Massively posted a question asking what IP and what developers people would love to see team up together. Scanning the initial answers in the thread, most are what you’d expect: stuff like Mechwarrior (awesome), GI Joe (lame), Dragonriders of Pern (probably awesome, but I’m not a personal fan). My favorite suggestion is definitely that Raph develop GI Joe. Picturing that makes me chuckle.

I’ll join in the game, as well. One of my favorite books ever is “The Story of Philosophy” by Will Durant. It’s a fantastic property for an MMO. Play as a disciple of one of the great philosophers: Plato, Aristotle, Bacon (no, not Kevin), Spinoza, Voltaire, Kant, Schopenhauer, Spencer, and Nietzsche. The spells and abilities practically write themselves! Just imagine….

Meditate in the Cave of Plato and Pierce the Veil!

Join the order of Aristotle and unleash your Boredom skill tree, incapacitating your enemies with mind-numbing treatises on pretty much any subject known to man!

Become a follower of Kant and warp reality with your Epistemological Blast!

Join forces with Nietzsche to unleash your inner Ubermensch!

Follow the footsteps of Voltaire with your Flame of Heresy and fight for the Light of Thought against the evil Church!

Succumb to the pessimism of Schopenhauer and discover the power of the Will Unparalleled!

There’d be no leveling, of course, as none of the philosophical orders could agree on either what to measure, whether it’s possible to measure it, or indeed whether whatever one proposes measuring even exists. There wouldn’t be much loot, but there’d be some awesome PvP, enacted largely via deploying pamphlets accusing the other philosophical orders/guilds of being vacuous and sophomoric. The best part is that since each operates within its own frame of reference, this is a PvP game where everyone can win, since each order’s definition of win differs!
There’d also be raids, of course, and some would be extremely difficult to complete. For instance, I’d imagine that the Caves of the Critique of Pure Reason (200 man raid) would require a whole lot of attunement quests ahead of time, lest the psyches of unprepared adventurers be shattered by the horrors found within, foremost the Shade of Kant, who has been known to one-shot unlucky adventurers with his Sustained Beam of Universal Law or the terrible AoE spell, A Priori Reasoning.

Heady stuff. If any dev teams are interested in taking this idea further, let me know. I’d say that this game is probably perfect for a tween or teen audience, so I’d probably nominate Jagex (Runescape devs) for it, though I’d be happy to talk a call from Blizzard too. Ring me up, Rob Pardo, when you’re tired of working on Deathknights and Lich Kings.