I'd say yes.

Mwaha. Just found our discussion thread from Smarch last year....

Shadowmarch: Otherland could be WoW killer!

I guess I can die happy now ^^

I'm totally happy that there's working on an MMOG for Otherland. On top of it a german company is producing it, I guess that's the first big MMOG for Germany as well. (at least one thing we germans can be proud of now ;P)

Already posted some information from here in german and linked to gamershell on giga.de (That's a big german Gamingsite which has a telecast about all kind of games (in german of course: Giga livestream)
Guess there's no problem with that now?

I wish you best luck

So, any information about how creative we can be in the game?
Currently we know that we can costumize our characters, but what's about an own little room (like Orlando's in the network, or Konohamaru's in Otherland). Amazing would be an own world, but I doubt that'll come. Though I hope so ;)

[aside] I just really found this site when I heard about the MMO from IGN.com, but I'm by no means a TW newbie.  I was hooked from the moment I read The Dragonbone Chair...shoot, near 14 years ago, and I'm eagerly awaiting Shadowrise.  Anyways, I'm glad to be here.  With any luck, I'll find time to stick around.[/aside]

I left a similar note in the Dog Blog responses:

Could Otherland be a WOW killer?  Maybe.  I don't play MMOs because I just don't have the time and they're usually not worth the money.  For me to sign up, a game has to be more than the sum of its parts, and Otherland will have to be no exception....otherwise I'll just reread the books.

How could Otherland be a WoW killer?  That's a tall order.  I, of course, speak for myself in saying that I don't think it needs to be a WoW killer.  The world is plenty big enough for two MMOs, and unless Thargor's world by itself is a match for WoW, Otherland really isn't going to pull in the hardcore medival fantasy crowd.

So personally, I don't think that Otherland needs to try and kill WoW, but I do think that if I, personally, am going to play it, it needs to offer something that 1)WoW doesn't, because I don't even play that, and 2)I don't get from reading the Otherland books.

I think the gaming world was turned on its ear when Spore came out.  I've followed Spore all through its development, and am a moderator of the Sporeum forums.  What Spore has done with their "Sporepedia" is nothing short of amazing.  The game, while running, is directly linked to the servers, which can simultaneously be accessed via Spore.com.  Things you do on one affect the other.  I have since wondered, "why can't other games do this?"

What I would love to see from Otherland, and what may actually get me to spend the money and play the thing, is if I logged onto the game....wandered around Lambda Mall....and remembered that I wanted to buy a new iPod.  I could stop playing and drive to a retailer, or go to apple.com....or I could just walk (or fly, etc) to a commercial node in the Mall and walk into a virtual iPod Store.  There would be the products I want to buy on virtual shelves and in 3D models that I could spin around, and then purchase like I was buying it online.  Extend this to a number of large online stores, like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc., and you have a feature that no MMO has so far.

Or take the next step.  Have "cafes" that are essentially websites like this one, or IGN, or IMDB, or Ain't It Cool News, where we could go and actually converse with people.  Tailor them to a theme in a world....say, a fantasy website/cafe on Thargor's world, or a Star Trek website/cafe on the Mars world.

Or take the next step.  Have Gmail and Google windows accessable through your GUI in/game.  You wouldn't have to even minimize your window, you just get a flashing icon as you're playing.  Tie it into Instant Messenger even. 

Far fetched?  Yeah.  It's kind of a crazy-nerd dream.  But it'd make the MMO experience more than what we have with WoW.  AND it's what the source material of the Otherland series was all about.  Spore started it, Next-Gen gaming systems do it in some capacity, and it's just up to the right game to come along and take the next step.

And honestly, I think it'd be a great legacy of the books if it could start us down that path towards actual virtual networks.

Sorry for the long post, but I'm not sure how active I'm going to be here yet, and I wanted to get that all out.  If you've read it all and kept up with it, you have my thanks.  If you're not laughing your heads off thinking me the fool, you have it twice.

I think the title of this thread is misleading.  Otherland won't affect WoW much.  It'll be too different, which is a GOOD thing.  It also means it has a better chance of suceeding.

I haven't played spore.  I'm impressed with the creature generation capabilities (though obviously it lead to some, err...disturbing creations (all to be seen on youtube)).  Makes me wonder if that phenomenon will lead to restrictions in sim capabilities in Otherland.  If I port out to the mars world just to get beat to the ground by a giant penis, that might detract from my enjoyment of the game.

make ubisoft do it!!

strangeshe wrote:

. . . user sims were required to be humanoid pretty much everywhere except in TreeHouse. . .

Can't wait to see how TreeHouse fits into the game :)

And we can make a slew of user-generated quests, all seeking information about "the place that does not exist"