In a surprise announcement, Prof. Ted Castronova of Indiana University clarified today his earlier statement that he was building a virtual world based on the texts of William Shakespeare. "Some have asked me whether anyone will be interested in visiting 3D representations of plays that they were forced to read in high school and have not touched since," noted Dr. Castronova. "In fact we are convinced that we can build a Shakespeare-themed MMORPG that will offer all of the thrills, bloodshed, and titillation that today’s lEEt gamerz have come to expect. We will in fact pwn you."
Pointing to a massive computer monitor behind him, Dr. Castranova showed the kind of gore and violence the Shakespeare online game will feature. "See I’m playing as Henry V right now," the professor said, picking up a game controller. "I’m totally kicking the Frenchies ass here (who kind of look like orcs I must admit.) I’m about to tell my troops to go ‘once more unto the breach, dudez, once more!’"
The "Further Adventures of Elflord Henry V in the Land of French Orcs" will be beta-released next week. Castronova plans to release in first quarter 2007 the kid-friendly "Puck’s Midsummer Nights Playhouse" and then in mid-2007 the adult-oriented "Romeo and Juliet Nearly Legal XXX Hide-away."
Intellagirl and I visited Dr. Castranova yesterday and played the demos of these games.
I have to say I was impressed.
The violence was like something out a Scorsese movie.
I played Caliban and dragged Miranda around by the hair before Prospero got me with a +10 fireball.
Intellagilr played Juliet sniping from the balcony.
He said we could demo the Wii versions next week.
Dr. Castranova is a great guy we did meet with yesterday.
sg
Thanks, SG. I actually have a lot of respect for what Dr. Castronova is trying to do. Just thought a bit of satire was in order as well.