Engine for Collaborative Science Education MMOG?

plisdku asks: "My research advisor wants to create an online, collaborative science education game for middle- to high-school students; we need a 3D engine! A pioneer in internet-assisted laboratories (iLabs), he has developed real experiments that students can operate remotely over the internet. We envision a game where students wander a campus, solving Caltech-style 'stacks,' and learning collaboratively as they perform the great experiments of the history of science in simulated and real laboratories. What we need is a 3D engine and content creation system with which our team of artists and bright student developers can produce a prototype within a year. Requirements: customizable avatars, flexible integration with other technology (iLabs, CompEdu, etc.), and reasonable licensing fees (open source would be great). Our last project used SGI tools -- what are our modern-day options?"

Comments

The obvious solution

[L. VeGas]

Flash.

Quake 2

[LiENUS]

The Quake 2 engine is probably the most advanced open source engine youl'l find. But It sounds like it would be better to start from scratch if your advisor intends to be putting science expiraments into this...

I had an idea similar to this

[CrazyJim1]

But it was an RPG for little kids to learn math. Basically they start in a town, that teaches them the basics about math and pointers about that section. Then they walk around the wilderness, being challenged with math problems. Eventually they face a boss that gives them several math problems they have to solve. When they complete an area, they move on to the next. Maybe have them choose their adventuring buddies that may give them hints in math-battles. It'd works because the way math builds on past math foundations. Start with counting, and if you put enough levels in, you could have them up to calculus.