Everything you wanted to know about gaming, and less

by Jamison DeLorenzo

We have all been witnesses to the recent acquisition of Blizzard and the attempted acquisition of Take Two. Both of these companies are rumored to be in the development stages of a new online game, and these speculations have largely revolved around Starcraft and KOTOR. Whether you believe these rumors or not is your decision, but a new rumor popped up recently which has caused me to recall an article I wrote back in 2003 about the very same subject - a GTA MMO.

I went back and re-read my old article and discovered two things. First, my sense of humor in these rants of mine has changed a lot in even as little as two years. Second, the points I attempt to drive home now are a lot more coherent. That’s the price you pay for being a writer who is a lot more raw than polished. There were, however, some interesting points I made four years ago about what a GTA MMO would be like. Now that I have a lot of experience in playing in the genre it’s time for me to spruce up some old ideas and figure out how this game could work.

I know what you are thinking - come on, not another GTA article!? This topic is repeated a lot, but, to be completely honest, it gave me an opportunity to spruce up an old idea that, frankly, needed some polishing. It also allowed me to put a lot less time into putting together a solid article this week. Sometimes being lazy can pay off, and a retrospective on my old musings has been enjoyable (at least, for me it has). At this point let me make a solemn promise not to write anything more about this franchise until the last week of April, when GTA IV hits the ground running.

While I believe that the GTA MMO concept is probably not in development or even in beginning discussion stages, I believe that the primary reason people are drooling over this, aside from an overwhelming love of the MMO genre and GTA, is the very noticeable lack of a multiplayer capability in the franchise since GTA 2. Anyone who played these games on the PC knows how much fun deathmatches, cannonball races, and killing ice cream men can be. Who would be odd enough not to enjoy that type of good-natured fun? The good people at Rockstar North finally figured this out, and now people are salivating over the inclusion of multiplayer in the impending GTA IV release.

And while I do not have a problem with the ice cream man, or Van Halen, I have had a bit of a problem thinking about GTA as an MMO. My initial thought was along the lines of finding the person so I could test out my brand new nightstick, but after a couple seconds I decided I would be remiss to dismiss some idea like this (who knew I had the capacity to put together a hip-hop album?). I put away my nightstick and began thinking about how such an idea could be brought to fruition.

The types of character classes and opposing factions are pretty much the most important aspect of making an online game deeply immersive. Playing as the traditional thug is the obvious choice, but there are other interesting ones too. There should be the ability to play as cops, major and minor gang leaders, business owners, pimps, or other low-level thugs. All of these jobs could build off each other in working to build an impressive - how would Fat Tony put it - mafia crime syndicate.

In terms of what could be done as part of the general level grind I expect a lot of the standard stuff you see in most MMO’s. There would almost certainly have to be some generic NPC gang activity like there was in City of Heroes, but there does need to be a GTA spin on it. I came up with a couple minor things to consider, but I think they begin to set the tone for a larger GTA universe. Imagine holding up a jewelry store only to have the clerk pull out a Colt Python as soon as you turn your back to leave. Imagine an ambulance driver slashing you with a katana when trying to hijack his vehicle. Better still - imagine some psychotic soldier driving around in a Hummer running people over at will.

I also thought about basic skills and professions, and San Andreas started to tap into those ideas. When Rockstar talked about the RPG elements in that game they referred to your stats (swimming, running, muscles, etc.). I don’t see why those couldn’t be basic skills that several classes in a GTA MMO have access to, but there are plenty of ideas there. The professions are what interests me more, and you can have varying weapons specialists, drivers, brawlers, and grenadiers for all fighting classes. Gang leaders could specialize in recruiting, entrepreneurship, and negotiations. It’s all very doable.

Car theft is a major element in the basic game, so I’m betting that cars, along with people, would have to have a pretty good respawn rate. While that part is not that interesting I will state that watching many people get into ugly PvP battles over stealing a single car could be a boatload of fun. Contributing to overall mayhem in battles against cops could also be fantastic.

Using a PvP angle along with building your syndicate’s influence, the battle over various businesses would be great. This is a concept that Mythic Entertainment calls RvR (Realm vs. Realm) battles and has placed this into the core of Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online. I would argue that this dynamic would be perfect for an online GTA game. Instead of just businesses, however, you could also control another form of ownable property - the gang hideout. All of these buildings could constantly be fought over by competing factions to shift overall control of a city. Keeping control over these buildings may be trickier than getting someone to laugh while watching A Night at the Roxbury, but it would be very competitive and entertaining PvP.

Going back to four years ago I didn’t think that there was a reasonable way to put together a GTA MMO, but today I am starting to believe that there is something to this idea. While these ideas are a bit scattered and light, they should make any eager readers think that the overall game concept could theoretically work.  Years of experience playing the genre do wonders for being able to put together ideas like this. With enough effort and innovation this could be a very popular game. With all the innovations the franchise has already brought to the table this move might be the last great innovation Rockstar can bring to the table with their primary cash cow. Even if that meant the end of the GTA franchise as we know that would be just fine with me - so long as it was still a lot of fun to play.

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