Sega, MMORPG, Digital rex and shenmue 3 a connection?

[SxualVnilla]

NewsFlash from my brain:

If Sega thought that the sales of Shenmue II did bad. Then a game that only a select group could play would kill sales so badly that Sega would need to fully bought out, hey, I bet my theory of Sega getting bought by Sony could finally come true.

Come on, people play Shenmue for the story not for the gameplay. Does Everquest have a story? Hell no! Which is the reason why it does so frikkin well. In a MMORPG, there is no way to tell a story. Trust me, I have been playing Galaxies since it came out and Sony has been trying to put a story in it. Putting it with the destruction of Alderran and researching it. Which involves killing certain Rebels or Imperials to get datapads, and after you collected X datapads then you can find out what it was all about, and get a badge for it.
It is sooo bad that I just couldn't take it no more.

One thought, it could work like this, you start out as a person in Hong Kong or any of the other locales in the game, and try to be a member of either the Heavens or Chiyoumen (I forget how to spell it), and eventually fight Lan Di or Ryo to set the path of them. People could be shopkeepers, sell hot dogs(Tom reference, who was the best character in the series so far, my opinion, so there), or any other occupations like Everquest.

The problem with that idea is that if Sega was to throw another few million dollars at Shenmue, and it fails again then Yu Suzuki would never to be allowed to another game ever. He would never take that big of a chance. Maybe he would, but I seriously doubt it. I never would at least.

I wrote too much to check my spelling and grammer, so if its off I'm sorry.

[asnozz]

The problem with that idea is that if Sega was to throw another few million dollars at Shenmue, and it fails again then Yu Suzuki would never to be allowed to another game ever. He would never take that big of a chance. Maybe he would, but I seriously doubt it. I never would at least.

man but the same thing can be said about shenmue 3 (non-online). lol

well i distpute ur argument against shenmue being a rpg, but thats my opinion. And im too lazy to argue

[SxualVnilla]

The problem with Shenmue going to an online gmae is that there would have to be an entirely new engine made. With a Shenmue non-online gmae, they can stay with the same engine.

Online = new engine and lots of money getting spent
non-online = no new engine nad would save a lot of money.

Why do you think that the Jedi Outkast games have used the Quake 3 engine for years?

That's right, to save money.

[asnozz]

...
i cant be bothered to argue

[Contristo]

Uh, you guys need to really wake up. The answer is right there that none of the news involves or even mentions Shenmue. They would have no reason to make it an online RPG when the story isn't even finished.

It's hard to look on the bright side when there is clearly nothing there.

[Silas]

Shenmue III, well, even though it would be cool to play around in Guilin with a bunch of other people, but it just wouldn't work.

PPl are getting the wrong idea. The MMORPG = shenmue 3. OF COURSE NOT. 0% CHANCE OF THAT BEING TRUE, however a MMORPG on the shenmue franchise= a possibilty.

Heheheheheh. No, I really don't think so. I was going to say that Shenmue simply does not lend itself to MMORPG format, but I've thought about that and I think there are ways it could be done. However, no Shenmue MMORPG is going to appear before the saga ends, and certainly it's not major or successful enough for SEGA to pre-empt the saga and producing something new based on the Shenmue template. If it was a runaway success, maybe that would have happened (like GTA, when they slipped out GTA:VC only a year after GTA III as a new adventure based on precisely the same game engine).

Shenmue is not a franchise ... yet. But it does have franchise-able elements which could be used to make an MMORPG. I'm with SxualVnilla on the concept of throwing out the storyline, because it's unusable as a multi-player experience. What we have from Shenmue is a martial arts fighting game with the element of swapping toy collectibles, darts and arcade games, patchinko and betting.

To add a proper RPG element to things (and I'm afraid that again I agree with SV: Shenmue's only remotely RPG element is the ability to train moves) you'd add the element of different fighting styles offered by different dojos or gangs. The Hazuki dojo is one (a thought: set it in 1985, and Iwao would be the sensei!), you could have a Mad Angels/Chi You Men gang (with a specific style of fighting) based in the harbour, and you could create another dojo in Yamanose/Sakuragaoka (which would be merged) with yet another style. Dobuita is the shopping area where you get all the stuff you need (I suppose there's no way of avoiding the introduction of weapons, but as long as they are not firearms that would be ok), costumes, protection, toys and sweets. I'm afraid I would eliminate the cat! But on the plus side, all the gambling and patchinko from Shenmue II would make its first appearance in Yokosuka, alongside pawn shops.

You fight and train to achieve a level of experience (and money) which will enable you to buy your ticket to Hong Kong. There you get to enter a big MMO tournament. (Training and fighting in Yokosuka could either be single-player or MMO, I think. MMO would be better.) But you can continue to train, there would be more dojos you could join which would be related to the one you were in (so the Green Market would be associated with the Hazuki dojo, lets say).

There is even an element (getting popular in RPGs) of the light side and the dark side in Shenmue. You can follow the true path of Ryo, or the path of evil like Lan Di and Ziming.

Alternatively I think this basic concept makes such a good game idea that frankly you could jettison all the actual Shenmue elements (the settings, the specific move names, Shenmue characters) and create a FREE-style martial arts RPG set anywhere. So SEGA wouldn't necessarily have to make it. The KOTOR guys could do it, for instance.