Fingers crossed, folks. Gamepot, the publishers behind Wizardry Online, is looking to bring the game to a global audience. It just needs to find a publisher partner.
For those who don’t know (shame on you!) Wizardry is a long-running, mind-blowing hardcore RPG series, famed for its incredible difficulty and dungeon hacking hijinks.
In other words, back in the day, it was the closest approximation of the Dungeons & Dragons that computer gamers had. It’s a series that has dropped off in popularity in the west, but has maintained a strong audience in Japan.
Gamepot is hoping to have an English version available in early 2012. The game went down well in Japan, with 100,000 signups in the first day of testing.
As an MMO, Wizardry Online has some awesome, if a bit frighting, concepts. If we copy the press release blurb into here for you:
“Developed in conjunction with Japanese game studio Headlock Inc., Wizardry Online offers multiplayer features new to the Wizardry series, including party play and player versus player (PvP) combat, while maintaining the classic style for which the series is beloved. Hardcore gamers will revel in the return of the complex dungeons that punctuated earlier iterations, and soon will find that the game is fraught with significant peril: Wizardry Online features permanent death, in which player characters can be removed from the game upon dying, creating a more immersive experience.”
Permanent death. Think on that for a moment.
Never really been a fan of perm-death. The concept can be interesting, but I really don't want to put in dozens of hours just to have something silly take me out for good. MMO adds an extra layer of concern – I had plenty of deaths in Warcraft over the years due to things like slow/dropped internet, anther playing bending/taking advantage of rules/AI to get me killed, and even the inability to hit a pause button as one of my kids or my wife demanded my attention. I'd probably peek at it, but I don't see this as something I would personally invest any significant time into for that one reason there.
Never really been a fan of perm-death. The concept can be interesting, but I really don't want to put in dozens of hours just to have something silly take me out for good. MMO adds an extra layer of concern – I had plenty of deaths in Warcraft over the years due to things like slow/dropped internet, anther playing bending/taking advantage of rules/AI to get me killed, and even the inability to hit a pause button as one of my kids or my wife demanded my attention. I'd probably peek at it, but I don't see this as something I would personally invest any significant time into for that one reason there.
I'm really interested in this concept. I share the same concerns with you over permadeath, but at the same time I can't get over how awesome it would be if it worked. It would certainly force people to rethink how they go about their MMO gaming, and for the better, I feel.
I'm really interested in this concept. I share the same concerns with you over permadeath, but at the same time I can't get over how awesome it would be if it worked. It would certainly force people to rethink how they go about their MMO gaming, and for the better, I feel.