NASA: The Space MMO?
January 21st, 2008 by Colin Temple
NASA has revealed some interest in creating an MMO video game, it seems. The agency has sent out a request for information to developers who might be interested in pursuing the project.
The goal of the NASA online game would be to generate interest in careers in the space program, offering preliminary training through realistic simulations of space missions and operations. (The U.S. Army tried a similar tactic in 2002 with a first-person shooter called America’s Army. I could see this plan working better for NASA, though.)
I think this is a great way for NASA to stir up interest in young could-be astronauts and engineers. The video game market is full of sci-fi and real-science fans alike. Although you’re not exactly shooting up aliens in NASA–at least, not yet–it’s not a bad idea to reach out to that audience. They could go as far as giving scholarships or internships to the top-scoring players.
How about you? Would you play a NASA MMO? Personally, I’m not destined for a career in NASA–but it would be an interesting game to try.
#1 R. Knight
January 21st, 2008 at 6:19 pm
A NASA MMO? I would certainly give it a try, as I don’t think there is a genre of MMO I haven’t tried yet.
#2 Dr. Saturn
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:23 pm
This could be huge if they pull it off right. The problem will be balancing fun and realism; realism is key for virtual experimentation, and if they sacrifice too much fun, then it’ll be boring and nobody will play it (defeating the purpose).
#3 brent hampton
February 21st, 2008 at 7:19 am
The hard part willbe making it exciting enough to hold intrest you can allways have things like cell research or geology as side rooms kind of like stamp collecting or crafting skills.
to me its sounding like there best bet is a moon base city this would include craft launching from earth,
orbital missions, at least one major space station and many types of satellites (spacejunk) EVAs micro gravity research, station and satellite maintence, hopefully problem solving (id love to see NASA use to combine enginuity of its youth against real world problems ive seen players come up with some very clever solutions to game problems,, also known as emergent gameplay)
then at a moon base you would have air fuel power and equipment maintence,, then all forms of research
moon EVAs moon landings moon exploration
would the base have solar? a reactor? some other power? like thermal resource gathering (probably)
base building HOPEFULLY! I also hope that they add to the game based on player input likepetitioning for an astronomy lab
#4 good free rpg games
March 23rd, 2008 at 5:31 pm
At first read it sound OK but if you think about it, what do they really do? hmm, a four hour session floating with a spanner in hand to tighten a bolt etc. not the stuff games are made of.
#5 Jacob
April 4th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
It’s just an idea, but personally, I think that the game should have JET PACKS and ANTI-GRAVITY ROOMS/CELLS!!!!!!!!!!