[Open Manufacturing] NASA MMO

[Bryan Bishop]

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/23/0455226

"""
Big Download is running an article with details and screenshots from
the MMO under development by NASA. The game makes use of Unreal Engine
3, and it's titled Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond. A demo is planned
for later this year, and in 2010 they expect "the first episodic
installment of the game" to come out. Jerry Heneghan, founder and CEO
of Virtual Heroes, described it thus: "This game is going to be a
fresh look at the future circa about 2035. ... The core of the
gameplay is going to be people building up their characters and as you
move forward, you will have more options unlock with new places to go,
new equipment to use and new things to do. We are not so much focused
on interstellar flight and all that entails... the gameplay is
actually about being in a habitat on a planetary surface and doing
things like mining Helium-3 for fuel, operating a hydroponics facility
to grow plants and create oxygen and operating robots and vehicles."
"""

http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1137133&cid=26955743
"The game is actually being developed by Virtual Heroes and from what
I understand is being offered as a educational tool for 9th graders
and they are encouraged to use development tools to build content for
the game themselves. If this isn't a good investment for our country -
not sure what is - especially if its an educational game that is fun
to play. Dept of Agriculture should do the same thing - to help
younger generations get interested in working on and developing
technology in the field of agriculture. If it works - I'd be for it -
America needs more good farmers and people working in that field."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimFarm

http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1137133&cid=26960023
"What they should do is use the massive ability of MMO players to do
hard labor. Think about all the information that could be parsed by
NASA MMO players. Parts of the game should be looking at Hubble Images
for specific items, or comparing red shifts. It has been fully shown
that MMO players will "grind" up against a work load to get to the
next whatever, so that should be something that NASA exploits."

http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1137133&cid=26960697
"I can imagine people who find crafting items in MMOs to have a lot of
fun with this game."

http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1137133&cid=26958937
"How about a game where NASA stays focused on establishing a permanent
colony on the Moon? Using 2009 technology, and with real launch
vehicles and people? This idea may even be better, put a rat maze on
the moon, with living rats, and resupply it. Watch what happens to the
rats. Put results on 7/24 Streaming Media, and clips of unusual stuff
on Youtube."

http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1137133&cid=26955965
"Wow, that doesn't sound generic at all. What exactly are people
building their characters up towards? What are they moving forward to?
Please don't make this a generic grinding game that tries to solve
Global Warming... One option, and this may sound callous, is to leave
them. I'm fairly sure that the astronauts would sign waivers that
acknowledge the risks of space travel and the costs of rescue missions
are generally not feasible. Then again, that wouldn't work well for a
plot in a game."

- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
1 512 203 0507

[Eschatoon Magic]

This is a VERY interesting initiative. I have followed the NASA call
for proposal last year and the selection of Virtual Heroes. A well
done MMO, that speaks the videogaming language of kids and teens while
offering breathtaking visions of our forthcoming adventure in space,
could be what is needed to make space sexy again and motivate young
people to study science and engineering to be part of it. What pulp
scifi did in the 50s, MMO technology could do in the 10s.

--
Eschatoon Magic
http://cosmeng.org/index.php/Eschatoon
aka Giulio Prisco
http://cosmeng.org/index.php/Giulio_Prisco

[Doram]

I agree that video games are a powerful medium, although, I also agree
with the sentiment that the current state of the MMO genre is not much
more than lots of grinding and the occasional plot event, so LOTS of
luck to the project. They are going to need it, in order to make it
fun.

I think that it is a cute idea to have real-world scientific work as
the "grinding", but I think that it may be very hard to describe that
in game terms, and both keep it easy enough for the lay person to
perform, but also keep enough variation and complexity to make it a
challenge worth repeating.

As for farming, there are already games that promote farming concepts
- the Harvest Moon series of RPGs. Each successive version has added
new layers of complexity to the farming model, and they also promote
time management so that the main character can run their farm and
still have a life.

Anyways, there's my 3 cents. See you guys around.