Ray Sanders' Behind the Scenes of NASA’s Upcoming MMORPG

[james_davis_nicoll]

One such game company that will be launching a new game is the company partnered with NASA to develop a space-based MMORPG for the space agency. Having raised nearly $40,000 in pledged funding via kickstarter, the company aims to start beta testing their offering some time next year.

So what does this new MMORPG do differently that will attract and retain paying customers? What makes Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond different from say, EVE Online, Star Trek Online, or Star Wars Galaxies?

Comments

[supermouse]

I haven't yet read the article (it's open in the tab ready) but one thing I'd be hoping was that it was a lot less like holding down a part-time job than EVE.

Having read the article, it intrigues me. I think I would check it out.

[eyelessgame.livejournal.com]

"Having raised over $40,000"...

either that's missing a few zeroes or this is a one-man effort.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

From the kickstarter page:

Our small group of 20 developers have won a contest* held for the best idea for an official massively multi-player online game depicting the future

This round of $50,000 plus (we are crossing our fingers for more) will officially kick off the development and finish our first beta of the commercial game. How can we do this? For starters, a matching government tax credit will match all donations up to $700,000 with an additional 500K (so yes DO SIGN-UP HERE :) to the developers, and as we speak, NASA has awarded a contract to Challenger Center and WisdomTools to produce about 1 million dollars in related content (YES).

[murphys-lawyer.livejournal.com]

What makes Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond different from say, EVE Online, Star Trek Online, or Star Wars Galaxies?

In the case of EVE online, hopefully, a complete and utter lack of griefing.

[keithmm.livejournal.com]

But that's the whole point of EVE Online...it's a quasi-libertarian paradise.

[hopdavid.livejournal.com]

Well, with a game set in our solar system, you don't need FTL. Do the three games you mention rely on FTL for travel between star systems?

I would like to see a game with a good orbital mechanics sim (like Orbiter). Vehicles that comply with the rocket equation. Planet and asteroid settings influenced by what we actually know about these objects.

[peter-erwin.livejournal.com]

Do the three games you mention rely on FTL for travel between star systems?

Yes. (The fact that two of them are based on Star Trek and Star Wars ought to be a pretty good clue, methinks...)

An MMORG with slower-than-light travel between star systems is in principle an interesting idea, but it would be fiendishly difficult to make interesting: why would anyone travel to another system when it would mean, at a minimum, weeks or months of real-world absence from the game (to match the years of absence in-game)?

[(Anonymous)]

In-game technology to duplicate your character (at a suitable price) so that you can send one copy on the trip while the other copy hangs around and interacts with the world? Though if the copies ever meet it could be tricky playing both, so perhaps active copies within a certain distance of each other coalesce because *waves hands vigorously while spouting phrases like "local consciousness exclusion principle"*

Alternatively, make the STL vessels themselves large and varied enough to keep the players' interest during the trip.

-- Paul Clarke

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

Starlost: the RPG

[hopdavid.livejournal.com]

Figured as much.

Some of the attractions of FTL multi-star system settings: diverse cultures, unusual life forms.

I believe the same could be had in an STL solar system setting.

There could be cloud cities of Venus, civilizations on Mars and mining settlements spreading through the asteroids. There might even be alien life forms dwelling beneath the crusts of Europa and other icey moons. Maybe flotsam and jetsam from ancient civilizations hidden in the Jupiter L4 and L5 sargassos.

[dbdatvic.livejournal.com]

and the Helium-3 contests on the Moon, of course.

--Dave, principally involving "thinking of new ways to scam unsupecting flatlanders into investing in various uses for it"