The problem with the "let's make an MMO too" mentality is that you must go at it with all you've got. Most people aren't willing to subscribe to two MMOs, so you need to make something compelling enough to draw them away from their current MMO. WoW pretty much snatched up all the non-MMO players at the time, so there isn't much left for the rest of the market to pick at. They need to go in with the mindset of being the top MMO, and for most, that's just not doable, and has a chance for being a HUGE financial flop.

I can partly agree with DeusPayne. I do think that there are a lot of people who didn't pick up WoW but would certainly shell out for the right "kind" of MMO. Also, WoW is an MMORPG, but who's to say people wouldn't subscribe to an MMORPG and an MMOFPS or MMO action game as well? Hell, some people may not like RPGs at all, but an MMOFPS is right up their alley.

I do, however, think that GTA provides a much better landscape for an MMO than Call of Duty, but that's just my opinion. I don't really like GTA anyway.

If they could figure out a way to do this while keeping the action intact and not having it devolve into absolute chaos, I'd be interested.

This would only be cool if you can financially ruin someone like in Eve

GTA is about one criminal/crazy character that make his way up in the city's criminal chierarchy... it won't be the same with
10000's of those kind of guy's :P unleas the city or cities wil be RREEEEAAAALLLLYYYY BIG !

@Caffeine

Isn't that what makes life fun in general?

Do you know how hard it would be to get around the city with 1000s of people shooting rocket launchers at everything? Or tanks being spawned everywhere.

I'd love to see it, if only so the annoying little brats can play this "mature game for mature gamers like myself" and leave me the hell alone.

Also, seeing something put a dent in the chore simulator chat room that is WOW would be good too.

Nice idea for the GTA universe, but very bad for my wallet.

Sorry, games are expensive enough without paying up more money. For maps and other DLC its one thing, but for MMOs with no end in sight, I can't do it.

Why do they think MMOs are the answers to their prayers? Just make good solid games and stop being so greedy.

The only MMO model I like and would buy is Guild Wars, (Ragnorok Online or Pirates of the Burning Sea too), because it has no monthly fee. Until many MMOs are that good or have something that interests me, I'll wait.

I'm of the opinion that WoW is wha

APB is already going this route, and it looks hella good.

Yeah, what about APB? Hmmmmm?

Righto Tom, but lets not forget that APB is being made by original GTA creator(s). If rockstar makes a GTA mmo it will compete against the ex, wow has nothing to do with it. I wish people would stop trying to compare every mmo idea with wow.

As if this wouldnt be the greatest game ever! I guess you'd choose a gang or something, and then you'd have your turf which you'd defend with NPC gang members. This would stop people just walking anywhere they like, you could have like level zones, also like in WoW. Pretty much, make it just like WoW with guns instead of frost bolts, you'd be sitting on a goldmine. Quests? Assasinations, steal cars, steal car PARTS, pimp hoes, jack fools for ipods, kill 20 Crips/Bloods/Yakuza/Whateverthefuckyouwant. Skills and talents? Pimping, Narcotics, Guntrade, Hydro (?), and so on. The only problem is cops, they couldnt just spawn anywhere, and only target you when people are getting capped left and right. WoW works because Fantasy is a huge world, and you can make it bigger by just making stuff up. The crime world is pretty huge too because theres many diff types of crime, where as a call of duty mmo, war is war, two sides, people die, thats it. And it would be sweet that these little 12 year old noobs couldnt play cos they has no credit cards. Fuck it, i'll send rockstar my cash NOW.

Dammit, I've avoided MMOs successfully since the genre started. This one sounds like it could be a threat to my free time unless it turns out to be an epic fail like the Matrix MMO.

GTA could never hold me interest for more than a few hours. I can barely get through a single game, let alone spend days in an unending universe of "kill this guy" and "bang that hooker".

Uh, as long as it's an optional choice i can make as an adult and not forced on me why would it make me "sick"?

And I think rockstar would put a lot of effort into doing it right.

Again, it'd still just be a game. Don't get all emo about it.

Umm, no thanks.

Wouldnt a gta mmo just turn into a call of duty mmo? Everyone is just going to end up shooting each other the whole time anyway. whats the point?

I think it would suck.

It would be nothing but chaos. Nothing but chaos.

