In a report from Gamasutra back in 2008 tells us that Red Eagle Entertainment bought the rights to the Wheel of Time IP. With this announcement Red Eagle Games was born. Old news right? Recently Joystiq reports that Red Eagle has partnered up with Obsidian. “[Red Eagle] could benefit from supplementing small in-house technical and creative teams with a proven third party developer,” according to Red Eagle Games COO Larry Mondragon. It is also mentioned that these games could be published for the XBox, PS and the PC.

The question that begs to be asked is if a Wheel of Time game could translate well into a major MMOG. The books have created a large and vibrant world (thanks to thirty page descriptions) and contains various cultures. There is no shortage of conflict and storyline, that’s for sure. The character classes and abilities jump out of the page. You have all the Ajah’s of the Aes Sedai, male channelers, Warden, Tinkers, and the Aiel just to name a few off the top of my head. You have a large string of baddies to fight against including the ultimate raid encounter: The Dark One.

So why not? It’s hard to predict if readers of these books would translate over to MMOG players but there is a built in audience that at least gives you a starting ground. There have been a multitude of MUDs, MUSHs and MOOs in the 90s that used this IP. There was even a Wheel of Time FPS back in the ’90s.

So what kind style of game does a Wheel of Time MMO warrant? Do you want a classic DIKU like Warcraft where you have hotbars of abilities that you fire off? Nah. It’s such a tired gameplay element. I don’t think an FPS really does it justice. If I were in the driver seat I would create an action based game. I’m thinking along the lines of Dynasty Warriors. This game begs to be played on a console so you can use a directional pad and buttons to fire off combos. Combos could be the different forms of a swordsman with a Heron Blade or the different weaves of an Aes Sedai, or even braid tugging.

I think the setting is perfect. To be able to take your character and battle against hordes of Trollocs or Aiel, be part an army fighting back the swarms of Seachan, would be an awesome gaming experience.

That would be a great game. Would you play?