Cryptic in Development

Way back when Cryptic announced the development of Champions Online, I visited their website and discovered other games in development. Star Trek Online was one of those games. I couldn’t believe they were trying to pump out 2 games almost at the same time. Not only that, but they had artwork for future games in development.

What I could make out is 3 different themes. Maybe they are just thinking about what might make a great MMO and throwing artwork up on the website to get people thinking. The artwork above is what I think is an Underworld type of MMO. If you notice, the lady shooting the gun has glowing red eyes and fangs. This leads me to believe she is a vampire and she is killing wolves. That screams Underworld to me. I would like to see more artwork and maybe an announcement they are working on a Vampire/Werewolf themed game. They need to throw in a zombie race and I would be in heaven. CCP (Makers of EVE) have the same idea. This is something I would play over STO and CO.

The artwork above is what I call, the Indian JonesMMO. If done right, I think an Indian Jones MMO would be fun. Who wouldn’t want to reenact the times around World War 1 & 2? As a PvP stand point, I’m stumped. Nobody would wants to be the Nazi or a bushman. I guess if it is loosely based on Indian Jones and doesn’t use the IP, it could be a treasure hunter type of Fallen Earth game. Everybody likes fighting over booty. If they added some Call of Duty type of areas mixed with the Indian Jones swashbuckler areas, it could be a great game.

This last photo looks like a Planetside type if theme. I can’t get much from this artwork, but if I was Cryptic, I would scrap the whole idea and go with the Under Indian Jones World MMOs. They already made STO, so there is no need to do another space MMO. Even if it is more Starcraft like. The market has shown, even though we complain about fantasy MMOs, we prefer them over Sci-Fi MMOs. STO didn’t do that great and games like, Stargate and Jumpgate are having hard time getting out the door. I would Scrap the laser pew pew MMO.

There were several other pictures of artwork to look at but they all looked like piece from the Indiana Jones MMO. They have all been the same for about 2 years now. I don’t know if Cryptic has scrapped all their future plans for additional MMOs because of the lackluster state CO and STO are in or they are waiting for the right moment to release some more info. I would guess they are trying to make their other 2 MMOs better. I know that is what I would do. They need to gain the trust of their customers if they plan on throwing another MMO on the market. Maybe, their plans are to have disposable MMOs? Is their marketing model to get box sales, subscription fees, and cash shop funds for a short amount of time, then throw away the MMO or go to free to play? It makes sense to me. Why not pump out a BBB title, grab a handful of cash, and let it go to maintenance mode while the cash shop trickles in money.

Whatever conspiracy theory I can come up with, I would like to see a werewolf/vampire/zombie/WW2/swashbuckler MMO rolled into 1. Wouldn’t you want to be a WW2 soldier that turns into a werewolf at night or a zombie pirate? I’m not sure if there are many fans left of Cryptic though. People rise a suspicious eyebrow whenever their name is said. They need to get their PR back up to a mediocre level before they give us another MMO.

Check out the artwork and let your imagination run wild.