Slashdot Mirror
Goodbye, "Majestic"
fonixmunkee writes: "Ack, looks like EA is stopping the very cool, ground-breaking game 'Majestic.' The article is here. I got hooked on this from the very start, and in turn got a bunch of friends into it. It's cool to be out for a fancy dinner and have the game calling you threatening your life. Oh well, I'm sure a new spinoff will rise up."
In many ways it's too bad that capitalism forces people to market towards the masses rather than just creating quality products. I understand why this is the way that it has to be, but it just seems to suck that the bulk of the gaming population prefers first person shooters over everything else, so that's where the money goes. I've watched this happen to so many other great games, it's just to bad.
I mean, Jim Carrey's cut alone has to be worth more than what the thing brought in. Really though, how much suspense and paranoid can you get from an old movie theatre?
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."
I remeber when that first came out, looked really cool
The concept of a game that regulates how fast you can play it and then has a pricing system based on time periods rather than episodes struck me as an odd combination to start.
While the beginning plot was done rather well, describing a world where Majestic had started off as a game until things went horribly awry, it tried to do to much. To have a plot centered on a conspiracy is one thing; to include every alleged conspiracy of the twentieth century, from JFK to the Illuminati, from black helicopters to mind control, was a bit much.
By far the biggest problem was the bots. They spent a great deal of time and Real Video (emails web sites etc.) creating believable characters with distinct personalities to whom you could relate. Then you talked to them, and they have the IQ of slime mold. It was a little too free form for its own good.
sell your certainty and buy bewilderment
I was hooked to Majestic and played a couple of the chapters but ended up cancelling. Why? Because the gameplay was too slow.
You would work through certain tasks and then you'd be put on "Standby mode" for about 24 hours and you couldn't do anything else.
I realize that this made it look as if the other characters in the game were working on their tasks but it was frustrating because I felt I wasn't always getting my money's worth of gameplay and at the same time, it would break the mood. You got into the game and were forced to stop.
How do we know that the "announcement" isn't just part of the game?
Now I'm never going to get to put in my bosses pager number, Cell Number, Fax and email addresses.
So that means there's only one thing left to say...
If you don't like it, go back to Russia!!!
I dunno, sounds pretty uncool to me. The list of reasons is pretty long. First off, going on a first date to dinner and having to tell your girlfriend that you need to take a call from a video game would be pretty dorky. Second, I would have to guess somewhere in the message, it would let you know that it was the game calling, otherwise you might have a serious threat on your life. Case in point: "I am going to kill you, I am going to gut you like a stuck pig. Thanks for playing Majestic." I don't know, the whole idea just sounds really, REALLY cheesy.
Bryan R.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, or $12.50 as seen on eBay.....
it sounded cool when we all heard about it before they started, but as soon as it got going... NOTHING.
very weird.
next time, don't blow all of the PR budget before the release, save like 30% for the first few weeks following. TV is good too (for the non-savy).
Maybe you shouldn't worry about a game threatening your life next time that pager goes off; the person behind you is probably a more valid concern.
I was really looking forward to playing this when
I had more time:(. What about the people who just bought it, are they SOL?
"as plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee" - Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz. (One man's humorous is another mans flamebait)
Majestic was good (although not unique) in concept, but very poor in execution.
A lot of people reading slashdot probably had some interaction with "The Beast" - the A.I movie webgame. Besides the stigma associated with the fact it was ran by M$... it was a brilliant game.
Based in several medium - many many webpages, phonenumbers, e-mails etc it was a well executed version of the Majestic concept. Intrestingly enough it ran at the same time Majestic was being developed and finished just after Majestic was announced.
The problem with Majestic is that while the idea of an immersive game is good - anything on this kind of scale must EVOLVE. The puzzles in the game were generally very easy. The pace was set badly, and the storyline did not evolve. You could quite easily guess what was going to happen next.
The people running "The Beast" however (besides the fact it was free) were working full time on constantly adapting the game. They monitored game players communities and if they discovered a plotpoint had been guessed at, they would weave that knowledge into the next puzzle.
Most gamers know that games depend on a community. Majestic was a very stagnent game - for even a traditional adventure game the story was bad, the pace was terrible and it did not emphisize the need to cooperate.
Majestic was being shut down because people were quitting the game at an alarming rate. It's not suprising, because for a subscription-based adventure game it didn't promote any interaction outside of the strict game encounters. It was too linear - something that just doesn't work with game players these days. Besides a highly predictable storyline there was no point to playing the game. Other subscription-based games (like Ultima Online, Everquest, etc) all really relied on a sense of community... you would play not only for the game, but to interact with your online friends.
