While I would love for this to be the next baby jesus of MMO gaming, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this might not deliver exactly what I want in an MMO…
Super optimism aside, the Wheel of Time books are an amazing (if just slightly too long) fantasy series, with some very well developed characters and ideas that would fit perfectly into videogames and an MMO in particular. Hopefully the games associated with the name are more than just a quick cash-in on a popular brand. Something to keep an eye on at least…
Hardcore Casual 
Did you know that there was a very good fps based on the wheel of time books? You play a young Aes Sedai with a variety of magical powers. It was quite innovative for its time and the range of power available made the game a lot more tactical than most shooters of its time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wheel_of_Time_(computer_game)
That is freaking awesome.
We’ve had Star Wars RPG’s and an MMO before…. we’ve never had a WoT RPG, let alone an MMO. Please let this new company not be full of Ctrl-C from Blizzard fail.
“we’ve never had a WoT RPG”
Not true. Look up WoT MUD.
I’m only just starting “Winter’s Heart,” but any game that might give me the opportunity to tell Nynaeve al’Meara to shut up has my vote.
Quests in a Wheel MMO would be interesting. First you would do the quest. Then someone else would see you do the quest from another viewpoint. Then you would see the quest done by someone in the past. Then someone would get angry at you for doing the quest. Then your friend would try to do the quest, but fail. Then three people you don’t know would each do the quest. Then you hear that the quest may run again. Then you wake up and realize you have not yet done the quest.
Indeed, I played the FPS back in the day, it has half decent.
I take it you are not a huge fan eh Tipa? The last few books are terribly stretched out, but that’s only because the series originally was set to end in eight books (still a long series), then it was stretched to 10, and finally to 12. Publisher got greedy because of how well the first few books sold. That said, I’m dying to read the 12th and final book next November.
Not sure who is in charge of the Jordan Estate after his passing. I’m assuming the quality of the game (or lack thereof) would be highly dependent on who’s at the helm there, how involved they are with the project, and what development company they choose to work with.
Whatever criticisms can be leveled at LoTRO, WAR, and AoC, from a creative standpoint, I think the overseers of those creative properties all did good jobs–since the negatives of each game stem largely from the design end.
Honestly, I don’t want to see it happen.
We got lucky with Peter Jackson and The Lord of the Rings movies and Turbine did a respectable job with LOTRO.
I have little faith in these guys. I don’t want them to turn these books into a stinking pile of dung like those morons who are writing for Sword of Truth TV series.
Jason (resident drunken idiot of Channel Massive)
I’m with Tipa on the books. The Daytime Soap Opera approach to plot pacing (i.e., take three or four hours of plot and stretch out over a year of programming). It might be an interesting world to run around in, however.
I read the first five or six books, but then gave up. I figured I’d just skip to the last one and see how everything worked out.
I loved the first book; the world building was great, I loved everything about it pretty much. It was clear to me that he either had no idea how to end the story, or just had no intention to do so, so I gave up.
It actually is a pretty good setting for an MMO, but I had to be snarky about the books. It’s what I do :)
There will be no snark on blogs! ;)
I actually think the books are good until about the 5th book, when they REALLY slow down, and the amount of characters increases to stupid numbers. I don’t remember which book it is, but one of them has Rand for all of one chapter, with the rest being all side character stuff. Not cool when the book is 800 pages.
I think the series is great up to book 7: A Crown of Swords. After that the plot became stretched out and the writing seemed to suffer. I thing Robert Jordan’s wife and his assistant were going to finish the last book since he had written portions of it before he died.
How the hell do you actually “go out on a limp”? It does not even make sense. Do us all a favor and actually read what you type next time. The phrase is “going out on a LIMB”.
Took 11 comments for someone to notice this…? What the hell is wrong with everyone? Reader epic fail.
yea, I read the first 5 or 6 books. I think I stopped when the got to the weather changing device, after that, it just progressed so slowly. It was like watching molasses run down the tree in the dead of winter..well, maybe a little slower than that.
