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Up-coming MMORPG Based on Shakespeare's Works
Linnen writes "Edward Castronova has received a MacArthur Foundation grant to build a MMOG based on Shakespeare's plays." "Castronova said 'Arden' will launch — it's unclear when, as the game is still in the early design stage — built around the theme of 'Richard III.' That's because the play, set during the War of the Roses, offers historical context, as well as enough political intrigue, secret conniving, deal-making and war to delight any gamer, he said. 'It's a historical Shakespeare play, so that means it's really easy for us to take all the sort of fantasy stuff like knights in shining armor and peasants and woodworkers...and we can just really fit right into 'Richard III' right away.'"
4rm h311's d4rk h34rt 1 st4b 47 th33!!
An MMORPG set in the world of Shakespeare, where all the world's a stage?
:D
Can we have a play within a play, ala Hamlet, within an MMORPG?
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
I don't know why but I burst out laughing uncontrollably when I read the title of this article...
Methinks this be a failure from the start
For no person would care to play a tiny part
In what once was great literature that brought Bill great fame
But for a theater of the globe, as a game, dost sound lame.
Will it be written in the original kingon?
The online version of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern.
I can hear it now...
"whaaaa that nasty mob doesnt like my skirt"
stupid EMOs
If there's no Oberon, I don't give a Puck *ducks*
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
all female characters will have the ability to pose as young men.
Which means male players will be playing female characters playing male characters.
Eviscerati.Org: All Hail the Eviscerati
They can gate into the "alternate reality" with guns and staves blazing...
! !!
Ohh, take that Mr. I'm-All-Bright-And-Shiny-in-My-Formed-Metal-Armor
Might make some of those stuck up archers think twice befor showing off their nice two fingers.
Cliff Claven
K.E.G. Party Chairman
Founding Leader of: Koncerned for Egalitarin Governance
"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
- Macbeth (V, v, 19), shortly after his wife unsubscribed and his guild fell apart.
Pretty much sums up every MMORPG to which I've ever subjected myself.
How about a MMORPG set in the world of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos? Or even his Dream Cycle collection of works?
/bite
* You bite your thumb at A Montague
#592341 xpl0re3> fuck, i mean, it worked for romeo and juliet... they met at a party and were married the next fucking day beanphoner> you obviously didn't read the end of that play
Slashdot, where armchair scientists get shouted down and armchair theologians get modded up.
Wouldn't that be for the Melville MMORPG?
On the other hand, I can see that game devolving into one long Moby Dick joke.
Shak-who? I imagine 50% of the population under 25 doesn't even remember why Shakespeare is significant.
And 49% don't think his work is relevant or even anything special - just boring romance novel/chic flick type pulp.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
"LFG: Juliet's Balcony, have Tank and Healer, need DPS, full on Bards"
that there's nothing a 16 year old gamer wants to do less than think about Shakespeare. A boring^H^H^H^H^H^Hmature concept like classic literature might actually keep the user base tolerable.
"I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability."-Oscar Wilde
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Weren't female parts played by men during that time on stage?
So it should be male gameplayers playing male toons who dress as females who has the ability to pretend to be male characters.
Just imagine the guild drama in this one.
Let me guess: your player character will be in the guise of one of a million monkeys with a million typewriters.
Where were you when the voynix came?
Every time I try to get a raiding party together, a bunch of them log off right after my pre-raid pep-talk!
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
it mentions that because it's classed as one of Shakepeare's history plays they're taking the events in it as historical "fact", I hope that they include a note to say that pretty much none of it is "fact", maybe at the start in the form of a warning...
Waring: This play was written as propaganda against Richard III, the true king of England, by a man who was close to Elizabeth I and was too afraid to tell the truth which would cast doubt on the right (or otherwise) of the Tudors to the crown.
Sorry of you don't care, but it's important that people know the facts (or as close as we can get the them anyway)
*''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
Wait a second. Don't they have to secure a copyright license from the writer or his estate first? The licensing fees for Shakespeare are outrageously expensive. There's no way this is going to fly for a game, financially-speaking.
[This post sent from the year 2012, after the passing of the "Indefinite Copyright Retro-extension Act" of 2008]
... you'll not ruin mine, A_Capulet935!
there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
This is going to be the most violent video game EVER!
Hello Kitty Island Adventure
The best fantasy series I've read in years has been A Song of Ice and Fire, written by George R. R. Martin, which is also based off the Wars of the Roses. I would encourage you people on /. who like such things to check it out.