Technologically and concept-wise, Majestic was close to perfect. But as a game, it missed the point totally.
I got in on this game when it was in its 2nd episode I think. The pilot was of course quite good but after that each part of an episode got too easy. The cycle became:
1) Watch video
2) Look for clue in video
3) Go to website (or do something else) related to that clue
4) Wait a day in "standby" mode
And so on. At first it was really cool to go through all the conspiracy websites (which I was into anyways before I got into the game) but it got so that you realized these weren't at all central to the game itself.
As the poster themself mentioned, it was pretty damn cool/spooky at times to get calls and voicemails at odd hours. One of them even mentioned coming to my house! I almost looked forward to that...but I suppose that would hvae been too much.
The game was positioned as being for people with normal jobs and outside lives, which explained the relatively short play time increments, but they shouldn't have been so easy. It really could have been such an incredible game, consdiering it used email, video, AIM, phones, and fax machines as elements of play to get you into it...oh well. I think the boxed version would be pretty cool for people without high bandwidth connections like me who mised clues because so many frames were dropped in videos.
Cheers,
jw
"Has anything you've done made your life better?" - American History X
I'm pretty sure they have Slashdot in Russia.
-Legion
It's cool to be out for a fancy dinner and have the game calling you threatening your life. You don't have a girlfriend, do you?
Spielberg's movie AI had a game, also covered on /., to promote it that in my opinion, and that of the majority of the other players I know, was much better than Majestic (and free). This paradigm of online interaction and collaberation is very hot, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see more and more (free or not) of these things springing up. Roll on, I say.
The Slashdot Paradox: "100% Overrated"
companies have to make money in order to stay alive. You still stuck in dot com land?
is that on the Sony OS story, this is modded at +4 - insightful....:)
My thoughts are that this is the kind of game that people will want to be playing. It was a little poor in the implementation, but the concept was strong. If people didn't want to get the phone calls, maybe that's not the game for them.
It sounds to me like someone has Slashdot editor envy.
Content - The content of slashdot is, admittedly, targeted towards geeks. But apparently not very smart ones. Regardless of the target audience, the content is never challenging - it never pushes the reader to think.
Wow. You must be one smart cookie. Since I cannot say that I have read every article that has ever been posted on Slashdot it would seem that I am in no position to argue with you.
One word for you slashdot folks: dictionary. Try one on for size.
I'll stick to clothes thank you.
How about instead of ranting about what's wrong with slashdot and the media today, you tell us what is so goddamned important that we're all missing? How do we fix the problem that media is aimed at the -10 IQ segment? I think slashdot IS a solution. It's a website aimed at nothing more than exposing and socializing the geek agenda.
Yes it's no more accurate than CNN. No more thought provoking than 20/20, and has the same unbiased reporting methods as the National Enquirer. But, as you yourself agree, that's all there is. Mainstream media backs up big business: publishers, media conglomerates, big advertisers etc. You would probably agree that what these sources tell you to think is either wrong or very slanted, but beneficial to their constituants.
Slashdot is no better, but it caters to a different audience. We all collectively lie and find new ways to spin our ideas to propogate our agendas at the expense of our enemies. We call these "facts" although they're derived from out of context quotes, dubious statistics, anonymous sources and other material that'd be thrown out of any court. In other words, we use the same tools as the others.
The value of Slashdot, as well as the thousands of other online tabloids is that they all carry a DIFFERENT target audience, with DIFFERENT objectives and concerns. Each audience cares passionately about their subject, and probably has motivations for believing what they believe. Granted, most of it is biased or social brainwashing, certainly slashdot is. Further, most of the people who read slashdot, in spite of what they think or what their IQ test tells them, are average. They use this site to identify with their peers and become part of a group.
Intelligent people use slashdot, as well as these other targetted sites as data points or indicators. There is quite a lot of useful information to be gained from them, none of which will jump out at you by reading the articles. Since you profess to have such a keen intellect, you should know this already. You have to do a little WORK and take a little TIME from bitching to collect the data and use it. There is money to be had here, or if you're jsut interested in the truth and what you feel the "real danger" is, a chance to prove your own hypothesis.
No one has any interest in writing the truth directly. Many have interest in changing the truth to heir needs, or creating a new truth. Much like you, you write to persuade. In doing so you take bits of truth, mix them with speculation, lies, propoganda and emotionally charged statements and send it all to the world. Dumb people believe this, smart people listen for the important facts presented by everyone and draw their own conclusion. This is common sense.
