Red Tape In Space: NASA Readies MMO
Science funding is a hard thing for a geek to criticize. Even in times like these when you couldn't be faulted for wondering whether or not a videogame to recruit astronauts is really the best use of taxpayer funding.
Inspired by the success of America's Army, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is building Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond, an MMO set in 2035. No fewer than three developers are cooking up the soup, including America's Army veterans Virtual Heroes as well as Project Whitecard and Wisdom Tools. Unreal Engine technology abounds.
In actuality, A:MMB(ien) will set out to inspire the youth of today to pursue study and employment in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics - all valid and important pursuits if the US seeks to be competitive in the technology markets of the future, especially in the wake of the shattered dream that was the Wall Street brain-drain. It's certainly clear now that we need more biologists and fewer bankers, right?
NASA expects a demo in early 2010, which means you can expect a paper proposing the seating chart for the conference room from which that demo will first shown to the public sometime in 2016, barring any unusual delays.
NASA Prepping MMO, Demo in Early 2010 [GamePolitics]
tiny dancer
Posted to Video Games on 21 December 2009
· Comments (5)
Other stuff like this: america's army, astronaut, mmo, moon mars and beyond, nasa, project whitecard, virtual heroes, wisdom tools
Is it bad that I am kinda excited about this?
Also, the link is broken
Anything combining the words America's Army and space just sounds like the precursor to some bad bad stuff.
Seen one too many Sci-fi B-movies I suppose. ;)
Clearly this is to train an elite cadre of Space Marines... that will... um... yeah, I got nothin'.
Yay for educational games for adults (a field I'd like to break into someday). Let's hope it's a fun game too.