Working Title 12.06.07: Massive Effect - Power Rangers
Posted by Jordan Williams on 12.06.2007
We've had two ideas that might've worked, one idea that can work...and now we have one that dosen't stand a snowball's chance in hell. Can Power Rangers somehow be twisted into a decent MMORPG? There's only one way to find out.
Welcome back to the #1 Column to think Saints Row is better than Grand Theft Auto, WORKING TITLE. Alright folks, this is it, the final week of Massive Effect. In the first week we deemed that Avatar would make a decent MMORPG, but would fall by the wayside due to the lack of fan base. After that we found out that Transformers would be a nice MMORPG but do to the complexity of the source material it wouldn't attract much casual players, and then last week we saw that Harry Potter stood the best chance of hitting it big in the MMORPG market due to it's giant fan base, casual pull, and deep story setting.
So far that's two MMORPGs that would sort of make it and one MMORPG that most likely would make it.
Now it's time for one that stands a snowballs chance in hell...or does it?
That wasn't me attempting to do a lame joke last week at the end of the column, this week's Massive Effect IS really about Power Rangers. Does the kids action series have enough pull and story to turn it into a decent MMORPG? Will anyone above the age of eight actually play it? There's only one way to find out so let's kick this bad boy off.
Massive Effect: Power Rangers
Alright. I'm going to go ahead and get this out of the way right now. I watch Power Rangers. There, I said it. I actually have a pretty good reason for it to...it's my job.
No, I don't run around in spandex and beat up the forces of evil. Over the course of the year I participate in Medieval Fairs which include various stage fight shows. When you break it all down it's pretty much exactly what you see on Power Rangers sans the special effects and with even more bad acting. Doctors watch other doctors to stay up on their craft; I watch Power Rangers (and wrestling) to stay up on mine.
Either way, it's not like I'm going into this with a blind eye towards the franchise. I know my shit when it comes to the Rangers. In fact, throughout the column I'm going to drop little Power Rangers trivia to make the experience all the more painful...and educational!
But I am pretty sure anyone reading this isn't that versed so I'll do a quick history.
Power Rangers is the American localization of Super Sentai, a series that started in the mid-1970 in Japan. It's been on TV for more than 30 years and has a TON of series under its banner. Around the early 90's America got in on the action and started localizing the series to American audiences. Usually just keeping all of the action scenes and just rebuilding episodes around them.
As the years went on the American versions of the show began to become more independent. They began filming more of their own footage rather than just using the Japanese footage. Nowadays Power Rangers (and Super Sentai) are still on the air but use completely different storylines, and actually uses a bit of a budget. No more guys in rubber suits...well...not as noticeable anyway.
Despite no one our age really watching it anymore, I'm sure you all at LEAST watched it when you were younger and you know the general story around the series. Five teenagers (now young adults) take on the forces of evil to save the world.
Hm. Not a very deep story there but we can make it work...maybe.
You know the drill, the column is going to be broken down like so:
Character Creation/Classes
Gameplay
Timeline
why it will/won't work
Why it hasn't been done
Notice that Gameplay and Timeline are swapped this time around. This is because that I feel it will be better to have Character Creation and Gameplay close to each other so I can explain them both at the same time.
Hopefully I'll actually be able to pull enough reasoning out of my ass to DO this...
First up, it's time to put on some spandex and rock this joint.
Character Creation
Well, for a show that's mainly character driven you would have to expect that this will take a large role, and indeed it does.
We all know the typical ranger uniform consists of colored spandex...I bet you didn't know that said spandex actually MEANS something, did you? Ladies and gentlemen, this is where our class system lies...in the color of your uniform.
There are a total of six common Power Ranger colors.
Red
Red in the Power Rangers universe is the de facto color for the leader. Although there have been some occasions where the Red Ranger was NOT the leader of the group, they always tend to get the best upgrades and the most screen time. They are always the bravest of the bunch and typically the strongest but not the brightest. Fire is the (obvious) element of choice here and more often than not they also tend to use sword like one handed weapons. To this date there's ALWAYS been a Red Ranger on the team. This will make sense later.
