I always do a search on YouTube for “Unity MMO” and check it a few times a week to see what crazy ideas people come up with (And also to laugh at the people that show off Unity assets saying it’s an MMO).
Anyway, what do you guys think of this? If this guy can do it, it’d be amazing. The game has been missing from EA’s releases for so long. Minus the lawsuit anyway, it should be a pretty good result:
A Harry Potter MMO would be awesome (and it really gives itself to the genre - the Great Houses = clans, Pvp: magic duels, quest possibilities are endless, the world is rich in lore, the rate of progression = the players make their exams and go to higher classes; I even can imagine that the teaching sessions are like some kind of a raid, where the kids have to “absorb the knowledge” or something),
But I highly doubt that these guys will do it.
It wont be finished in the start he says “My FIRST game development in my life”
:\ meh…
And his videos are uninformative, He go “Oh yeah this is a door. This is a table. Yup Yup Yup Oh this is a wall! Yeah Yeah Yeah”
That’s probably whats wrong with development dairies. They just tell what Models they have never any scripted parts. Atleast in most MMO videos i’ve seen.
Now only a million times more assets, and he’ll have the artwork completed, and can start on the actual game. I’m projecting a release in 2305 A.D.
Hey, guys, remember what I said - “the best mmo IDEA”. Honestly, I think he has a zero percent chance of completing this, agreeing with Heu.
Although, it’s still something to look at and think “Heck, why can’t we have more people trying to make MMO’s like this happen?”.
Its nice to see that he has balls to do something of that scope with actual licensed franchise, extremely risky development, basically you are combining two most difficult things to face in project like this: Getting 1 million dollars (or whatever it costs) for HP license and making the hardest game genre possible with tons of assets needed. I would be very interested to see this comming further in development in next year or more just out of curiousity to see what can they pull of in terms of license or development of game.
I am wondering what type of license is it needed for game like that, do you need movie type license of HP, book license, visual license or maybe all of those combined? On top i am guessing that even if you get license purchased developer still needs some big publisher to release project like that or?
It is always nice to see fan made projects of popular franchises, basically indie developers usually make much better games or mods based of franchises than big companies, it has been proved plenty times with some exceptions on EA games.
This is right up there with a Pokemon MMO when I think of things that would print millions of dollars.
There’s a pokemon MMO already out 
http://www.pokemon-world-online.net/
I don’t know how they’re getting away with it, but I’ve heard that they’re making a healthy sum.
Pokémon World Online neither owns nor claims to own any portion of the Pokémon Franchise. Pokémon World Online is an unaffiliated, fan-created game based off of products owned by the companies listed above. All custom artwork and coding for Pokémon World Online is credited to their creators, but intellectual property is owned by the above as well.
All donations are paid to the PWO Team. Pokémon World Online is a non-profit game. All donations to the PWO Team go towards server upkeep costs. All staff members and developers are unpaid volunteers.
Exactly!!
I am not really fond of Harry Potter, but those ideas would really transfer well to a traditional MMO.
Meh, he should just change it to Wizard Schoolor something and remove all HP references. Infringing copyright like this guarantees the game will never be a success.
yep
Actually this is a good idea, its what Wizard 101 did.
Biggest amount of bullsh*t I’ve ever read. Seriously? So if I make a game called “Harry Potter” and base it ENTIRELY on the Harry Potter series, then say all that crap that they have, you think I can get away with it? Wow…
Interesting.
So what changed in the re-launch that meant Nintendo no longer see this as copyright infringement? Obviously they don’t appear to have giving their blessing or licensed Pokemon, as if they had it would become ‘official’.
Perhaps they feel its better not to pursue and upset their fans, but would this set a precedent for any future copyright infringement that may be detrimental to Nintendo. I’m not saying they lose their copyright as that cannot happen, just that perhaps they could be challenged for allowing non-official use.
Do you have any further information as to how Pokemon World is allowed to continue to infringe IP? I mean I assume the use of the trademark ‘Pokemon’ and names of characters would be infringement regardless of whether the assets are community created or not.
Its also interesting that apparently other Pokemon MMO havve been shutdown, such as Pokenet (unless this is related to Pokemon World online?)
Ah, perhaps they are able to argue it is under ‘fair use’, such as this from the legal of TPPC Online
There are some interesting points under fair use
So non-profit is a plus and one could argue that Pokemon World increases the value of the original Pokemon franchise, so is not detrimental. Use of just the character names and stats with all other assets community created could be seen as only using a small portion of the entire work.
However the only problem is the prupose of the game doesn’t really fall under any of the criteria for fair use, namely
Though again I guess one might argue for teaching or research?
So in summary, it would appear that if you follow the fair use line you may have a better chance of either not getting or being able to argue against a ‘cease desist letter’. However ultimately you are still at the whim of the original copyright holder who, in all likelihood is still in a position to get you shutdown if they felt like it.
Oh and during this short excursion into copyright, I came across this funny, where the site got a 12 page cease desist order over an Aprils fool product they were launching called ‘Unicorn Meat’
officially-our-bestever-cease … and yet despite it obviously being fake and I would argue a paradoy they do appear to have removed the offending TM ’ The other whie meat’ from the page now.
Just because an MMO is based on a good story and lore that everyone is familiar with, doesn’t make for a successful MMO.
Er, have you seen http://www.pottermore.com/?
I haven’t played it but from what I can see its a 2d RPG type thing with some MMO characteristics.
J K Rowling’s stance on this sort of thing has been to tolerate fan fiction but anything which makes any money or could be seen as pretending to be an official product brings out the lawyers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Bros._and_J._K._Rowling_vs._RDR_Books
To my mind this is similar to the “Can I use someone else’s IP” threads. If someone else’s IP is the strongest part of what you’re doing then you’re in trouble. If you have some good original stuff of your own then change the name and the models and it should stand alone.
If you have some really really good original stuff of your own then there’s a chance that the IP holders will contact you about building stuff for them.
Update:
Looks like there’s going to be a Harry Potter game on Xbox with Kinect
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/171122/Another_major_license_heads_to_Kinect_with_Harry_Potter.php
That’s what they have on their site, I’m just giving you the info they are using on their site. As you can see before your post I support the idea of deleting all infringing material and make a “Wizard School” game.