Idea: interesting
Subscription: no thanks

If by some measure, a console version of this were to happen to spring to life and force a fee on us, that would be almost criminal. It already semi-limits itself to the PC gamers if they intend to charge monthly. APB is Xbox 360 bound if I'm not mistaken, and no word of monthly fee EVER came about. Rockstar has a lot going for itself, but this may be one of those things that they could do without.

If it does come to pass, I'd still want my traditional GTA games. But, not much chance of that happening if the MMO comes to life. Just put 16 criminal multiplayer in your games and let that bit it.

Honestly, I don;t think a GTA MMO would be all that fun or even interesting. Granted, multiplayer would be nice in limited aspects like deathmatches or mini missions or co-op but there are really two reasons people play GTA. One is to fuck around with the city trying to blow stuff up and seeing how long you can survive. The other is the really good story. An MMO would probably have to sacrifice both those aspects.

I'd rather play something like APB where there's a cops vs robbers aspect at all times. In theory they could do the same to GTA, but it would be kind of redundant I think.

be it*

English is dumb.

You guys are not giving developers enough credit. All you are doing is thinking of an existing franchise, like Call of Duty or GTA and increasing the map size and adding more people. If that is all game developers did then, yeah, it would be pretty fail, but that is far from the truth. In capable hands, they could add a lot of new game mechanics that prevent people "shooting rocket launchers at everything and spawning tanks everywhere." What Sphinx 13 described is a single player setting populated by many people, but that is not what an MMORPG is. WoW is more than just a big Diablo II.

Let me whet you appetite. Think of a map of the Unites States with all the major cities included. This will spread the population out a bit to prevent overcrowding of one city. The map could be divided into three broad regions like "South, North, Eastcoast, Westcoast" sort of like how MMORPGs are divided into continents to lessen server load. You can freely travel everywhere you wish to go. You start off as a lowly scrub with a little shack on the outskirts of the city of your choice. As you move up the ranks by completing quests and fighting members of the rival gangs (NPCs and real players) you can afford better accommodation like an apartment on 5th Ave. NYC, you can use more high end weapons and level up your skills similar to the San Andreas stats system.

The possibilities are definitely there. I rather have them try it that not. If it is great, we can all gain from it, if it sucks, well, then just punish them with your wallet.

"As if this wouldnt be the greatest game ever! I guess you'd choose a gang or something, and then you'd have your turf which you'd defend with NPC gang members. This would stop people just walking anywhere they like, you could have like level zones, also like in WoW. Pretty much, make it just like WoW with guns instead of frost bolts, you'd be sitting on a goldmine. Quests? Assasinations, steal cars, steal car PARTS, pimp hoes, jack fools for ipods, kill 20 Crips/Bloods/Yakuza/Whateverthefuckyouwant. Skills and talents? Pimping, Narcotics, Guntrade, Hydro (?), and so on. The only problem is cops, they couldnt just spawn anywhere, and only target you when people are getting capped left and right. WoW works because Fantasy is a huge world, and you can make it bigger by just making stuff up. The crime world is pretty huge too because theres many diff types of crime, where as a call of duty mmo, war is war, two sides, people die, thats it."

I agree with Garcia. If Rockstar was to make a GTA MMO the formula has to change a little bit. It can't be about one man rising through the criminal underworld of a fictional city it would have to be about the criminal underworld of an entire fictional city, cities, or world. Which if done right has alot of potential. If players joined various factions like the mob, mafia, yakuza, street gangs, the FBI, and the Police you have the potential for a very interesting and refreshingly different dynamic for an MMO. As garcia mentioned you could be doing anything from robbing banks to putting in a professional hit as a soldier in some crime family. What appeals to me about the idea, if done right, is that organized crime and the criminal underworld is so colorful both in reality and fictionally just look at all the great films out there about it.

I’m going to make a concerted effort to avoid any and all subscription-based games, because if they’re good, they will bankrupt me.

Sony could just call dibs on this one and make their Playstation Home feature allow robbery and guns and prostitution.

BAM there you have it

No thanks. I've seen what state Second Life has degenerated into, I'm fine without it.

I'm not a fan of the GTA series, but I think this would be a great idea.

Liberty City, San Andreas, Vice City... they could all be different servers. They could add additional Server/Cities as time goes on, and if you want to move to a different city, you can do so for like 10 bucks and the cost of some experience or whatever they decide to give you so you aren't maxed out in Liberty City and showing up as the top dog in Vice City as well.