Working Fact: There's only been one female Red Ranger throughout the entire run of Power Rangers: Charlie from Power Rangers: Space Patrol Delta
Anyone notice that the 'red' class always tends to be the fighter? Firebenders, Gryffindors, and now Red Rangers? What's up with that?
Blue
Blue in the Power Rangers universe is the second-in-command color (although this title goes to Black in Super Sentai). Blue is also one of the colors that are always on the team. Blue Rangers tend to fill one of two roles on the series depending on the character. They are either the comic relief, thus possessing a high level of charisma. Or they are the brains of the operation, possessing very high intelligence. It will be up to the player to choose which one they would prefer to be...or both. Blue Rangers seemed fond of two handed pole weapons such as spears, lances, and tridents. However they have been known to use one handed weapons as well. Blue Rangers are obviously linked to water.
Working Fact: Blue Rangers were normally always male, but there have been two Blue Rangers. Female Blue Rangers wear a lighter shade of blue.
Yellow: Yellow Rangers are the third and final ranger color to be included in every series. They, like the blue ranger, tend to change depending on the series. More often than not, however, the Yellow Ranger is the tough one of the group. Serving as the main fighter and at times the heaviest armed, they are ready for battle and also tend to have the bulkier zords. Yellows often use two handed weapons such as batons and sais. Yellow Rangers are obviously linked the lightning and thunder.
Working Fact: Yellow Rangers in America have always been portrayed as female until the more recent series. This was completely different in Japan. The Yellow Ranger has always been a primarily male color, which lead to confusion during the action scenes in the American footage. Certain aspects of the females anatomy would disappear which they morphed. This also is the reason why most yellow rangers lacked skirts.
Black: Black Rangers are a bit of an anomaly in the Power Rangers universe. They tend to have the hardest to pinpoint style. In some cases the Black Ranger serves as the tank of the group, while at other times they can be the brains, or the fighter. This leaves the Black Ranger with a bit of a 'jack of all trades' position the game. They are adept at all things, obviously are spread very thin. Black Rangers also do NOT have an element linked to them. Maybe they make it up with the use of firepower? Black Rangers tend to rely on combination weapons. A great example would be The Power Axe, which could double as a gun.
Working Fact: Black Rangers have appeared in many series, but ironically have never appeared on the same series in which a Green Ranger is present more than once. There has never been a female Black Ranger
This is just a really funny picture to me.
Pink Ranger: Pink Rangers, as one would expect, are the girls of the group. This isn't me being sexist; it's just the fact that there as NEVER been a male pink ranger to date. The Pink Ranger's role in the group only has two real fronts. They are either the brains of the operations, or the most charismatic. This gives them a polar opposite effect that can help, or hurt the team depending on how everyone else fills out. Pink Rangers almost exclusively use projectile weapons such as guns or bows. They rarely fight using melee weapons. Pink Rangers are linked to the element of Air. It should also be noted that for some reason Pink Rangers also tend to be the strongest of the group under dire situations.
Working Fact: Despite being portrayed as the ditz of the group in most series, there has actually been a Pink Ranger leader on one occasion. Power Rangers: Time Force.
Green Ranger: And then there was Green. Green Rangers enjoy the same simple mindedness that the Red Rangers enjoy. They don't change much from series to series. When they are around they are almost always the same type. They are the fastest and most agile of the group by a long shot (which says something given all of the flipping and jumping the Rangers do). Green Rangers always serve as the third-in-command when they are present. With such a high tendency for speed, it should be noted the Green Rangers also tend to find themselves in the most trouble, this could be written off as a lack of defense. Green Rangers stick to small weapons that let them get in, do damage, and get out such as daggers and short swords. Like Black Rangers, Green Rangers tend not to have an element BUT they have been portrayed more closely to Earth than others. So that will be their default element.
