Last night I went with my family to go see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which was an entertaining if uninspiring film. It reminded me of my first question after the initial Harry Potter flick was released to massive popularity - where are the good HP games?
There have been many games based off of the HP IP - one for each movie, a quidditch based one and a CCG (a modified Magic: The Gathering).
However the two most obvious choices for games based off of the Harry Potter universe haven’t been made - an RPG, a table top game and an MMO.
The RPG would be relatively trivial to develop - especially if an existing game engine were used. The character design process is more or less taken care of, as are the basic story frameworks, characters and the like.
Using the NWN2 engine you could even have a party including Harry, Hermione and Ron going on various adventures in and about Hogwarts, which could be meticulously recreated room by room, chamber by chamber with the NWN2 tile-set system without a great deal of difficulty.
Adapting the game engine for use in the HP universe would also aid in the development of an equally lucrative venture - Harry Potter d20. To adapt the d20 ruleset to the Harry Potter universe would be ridiculously simple and could easily follow the conventions established in D&D. In addition to the core book, a grimoire, bestiary, guide to Hogwarts (including mini-compatible maps, charts, descriptions etc), a book of artifacts and magical items, a Quidditch mini-game, adventure modules for each book in the series, antagonists guide, a Muggle adventure expansion, guides to each of the houses, expansion guides for the other schools (with perhaps DM guides on creating a school / house), a guide to the Ministry, maps of the magical aspects of major cities… the list goes on and on.
It would have to blend the over-the-top fantastical elements of d20, the story focused, combat shy / vulnerable protagonist aspects of Call of Cthulhu, the parallel world aspects of the World of Darkness with a modern setting while still keeping the adventurous tone of the books.
Very little strictly creative work would need to be done - a majority of the development time could be devoted to simply quantifying the phenomena described in the books.
Finally - the MMO, which from a business perspective seems like a no-brainer. Players would create a student at Hogwarts with a class, wand and house. They would earn XP and move up in the grades as they earned levels (characters could even visibly age as they go up in levels). Quests could be handed out by the various characters from the films. Characters could discover/make magical items. Spells could be purchased/trained/mastered.
The game would reflect the spirit of the books almost by its very nature. Teamwork, bravery, service to a cause, respect for proper authority, adventure, friendship are part-and-parcel with the positive aspects of an MMO. PvP could be addressed easily through interschool competitions and of course, Quidditch would have to be a deeply developed mini-game. Expansions would simply increase the geography available to players, starting out initially at Hogwarts and maybe London and branching out to include the other schools.
It just seems like the design choices in this game have been made - all you need is a team of dedicated artists and programmers to churn out the content and a bevvy of testers to insure game balance. The focus of the game, the kind of experience once is trying to create is EXTREMELY well defined - you’ve got a pile of literature to the effect.
Unlike say Lord of the Rings, however, the experience described in the books doesn’t run contrary to how MMOs are played, things are very episodic - although there is a singular plot it doesn’t have the whole world focused on it - people go on about their lives in HP, whereas in LoTR Middle Earth waited with baited breath as Frodo delivered the ring.
Most importantly however, the experience of Harry and his friends doesn’t preclude OTHER students from having adventures of their own - perhaps not ones so glamorous or spectacular but still exciting.
Creating a game mechanic that seemed to fit-in with LoTR was very difficult for Turbine, and I think they succeeded as best as one could hope without totally throwing out MMO conventions. Harry Potter, however, slots so neatly into established and successful MMO conventions yet allows ample room for deviation (no MMO to date as innovated - simply deviated by borrowing other genre conventions).
There’s my two cents - maybe someone from WB Interactive is listening. JK Rowling I think could reach a lot of kids, and hold them longer than her books could ever hope to - from her perspective I can’t see how that’s a bad thing, assuming her motives are truly altruistic. If they aren’t, then she can wear her hat made of money, curl up next to her money-fire place in her palace made of money to comfort her on those cold English winter nights as she counts her money.