This seems like a good idea financially as well as creatively.

I agree with what dvddesign said,MMOs can be dumb

As said APB is already positioning itself to be a MMOGTA. I wonder if this announcement has to do with APB starting to come into the limelight. A MMOGTA would likely release after APB so there's a big potential there of letting APB establish a market then a game with a big IP come in and take the majority share and expand it out. Then again it's not like that's ever happened before in the MMO world *cough*.

Also, potentially, it could be a move to keep the established GTA dominance on the GTA-type of gameplay that everyone else has more or less failed to reproduce in a fun and entertaining game.

@ Logo: This wasn't really an "announcement", this was a response to a question EGM asked Sam Houser about the idea of a GTA MMO. Something that many gamers have been talking about for years.

y'know SA for the PC has a multiplayer mode and thats basicly what it is

@Mxyzptlk Whoops, when I first wrote it I had announcements in quotes but then rewrote that sentence and left them out.

Let's not forget, GTA4 is supposed to have multiplayer. If it just so happens to be the cops and robbers online game with car chases and shootouts I've been dreaming of, I could see them fitting it into an mmo framework with relative ease. I'm all for this idea, and I've got my fingers crossed that APB turns out to be good.

I'll stick with APB until a GTA MMO is announced.

I've wanted a GTA MMO ever since I played GTA1 on a LAN. I remember thkinking, "This would be AWESOME with a hundred people ". I was disappointed when I heard GTA4 wasn't an MMO actually.

The MMO genre is (or has been trying) to evolve. First there were mudds, then Ultima, then EverQuest came along and made the genre recognized. It was almost completely fantasy based in the beginnings, and that's probably what turned away a lot of gamers who probably snubbed it because it would look like they were a geek running around a world full of scantily clad elves and having maybe even interacting with a *gasp* roleplayer. Fantasy doesn't appeal to everybody, but WoW has done it in a way that appeals to over 10 million people.

The genre has come a long way. There have been only a few commercial successes, and a lot of failure along the way. But if you look at the gaming industry itself, it's not much of a different story. The large majority of games don't become smash hits, but their failures teach other game developers a bit about what to do and what not to do.

I could see a GTA MMO. In fact, I've thought about how to make GTA an MMO simply because of my fascination with how MMOs have shaped the face of gaming. Really all an MMO is is really just a game with built in chat rooms. Are you saying that GTA is incapable of incorporating chat rooms into their game?

I don't think so. Especially since MMOs and GTA share a sandbox style play where you just go where you want to go and do what you want to do. The limitations are up to the developers, and they can do a good job or they can do a bad job, but nevertheless the potential is there. Monthly subscriptions are kind of a necessary evil in that if you really want the game to be able to change and evolve after it's released, you still need to pay people to do the monumental amount of work that is maintaining an MMO.

If Rockstar were to pursue an MMO, what I'd really hope they never forget is that it needs to be fun. Don't try and make the game too real or overcomplicated, because you'll only lay the foundations of your own demise. But if you can balance great game play and do it on a scale so thousands of others can enjoy the game while enjoying the social structure that MMOs provide, you can have a winner. Doesn't have to be a WoW Slayer, but it does have to be fun.

I think there are a few franchises that would benefit from an MMO environment. Pokemon, to name one, as well as a zombie-based one, though that would have to push the boundaries of what players are used to. GTA? Nah, no thanks.

Part of me hates this idea because I don't want to see GTA go MMO. Part of me loves it because I know this is one of the few franchises that could go toe to toe with WOW if they got the gameplay right.

just imagine all that traffic though. lol
www.consolepatrol.com

world of liberty city ftw..

I really don't see how GTA would work if it was an MMO type game. I'd be happy with a separate statistics list for online play: I kiiled that guy x times, stole a car off x etc etc.
Anybody know how many player the onle part supports?

That could be pretty awesome, but APB is already doing it.

A GTA MMO will have the worst community of any internet game ever.

A GTA MMO will have the worst community of any internet game ever.

QFT

APB.

Check that game out. It's from the guys who did the original GTA or something. Did I mention it's a MMORPG?

No thanks. I like my GTA games of the single-player variety.

It's all about the story. MMOs suck at stories. The same tale just simply can't be told.

UMMMM... been there, done that. Multi Theft Auto anyone? I'd post a link, but i can't use bbcode for shit.