Working Fact: As stated above, Green Rangers and Black Rangers have never been on the same team outside of one series. There's never been a female Green Ranger.
Other Rangers
Now, you may be asking how in the blue hell do you make a prestige class out of this? This is where the Other Rangers come in. Every series to date has had some form of an Other Ranger. An Other Ranger is the late edition to the team that usually has some sort of marking or glaring difference to tell them apart. Other Rangers also tend to have a unique color or are 'colorless'. A good example of an "Other Ranger" would be the original Green Ranger(Tommy).
Notice how he looks notably different from the group? Other Rangers also tend to have special zords(or even more than one zord). But how would this work into the game? Simple. Once you become high enough level you can opt to trade in your color and become an Other Ranger. Of course you get snazzy armor and bonuses, but you may live to regret the decision since Other Rangers tend to not be team players and in a game based off of a series in which teamwork is the bread and butter. You may find yourself stuck in a rough spot.
Now, to make sense of all of this...it's time to explain the gameplay.
Gameplay
Teamwork
In most MMORPGs the main plan of attack is to find a party and go cave diving. This doesn't change in this game, in fact it's a genuine gameplay mechanic. There's a reason why there's always 3-5 rangers on a team and that won't change in this game.
There will be times when you can enjoy a solo play or go off on your own, but to tackle the big monsters and more importantly to use your zords(which I will not explain due to them before FAR too varied and complex to peg into a certain type) you MUST have a team. There's also a catch. Remember how I mentioned that Red, Yellow and Blue always are on a team? This will be a pre requisite. You're team must include a Red, Yellow AND Blue Ranger. Why is this? It's for balance issues.
Any balanced party needs three things: A fighter, a healer, and support. Without those you run the risk of being stuck in a rough situation or being ill prepared for anything, especially saving the world.
Now, this doesn't mean that your team has to STOP at Red, Yellow, and Blue. From that point on the team can expand in anyway, but it must stay inline with the series guidelines:
There cannot be two rangers of the same color. This does not apply to Other Rangers who happen to share a color.
The team may elect not to have a leader, but they cannot elect to have two leaders.
The team cannot have fewer than two members, and it cannot have more than five, excluding any Other Rangers.
The team cannot have more than two Other Rangers
The team cannot have a Green AND Black Ranger.
Now, I will let you know that under certain circumstances these rules have been broken by the series, but more often than not these are the overall set ups of the team. For example a team in the Power Rangers MMORPG would consist of a Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Pink and a White(Other) Ranger.
But what if you REALLY want to start a team, but you can't find a yellow, blue or red ranger? Turn yourself into one. Given that this is an MMORPG, there are always classes that people will prefer more than others. In WoW you have a lot more Horde players than Alliance players. On Heavy Metal War there's a lot more Decepticons than Autobots. As these three colors are essential to team completion, it's obvious that you will see a lot more of them than others. So, the game will allow you to change your color depending on the team. This isn't without its drawbacks however.
You can just guess which is going to be the most common color…
Say you are a Red Ranger, but for the sake of the team you take up the mantle of being the Blue Ranger. You will take a small hit to your strength and it will get shifted over to your intelligence stat. BUT, because you were a Red Ranger previously, you will still be a bit stronger in attack than say, an original Blue Ranger.
This actually has bearings in the series itself, as it was not common for rangers to switch colors between seasons in the early days.
Working Fact: Tommy, the original Green Ranger holds the record for amount of colors switch. He started out as Green, then switched to White, Red, and Black in that order.
Now, in order to keep players from abusing this there will be a limit. If you do indeed change your color to fit with a team you may get a slight boost, but if you are constantly changing color you are going to end up having very small boosts to everything with nothing really standing out. This is just like what would happen in a Pen and Paper RPG. If you multi-class too far you will end up spreading your stats too thin and you won't be a benefit to anyone.