You indeed have created a truth about yourself and your view. You're jealous of the Slashdot writers because they're making money on something (albeit stupid) that you didn't think up first. They're probably driving a nicer car at a younger age than you currently drive. And maybe the job you do isn't as hard as you think, if these guys can hack togetehr something that as far as I see is fully functional and easy to use, with nothing other than a bunch of old college projects and ill conceived ideas.
At my company stockholders are very smart people who don't want to pay a dime more for a person than they have to. They're not nice people, they're not friendly people, they're rich people wanting to get richer. Unless these guys have found some really stupid investors, I imagine they work very hard for their alleged millions. I suspect more that they work hard and are poorer than you think.
Oh come on ... if you're going to criticize our spelling and grammar, you should at least hold yourself to the same level of perfectionism:
... but just remember ... you're here too. Good day.
"And I couldn't figure out what time that order the pizza for dinner."
What time THAT order the pizza for dinner?
"unless its the updated release schedule for the new linux kernel or a new game,"
Don't you mean "it's"
Nice rant
I heard that Majestic was being shut down a couple weeks ago, but I saw the box at EB this past weekend. I can't help but wonder what happens to the poor sods who buy it now. . .
I didn't play Majestic, but...
Am I the only one here who thinks there is something desperately wrong if you wish to turn your entire real life -- as in your walking, talking self and your working days and nights -- into one large video game -- a fiction?
Even more to the point, getting death threats is cool? How do you know they aren't real? Are you about to say that you relish the day when reality and fantasy blur to the point that you can't tell which is which?
When this type of product becomes ubiquitous, we will be watching the news wondering whether we are really at war or whether it is a part of the latest game. When you hear that so-and-so that you know was shot and can you please come to the funeral, you will go with your game face on, taking notes and playing detective, not sure whether your friend is really dead or whether it's all a part of the game, and you won't care because you're so engrossed and because you're paying good money.
And when the general populace becomes very, very involved in the same games, might it not become a part of the game if you get murdered in cold blood by another, rival player? And since you're a participating character in that game -- might everyone not be thrilled at such a "plot development" and attend your funeral not to eulogize, but to play or make some kind of breakthrough?
I'm sure you had to sign some sort of user agreement to play Majestic. It isn't hard to imagine a user agreement in which you agree that the "designers" can use any event in any player's life as a part of the developing plot, and that you as a player agree not to hold them liable for the actions of other players, including actions taken against you or your family...
Games should stay on a board, on a screen, on a field. Americans are too rich, safe and complacent for their own good if they are so bored that they must turn their real lives and identities into gamepieces for entertainment purposes.
I suppose I'll get flamed and called a luddite, but I liked it when smart people used to get degrees and go do research for the greater good, rather than just signing up to receive death threats for entertainment purposes.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
and I'LL call you and threaten your life, if that's what you're into...
www.clarke.ca
I know this wasn't meant to be a funny post, but when comments like:
"And when the general populace becomes very, very involved in the same games, might it not become a part of the game if you get murdered in cold blood by another, rival player?"
are made, it just merits my laughter and a mod point.
I find it very bizarre that the Majestic team attempts to vindicate their efforts by repeatedly referring to their game as "critically acclaimed."
Majestic got a lot of buzz and ink for being a novel concept, but in terms of actual critical reviews it was universally slammed by the gaming press. Since the Majestic team has such a short memory, they can find some reviews here and here.
Like the gaming press, I really wanted to like this game, but I could not be dragged into paying $120 a year for an elaborate "click here to continue the poorly acted movie" setup that lasts a few hours each month.
I never actually shelled out the cash to play the game, so I may be off-base, but I did read all the articles in the gaming magazines hailing it as the second coming. So here goes.
I never expected Majestic to "work" just because I wouldn't have thought anybody would really be able to suspend disbelief enough to enjoy the hassle.
If I had somebody calling me in a panic, I would be less concerned about whether or not, you know, they were going to die or something, than I would be about how many of my cellphone minutes it was using up.
It's like playing the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" PC game. It's not real, you're not winning any money, and so you're subjecting yourself to Regis for nothing.
I always got the impression that EA got the idea for Majestic from "The Game," the Fincher movie with Micheal Douglas from '97 or so. The difference, though, was that Douglas had no idea what was a part of the game or not, and there was the distinct feeling that he could lose anything at any time, including his life and his fortune.
I didn't have frightened phone calls in the middle of the night before, so I think it'd be pretty obvious where they were coming from as soon as I signed up for the game. There would be too many logistic, liability, and cost issues for EA to do anything physical whatsoever with Majestic, and the only fortune I could legally lose is the $240 a year it would cost to play in what is essentially an underwhelming RPG.
