Pirates of the Burning Sea ransacks open beta Friday

And vampires, orcs, cyborgs and ice cream vendors.

Why don't you just ask for a GTA MMO?

That would be awesome. There could be factions - cowboys, indians, police, bandits. Each of these could have warring subgroups (maybe less so with the police). It would be best as an MMOFPS though, since spells and stuff would just be weird.

When my friend was still suck with the idea he could make an MMO, I told him, if your even going to try and waste your time, do a wild west one. It's untapped. He said no, people want the same generic science fiction shooter RPG MMOs.

that's what i was thinkin moose. though I think 3rd person combat (a la gta style) would be better. you could still manually aim, san andreas was pretty good with that

then bounty hunters could take up bounties on actual players who had killed an innocent npc or something and if they captured them (dead or alive) they'd get the appropriate reward and the bad player would have to be in jail for a small amount of time and pay bail or whatnot

it'd be awesome to be a bounty hunter, they could have npc's record who they've seen in the last hour or so, then you could ask them if they'd seen whoever you're hunting and point you in the right direction. etc.

i'm probably asking too much :( it could be awesome though

The problem with that would be the whole "balance" issue which generally involves "I wanna be identical to someone else" problem. If one faction gets something the other doesn't, they want it. In kind, the first faction will want what the second has. Eventually, there isn't much of a point in it.

Plus, much of the old west revolved around anonimity (ever wonder why bandanas were used as masks?) and the prevailing practice of sticking floating names over everyone's heads would ruin that off the bat.

That 2nd point (about names and such) is quite a nitpick, isn't it?

I don't think so. The whole names thing completely destroys the experience. There are no longer options of going by pseudonyms, pretending to be someone else, possibly famous that the locals haven't seen before, or just being an ass that ganks you in an alleyway without having them write down your name for retribution. It would also cut down on other crap like random whispers/tells/messages from people asking for stupid shit or trying to sell you gold and leveled up characters. If you don't care to tell someone who you are, you can either make something up or tell them to screw off.

MMORPGs tend to be light on the RPG part. If you're playing a role, there is no way in hell you'd magically know everyone in the entire world. It would also help in creating a world that is alive. All those people running about are anonymous strangers, part of the crowd, real players making up the population of the city, not just fellow players tromping around in a big chatroom with stats.

Doesn't work.

Worked for me.

You probably need to see a doctor about that.