S.T.A.L.K.E.R. MMO Rumors Abound

Fans of last year’s post-apocalyptic shooter, S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl, may be able to return to the site of everyone’s favorite Russian power plant in the near future. Game designer GSC Game World hinted at the possibility late last year, sending fanboys everywhere running to their favorite forums to gush. Nothing much has been mentioned since, but the company has been busy working on the expansion to Shadow, Clear Sky.

The discussion came up in a Community Q&A session on the developer’s forum, when a member asked:

“2. Will there be S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Online?”

GSC’s Response: “We do not quite understand what you mean by “online”. If it is the cooperative mode, then no, there will be none. Even at the time of development of the first part of the game we said that a cooperative mode is impossible, since Life Simulation would be different at each computer. Synchronizing it would be practically not doable. If you mean an MMOG, then we are seriously considering it.”

I, for one, was a fan of S.T.A.L.K.E.R, and thought it had a lot of cool ideas. There are definitely a lot of possibilities there, as the world and atmosphere created by GSC was really intriguing. As a longtime cyberpunk junkie, I’ve always wanted to see a well done, Shadowrun-style MMO, and I think S.T.A.L.K.E.R definitely has the chance to fill that niche. While others have tried, (see Anarchy Online, Tabula Rasa), none have yet to bring a convincing Sci-Fi MMO to the table.

You also have great source material to work with, considering the game was originally based on the novel Roadside Picnic, and the Russian film based on it, Stalker.

Too bad we probably won’t see anything concrete for quite some time.