It's nice to see that not all games out there these days are fragfests, but Majestic was pretty much a misguided novelty from the start. A footnote or interesting sidebar in the history books at best.
We like this "crap"
/. guys might have made some ca$h - they might have an easy life - then again they might live in a shed filled with computers that requires a treadmill for power
/. is still available for free - you set up the servers - the connections - find the content - on whatever YOU want it to be
You are entitled to your opinion - sure
But does it matter?
Think of the many websites out there - why bother picking on this one - sure the
But they have made it
They made a website that gives "us" the "content" that we want - all those crappy spoddy bits of geekdom that i need in my life - sure maybe the content it provided by people like me - but its great to have it all in the same place - and not have to check 10 websites every morning
How do you get your information? - is it any better?
Does it allow you to check a little box and give you the listings of the news you like?
I doubt it
And if you dont like what is here - then make something better
I belive the source for
Then starting bitching and whineing
You make us sicker than we make you
Crimson
If you don't like it, don't read it. No need to waste our time and bitch about something that really doesn't matter in life. Based on the length and time that went into this article, I am sure your schedule looks a bit like this:
10:42 AM - get out of bed.
10:45 AM - first Dr Pepper of the day.
10:46 AM - unglue keyboard from desk, check stock market.
10:56 AM - Search web for web sites I don't like.
11:14 AM - Sit and draft nasty, pointless rants about said sites.
11:08 AM - Start writting rant.
3:00 AM - Post rant.
3:15 AM - go to sleep.
BTW, this only took 3 minutes to write, so don't bother posting some retaliation about my amounts of free time.
If people spent their time to try and fix things that matter, this world would be much better off. However, too many people are like this guy and just complain stuff to complain. Some sort of sickness I think.
I thought it was a neat concept, so I signed up... To sign up for Majestic, you sign up for EA's online game service for $10/month. The only thing that was any good on it is Majestic; the rest of the games were pretty lame.
So I made it through the first teaser "episode" and then episode 1 in a total of about a week and a half. Then it turns out they hadn't finished any other episodes yet. So I was paying $10 for a week and a half of play, and then nothing until they finished the next episode.
It was a halfway decent game, if a bit linear, and a really neat idea, but there's no way in hell I'm paying essentially $10 a week...
WWJD? JWRTFM!!!
That was a Simpsons reference...
I think Majestic was a great idea. The only problem is that it was kind of to fake if you as k me. I would have been much cooler if ther was more non-computer interaction (phones/faxes/packages/etc).
Yeah darn that new technology.
What will they think of next, a fake newscast about aliens invading earth, and no one will know whether it is real or not?
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
I would have to agree with you. We, North Americans spend too much of our resources on impractical things. Our biggest complaints are lack of freedom to do this or that or whatever. Don't get me wrong, freedom is good.
We should try to find something useful to do with our time.
testing out my trending skills
Sir. I sense pain in your life. We will never know why you suffer intolerance and difficulty building relationships.
Get a copy of Return to Castle wolfenstein, it will offer some relief. Majestic is too frustrating
I think one of the problems with majestic was after Sept. 11 people became paranoid - and I quite honestly people don't want to be harassed by phone calls when threats of Anthrax and who knows what is on CNN. The idea was good and creative, the timing was bad.
Someone tell me if you see Steve Gula in the credits for this game. I was a tester for it for 3 months at EA-VA (EA Charlottesville, VA) before going back to school, they axed everyone but like 20 people (was about 150-200) a month later.
Anyways, the game was a definite change from all other games, and although EA anticipated that, they didn't anticipate the raw manpower that would be needed to make sure it worked and to keep the episodes going. I remember from work, that in the 3 months that it was out, it was already a month behind schedule. And they were just grabbing for air when they brought in Cypher from the Matrix. We also ran into trouble when the lead test head guy left to go to Florida, because the people on the west coast were complete assholes about everything it seemed. Heard him yell so many times over a conference call that he wasn't going to let them push (release) something that he hasn't even seen, and they were all 'it works, don't worry blah blah'.
Oh well, looks damn good on a resume :
Worked as tester for Electronic Arts, tested/broke/hacked/cheated Majestic, BattleTech:3025, Motor City Online, and a dozen other ea.com games.
Oh well, fond memories of taking the prescripted AIM bot conversations out of context and sending it to the testbay fun stuff email list.
Blessed be he who reads this post, Cursed be he who tells my boss.
