March 13, 2007 - Welcome to IGN's weekly countdown of the exceptional, fascinating, and absurd: something we like to call Top 10 Tuesday. Every week we'll feature the top ten games, characters, fashion statements or whatever else we can think of that in some way relates to gaming and its history. And just because it's called Top 10 Tuesday doesn't mean it's always going to be a list of the best -- we like to razz on stuff as much as we like to praise it. From counting down the best consoles ever to revealing the worst use of fish heads in a videogame, this is where it's at.

This week's topic: Franchises that should be turned into MMOs. To be clear, an MMO is an online game with a persistent game world. That means, even if you stop playing, the world continues to exist online and evolve. We spread the love by embracing a breadth of genres and avoided creating any more fantasy MMOs (sorry Fable!) in order to breathe new life into the growing MMO space. It isn't enough for a franchise to be popular; it has to be made better by offering a massively multiplayer online experience.


Burnout is a racing game even non-racing fans can get behind. So there should be plenty of people who would be willing to drive into a Burnout MMO and crash into people from all over the world. Imagine setting up your own Crash events where you barrel into an intersection of other unsuspecting players. Or send an invite for a race event, after which all takers can drive over to your designated starting point. As you maneuver about the online city you'd have to dodge any players who may have decided to start their own traffic attack. A game like this could grab the attention of a lot of gamers who never considered playing an MMO.


Though neither the PC nor Xbox versions of Crimson Skies were big sellers, we still hold out hope for the day when hundreds of gamers can take to the air online. Set in an alternate version of the 1930s, Crimson Skies features high-flying swashbuckling adventures pitting air pirates against corporations and the police force they control. The MMO version of Crimson Skies would create factions or gangs for the air pirates and focus on territorial control. While PVP combat would be a significant portion of online combat, an AI-controlled police force would also get involved. There are no other MMOs that can match Crimson Skies' light-hearted noir atmosphere. That alone makes a Crimson Skies MMO a must.


SEGA's strength is delivering stylish titles with unique gameplay. No Dreamcast title proved a better combination of these two aspects than Jet Set Radio Future. Set in a futuristic Tokyo, the cel-shaded JSR made you a member of the GG's, a very polite gang of taggers. To control areas of the city, gamers strapped on a pair of jet-propelled inline skates and tagged over the graffiti of rival gangs while avoiding the police. We'd love to see SEGA transform the series into a full-fledged MMO, creating Jet Set Radio Universe. Imagine a virtual world where player-controlled gangs battle over ever-changing territory. Part of the challenge would be discovering ways to tag hard-to-reach spots, making it more difficult for opponents to claim your territory as their own.


Everyone loves pirates. It's a fact. The misadventures of rowdy seafarers appeals to something inside us all. What better franchise to escort the hallowed occupation into massively multiplayer existence than Sid Meier's Pirates!? Imagine players taking the roles of different ship captains, and hitting the high seas, helping to map uncharted territory and plunder unsuspecting townships. Each of the ship classes could be expanded to fit the role of what would normally be a character class, and players could then customize them as they saw fit. Players could unite as pirate clans and fight over territory with other factions on land or sea. The cherry on top: large-scale ballroom dancing competitions.


Absolutely, without a doubt, there had to be a mech-based game on this list. We know that games like Chromehounds have attempted to create persistent online mech-warfare, but nothing has been made on a scale large enough where it could be considered a fully-fledged MMO. MechWarrior is the perfect candidate for stepping into this bold territory. The game most certainly already has the built in world and storyline necessary to make the leap to an MMO. Plus, the whole clan system makes it a no-brainer as far as how to split up PvP combat. Add to all this several different classes of fully upgradeable mechs, and you have a game that would almost be too awesome.