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ICv2.com reports that Cryptic Studios, makers of the hit MMORPGs CIty of Heroes/City of Villians, have the license to produce an MMORPG set in the Marvel Comics universe. Yowza!

13 Responses

Brett Says:
September 28th, 2006 at 12:54 pm

I saw this…I’m still trying to figure it out. (Remember, Marvel sued Cryptic when CoH came out…), but apparently they worked out their differences.

What I’m not sure of…is how they are going to integrate a finite number of established characters into the game with an infinite number of player created characters…or…is it a matter of “I’m Spider-Man #45356, nice to meet you Captain America #13245″?

Either way, I’m sure I’ll be playing it some day to find out.

Matt Forbeck Says:
September 28th, 2006 at 1:01 pm

Yes, Marvel did sue Cryptic, and I’m not surprised to see something like this arise from the settlement (either officially or just as a preliminary to other negotiations, I couldn’t say). The same thing happened when Games Workshop sued over the Chaos League computer game.

I’m not sure how they’ll get around all the limitations of using established characters either, but these are smart people. I’m sure they’ll figure it out. It’s not going to be like other MMORPGs, I’m sure. Maybe they’ll just take the Clone Saga to its natural conclusion?

Bruce Harlick Says:
September 28th, 2006 at 4:48 pm

Did you know they hired George MacDonald as a designer for that project a couple of months ago? That’s cool.

Matt Forbeck Says:
September 28th, 2006 at 5:01 pm

That’s extremely cool, Bruce! I think someone mentioned to me at Gen Con that George was back into computer gaming, but I didn’t know the project he was on. One of the main designers of Champions working on the game, along with some other special industry names (which I’m not sure I’m permitted to share yet)? This game will rock.

Christian Johnson Says:
September 28th, 2006 at 8:51 pm

This is great news! I was very impressed with the flexibility of CoH and having one of the Champions creators working on the Marvel game will give it a little street cred.

I may just MMORP again.

Brian L. Bird Says:
September 29th, 2006 at 1:16 pm

Poseidons Ghost! This is going to be awesome. My character from our Saturday night Marvel RPG (sorry its not BNW Matt) can be fully realized.

Hopefully not the accidental deaths of hundreds of innocent people

Matt Forbeck Says:
September 29th, 2006 at 1:36 pm

Hey, I’m a fan of the old Marvel RPG too, Brian. Or are you playing the latest version? I never picked that up.

Christian Johnson Says:
September 29th, 2006 at 3:18 pm

I very much liked the old TSR RPG (when using the Advanced Rules), but the SAGA addition really impressed me and I ended up running a 2 year campaign with house rules adapted from the Dragonlance SAGA Companion. We had a great time.

The latest version was too “design” for me as a player, it was an interesting design, but seemed more like a gaming innovation experiment than a game in and of itself. Like Amber though, it had great advice on how to run an rpg and it’s villain team design methodology has been crucial for me as a GM. Besides that the information was broad enough for applicability in other games.

Matt Forbeck Says:
September 29th, 2006 at 3:48 pm

Thanks for the recap, Christian. That’s all good stuff to know.

Brian Says:
September 29th, 2006 at 10:00 pm

We’re using the TSR Advanced rules. The Universal Chart has recently been called by an oblivious gamer “The Periodic Table of Wham-o”

Hoping they rerelease the game or something. Its a great game, we’ve just entered Civil war storyline. The deaths of innocents caused by Speedball was only one incident. My character inadvertantly destroying 9 city blocks was the first. Oops…. Shift Y Fire Generation. (Thats Focused)

Steve Says:
October 3rd, 2006 at 7:50 am

I suspect that players will be interacting with Marvel characters and villains in much the same way they are doing so in CoH/CoV. I’m betting that players will be able to qualify for special memberships in organizations such as the Avengers, X-men or Masters of Evil by completing special story arcs or quests.

Just my two cents.

Matt Forbeck Says:
October 3rd, 2006 at 8:29 am

That’s entirely possible, Steve, and it would work. I wonder if it will satisfy the people who want to actually play the famous heroes and villains though? I’d guess that Cryptic has something clever up its collective sleeve.

Brian Says:
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:24 pm

I doubt players are going to be allowed to play the famous heroes or villians.

The only way I can see that is through a special membership.

More than likely teh people at Marvel or Cryptic would utilize them as the GM characters of the game, involving teh lesser heroes (those played by us) in stories.

Hmm…X-men or Avenger…..hmm….which one which one…