Slashdot Mirror


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.'"

32 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. I can just imagine it by beyowulf · · Score: 5, Funny

    4rm h311's d4rk h34rt 1 st4b 47 th33!!

    1. Re:I can just imagine it by Jarjarthejedi · · Score: 3, Funny

      Juliet1342 > Romeo Romeo, Wherefor art thou romeo? Romeotheman12 > Sorry bout that, lagged out, stupid server... Definatly an interesting concept, the key is going to be the players. If you get a bunch of RPers in the game who just want to have fun then it'll probably be a great time for all. If, on the other hand, you get a bunch of lamers (which, somehow, I honestly can't see the type of people I consider lamers playing anything with shakespeare in it, so maybe this won't happen) it'll just devolve into another MMO where people exploit and do lame things. I for one am hopefully optimistic, and if I was a bigger fan of shakespeare I'd probably watch this until it came out to see if I wanted it. Something tells me that basing a game around a historical figure like shakespeare will scare off all the people who normally make MMOs not so much fun...

      --
      There are two kinds of fool One says 'This is old therefore good' Another says 'This is new therefore better'- Dean Ing
    2. Re:I can just imagine it by andphi · · Score: 2, Funny

      |ri h4v0( & l33t sl1p teh d@wgz 0f w@rz!

  2. The play's the thing! by lawpoop · · Score: 2, Funny

    An MMORPG set in the world of Shakespeare, where all the world's a stage?

    Can we have a play within a play, ala Hamlet, within an MMORPG? :D

    --
    Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
    -- Pablo Picasso
  3. Whyfore? by Avatar8 · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

  4. But.... by LordEd · · Score: 5, Funny

    Will it be written in the original kingon?

    1. Re:But.... by goofyheadedpunk · · Score: 2, Informative

      ghobe'! Hab SoSlI' Quch!

      --

      What if the entire Universe were a chrooted environment with everything symlinked from the host?
  5. Midsummer's night dream by techpawn · · Score: 2, Funny

    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
  6. In this game... by brennanw · · Score: 5, Funny

    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
  7. Re:I can hardly wait for... by CRCulver · · Score: 3, Funny

    Or the online version of Sartre's Huis Clos ("No Exit"). There's no action, and once you connect, you can't ever log off, but are forced to spend eternity enduring the inane conversation of lame fellow online gamers.

  8. The grind's the thing. by Tackhead · · Score: 4, Insightful
    > An MMORPG set in the world of Shakespeare, where all the world's a stage?

    ...and all the players are idiots. Yep, that's about right.

    "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.

    1. Re:The grind's the thing. by AoT · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It still amazes me how beautiful a language so ugly as english can be.

      That english poets have had such crap to work wth and made such beauty is incredible, it's like you give some guy a shotgun and he carves the statue david.

    2. Re:The grind's the thing. by andphi · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Technically, Shakespeare invented some of his vocabulary. Other playwrights and poets of the time did likewise. Milton did it. I daresay Marlowe and Thomas Kidd did as well. Not to mention the Metaphysical and Cavalier poets. Those whose writings have survived were educated men, some had traveled, none were bound by any dictionary or even standardized spelling. They borrowed or made up the words they needed, then helped the players understand what they meant. If the language is beautiful and horrific (I can agree that it's both), it is partially The Bard's doing.

  9. /bite by Wrexen · · Score: 5, Funny

    /bite
    * You bite your thumb at A Montague

    1. Re:/bite by TempeTerra · · Score: 3, Funny

      ABRAHAM: Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
      * It is dark. You are likely to be eaten by a Montague

      --
      .evom ton seod gis eht
  10. Umm.... by Kelson · · Score: 3, Informative
    4rm h311's d4rk h34rt 1 st4b 47 th33!!

    Wouldn't that be for the Melville MMORPG?

    On the other hand, I can see that game devolving into one long Moby Dick joke.

    1. Re:Umm.... by illegalcortex · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yes, but in getting the genres mixed up, I think you've hit upon a second major feature of a Shakes MMORPG....

  11. How this will play out... by Gorm+the+DBA · · Score: 3, Funny

    "LFG: Juliet's Balcony, have Tank and Healer, need DPS, full on Bards"

  12. The only good thing about this might be... by le0p · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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
  13. What a piece of work is a man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:What a piece of work is a man by brennanw · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Have you read ANY of Shakespeare's comedies?

      --
      Eviscerati.Org: All Hail the Eviscerati
  14. A million monkeys by krell · · Score: 2, Funny

    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?
  15. This game sucks! by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 2, Funny

    Every time I try to get a raiding party together, a bunch of them log off right after my pre-raid pep-talk!

  16. I worry, by joe+155 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.''
  17. You've ruined your own lands by bunions · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... 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.
  18. Even better; a Shakespeare-Lovecraft crossover by arevos · · Score: 2, Funny
    Perhaps it would read something like this:

    Stay you speaker of the Dread Cthulhu, tell me more:
    By the Mad Arab's death, I know I am Thane of Innsmouth,
    But how, of Arkham? the Thane of Arkham liues
    A prosperous Gentleman: And to be King,
    Stands not within the prospect of belief,
    No more then to be Arkham. Say from whence
    You held word with the Great Priest, or why
    Upon this blasted Heath you stop our way
    And tell of things meant not for mortal ears
    Speak, I charge you.

  19. Re:I can hardly wait for... by Dolly_Llama · · Score: 4, Funny

    #Godot has entered the channel

    Finally!

    --

    Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -- Carl Sagan

  20. Re:I can hardly wait for... by sammyo · · Score: 2, Funny

    Second Life?

  21. Concept/Execution by RomSteady · · Score: 2, Funny

    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
  22. A horse! A horse! by NJVil · · Score: 2, Funny

    My Kingdom (Hearts 2) for a horse!

  23. Times scenes are played.... by kinglink · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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 :)

  24. I was browsing headlines... by kabocox · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.