The Stargate MMO has a unique chance to take advantage of being the only new DIKU based sci-fi game to hit the market in quite awhile. We’ve had Anarchy Online and Star Wars Galaxies come out but those were before World of Warcraft really reshaped MMO design philosophy. Tabula Rasa and Eve-Online are sci-fi based but run on unique game mechanics that don’t seem to have mass appeal. Stargate will probably set the standard for future sci-fi based avatar combat games. I expect Bioware’s KOTOR project and Blizzards Starcraft MMO to be similar. I don’t see any of these games releasing until 2009-2010 at the latest.

I imagine, though, that most of the people currently interested in a Stargate MMO already play an MMO of some sort. Will adventuring in the world of their favorite show be enough for them to give up WoW (or whatever game they play)? Any IP-based game has to struggle with that. It can’t just be good, it has to provide a better experience than the one they already have.

Take into account characters grew as the show progressed…they gained items, abilities (Samantha Carter had a brief stint of telepathy…)…if this is done right, the possibilities for adventure could be endless…

But, after the fiasco that was LOTRO (Lord of the Bore Online) or Matrix Online …a great concept…(even to the point of killing off a main character from the movies) but poorly executed…all I can do is watch patiently, and just dream of what my MMO world of SG would be like until I see their idea’s
Later

Though one thing about SG was when they started on Showtime, Showtime bought the 1st two seasons, so the writers had plenty of time to make long arching storylines where they kept you in the dark and revealed the mythos little by little. You could never do that on network tv or even cable if the network only bought the 1st season, especially with these 13 episode seasons on cable nowdays.

But see what I’m doing here. I’m basing my interest in possible IPs on what I know about their IP. I’d silently decided long ago that Stargate Worlds was for Stargate fans, and since I wasn’t one, it would have no interest for me. I tried TR, which reminded me I don’t really get into SF with guns and commandos. Not a huge David Drake fan. Harry Turtledove cries in despair. David Webber doesn’t like me.

Then Cheyenne Mountain puts out a press release filled with absolutely incomprehensible gibberish to a non-fan. That pushes non-fans away — they read that and think, ah, this game isn’t meant for me. I only have the movie to go on — and some promos SF channel shows during BSG, which show groups of commandos doing stuff.

What are they doing to bring the non-fan (but hopefully future fan) into the game?

So… if they write the quests well those factions and motivations can be introduced to the players who aren’t familiar with it.

Everyone else already said everything :)

But I am not so much looking forward to it. It has huge potential but they really have to do a great job to get the potential out of the ideas and into the game. But I think this game is a perfect candidate for player created content, though that has advantages and disadvantages.

You see and feel this to a much lesser extent with Star Trek or Stargate worlds, where there are multiple ship crews or teams which are constantly referenced throughout each of the series. In particular, Stargate seems absolutely built around the concept of an MMO. Truly, I believe that even if there had never been a Stargate movie or series, the MMO could work and work well from a conceptual standpoint.

Much, much more than Star Trek or Star Wars, I feel that Stargate is a good, solid platform for an MMO design. You’ve got centralized, focused factions which are relatively black and white (but with a goodly amount of fuzzy “grey” thrown into the mix to keep things interesting).

You have the ability to create multiple worlds which are completely and utterly different from one another with a travel mechanic which is absolutely believable in context to the rest of the setting (seriously, it’s the only real setting I can think of that comes with a built in zoning screen that makes complete sense given the context).

You’ve got modern day Air Force special forces forming up groups alongside civilian scientists/adventurers, and even the occasional alien (please note, no real in-combat healing class aside from medics or self-regenerating jaffa/go’auld).

Counting the dozens of individual sub-factions and sub-plots, you’ve got ample room for future expansions.

Like Star Trek, gameplay can revolve around combat, discovery, and/or both.

There are very heavy mythological elements and themes to the overall series, effectively opening up all sorts of possible art directions and quest styles. Seriously, throughout the 10 seasons of SG-1, we saw “gods” from every major mythological pantheon (Egyptian, Greek/Roman, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, African, Norse) as well as just figures of legend (Merlin, for example). Designers don’t have to spend time inventing languages or pantheons, when they can simply borrow from the wealth of historical data and series canon to build upon.

Weapons, gear, and skillsets would be easy enough to incorporate – since the series itself regularly did so (seriously, who else wants the bracelets from the episode “Upgrades” where the team became super strong and fast…).

Honestly, even if you had no idea what the series was about, I have a feeling that any competent designer could quickly and effectively immerse you into the setting with minimal issue. In other words, I don’t think it would be the IP’s fault if the designers fail to include a tutorial/newbie experience that helps set the stage for those players who may not be as familiar with the background stories.