Check out the Hogshead "new wave" roleplaying game De Profundis. It's an epistolary RPG of the Cthulhu mythos, focusing on playing in the horror milieu (either in the 20s and 30s, or the present-day) by writing letters, journals, diaries, and so on. I've got some friends who are running a game via a Livejournal group; it's not too hard to imagine something sort of like Majestic growing out of several groups getting in contact with each other.
And hey, it's only $7, how can you go wrong?
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
We should try to find something useful to do with our time.
...
Heh really. Like argue about this kind of stuff on message boards. That's a much better use of our time
that they (who? them!) can't listen in on your phone conversations if there are pretend treatening phone calls all the time. _They_ stoped the game! Blame _them_.
ender-iii
This is really, really old news. 'Bout a month old now. Saw it on www.avault.com a long time ago.
"
Actually, yes it is. Learning, about the way the world around us is, is a good use of our time. Hearing different views on issues helps to clarify things.
No, we don't have to just ramble on and complain, but it certainly does help to hear counsel on the issues so that we could make better decisions.
testing out my trending skills
You didn't play Majestic. That's a shame, because if you had you'd know that there's this nice little checkbox you can click on the user configuration page. I forget the exact text, but it basically says "Click this if you want us to put 'This message is from Majestic the game' on the end of every phone call/IM/email/fax."
/. never admit they're uninformed - but it would be better still if you'd actually look at their web page before condemning the game as yet another sign of the Collapse of Western Civilization and Our Moral Decay. (Note: "Collapse of Western Civilization" and "Our Moral Decay" are registered trademarks of the Christian Coalition, RIAA, and Republican Party. You are free to use these phrases for non-commercial, private use, but public viewings require written permission from these parties.)
The game was immersive and cool, but there was always a very clear border between the game world and reality for those who wanted it.
You're entitled to post your opinion, of course - and thank you for admitting you never player, too many people on
I'm the stranger...posting to
Their right in one respect: the game definitely does "play you", not the other way around. Actually EA is playing you. Charging money and then forcing you to sit through ads on the game's main homepage -- kind of takes the suspense out of things, huh?
Ever since EA started partnerning with companies like AOL their quality has shot to hell. Yes, "let's make a game identical to a previous one, provide even more unrealistic action, beef up the graphics (because that's the only thing we do anyway) and advertise a song by calling it SSX Tricky. People will love it!"
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It got horrible reviews, guys.
max
overbloated, silly piece of garbage... thank god ea had the sense to choke the life out of this fetid abortion of a game.
what "private" means in the legal sense is that it is not government owned. Meaning they can delete posts if they want, or do whatever.
Is this jon katz material or what?
In case you haven't noticed, American's are the largest consumers of entertainment in the world.
This is a game like anyother and while a few psychotic indviduals with real problems may take it seriously, this will never be the norm.
Oddly, this sounds very similar to many speeches given in regards to a game I used to play when I was younger. That game was Dungeons and Dragons...
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
You read my mind. Especially considering the guy didn't even play the damn game and picked up on the INCREDIBLY minor part of the game about getting threats. Somehow to him its just a game where you get death threats everyday. Jeezus.
Why does everything have to get turned into a "What's bad about Americans today?" rant? Of course we've got our problems, but what country doesn't. People take one class on Government or read a Howard Zinn/Noam Chomsky article and they're suddenly political philosophers. Crmininy. Now that I've veered way off topic to the game... ;)
It actually is a relatively enjoyable game available in a boxed version now for $40 (I think..which would be the price of 4 episodes/months). Just don't expect to have your brain fried in challenging puzzles. There are some interesting things in there though.
Cheers,
jw
"Has anything you've done made your life better?" - American History X
Sorry for the OT post, but your post reminded me a lot of a recent movie called Series 7: The Contenders. This is a great dark satire, making fun of reality TV shows. It's about a reality show where the players are all given guns and the object is for them to be the last one alive. They're allowed to kill each other without getting in trouble, just cause they're part of the game. Definitely worth the cost of a rental.
The first ever Ultimate Frisbee video game: here (now
Additionally, any software retailers who carry this just got screwed, since the software which might normally be available to be sold later (albeit at a discount price) just lost 100% of its value.
That green slime had it coming.
Am I the only one here who thinks there is something desperately wrong if you wish to turn your entire real life -- as in your walking, talking self and your working days and nights -- into one large video game -- a fiction?
Hmm. Isn't life generally about thinking of something you want and then going and getting it? Isn't a lot of the life you _think_ you have contained inside your head? Everything you experience may be a small reinforcement of your ideas, but in large they are a fiction. Things can be interpreted many ways and you throw your spin on it. Hell, my religion says the outward world is a product of the imagination. I have no problem turning my world into one big fiction game, but they're going to have to do a better job than majestic. Violence is ok, but where are the explosions and sex???
