When I was still young, I was out on a walk with my father in the woods next to my great-aunt’s house. The woods were an offshoot of the Devil’s Hopyard state park, which meant that they were old and vast. As the family often congregated around the house, there were a number of paths we knew that wove their way through the forest, but I remember where we always stopped, and I remember the day when I asked what was further along.
My dad grinned, and we kept walking. It was about ten minutes from there to a beautiful, moss-covered waterfall that was right on the edge of the state park, with an alcove just large enough that I could squeeze underneath the falls. That sticks with me every time I start up a new game, because that was when I started to really wonder about where paths might lead. Everything leads somewhere. Finding things out is one of the things I love, probably what attracted me to video games in the first place.
Continue reading MMOrigins: The only living boy in Vana’diel
Filed under: Real life, Culture, Opinion, MMOrigins
MMOrigins: The only living boy in Vana’diel originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on November 20th, 2009 at 1:00pm by Eliot Lefebvre
Filed Under: culture, mmorigins, opinion, real-life
The United Kingdom’s Department for Transport has launched a free browser MMO, Code of Everand, that teaches traffic safety to children. It does so through a fantasy theme with direct parallels to real world dangers — streets are Spirit Channels, glowing energy streams populated with many dangerous beasts. The Spirit Channels crisscross the map of Everand and make travel perilous. That’s where the players come in as Pathfinders, explorers trained in the techniques that allow for safe passage across the Spirit Channels. Pathfinders learn important safety lessons along the way in their journey to discover the secrets of Everand.
Code of Everand was developed for the UK Department for Transport by NYC-based firm Area/Code over the course of two years, reports Game Set Watch. Area/Code has a long track record of creating cross-media games for advertising and media firms, television networks, and even major consumer brands. According to Area/Code’s site, they’ve taken innovative approaches to games in the past — “online games that respond to broadcast TV in real time, simulated characters and virtual worlds that occupy real-world geography” and “game events driven by real-world data”. Interesting concepts. If you like the idea of games used as an effective educational tool, you can see the animated trailer for Code of Everand after the jump.
Continue reading Code of Everand browser MMO teaches kids about traffic safety
Filed under: Real life, MMO industry, New titles, Tips and tricks, Free-to-play, Browser, Kids
Code of Everand browser MMO teaches kids about traffic safety originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on November 19th, 2009 at 5:00pm by James Egan
Filed Under: areacode, browser, children, code-of-everand, department-for-transport, educational, edutainment, f2p, free-to-play, gamesetwatch, kids, mmo-industry, new-titles, nyc, pathfinders, real-life, safety, spirit-channels, united-kingdom
Filed under: Real life, New titles, Previews, Academic, Education, Virtual worlds
How would you like to take a trip into space? No, not the stylized science fiction that Star Trek Online promises, or the fantasy-with-spaceships of Star Wars: the Old Republic. We’ve heard the announcement about NASA’s coming space MMO, Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond, but the game hasn’t been making the rounds in the usual gaming circuit. An in-depth article about the game’s development and planned release is interesting for any fans of the rigors and challenges of spaceflight, not mention a look at a game that’s moving far outside the usual realm of our genre.
Much like America’s Army, the goal of the game is to try and give players a taste of what it’s like to actually work in the field being simulated. While the game is focusing on creating enjoyable gameplay first, players can expect to see landscapes and tasks grounded in solid scientific principles and based upon actual astronaut missions, complete with the real and tangible challenges of exploring inhospitable worlds. The article also discusses the MoonBase module, which is set to be launched as a free standalone component on Steam in January to serve as both a preview and a testbed for the game. Take a look at the full article for a closer examination of what the game could mean, and what it might be like to play a space game where you were less concerned about arming weapons and more concerned with understanding the world around you.
(Or, if you have to, start imagining an expansion set in the 1980s adding the Soviet space program as a new faction. Which is only slightly less realistic.)
Take part in space exploration with NASA’s coming MMO originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on November 15th, 2009 at 12:00pm by Eliot Lefebvre
Filed Under: academic, americas-army, ammb, astronaut, astronaut-moon-mars-and-beyond, educations, nasa, national-aeronautics-and-space-administration, new-titles, real-life, space, space-exploration, steam, virtual-worlds
