Preview Project Mercury, Copernicus, & R.A. Salvatore

[Jason]

Tags: Big Huge Games; Project Mercury

Noted fanfic author R.A. Salvatore <a href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/107/1077032p1.html" target="blank">revealed a bit more</a> about the <b>Big Huge RPG</b> (top secret code name Project Mercury) and the 38 Studios MMO <b>Copernicus</b> at GDC today.
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<blockquote>In a talk titled, "From Franchise To Fantasy: How to Build a Universe Worthy of Devotion," Salvatore spoke mainly about Copernicus, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game whose universe he created from the ground up with Schilling and others at 38 Studios. He revealed that the Project Mercury RPG is actually part of the Copernicus universe but will be set in a different time period than the MMO.
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Salvatore said he and his team spent six months developing a 10,000-year history for the world of Copernicus and Project Mercury so the artists, writers, designers and programmers would have a solid basis for development before work even began on the project.
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"That was what I insisted on. We need a huge history. We need deep threads so we're all going to be painting on the same canvas. You need consistency. It has to make sense. The way the races interact with each other has to make sense. You have to know how it all fits together. The way you do that is you do a history of the world," Salvatore said. </blockquote><br>
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.ign.com/">IGN</A>

 

[Mattresses]

We need a huge history. We need deep threads. We need Drizzt Do'Urden.

 

[Andhaira]

Sounds p. cool. I am more interested though, in how much background development the Big Huge rpg got. If it got 10,000 years of history fleshed out, we may be looking at a gaming studio that has its priorities right and be in for a good game with plenty of lore and in game books to read.

 

[Brotherman Bill]

Salvatore said he and his team spent six months developing a 10,000-year history for the world of Copernicus and Project Mercury so the artists, writers, designers and programmers would have a solid basis for development before work even began on the project.

B-writers tasked with making 10,000 years of history? Sounds like the perfect receipe for what I like to call "epicness overload".

Also, why 10,000? We don't even have 10,000 years of written history IRL, how could anyone possibly write enough stories to make 10,000 years of fantasy history interesting?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Salvatore said he and his team spent six months developing a 10,000-year history for the world of Copernicus and Project Mercury so the artists, writers, designers and programmers would have a solid basis for development before work even began on the project.

B-writers tasked with making 10,000 years of history? Sounds like the perfect receipe for what I like to call "epicness overload".

Also, why 10,000? We don't even have 10,000 years of written history IRL, how could anyone possibly write enough stories to make 10,000 years of fantasy history interesting?

I can already see it.

Year 0 - God(s) appear.

Year 1000 - Teh Planet appears.

Year 5000 - Humanoid_species_of_your_choice appears.

Year 5000+ - actual stuff happens.

 

[Lesifoere]

I can already see it.

Year 0 - God(s) borrowed from the Greek/Norse/Roman/pagan pantheons appear.

Year 1000 - Teh Planet appears; mountains are made out of divine shit and seas out of divine urine.

Year 5000 - Humanoid_species_of_your_choice appears. Generic war(s) between elves/dwarves/orcs/humans/derp occur.

Year 5000+ - chosen one arises and defeats great evil.

Fixed.

"From Franchise To Fantasy: How to Build a Universe Worthy of Devotion,"

Hahahahahahahahahaha. Ahahahahaha. Just--hahaha. Devotion. Also, lol MMO. Even Blizzard writers produce crap more readable and entertaining than Salvatore, sort of. Is he finally admitting that all he is is a bottom-rung hack? Usually game writers are the ones desperately wishing they'd one day be recognized as a real author with books in print (see Gaider, Drew Karpyshyn, Alan Campbell, to some extent Rhianna Pratchett), not the other way around.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

For a moment I thought this would be a sci fi RPG. I am disappoint.

 

[laclongquan]

Whatever.

I wouldnt be caught dead reading his book but maybe, just maybe this game could be good. Maybe Salvatore's niche is developing game world. Even Drizzt's world. IT's all in the making, not the ideation.

Whatever.

Just dont get curious to find his books. Not worth the time to try.

 

[Lesifoere]

Whatever.

I wouldnt be caught dead reading his book but maybe, just maybe this game could be good. Maybe Salvatore's niche is developing game world. Even Drizzt's world. IT's all in the making, not the ideation.

Drizzt books are set in FR. Not his creation. The Demon Wars or whatever are set in a setting of his own and they're fucking terrible, Eragon-level terrible.

 

[Gosling]

Whatever.

I wouldnt be caught dead reading his book but maybe, just maybe this game could be good. Maybe Salvatore's niche is developing game world. Even Drizzt's world. IT's all in the making, not the ideation.

Drizzt books are set in FR. Not his creation. The Demon Wars or whatever are set in a setting of his own and they're fucking terrible, Eragon-level terrible.

Yo, Lesifoere, why would you read crap like Demon Wars in the first place? Wasn't it clear enough by the time the first book came out that Salvatore was a hack?

