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eGenesis to Develop New MMO with Orson Scott Card
Johnathon Walls writes "eGenesis, makers of the non-combat, world-building massively multiplayer online (MMO) game "A Tale in the Desert" versions 1 and 2, has signed a deal with Orson Scott Card (author of Ender's game and The Seventh Son) to develop the pre-Civil War American world of "Alvin the Maker" into a new MMO. This is also going to be a non-combat-centered, community-building world. Questions remain as to the amount of interest these non-combat games generate, and concerns about the rapidly dropping population of Tale 2 (a steady decline from 2089 subscribers on Sep 26 to 1582 subscribers on Jan 6) really bring this issue to the forefront."
Each of these MMOGs is a full time, all night, every night ordeal. There's really enough room in our lives (and wallets) for one at a time.
I think he needs to stick with writing, there's plenty of MMOGs now and they're getting pretty good.
I'd like to see the Ender's Game universe turned into a MMORPG.
However, comments above are right, non-combat MMO's can be pretty boring. I tried the Tales games, and after 10 minutes the point was lost to me.
Rubbish - so long as you make sure that the community and group building aspects are compelling enough.
Let's face it, the Hello Kitty MMO has the potential to be much bigger than any MMO so far. After all, grinding up trolls and beheading orcs with a magic axe are niche activities too
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Suttree, a weblog about casual games development
It's better to have a small community with a richly defined experience than a new game aimed at people who already have a mass produced outlet they are content with.
postmodernsideshow.com
This makes it pretty obvious to me. Look at the levels people are reaching...
The levels are Student, Apprentice, Journeyman, Scribe... we'll stop there cause no one has gotten and further.
Now, looking at architecture, the highest level reached is apprentice.
Art & Music, NO ONE RANKS,
Body? Yeah, some apprentices here (you have to have a good body to fight)
Leadership, one Journeyman...
Thought, a few students
Worship, a decent amount here, not playing the game, I dont' know what benefits this gives.
Conflict: Wow, 8 people have made it to j'man here. Only worship scores higher.
So, the two most desired attributes are to be a good fighter and to be worshiped. Tells me that a non-fighting game is doomed.
I'll admit, I haven't played (well, I played the first when it was free) I'm getting all my info from the chart, so I may be all washed up.
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
And if you want to sample a nice collection of other authors that will already have books on the shelves, the Legends series (edited by Robert Silverberg) is a very good selection. Each one of the two (hardcover) books has a short story/novella from an author with a series being worked on or completed. Each of the stories stands outside the direct continuity of the series, and adds more background information about them.
The first one has King, Goodkind, Card, and Jordan amongst others.
The second one has Gaiman, Brooks, Martin, and others.
They're a great introduction to picking new authors up.
Nephilium
I played the original A Tale in the Desert quite a bit back in the day, and I've considered trying ATITD2 for a month to see what's new. I have to say that I did enjoy the original ATITD quite a bit for a while, the people at eGensis did a really great job putting together a non-combat MMORPG- but it did have problems.
I think the problem with the non-combat MMORPGs is the exact same problem as with more standard MMORPGs, just that it tends to show a bit more. The problem is the oft-discussed leveling treadmill.
A lot of people play more traditional MMORPGs because they like to gain prestige through having level 100 characters with +50 swords of dragon slaying and armor of holy protection and more money than god. In a non-combat MMORPG you take away those carrots, and basically all that's left is to see how boring a MMO game really can be at times. It's not that they are any more boring than City of Heros or Evercrack, just that without levels and rare items to work toward, the borning treadmill beneath the game shows itself a bit more
The real saving grace of ATITD was the community. With a relatively small number of people, and the afore mentioned lack of level and item status symbols, the game didn't attract griefers like many other games do, and I think that it helped having a good community, but at some point you realize that you are still doing the same thing over and over again.
Instead of "Go to A and kill mob X, then go to B and kill mob Y" it's "plant and harvest flax, let flax rot while mining for ore, seperate flax, start making cloth/canvas, make charcoal". Instead of levels, occasionally you'd get enough resources to learn a skill or complete a test.
I think the problem with many MMO games is the higherarcy of power- that is to say there really isn't one. You have the GMs who work for the company and will occasionally run games, and then you have a whole mess of players.
I think the solution to this will involve some way for players to create their own quests, more powerful characters will be able to exert more influence and run larger, more spread out quests. I think that this is the type of innovation that will probably start in a non-combat game at first anyway, if only because the logistics implementation are simpler when you don't have to deal with mobs and boss monsters and weapons and such.
Things like that were even starting to happen when I last played ATITD, larger guilds were offering rewards for rare items, or for hard-to-make items, so that they could build buildings or produce items.
I was a member of a medium sized guild, and there were cases where our guild would host a part and invite people and then offer up goods in exchange for players completing a quest, so that we could get items to trade up to a larger guild.