While reading about this game (the first I've heard of it..) I was struck by the similarities to that movie "The Game" with Micheal Douglas in which his brother (Sean Penn) buys him a "game". The game company essentially spins a fantastic fantasy world and tosses him up to his eyeballs in it. It comes just short of ruining his life before he "wins".... An interesting concept.
While the $$$$$$$ price tag of smashed cars, coke strewn hotel rooms, fake hospitals and the actors required would put the price of such a thing beyond the range of your casual gamer, the premise is certainly interesting. Imagine having a fantasy life and being thrown (kicking and screaming) into the middle of it. Would be a thrill to say the least.
I don't suppose that such a thing actually exists. Does anyone know anything that comes close to this "real world immersive" game?
The only thing I know of that comes close is something called Dustrunners, but the immersive game is highly fantastic futuristic and is contained entirely within the website (and is somehow tied in with an animated cartoon). It didn't grab me soon enough after I signed up, but I admit it held promise.
That means we can all download it for free now, right? That's what open source is all about... find a good thing, drive it out of business, then cite "abandonware" and get it for nothing!
I think that the responses to this post that are making light of it, do not understand that what aussersterne is writing is in fact a natural evolution of where we stand now. Look at history, every step that humankind has taken, especially with respect to entertainment, invariably evolves to something bigger, better, more realistic and most recently, more immersive. Is this healthy?
I am sure that most peoples opinion on this will vary, but let me caution those that would utter "but, its only a game". Maybe, from the outsider looking in, this is the case. However, for those that are constantly pushing for more realism, more immersion, more intelligent AI - they are asking for these things to make the game more real . And now for a mathematical analogy, what happens when the limit of the game with respect to increasing realism approaches some point that we'll label infinity? That's right, the game becomes real. When will this happen? When is enough, enough? What happens when VR immersion rivals reality? When you can no longer discern if you are in VR or 'unplugged'?
I recall reading a 'young adult' book by Tom Clancy in his Net Force series (co-authored with someone else) that dealt with a VR world that is highly immersive, and people started getting killed (in real life). Obviously this is still fiction, but the story-line tells of the evolution of this game ... single player RPG run on a person's PC. Take a highly realistic game, good AI, network gaming, and immersive VR and what does that give you? A recipe for trouble or for way cool gaming, I'm afraid.
Before people start flaming me, I myself love immersive fantasy, usually I only read fantasy books (older D&D ones like Forgotten Realms, etc.) where the immersive reality is in my mind. Thankfully, putting the book down 'unplugs' me for now :). I am also eagerly awaiting amazingly realistic AI and highly immersive VR, but when this all arrives, I hope that as a society we'll have learned where the boundaries are and we (for once) will know not to push those boundaries.
Impossible. There is no 'meme' to be seen anywhere in his post.
Maybe Jim Carrey could lose his memory, move to a small town, and reopen developement of The Majestic.
I actually knew someone who worked at EA (not anymore, unfortunately) who helped develop the AI for the game. Needless to say, EA created a unique AI scripting language from scratch, which is pretty much a requirement for a game of this scale and a goal this ambitious.
I was talking to him on AIM once when he was scripting, telling me that he was working on an AIMbot that would give information. I was already familar with some AIMbots (add "SmarterChild" to your AOL list and say "hello" to him -- he is hellacool!) so I enquired as to how they were implementing the system at a time. I was a little disappointed when he told me it was keyword based (the bot would scan for certain words) - this is archaic technology that has been around since the late 70s and early 80s.
Even though it did make *some* attempt to parse the language, such as searching for negative words and helping verbs ("not the gun" would invoke a different response than "that gun") and it did take into account misspellings, the bots were too "mechanical" for the average non-programmer to use.
And that's the problem with trying to develop a game like this - our AI technology is not advanced yet. Not until we make significant gains on a Turing machine (on home computers, no less) will games like this become successful.
On the other hand, I was surprised to see how little attention this game received compared to other "ground breaking" games such as UO and EverQuest. We've all seen sci-fi movies where games become reality, and I thought it was an interesting twist for reality to become the game. I thought it was a really good idea, and when I explained the concept to friends they thought it was a good idea too. I don't know what went wrong with the project, but I suppose this can be blamed on marketing or something.
If I was sitting in an expensive restaurant and I had to put up with your cell phone ringing all the time, I'd threaten your life too :P
In a way it's probably a good thing Majestic got cancelled. It could have been dangerous.
