What do you think the future of Might and Magic Shall Behold?

[Jaspergentry]

I know... this is a very difficult question to answer and only time will tell, it will be hard for Ubisoft to come back from Legacy and create an eleventh episode to the series but i think a good spin off (a bit like MM Dark Messiah) would work...

What do you think?

[Jaspergentry]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihI4nAsrVqQ

An Interesting thought...

[jeff]

He has an interesting viewpoint (but his). The Musou strategy idea he showed is far too simplistic for the MM style most of us remember. Saying that and realizing the interest levels of the current high school students at my school; Musou may be too complex for them to stay interested. I also did not agree that MMX was terrible, aside from the movement system; it just was not up to the standard of its predecessors or the expectations of the fans (I blame the UBI budget and not the creators). His suggestion might be good as a cell phone or ipad app, but not for the PC. He also wondered off into the multiplayer arena which I and many could care less about, but could be a good money stream for the company. They would still need a solid single player version or my interest is gone.

MM needs an interesting story with combat, quests and solvable puzzles that catch the player's interest. It needs to be multiple character party created by the player; so the player can care about them. It must have the turn-based combat option. The numerous battles necessary to level up can't be a horrible grind, and the opponents need to increase with difficulty and experience gained as the party levels increase. It needs to be a game that after a session the player looks at the clock and says OMG where did the time go. A tall order to be sure to find an audience large enough to make a profit; particularly which a growing population of reward me now, dazzle me with graphics or I move on.

[jeff]

Topic moved to Might and Magic Forum

[Paviel]

and the opponents need to increase with difficulty and experience gained as the party levels increase.

Most MM games didn't have that, did they? I know that in MM3-9, the difficulty and experience of opponents was dependent on location, not party level.

Other than the arena fights in MM6-8, that is.

[Baronus]

That was big mistake that in MMIII was lost monster leveling growth. Regress. But it is simple to implement.
...
I think that looks no future... But I think that future is. I count for unexpected breaktrough...

[Bandobras Took]

Most of the games I've played with monster leveling fail of immersion; you tend to run into level 80 rats or malignant demons when exploring the city sewers (as an example).

[Baronus]

But in MMVI-VIII we have situations when you are 50 level and you fight with weak monsters because location needs rats with 5 or 7 health. Eg. temples of Eep. Better is when firsts locations rats are 5 health but in middle game 30 etc.

[Bandobras Took]

"Better" is pretty subjective; the debate on immersion vs. gameplay is pretty long-standing across a lot of RPGs.

[Baronus]

I think all can be spoiled. And I tell about another statistics the same monster. Leveling for monsters is another thing. Week orc on first map and powerfull on last is better than weak on first and weak on last. Because if game is too easy is boring. And too hard is too demotivated...

[Talin_Trollbane]

I know... this is a very difficult question to answer and only time will tell, it will be hard for Ubisoft to come back from Legacy and create an eleventh episode to the series but i think a good spin off (a bit like MM Dark Messiah) would work...

What do you think?

Well considering the last report we had from Ubisoft over MMX was "it didnt make enough money to warrant a sequal" so i doubt we'll see any classic MM's from them ever again.

[Baronus]

MMX as I see was finnancial collapse. Ubi retreat from it very fast... We dont see MMXI to 2025 in this situation... But we have Grayface MMEditor and we can do new games very easy.

[hellegennes]

MMX was good. It was not very true to the series, but it was far better than MMIX (and MM8 in my opinion). It failed mostly because it was way too old school. Ubisoft didn't believe in the project and the budget was minimal. Considering how small they went with the budget of Heroes VII, which is supposed to be the flagship of the IP, it's surprising they even bothered to fund the game at all.

[Talin_Trollbane]

Ubisoft really isnt the right owners for the IP, that for sure, nor do they have any interest in it other then the Heroes "milk-cow" section of it anyway.

[Hobbun]

What is Jon Van Caneghem doing now? I don’t think unless he would become involved again, we will ever get another true Might and Magic except by name.

Would love to see him start up another company, or at least join up with a company doing an RPG, and do another RPG franchise similar to Might and Magic. He couldn’t copy it and of course use anything from the official MM franchise due to copy protection, but he made a great series with the MM franchise, I know he could do it again.

[hellegennes]

Don't get me wrong, I loved all of JVC's games, but since 3DO went bankrupt he has done nothing important. He seemed very thrilled about what he was going to do in NCSoft and Trion but left them both. He then went on to head the team that was making C&C Online, but the alpha testers didn't like the game and EA decided to shut down production and to disband the production team. He now has a company that makes mobile games. I don't know if JVC could at this point create another masterpiece. Don't forget that he is now about 54 years old.

[Hobbun]

That he is 54 now really has no bearing on whether he can make another Might & Magic (like) game. Although it’s a shame that he hasn’t done that well in his most recent endeavors.

But if he was eager to try another RPG, he ‘found the fire’ again, I would be interested to see what he tried.

[Baronus]

54 years is still low. His games now shuold be better than he was 27. Weterans are better than recruits.

[hellegennes]

Veterans are never better than recruits. Veterans never fight themselves. If you've seen a 54 year old fighting, he is fighting for his life. Not even in the two World Wars did 54 year olds fight. They may be more experienced, but they certainly cannot do the things a 20 year old can do.

It's no better with creative jobs. Most people are in their creative prime between the ages of 20-40. A huuuuuge list of both scientific and artistic milestones were set by people in their 20's and 30's. Copernicus devised his theory in his 30's, Newton devised most of his theories in his 20's, Kepler did so in his 30's, Einstein formulated his theory of Relativity in his 20's. The same goes for artists. Most artists create their best works when they are young (and videogames is a complicated form of art).

You may gain more experience as you grow older, but most people become less creative as they age, for various reasons. Now, there are notable exceptions, of course, but if you have to bet, you better count on a 54 year old being less creative than his 30 year old self.

[Erwinner]

you can say all of that if you will, but, actually, I agree with the others, it doesn't make a difference what age he is here for better or worse unless it means he is senile or dead, really no point to bring that up lol