I was disappointed in the FPS. Two things about turning books into movies or games, they either get it dead on, or the epic fail…there is no middle ground. Look at the Seeker of Truth TV show based or Terry Goodkind’s series. That is an epic fail for sure.
Fricking hell this is amazing
Hehe… I’ve read all of the (currently out) books… I’ve played the horrifically-poorly set up tabletop RPG… Okay, It’s true to the books, you don’t want to play a character unless you can channel, based on 3.0 D&D, Channelers are like ‘better than wizards and sorcerers’, and all the other classes are artificially gimped.
A MMORPG would need to take place preferably after Rand cleanses Sadir (pretty sure that’s the male half), or before if the male-channeler insanity only plays out in player role-play and NPC interactions. Or, which I feel would be a mistake, only allow female channelers…
That all said, I am looking forwards to give this a peek in. I enjoy trying new things. ^.^
HEY! I am a super nerd. I work at medieval times. I joust every day, my best sport is kung fu and I do it WELL! When I got out of high school I picked up my shit and moved to a castle in bum fuck China for a year and studied with Shao-lin monks. There is no more critical audience than me. I can tell you if a fight sequence is believable. I lived in China and my teacher was a shaolin monk. Then I moved back home and fought in Iraq. Forgive me if the grammar, punctuation, and spelling suck but today is literally my birthday and my friends got me wasted. I know fighting, and I know stage fighting. especially with swords and horses. I LOVE this series… The simple fact that they are willing to bring it to life will garner my initial purchase and my first month’s fee. Which is always included in the purchase price. However, a lot of games are coming out. Tor, star wars is a big draw. Aion… it looks hot… How are you going to beat hot titles? I am ROUTING for you to succeed. I would murder to be a WARDER. My girlfriend would play as my Aes Sedai. Explain to me how you will make the mechnics work. It is a complex world. I know it. I know how fights work, admittedly, very different in films than games. The most successful MMO on the market is WOW. A game with auto-attack and selectable abilities. I hate to break it to you but it’s a working formula. I know fantasy from reality. The awesome truth is… The two don’t need a clearly defined difference. Don’t rely on graphics. The success of WoW is based on two things… Accessible gameplay and accessible technology. Don’t outstrip the world in terms of playable graphics and don’t over complicate the mechanics. Accept the fact that people want to be competitive (actually they want to be superior but you can’t please everyone) at every class, they want pvp competition, and they want immersive worlds. Don’t overplay your hand. make the world prettier than wow. make the classes fairly balanced (the hardest part) with specific weaknesses and strengths. Make competitive factions. (shadow and light… like the Fades are comparable to Warders and Dreadlords are comparable to Aes Sedai). Man if I was even moderately sober I would make ten times the point I am making now. Fuck I wish I could play Mat Cauthon in the movie. I have five times the martial artsand stunt experience of the actors, It’s my dream job… The job of my life time… I would kill for it. And I am not bad looking… at all. I would settle for working on the thing as the damn craft service guy.
Damn this Brand guy is a tard. No one beleaves the crap your talkin.
I’m with brand, actually even intoxicated he still makes out good points. Everyone does. I’m a hardcore fan…read the series 3 times thru to the 11th book, anxiously waiting the 12 book, and re-listening to the first 11 again on audio book (you catch ALOT of stuff you missed) being a delivery driver, I have alot of listening time =o). Only read the prolouge once. HOnestly, I don’t believe it’s gonna work out…I really really want to be wrong so bad it hurts. But I’ve been surfing around reading stuff about this and it doesn’t look all great, especially a quote from RJ himself saying he declined a movie to Red Eagle. But his wife has ultimate rights I hear so I suppose we’re all putting our trust on her.
P.S. Would totally be a warder or Myridraal =o), get a younglings thing going. Or trolloc…*twisted smile*