the X-Men--there's always a war brewing in that universe, which side are you on, etc etc.

It might be more difficult to conceptualize if Cryptic hadn't already made City of Heroes, but you populate the world with the proper NPC's and create the right setting, and they've already completed most of the leg work.

Well there's no problem if all they wanna do is slap a Marvel license on CoH. I was just under the impression that creating a Marvel game was a little bit about identifying with the universe. I don't see how you're supposed to do that by getting to create a custom character with Wolvie's claws that shoots web and extends his legs to rubbery wobbleness.

I don't see how that tickles a marvel fan the right way.

See, for me, a Buffyverse MMO would be ideal. Buffy has classes within its own universe, it has rules for all demons, vampires, slayers. It has rules and attributes for different dimensions, for magic, for how powers manifest, etc.

Creating a character in a game like that I could choose the class of a Slayer for instance, or a Vampire, or even a Watcher (destined to pair up with a Slayer at some point) and do all the Slayery, Vampirey or Watchery things I'd need to do as those.

As a Vampire there could be a crazy ass demon trial to win back a soul and with that all kinds of snazzy attributes could come. Conscience, but the ability to discern right from wrong, etc.

I get carried away.

Anyhoo, what I'm trying to say is that there are classes there, there are "laws" and "facts". There is room for new characters going through similar ordeals thus letting a player and fan identify and associate their character/themselves with the universe.

If the marvel MMO aspires to do more than just slap the license on there, I can't see how you'd create that same sense of being part of the universe, simply because it's so vast and ill defined.

But have at it developer people, time will tell.

It won't simply be CoH with a new coat of paint, but I do expect a rather simular game. There's enough to go on there to establish some sort of law, I think, and hopefully (unlike CoH) they don't create a system that simply encourages copy-cat characters. The one thing I would like them to keep from CoH is the awesome character creation..it's probably the best part of the game!

But I expect it will be much like any other licensed MMORPG. Traditional characters will be NPC's, and the world will be set in that universe. You go to NYC, you meet up with Spidey, the Fantastic Four etc. I'm not having a hard time grasping that concept.

I think we'll probably know more soon, so we might as well just wait and see what they end up with..but it's Cryptic Studios..so yeah, I expect something that reminds us of City of Heroes. The very least they could do is offer up a very simular experience with a much better backdrop, the Marvel setting alone will move more copies than CoH ever did.

Do we know who is developing the DC MMO? Is it SOE?

Personally, my most anticipated MMORPG is easily Tabula Rasa. Finally, SOMETHING DIFFERENT.