Shakespeare: The MMOG

by Alexander Sliwinski { Oct 20th 2006 at 6:23PM }

As Civilization is to history, Arden: The World of Shakespeare will be to the Bard of Avon. CNET reports that Associate Professor of Telecommunications at Indiana University, Edward Castranova, is receiving a $240,000 grant to develop an MMOG around Shakespeare's plays.

Unlike World of Warcraft or EverQuest, the academic Arden will be not-for-profit. No word yet on how the ambitious project will sustain itself financially beyond the grant.

The game will be built around the play Richard III, because of all the conflict during the 16th century War of the Roses. There is no real explanation on how all the other plays will be incorporated into the world. If they can figure how to make one cohesive Shakespearean world, the game might be worth a try and a great educational tool. As long as there is a translator into modern language for those who avoided Shakespeare because of his pesky "smrt" 16th century English.

Tags: arden, indiana university, mmog, shakespeare

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Raynre @ Oct 20th 2006 6:39PM

"As long as there is a translator into modern language for those who avoided Shakespeare because of his pesky "smrt" 16th century English."

The irony in this sentance amuses me.

emmzee @ Oct 20th 2006 6:51PM

And with this announcement, MMOGs jump the shark.

Duo @ Oct 20th 2006 6:57PM

Hahah. An MMO actually worth getting.

And there better be an option to leave it untranslated.

LK @ Oct 20th 2006 7:56PM

I hardly doubt they viewed how they spoke and wrote in those days as "smrt" or even "smart".

John B @ Oct 20th 2006 8:00PM

I'M THERE!

weirdwolf @ Oct 20th 2006 9:02PM

The Wars of the Roses were 1455-1487,(if you include the battle of Stoke,) so that would be the 15th century.

FuzzyPickles @ Oct 20th 2006 11:22PM

All respectable gamers should know old English anyway courtesy of Dragon Warrior and Frog.

FSK405K @ Oct 21st 2006 3:43AM

"smrt" is a Simpson's reference, dudes.

dent @ Oct 21st 2006 4:01AM

I'll sign up as long as I can still play as a half man/half robot cat..... I'm almost positive Lord Hastings was one of those in Richard III.

mrmeats @ Oct 21st 2006 12:20PM

This is great news for Universities. Academia frowns upon video games as a respectable major. This is one step towards a larger accpetance of games being a respectable course of study.

AndieBird @ Oct 21st 2006 3:19PM

Right, so...

Passive Bonus: Born With Teeth. All attacks have damaged increased by +3, but you are feared throughout the land as an abomination of the devil.

And the like. I mean, really? I couldn't think of a better way to trivialize both Shakespeare and MMOs than this. It's genius.

Streamweaver @ Oct 23rd 2006 8:38AM

This is very interesting. Massive may never be a good term to apply to games like this but I think it's great to see nich branching of the genre, particularly those interested in a more academic type of game.

Tied to this is an article on Gamasutra I read awhile back saying how high-brow games could help perception of the hobby. http://gamasutra.com/features/20060807/adams_01.shtml