Anyway, I've been rambling on- somewhat incoherently, but what I was trying to say was this: I don't think the problem with non-combat MMO's is their lack of combat, I think that the problem is one that is systemic to the entire genre, and is only covered up cosmetically by the combat in more traditional MMO's. The decling interest in them is really just a symptom of the declining interest in the leveling treadmill that is present in all MMO games, however, I think that if done correctly, a non-combat MMO could bring some innovation that would eventually reach more traditional MMOs and revitalize the genre.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
Since Orson Scott Card is going to help out with this, I hope it will be entertaining in a different type of way; I get sick of games in which the point is to level your character etc. Maybe this will set a precedent to put more of a story into Mass Multiplayer games. Is this the first "proposed" MM game that will employ a master writer? It's the only one that I can think of...
University of Washington
Student
Both books are incredible. I don't agree that Speaker is "by far the best," but I understand that this is the internet and people will have different opinions than me. Reading Ender's Game by itself is absolutely no waste. It's one of the standards of modern scifi and to dismiss it as "not bad," is pure pointless elitism.
/syle
Both Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead are outstanding books (and I would add Xenocide to that list), just for different reasons. They speak to different things.
Sadly, Children of the Mind slips a bit, and the follow-on, return-to-the-well "Shadow" series is just horrible.
My advice is to purchase:
"Ender's Game"
"Speaker for the Dead"
"Xenocide"
"Children of the Mind"
and then stop. Pretend he died shortly thereafter.
DG
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
I loved Ender's Game. I hated Speaker so much that I will probably never read another Card book again. It was long, rambling, pointless, and annoying. As far as I'm concerned, he's a one-hit wonder. I might be wrong, but there are plenty of consistently good authors out there that I can devote my time to.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
Ultimately all such games require conflict as much as cooperation, and without combat, conflict feels lacking in many such games.
Orson Scott Card is already quite experienced in video game combat. He wrote all of the insults for the insult swordfighting in Secret of Monkey Island, the first Monkey Island game. Although I guess this type of "fighting" is naturally inherent among players in MMORPGs in general, maybe he can make it fresh with less expletives and more wit.
"You fight like a dairy farmer!"
"How appropriate, you fight like a cow!"
Yeah, I can see this.
It always surprised me to find that out, in his book Songbird the main character has a homosexual encounter and is not looked down upon, and due to societal reasons his partner was punished quite severely and the whole tone of it was condemning that punishment.
It's for Hatrackers. These folks have been doing role-play type posting in this "world" for more than a decade (they were going pretty heavy when I got to AOL, back when they used the GeoWorks interface). When Scott moved off of AOL to hatrack.com, they just moved over there, and have been going strong the whole time.
I don't think you're going to see this trying to be the next Everquest. The folks who want it will know about it (most already do) and we'll find out how many are willing to pay to use it. I'm not sure how it'll work out (I was never into the role-play part), but I know there are folks who will want to try it.
Then tell me: What is his motivation? If he is not "homophobic" if he isn't "afraid" of the homosexual men and women out there, if it isn't a distaste for their "lifestyle", then what is it that makes him say those things?
the exact same thing that makes christians condemn homosexuality. "because the bible says so", end of discussion. it's a matter of religious faith and doctrine, and thus not open to debate.
what's frightening is the number of people who voted for bush not because of any of his fiscal, foreign, economic, scientific, military, educational, or any other policy -- but that the sole reason they voted for bush is because he's a christian who is against homosexuality. their church/religious leaders/etc told them it's a sin to vote for kerry. so they voted for bush.
what's frightening is the number of people who voted for bush not because of any of his fiscal, foreign, economic, scientific, military, educational, or any other policy -- but that the sole reason they voted for bush is because he's a christian who is against homosexuality.
Do you have any numbers for how many people voted for him solely on the basis of his homosexuality stance? And please don't try citing that debunked "moral values" exit poll.
Why? If there is only one Gender present does that mean the kid will never have any interaction with the "other" sex?
I wanted to comment on this issue about Sex and Gender and the well being of kids.
Believe it or not, there have been many, many psychological studies on this topic. And for the most part all of them conclude that a 2 gender parental enviroment is absolutely essential for 'normal, healthy, well adjusted' kids. And not for any religious reasons; I'll explain...
Notice how I say gender rather than sex; this is the key difference. Before the age of 12, kids need a 'Mom' figure in their life. They need someone to uncondionally love, nuture, and respond more with emotion than reason. It has been shown that babies recognize and respond more to their mother than father. Up until about the age of twelve, kids generally feel closer to their mother. Why? Because most women exhibit these traits. After the age of 12, this is when the 'father' role becomes essential. Someone who evokes a sense of trust, respect, independence, the ability to handle the world and deal with problems. At this point, both girls and boys start to respond and emulate their father figure until adulthood.
The stereotype 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus' really holds true. The vast majority of women fit the 'mom' psychological profile, and the vast majority of men fit the 'dad' role. There are fundamental hormonal diferences in the two sexes that prevent this for the most part. There are exceptions of course, but they are rare.
So for a gay parenting enviroment can work sucessfully, one or both of the parents need to exhibit enough traits of the opposite sex, to provide this necessary emotional resource for kids. In families that don't... both heterosexual and homosexual, children tend to grow up socially awkward and have many more problems in life.
The sending of this message pretty much inconveniences everyone involved.