How the game will be played
Now that we got that bit out of the way, let's get to the meat of this game. The stress on teamwork will be the foundation of which the gameplay is set on. Too many times in MMORPGs you only see teams around for the sake of being a team and benefiting the single person. In this game you WILL be a team, you WILL have to fight together to win against monsters and other teams. Aside from the teamwork mechanic this would play very much like Diablo. Yes, Diablo.
It's kind of hard to see such a fast paced series full of fights playing out on a turn based system, isn't it? In order to pull off all of the acrobatic, larger than life fights you'll need the freedom of being able to do what you want to do when you want to do it, there's really no other way.
Man, is it me or is this idea actually sounding pretty good? Well, it's time to move on to the where exactly this game will take place.
Timeline
Man, this is going to be really simple. Here we are with a TV show that has 15 seasons. None of them really much like the others. So which one do we place it in?
None. We just make one up and move on from there. Who the hell wants to be shoehorned into something we've already done? Especially with something like Power Rangers. The idea of it is so simplistic that any company with half a brain could think up a timeline and story for it to be set in an instant. Moving on...
Will it work?
In short? HELL NO.
Man, as much as I would WANT it to work. Do you SERIOUSLY see this in any way shape or form toppling WoW? This would probably get laughed off the shelves if this became a reality. Sure, I know I'm probably not the only 20+ year old who is still into this sort of thing, but I can guarantee you for every one of US that would buy and play this that there are 20 more WoW players who wouldn't give this a second look.
Yeah, this kid is definitely going to play an MMORPG.
Do I think the game could be made? Yes. Do I think the game could be good? Yes. Do I think I managed to turn a joke article into a viable game? Yes!
But there is NO WAY this would work on a large scale. Especially not with how today's market is handled. No way at all. We'd have a better chance of seeing a WWE MMORPG.
I refuse to make a column about that. Well...if enough people ask I MIGHT.
Why hasn't it been done
Because it wouldn't make a red cent. The marketing ages for Power Rangers are 7-10 year old males. They are hardly the market for an MMORPG and the people who ARE of the MMORPG age wouldn't give this much play. It hasn't been made because it simply wouldn't make money. I'd love to see it on a store shelf somewhere but it just won't happen and it really has no reason TO happen. That's just the cold hard truth of the matter.
Working Feedback
I got two pretty good feedbacks from two guys last week.
The first one is from Janus McCallin about Assassin's Creed:
Hey, I saw that you mentioned AC in the title. Did you think the game delivered or do you think it was overrated? I think it was overrated as fuck. After the first two hours you are doing the same shit over and over again.
Thanks, and I do think the game delivered on what it was. For a NEW title it did just enough to warrant a sequel and interest. While it did get repetitive near the end and frankly started to feel like a chore. It still left you wanting more when it was over, and I think that's a great way to build a new franchise.
This next one is from someone who simply calls himself The Godsend:
"Hey, what is your gamer tagg on XBL?"
DasUberOgre. I currently don't have Gold and I'm not really online much, but that will change in the near future. Thanks for the feedback.
Also, I want to give a special shout out to Travis Bucklaschuk. Why? Because he is the first person to send me a feedback that genuinely stumped me. For three weeks I've been trying to think of a way to optimize his idea for a Digimon MMORPG and frankly, I just can't do it. He has all the basis covered and on top of that even did stuff I didn't even cover like monthly fees and what not. Congrats, Travis. Maybe you should try writing for the site.
Well, that's all folks
And there you have it a month worth of me making up MMORPGs off of the top of my head. Avatar, Transformers, Harry Potter and even Power Rangers. It goes to show that with enough skill and effort that ANYTHING can be turned into a viable video game, it just takes the effort. Will we see any of these games in the future? Nope. But at least it was pretty fun examining all of the "What if..." situations we have here.
Who knows, maybe some exec might dig these up in two years and we COULD see this...if they do I expect money in return.
Anyway, next week is an off week which means another WORKING RANT. What will it be on? I have NO idea. But rest assured that you'll know next week.
Until next time, I'm Jordan Williams....and I am LOVING the fact that Gina Carano is an American Gladiator!
