Planet Michael - The Michael Jackson MMO

[flameboy]

I originally read this on destructoid and thought this must be bullsh!t turns out I was wrong as IGN also running the story:

 

http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/112/1122410p1.html

 

Planet Michael Preview

Break open the Bubbles, Michael Jackson is getting his own MMO.

UK, September 21, 2010

by Martin Robinson

IGN UK

 

When Just Dance spin-off Michael Jackson: The Experience was announced at this year's E3 it made sense; at least, it did after the numbing shock of witnessing a typically off-kilter Ubisoft press conference had died down. Planet Michael, an MMO based on the work of the superstar, doesn't have that privilege – in fact, it's a screamingly surreal sounding concept.

 

Planet Michael is, at its core, a traditional MMO, and that means its going to have all the traits and tropes that come with the territory. There will be crafting and questing and mining and gathering, but all of it will be dressed up in furnishings inspired by different eras of MJ's career. One area could, for example, be an urban one that's been built to the beat of Billie Jean, while another area – a badlands, so to speak – would reverberate to the tunes of Smooth Criminal, Dangerous and, of course Bad.

 

There are other ways it'll diverge from the MMO template too. "Because Michael Jackson was very much a pacifist and into healing and creativity, our focus isn't on violence," SEE Virtual World's Josh... tells us "There won't be guns in this world or things like that. It'll tend to use music and dance and more creative ways to navigate through the world."

 

And so it'll be dancing that's the player's main weapon, with moves being used like spells as shuffles and jigs are stung together to take the enemy down – and it most certainly won't be wolves and orcs at the receiving end of a fleet-footed pummelling. "There'll be an emphasis on things that were true to Michael's heart like healing the world," says Josh Gordon, "so a lot of conflict resolution will be around healing and fighting off things that destroy the environment."

 

Moves will be earned and crafted just like weapons in more traditional MMOs, so headline dances such as the Moonwalk should be as coveted as the rarest of Azeroth's arsenal. As for PvP elements, Planet Michael's still in the pre-production phase so it's not yet clear what to expect, though the team at SEE Virtual suggest something along the lines of one big virtual dance-off. What's not to love?

 

PvP elements aren't the only part of Planet Michael that's still up in the air, and much of the game is still being planned while rights to parts of Jackson's back catalogue are still being signed off. It's still down for a 2011 release, though, and the team can certainly work fast thanks to the fact that it's all being built around an existing game. Planet Michael's foundation is the Entropia Universe, a Swedish developed MMO that's been going strong since 2003, and most recently made headlines when it housed the world's most expensive in-game item, a space station that went for the real-life amount of $330,000 last December.

 

It means that, like Entropia, Planet Michael will be free-to-play with a heavy emphasis on its social side. "We thought it was really important that the social experience on the planet be such that people that are very casual gamers and not hardcore in any shape or form be able to come and enjoy being immersed in a Michael Jackson-type world," Josh tells us.

 

Yes it all sounds a bit daft, but the clearer the picture becomes the more sense this eccentric take on the pop star makes. After all, Planet Michael takes its cues from a man whose career was defined by confounding expectations, from his first breakaway days from Jackson 5 to his reinvention as an urban icon and through to his eventual status as one of the globe's most cherished stars. In fact, if there's a thread that runs through his life's work it's one of boundless creativity that came with a side order of strangeness, and Planet Michael's certainly going to make good on that.

 

In a strange way I think this might actually do justice in some way to how people interpret the bizarre way in which MJ lived his life.

[Deathjam]

'The heck is this shit?!' is what I am thinking right now. I will never play is but I would like the be proved wrong that an interesting game can come out of the concept.

[flameboy]

I think in a bizarre world we are likely to be presented with, the no conflict lets go round heal the world with music game mechanics will certainly be something different and like I said kind of do tribute to the way Michael Jackson thought about the world...bizarrely..

[dwarf]

I don't want to gain 'experience points' by touching kids. It's wrong.

[Deathjam]

I don't want to gain 'experience points' by touching kids. It's wrong.

 

You do it just for fun then?

 

OH NO HE DIDN'!

[The Lillster]

Shamone mother fucker!

[Ramar]

Did I read that right, free-to-play? I might have a whirl (or is that moonwalk) on this for a laugh.

[flameboy]

More news on this:

 

Why stop at a Michael Jackson MMO? Why not go all the way and make an MMO based on Frankenstein and Dracula and the Mummy and the Phantom of the Opera and the Hunchback of Notre Dame and the Creature of the Black Lagoon and the Invisible Man as well?

 

SEE Virtual Worlds is, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

 

A new deal has been struck with Universal Studios to create a massively multiplayer world called Universal Monsters. The idea seems to be that you are to hunt these beasties as if you were Van Helsing himself.

 

Universal Monsters, along with Planet Michael, will be a part of the Entropia Universe operated by MindArk - a network of themed MMO worlds.

 

But how is SEE Virtual Worlds getting the nod on such big deals? Well SEE (Special Entertainment Events) started in the '90s building mobile theme parks based on franchises Star Trek, Titanic, I Love Lucy, Pokemon and the NFL. Evidently the big players were impressed.

 

Planet Michael and Universal Monsters are due for release later this year.

 

MindArk's Entropia Universe currently supports two worlds: Planet Calypso and Rocktopia. They're both made by MindArk, and there's a third - the time-travelling planet of Next Island - on the way.

 

The idea is that MindArk builds the tech and the platform and entices business partners to exploit it. The core to all of this is a free-to-play model supported by in-game currency that can be bought with real-world cash a la Second Life.

 

SEE Virtual Worlds is just one of the partners building worlds in the Entropia Universe. Real world resort designer called Creative Kingdom is down to make a planet, too

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-10-28-universal-studio-lends-monsters-for-mmo

 

Seems a bit like they are hoping if you throw enough shit at the wall some of it will stick. Kinda get the idea they are going to create all these different MMO ideas under this one Entropia umbrella and hope that some of it becomes popular.