“In the virtual world of Jane Austen, it is not about kill or be killed, but invite and be invited with gossip our weapon of choice.”
Judy Tyrer of Conifer, CO is using Kickstarter to get the $100,000 she needs to develop a multi-player online game based on the world depicted by some of Jane Austen’s classic books like Emma and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. The description on the Kickstarter campaign, which can be viewed here, describes it best:
Ever, Jane is a virtual world that allows people to role-play in Regency Period England. Similar to traditional role playing games, we advance our character through experience, but that is where the similarities end. Ever, Jane is about playing the actual character in the game, building stories. Our quests are derived from player’s actions and stories. And we gossip rather than swords and magic to demolish our enemies and aid our friends.
That last sentence is verbatim, by the way.
The creator, who has already built a prototype of the game, talks about the premise more in this 6-and-a-half-minute video:
But that’s not the real news.
At the time of the writing of this article, there are about two days left for backers to donate, the campaign ending on the midnight of December 2, 2013, with $85,920 of the $100,000 goal donated. There are some cool looking rewards, as there are with many Kickstarter campaigns, but one person…one crazy-ass person…
WHY!?
There’s been a bunch of cases recently of people pledging a lot and then backing out… Or, pledging a lot and then filing a chargeback with their credit card, so they get the rewards without paying anything.
… There are also people out there who just have a lot of money.
Man, that’s some douchebaggery! Although, I don’t think that would work for a lot of campaigns, since a lot of the rewards are kinda reliant on the project succeeding. Then again, I guess you could just do that when/if the project gets fully funded.
Also, my prime suspect for the anon donor is Michael Gray.
Clearly, I did the $25 level donation, which results in your very own pony! Er, horse.
Sounds kind of interesting, but at the same time not so much. I’m biased against MMORPGs, though. It seems like it could be a good regular RPG idea, too.
Honestly, I can’t imagine that this game could hold anyone’s interest for very long. Reminds me of the console versions of the Sims games, except even less to do. Not much incentive for the player either. At least with other MMORPGs, it requires at least a little but of skill from the player. I don’t know, maybe the game is actually more challenging and more rewarding than I can gather from the video.
This was really clever, Aubrey, especially the intricate video. Hey, Jeddy, did we forget to put the “Fabricated News” tag in the title?
Number 1: WHAAAATT!!! Someone made a Jane Austen MMORPG?
Number 2: WHAAAATT!!! Someone donated TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS for it?!?!!?!?!?!
One of the most original ideas for an MMO actually. I won’t be playing it, but hey, if the shoe fits…