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with the author or publisher, I just like the novels.
You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
I get dibs on Mercutio, that guy was the man. Best death scene ever.
You are so boring that when I see you my feet go to sleep.
That's what happens if you forget the / in the tag.
You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
The potential for expansions on this game far outweighs how long it could remain relevant.
I'm holding out for the Titus Andronicus expansion. Rated AO for rape, cannibalism, and murder.
"By the time they had diminished from 50 to 8, the other dwarves began to suspect 'Hungry.'" -Gary Larson
I like the concept of this MMORPG, but it would be difficult to make someone's death a tragedy when they can just respawn two meters away.
RomSteady - I came, I saw, I tested. GamerTag: RomSteady / http://www.romsteady.net
My Kingdom (Hearts 2) for a horse!
I could actually see a pretty awesome game made out of Romeo & Juliet's vision of Verona (not the DiCaprio movie version). A city divided up into factions loyal to one side or the other. Rather than battling in your typical MMO's generic fields, you could have street fights and turf wars. It'd definitely have to be a PVP oriented, but it could be really cool.
Shak-who? I imagine 50% of the population under 25 doesn't even remember why Shakespeare is significant.
I'd be surprised if 50% of the population ever actually knew anything about the bard, never mind remember..
If you RTFA, you'll realize that they never claim that the play was historical fact but BASED on historical facts.
Just to bring some "nostalgia" back, do you remember your high school years reading Shakespeare's books, they obviously forgot because I just had Shakespeare and believe me, I would never play something that involved Shakespeare.
If I can play as Margaret, I may have to actually install a game on my computer.
(Explanation: I consider myself to have enough distractions on my computer via the web, and only play games on consoles.)
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
Fight scene between romeo and tybalt = 1000
:)
Macbeth's sollique = 1 time (your college professor likely had an account).
Out out damm spot = 10000 (Lady macbeth in a slip?)
The problem I forsee is while Shakesphere is a bit baudy, and very clever, he's a writer. His characters move a lot and act out scenes. Will we be watching plays? Will we be part of the excellent fight scenes? or will everything be fighting?
I forsee this having problems but if it's faithful it could be fun... if it's free
I was just skiming headlines. I think a Paris Hilton MMORPG would be more successful. Heck, why limit yourself with her? Go after the entire porn industry. Try digitizing all those porn stars and ameutars for the MMORPG of Porn Land. The place you go to flirt and find random characters to have sex with. Forget WOW or Second Life, I think this idea could really be the next big thing. We just need Rock Star to develop it.
Finally, a game where all you non-roleplaying lamers will get banned for not speaking in iambic pentameter!
So is it Gargoyles or Star Trek VI?
Yahoo! Pipes are awesome. How awesome? http://pipes.yahoo.com/jesdynf/slashdot
And once again, all the roles will be played by men. ;)
Exactly. They're plays, not novels. Go see one, or better yet act in one. The Branagh films are okay if you have nothing else.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
LOAD "SIG",8,1
Who wants to have sex in a video game? Go learn MM (see BitTorrent if you're a cheapskate) and get real sex.
Why not some other name, like Anonymous Coward, that my family is more familiar with?
[UID-HeinzIntel]
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
... there were STILL more actual women playing men playing men playing women, then there are women playing female night elves.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
I wrote a brief post examing the game design challenges of such subject matter, if anyone's interested:
m o/
http://www.steveswink.com/posts/a-shakespearian-m
"He seems to be thinking - granted, at this early stage - of simply shoehorning Shakespeare into World of Warcraft, using it as a powerup. The question they should be asking themselves is 'what do we want people to learn?' and, most particularly, 'how?' Judging by the statement "We'd like to allow our players to learn something valuable, so that's why it's about Shakespeare", I'd say the underlying goal is, in addition to the 'social science Petri dish' concept he's espousing, to teach random internet people about Shakespeare. So, what do you want to teach them? I'm assuming, because Castronova is a college professor, that he's interested in teaching Shakespeare in the academic sense, which is to say first and foremost simply understanding what's happening (parsing Elizabethan English.) From there, appreciating Shakespeare's genius would be nice, understanding narrative structure and so on. Then, it's always interesting to understand the context in which Shakespeare's plays existed, the world they came from, and to examine why they, of all works (being very much the pop culture of 17th century England) have endured over five centuries of scrutiny and continue to be held in the highest regard today."