Honor Harrington MMO
Apparently - and despite my interest in both David Weber's Honor Harrington series, and MMOs, this managed to sneak past me until now - there's going to be an game called something like Honorverse: an Honor Harrington MMO.
The website, unfortunately, does not fill me with hope. Of the logos at the bottom, Baen, Weber's publisher, is the only one I recognise. The site itself looks like it was built with care and attention, in 1998. And then there's the direction the game is taking - instead of playing a starship captain or crew member, you play the leader of a Star Nation.
I've a number of issues with that approach. First and foremost, the books focus on starships and tactics, and that's what people's interest in the setting is focussed on. A game wherein you found a star nation is an odd diversion from that. Second, part of the appeal of the books is getting to know the geography and history of a broad, deep setting, and having your part of the action explicitly take place outside that seems, again, odd. And thirdly, MMOs are by definition "massive". More than a couple of hundred star nations makes for a setting that doesn't resemble the Honorverse at all, and yet only a couple of hundred players makes for a rather pathetic MMO.
Finally, the copyright notice says "©2007 Artificial Software" - a company that I can find no other trace of whatsoever, and there's a launch date of "Fall 2008". I don't think it's even cynical, just realistic, to say that this one will not see the light of day, which is a great pity.
Posted by Drew Shiel at February 13, 2008 9:19 AM
I am guessing that this isn't an MMO, but a clone of Utopia/Stargate Wars/Planetarion. Certainly the graphics look far too awful in the trailer to be taken seriously as an MMO.
Posted by: Yoritomo Aleta at February 13, 2008 12:50 PM