:)
Think about it. You get a voice mail threatening to beat you to a pulp, shrug it off as a rather tacky game message, and then several painful hours later discover that your girlfriend had never told you about her husband...
ya think?
Woot, lots of CM's on here.
# wrote sig.txt, 23 lines, 31337 chars
The American soldiers where just doing their jobs, and if the Somalis hadn't attacked that day, then more than likely nobody would have died.
But they did, and we killed hundreds of them while defending ourselves. We only lost about 20 people ourselves, even while in the most intense infantry battle that any American had been in since Vietnam.
If we had brought up main battle tanks, artillery, B52 carpet bombers, A-10's, F-16's, and C-130 gunships then we could have killed 10,000 Somalies. We showed great restraint and only killed the minimum necissary to get out of that situation. If we were after a high kill ratio it would have been simple to attain that.
The fact that you were only able to focus on a single phrase out of the previous post shows that you really have no idea about what life or survival is all about. Pray that you never know.
I take great pride in being one of the ones that allow you to have such innocent sensabilites. It proves to me that I did my job.
We can put all our resources into useful work like discovering the secrets of the universe (if that's possible) or make ourselves immortal, and then what? We will be left with nothing to do but to entertain ourselves again.
The purpose of doing something 'useful' is that after that useful work is done, we no longer have to be concerned with a certain aspect of survival, like having a steady supply of food for example, and instead we can focus our attention to something else like entertainment.
oh shut the fuck up
are you a k5shin or whatever fanboy? because give me a fucking break... inasmuch as I despise slashdot, i've seen plenty of intelligent posts on this site and some have been quite informative... if this is supposedly NOT a troll, you really need to grow up. yes, slashdot is the epitaph of "lame" nowadays, as are the editors and their idiotic notions (ie. subscription service?), but it's users deserve some redit
I was a Majestic Beta tester. About 2 months ago I got a letter saying that they were cutting Majestic from the original planned 8 episodes to 4 episodes, and that the beta testers would be cut off after 4. My guess is that they knew they were getting cancelled then, but they wanted to get the extra subscription money from people for a few more months. This game costs about $120 a year... not exactly cheap compared to other games. A few extra months from people is certainly worth it for them. It is really ashame that the Synthetic folks teamed up with EA, the new owner of the "Worst Software Comany in History" belt (sorry Sierra).
mfkap
When this type of product becomes ubiquitous, we will be watching the news wondering whether we are really at war or whether it is a part of the latest game.
We've already been wondering this.
Edith Keeler Must Die
You said, "and instead we can focus our attention to something else like entertainment.".
Entertainment is good. Don't get me wrong. Entertainment is valuable for all levels of society, and time periods.
You also said, "We will be left with nothing to do but to entertain ourselves again.".
I'm so sure that there will be nothing to do. Unfortunately, once in a while, we will have to often reinvent the wheel, metaphorically speaking. After all, people don't always learn from history, and historical records are often lost. Therefore it is possible and most likely that we will have to learn things over again. Also bear in mind that as each new person is born there is a lot of learning that needs to be relearned. Just because we know that 2+2==4, doesn't mean that a child can avoid learning it.
Another thing is that just about every physical item is consumable. That means we will have to replace things that get worn out or no longer serve us efficiently.
There is no guarantee that there will be nothing to do.
Also bear in mind that society doesn't necessarily get better and better *only*. Sometimes it gets worse and needs to be rebuilt.
testing out my trending skills
> might it not become a part of the game if you get murdered in cold blood by another, rival player?
> a user agreement in which you agree that the "designers" can use any event in any player's life as a part of the developing plot, and that you as a player agree not to hold them liable for the actions of other players, including actions taken against you or your family.
Jeez. You got me worried so I checked my Majestic Agreement and sure enough it says it right here:
"The undersigned understands that Majestic can be a dangerous sport and agrees to his own murder if such murder advances the plotline."
Thanks for alerting me!
(If your post is a troll, then you are brilliant.)
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
You know, you have a point - and that comment in this whole thread discussing consumerism and the like made me think: what if you could create a game like Majestic that actually improved the world all the while the players think they're just enjoying a game? Like for example, the "game" calls you up and tells you to go volunteer in the bread line down at the Salvation Army where you'll get your next clue or something like that. If people aren't motivated to help others purely out of the goodness of their own hearts, then let them think it's just a game. Won't matter either way to the family that just got evicted because their Internet startup went belly-up.
