Information Requested for NASA-Based MMORPG

Teancum writes "By now, most people are aware of the U.S. Army's video game, America's Army. It turns out that NASA has submitted a Request for Information for what would be a NASA-themed MMORPG of its own. The deadline for the proposals is February 15th. NASA's plans focus on education. 'A NASA-based MMO built on a game engine that includes powerful physics capabilities could support accurate in-game experimentation and research. It should simulate real NASA engineering and science missions in a medium that is comfortable and familiar to the majority of students in the United States today.' This certainly doesn't deserve to get thrown onto the traditional dust heap of educational proposals for a half-baked game that nobody will actually play."

Comments

realistic, eh?

[TheSpengo]

Realistic NASA game, eh? I know how to do that... You are a low-mid level engineer. You job: design a space station. Someone higher up decides to make a tiny change, so you scrap the current design and restart from scratch. Repeat this over 9000 times, waste as much government funding as possible for the high score. Since everyone's work is made useless every time something is changed, why bother working at all? Play the built in solitaire and minesweeper minigames for extra fun! The less progress made the better. Hey, the space shuttle works right? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Who cares it's over 20 years old and still a prototype? Who cares that it uses equipment from the time of the dinosaurs!? Sorry, I had to troll a bit. The real progress is being made by private companies these days and NASA is just old, bloated, and generally useless.