NASA MMO In Dire Straits, Agency Wants MMOney For Nothing
By 
Hib in
NASA, features on
April 21st, 2008
A few weeks ago, NASA announced that they were launching a process to investigate creating their own MMORPG for educational purposes. Now, the government agency that brought us the “faster, better, cheaper” method of launching people into space (where one bad bolt can mean the difference between a scientific success and a quick evolutionary lesson in why we don’t breathe vacuum) has decided that while they do want to develop an MMO, they want it for free, according to Worlds In Motion:
Essentially asking developers to create and maintain the proposed MMO for free, NASA Learning Technologies is considering alternative forms of compensation: “In exchange for a collaborator’s investment to create and manage a NASA-based MMO game for fun and to enhance STEM, NASA will consider negotiating brand placement, limited exclusivity and other opportunities.”
Brand placement, eh? This should turn out just fine.
In my opinion, this takes the NASA MMO out of the realm of “possibly good” into “this is gonna stink” territory. The chances of an experienced MMORPG developer taking on a project with exacting specifications while under governmental oversight but without funding can be calculated to be the exact same chances of Captain James T. Kirk telling a green woman with three breasts “I’m…..NOT….in the mood.”
Don’t get me wrong…I’m not saying they won’t receive bids on the project by the June 18th deadline; however, I believe they will come from more “educationally-based” sources, which is a sure-fire recipe for a bad game.
I’ve talked about educational games before, and my opinion still stands. To make a truly successful educational game (with the definition of “success” in this case being “getting people to actually play the damn thing”), you have to build a fun game with educational qualities, not an educational experience with gameplay elements plastered over the learning like a giant colláge of “suck”.
Most (if not all) “educational” games, both MMORPG and single-player, get it exactly
backward. There’s a reason that “March of the Penguins” was a box office success, while most documentaries are not financially rewarding; the people that made “March of the Penguins” concentrated on making a good movie with educational elements, not making an educational movie with fun added in.
By the way, this move received such criticism in France that the movie was repackaged for the French DVD release to be more of “a scientific study”, and less of “a family film”. Yes, they complained about an educational movie that went on to gross $77 million at the American box office because it was “too family friendly”.
We have the same problem with MMORPGs already…let someone make a good MMO that’s fun to play, yet with an educational aspect, and the criticisms will be loud and long. For some reason, to a lot of educators in the world, “education” must equal “boring”, or it’s of no value.
It can be of great value, but in the game development world, you must offer value to receive it.
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April 21st, 2008 at 8:35 pm
“(where one bad bolt can mean the difference between a scientific success and a quick evolutionary lesson in why we don’t breathe vacuum)”
As a distant relative of someone who died for just this reason while working for NASA, ouch.
*runs off having given Hib his daily ration of $***. *
April 21st, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Heh…I can always count on Rico. Thanks, buddy.
Seriously, you won’t find a bigger fan of the space program than me…I just get tired of seeing us “nickel and dime” a program that has led to more tech advancement than any other, has improved the quality of life for more people than most others, and regularly risks the lives of some of our best and brightest.
And NOW, that feeling has run smack into the stupidity of “educational game development”. All we’re missing is a PSA from Paris Hilton to make this complete.
April 21st, 2008 at 9:08 pm
oh did I laugh at your NASA image up top! All the ads on it I just loved it! HAHA it’s so real!
I really only play one mmorpg but it’s because it’s massive and has taken up all my available time to play anything outside of real life! So I can’t comment on the education developed games. But if ti’s anything like the education system it self well then I see what you’re getting at LOL
Nice to see you fixed up the be image
good good!
April 21st, 2008 at 9:35 pm
The problem with games is in order to create a good one you have to have a passion for them.
The problem with instruction is in order to do it well you have to have a passion for it.
The problem with instructional games is you have to be passionate about both. There ain’t too many people who fit into both categories.
April 21st, 2008 at 9:46 pm
EXCELLENT point, Vargen!
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:18 am
What ever happened to the “We can do it” mentality. History provides many examples of passionate people not interested in the per suite of money. Money attracts Orwellian Pigs. They are only good at troughing.