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Baldur's Gate was almost an MMO

by Shawn Schuster on Aug 16th 2010 7:00PM

For those of you who remember Baldur's Gate, we want you to close your eyes and imagine it as an MMO. For the time it released (the mid-90s), it quite possibly could have been the first MMO, at that.

At a recent GDC Europe panel for BioWare, studio founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk had some fun with the audience, reminiscing on what might have been. The original game's title was Battleground Infinity and was pitched to five publishers as a massively multiplayer online game that revolved around mythological gods.

Interplay are the ones who pushed the doctors toward the Dungeons & Dragons RPG route, which I'm pretty sure worked out for them in the end.

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Tags: baldurs-gate, battleground-infinity, bioware, dungeons-and-dragons, gdc-europe-2010, greg-zeschuk, panel, ray-muzyka, rpg

Reader Comments (20)

Oh, puke. I'm glad that's one beloved franchise not being whored out as an MMO.

Dark alliance was awesome i'd be happy if they just made more co-op games like that

They're not referring to Dark Alliance. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance & Baldur's Gate are two vastly different games. BG:DA is a hack n' slash action game that purported to use 3rd Ed. D&D rules, BG and BG2 are tactical RPGs (very similar to Dragon Age: Origins) that used the 2nd Ed. AD&D rule set. Dark Alliance was OK, but didn't even come close to the depth of the original games.

Anyway, Baldur's Gate would have been awesome.

Dark Alliance was also not made by BioWare and is not a part of the Baldur's Gate series.

Dark Alliance sucked. I wouldn't have had a problem with it if they stripped the Baldur's Gate title from it. But as a Baldur's Gate game, compared to 1 and 2 it freakin sucked.

Also..... mmm Baldur's Gate... damn I loved those games, still among the best RPGs and games overall, ever.
Held out hopes for years and years that Baldur's Gate 3 would still be developed... :(

Had they done that it could have set a much better standard for MMOs.

Battlegrounds Infinity could-have, would-have, might-have, who knows. But I know Baldur's Gate is one of my most enjoyed rpg series. The expansion Throne of Bhaal was a little lacking though.

Baldur's Gate was released in 1998 and the sequel in 2001. Everquest was released in 1999. I guess at that time, there's little certainty in whether there's money in a MMo and that's why Interplay got them to do a rpg instead.

that would have been awful. I love baldurs gate, i cant see it being an mmo.

The point is rather that you never would have known! :D

BGII was the greatest game I ever played until I got NWN, which to tell the truth might still be number 1. I do not know how the game that never was, would have been but a Baldur's Gate MMO would be so amazingly awesome. I truly hope we see this amazing setting in an MMO, but I am a bit thankful. If BG would have been an MMO I probably would never have gone to college and would still be sitting as a skeleton at a pc in my mom's basement.

I never could get a proper handle on the whole "debuffing a wizard" part of the later levels of Baldur's Gate.

Yeah right.... Do not believe everything you read on the internet! Maybe at one point someone that did work on Baldur's Gate, this may make a good MMO. But the ALMOST part you can take with a huge bag of salt...

Click the "Battleground Infinity" link. This is a story from BioWare itself. I think they're a pretty reliable source as to the history of their own company.

Baldur's Gate is the best RPG I have ever played.Will it have been successful as an MMO?I don't know!

Boo, would not approve.

Could not play any thing else for a while after Baldur's Gate. Set a very high standard that was difficult to match. NWN did not hit the mark, nice graphics, gameplay did not even come close. MMO potential was there for baldur's I think. Planescape Torment was good as well.

I call shenanigans on this one.

Just a PR move to give them some MMO street cred.

Wow...did knot know that! I am thankful in the sense that we got an awesome RPG game! but I can't help but wonder how awesome BG would of been as an MMO. If they ever decide to do it, i'd give it a shot probably. I think the setting of BG would make for an excellent MMORPG!

I thought the first .... known as the MMO we seen today, is Everquest??

Aw I -LOVED- Baldur's Gate. I'm glad they dind't make it a MMO back then.. but it could be really fun to play a modern MMO set in the same Forgotten Realms world, with NPCs known from the Baldur's Gate games..

Baldur's Gate was almost an MMO

Reader Comments (20)

Posted: Aug 16th 2010 7:10PM wjowski said

Posted: Aug 16th 2010 7:51PM kooda said

Posted: Aug 16th 2010 9:55PM nomoredroids said

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