It's kind of like the /. story a couple weeks ago that talked about utilizing the time people use playing Solitare to leverage it to solve real problems.
-"Zow"
Um, if you can't tell if deaththreats against you are part of some game or not, then you've got bigger problems than some stupid game.
Wasn't there a movie about this back in the '80's about some college kids that played "assisination" or something against other students using paintball guns until one of the students gets mistaken as an actual spy. . .
-"Zow"
How do I know? It was based on a game by Steve Jackson, called "Killer", which I was running on my college campus at the same time the movie came out. You signed up and received a name, while that person had another name, etc, in a round-robin hunt. Once you got your target, you inherited his/her target. Last person "alive" won a prize, in our game half of all the entry fees.
Paintball guns were few and far between back then, although they did appear in the movie. We made do with dart and "saucer-guns", as well as more obviously-inert weapons. One of my players (Hi, Carmen!) shot her man down with a banana, then ate the evidence.
We DID have to institute a rules change to prohibit bodily contact, after a player with a rubber knife attempted to stab a Vietnam-veteran with really fast reflexes. No injury except to his pride, but not good PR for the game.
Alas, you couldn't ask for a less-PC game ... I doubt it's being played anywhere anymore ...
Hmmm. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
The game was not a commercial success. Your alternative? Hmm???
Really, I'm interested Petree. You don't like to see something of quality go away just because the authors don't want to support it any more. Do you have an alternative to offer, or are you just complaining?
Have you offered to take over the operation of the game due to your support of it?
Have you communicated to EA urging them to open the source now that they're abandoning the game, and you take over as maintainer?
Do you have some alternative to "capitalism", or anything what so ever to offer in a positive direction to change the situation to something you would prefer?
And last, do you actually know what
"capitalism" is?
Bob-
The Ludwig von Mises Institute. The reasoning individuals economics
I tried this thing too, it sounded too cool to be real, but it was indeed simultaneously cool and real. The only part I disliked is that it was too obvious when the game was calling and kind of detracted from the game. It represented a more apocalyptic world than reality, and as such was hard to believe at times.
:)
I don't know about you, but where I live, when someone threatens your life they do it in person. It's hard to stab or shoot someone across the phone lines
-Billco, Fnarg.com
I only played through EP1 and 2 before I gave up, but it wasn't because of the chatbots (which were pretty pathetic) or the puzzles (which were incredibly easy, requiring EA to 'suggest' you check out fansites containing MUCH better puzzles than the real game) but because of the WAITING. It was maddening to wait around for as long as 3 days for something new to happen in the game, only to spend 20 minutes solving a puzzle. I spent 1/10 of my time in 'Acquire' or 'Act' modes, and the entire rest of the two months waiting for something to happen.
Also, they tried to foster comminuty amongst the gamers, but since different people were at different points in the game, and the puzzles were pathetic, there was nothing to talk about except spoilers and what the fansites were doing. It was tragic to see the implementation of what might have been a good idea go all to hell.
Whatever happened to JonKatz?
Ever since EA started partnerning with companies like AOL their quality has shot to hell. Yes, "let's make a game identical to a previous
one, provide even more unrealistic action, beef up the graphics (because that's the only thing we do anyway) and advertise a song by
calling it SSX Tricky. People will love it!"
HEY! WAIT A DAMN MINUTE!
Slightly off-topic here, but I'm willing to risk the mod-down.
You can't have played it, 'cause SSX Tricky for PS2 is a complete kick-ass improvement on SSX for PS2. The next level of "ubertricks" that you can accumulate to get a continual turbo-boost for your whole downhill run, the great soundtrack that yes, includes RunDMC's "Tricky" as well as a bucketful of other great songs, as well as the nicely beefed-up graphics make for a great game worthy of the PS2 platform. Sure, there are only 2 "completely new" tracks, but they also went back and modified all the old tracks almost beyond recognition. And BTW, people DO love it. This game still sells like hotcakes (still in the top 5-10 for PS2 games), so the proof is in the pudding.
And am I reading this correctly or did you just call this game "unrealistic"? OF COURSE it's unrealistic! It's a GAME for godsakes. If my sports videogames were all true-to-life they'd suck ass because I simply don't have the fucking talent that the pros do and though I can snowboard, if I ever tried even the most rudimentary air trick I'm certain I'd break my neck. Does anyone complain about Alice in Wonderland being unrealistic? Of course not, because that's the point. Same goes with all video games.
I've had SSX Tricky for about 3 weeks now and every single one of the 6 people whom I've played it with were as blown away as I was. Some people just love to bitch, I guess.
The only tool you've got against psychosis is experience.