 

[Lesifoere]

I didn't. I read parts of the first chapter in a pirated e-text, lol'd (I did the same with Eragon and the similarities were striking), and closed the tab. So you could say that I didn't give it a fair shot before declaring it fucking terrible, but then Salvatore doesn't deserve one.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Salvatore said he and his team spent six months developing a 10,000-year history for the world of Copernicus and Project Mercury so the artists, writers, designers and programmers would have a solid basis for development before work even began on the project.

B-writers tasked with making 10,000 years of history? Sounds like the perfect receipe for what I like to call "epicness overload".

Also, why 10,000? We don't even have 10,000 years of written history IRL, how could anyone possibly write enough stories to make 10,000 years of fantasy history interesting?

I agree entirely. But a part of me is also just glad to see another company making a rpg and unashamedly marketing it as an rpg. Even if it ends up being shit and I don't buy it, I don't think a new entrant can drag the genre any further backwards than it already is.

 

[Lesifoere]

Oh, I don't know about that. We're not hitting rock bottom quite yet. I'm positive it can get worse, much worse.

 

[Silellak]

Even Blizzard writers produce steal crap more readable and entertaining than Salvatore

Agreed.

 

[Sovard]

Ignoring the fact that I laugh obnoxiously into the face of anyone who claims (nay-- boasts) to be an R.A. Salvatore fan, it's obvious they are attaching his name to generate buzz.

Why let a game shine on it's own merit when you can attach a major league baseball player, a well-known RPG designer, and best-selling author to the project? Kind of like what Alganon is doing with Derek Smart, to a similarly hilarious extent.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

Kind of like what Alganon is doing with Derek Smart, to a similarly hilarious extent.

Derek Smart, brings a distinguished resume of over twenty years of game development and a reputation for getting the job done.

:lolwut:

 

[Lesifoere]

Derek Smart, brings a distinguished resume of over twenty years of game development and a reputation for getting the job done.

What... what did he develop exactly?

 

[Sceptic]

Amazing. And to think I got accused of Salvatore-hate in another thread...

 

[Sarvis]

Re: Project Mercury, Copernicus, & R.A. Salvatore

Noted fanfic author R.A. Salvatore

Err... fanfic author? You realize it's not fanfic if you created the character, right?

No no, I get it. you're trying to insult him. That's clear. The problem is you did it in a way that is so utterly retarded you only make yourself look bad.

Ah damn... I stepped into the Codex again, didn't I.

 

[Lesifoere]

FR/D&D authors = fanfic author. :') Sorry, fanboy.

There's a reason why, even by the dubious standards of those prestigious awards, Salvatore has never been nominated let alone won a single solitary Nebula/Hugo/World Fantasy and probably never will. And I'm talking about awards that've been given to a Harry Potter book, so...

 

[Sarvis]

FR/D&D authors = fanfic author. :') Sorry, fanboy.

There's a reason why, even by the dubious standards of those prestigious awards, Salvatore has never been nominated let alone won a single solitary Nebula/Hugo/World Fantasy and probably never will. And I'm talking about awards that've been given to a Harry Potter book, so...

Ah yes, the classic Codexian desire to bend English to their will.

Fanfic Author: Person who writes unpublished fiction based on fictional characters created by another author.

Since Salvatore creates his own characters he's not writing fanfic. You can argue quality all you want, it doesn't matter for shit.

 

[Gosling]

Re: Project Mercury, Copernicus, & R.A. Salvatore

You realize it's not fanfic if you created the character, right?

Drizzt = pussified dumbed down Elric in the totally derivative FR setting. Not that Elric was a terribly complex hero to start with.


Just trolling.

 

[JarlFrank]

I didn't. I read parts of the first chapter in a pirated e-text, lol'd (I did the same with Eragon and the similarities were striking), and closed the tab. So you could say that I didn't give it a fair shot before declaring it fucking terrible, but then Salvatore doesn't deserve one.

Heh, Eragon. I got the second book of the series as a present and read it through. Some parts were actually decent, but those which featured Eragon in the Elven lands were incredibly gay and cliche. It has some elf who hates Eragon because he's just a lowly human who sucks compared to Elves, the wise mentor who is totally wise and shit but also crippled in some way, the princess that Eragon falls in love with but she rejects him because of practical reasons, and all Elves are vegetarians (Eragon becomes one too) because they can feel the souls of all animals and thusly don't want to kill them. Also everyone is totally like "LIFE IS SACRED" and they grow houses from trees by singing to them.

And all the way through the book tried to "flesh out" the elven culture, even though it was blatantly obvious that those elves were just like all other elves we've ever seen.

 

[Lesifoere]

Oh, just about every fantasy author thinks their elves are new and different.

The second book features a scene where Eragon gazes lovingly at some elf guy's hairless groin, I heard.

 

[Gosling]

Swanwick put a nice twist on high fantasy in The Iron Dragon's Daughter. But even there he mostly worked with the archetypes.