WOTC chief would ‘love to see’ a D&D MMORPG—hopefully it’ll be set in the Forgotten Realms

With MMORPGs on the rise after years of uncertainty, one IP is noticeably absent from the trend-chasing: Dungeons and Dragons. Though it has perhaps the best basis for such a game, D&D has thus far dodged the genre, but Wizards of the Coast president would “love to see” it happen.

Both MMORPGs and Dungeons and Dragons itself have been on the rise in the past few years, not least because of what Larian and its Baldur’s Gate 3 had done. Everyone who’s anyone has experienced what D&D‘s many campaign settings have to offer, and especially what the Forgotten Realms is all about. However, we haven’t really seen an effort from Wizards of the Coast, the company controlling the D&D IP, to combine the MMORPG formula and D&D‘s own massive content library.

And, if WOTC president John Hight is to be believed, we might just see it happen down the line. Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Hight highlighted WOTC’s changing approach to developing video games, saying he’d “love to see” a D&D MMORPG. However, he highlights WOTC would have to reconsider what an MMORPG is, how it would function in today’s industry, and how it could be mad different from games in the past.

Being the cornerstone of RPGs since time immemorial, Dungeons and Dragons is huge, with countless characters, locations, worlds, and universes, all of which would blend perfectly with an online multiplayer approach. There have been D&D MMOs in the past, but it’s high time a modern, bigger, better game was made.

“I think that we’ll want to rethink what an MMO is in this day and age. I think the traditional model that Blizzard – well, even before that, Ultima Online, Everquest – pursued, that could use updating,” Hight said.

“[D&D] laid the foundation for great storytelling, great world building. We can adapt to different styles of play, different distribution methods,” he added.

And this is very exciting to hear. MMORPGs have gotten a bit “samey” as time went on, with most following the same core formula popularized by the likes of World of Warcraft. Gamers today want innovation and creativity, and D&D‘s sheer size can more than provide, so long as things are done right.

Hight’s focus on innovation, new technologies, and strategies could lead to something great, and I sincerely hope this potential MMORPG ends up being set in the Forgotten Realms, even if we don’t get to visit the grand city of Baldur’s Gate itself.

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