"If there's one thing you can say about Majestic, it's that it's different. If there are two things you can say about Majestic, they are that it's different and we're not terribly interested."

What do you think? Is this something cool or just a gimmick wrapped in hype shrouded in confusion?

I like the premise, and I think this is a first step towards an unprecedented "Alternate Lifestyle" paradigm. Imagine, (if you will) a world in which you can choose the genre of the culture in which you live. Billy turns 17 and, suddenly, he can have all his interactions with the world flavored in any type of reality he prefers. Kind of like The Matrix, but with a more benevolent Big Brother.

However, I worry about the invasiveness of this game. What if I decide I don't want to play, or I'm waiting for an important phone call or fax, and this screws it up? Also, I worry about people who already have a tenuous grasp on what is real and what is not. I'd hate to see someone get so into this game that he starts carrying weaponry around with him at all times.

Either way, Majestic seems to be the most interesting game I've seen in a long time. I'm definitely willing to give it a try.

You haven't even played the game and you're trashing it already?

I congratulate EA on trying something different. I will try the free scenario before commenting on the game.

"However, I worry about the invasiveness of this game. What if I decide I don't want to play, or I'm waiting for an important phone call or fax, and this screws it up?"

Heh -- yeah, this seems like it could be a devil of a game to uninstall, doesn't it? I'm reminded of Wargames. "Do you want to play a game?"

I'm intrigued by it too, but I'm extremely dubious about their ability to pull it off. For instance, I somehow think chatting via instant messages with a latter-day Eliza is less immersive than just loading up a traditional game and allowing myself to be absorbed by it.

Anyway, I'll keep an open mind about it.

"You haven't even played the game and you're trashing it already?"

Speculating on it. It's sort of like that first time you heard about Space Bunnies Must Die and thought, 'Why are they making a game like that?'

"I congratulate EA on trying something different. I will try the free scenario before commenting on the game."

You just commented on it right there. You're already congratulating EA.

That's the real difference. You're impressed by the game's vision, and I'm dubious.

"I'm dubious."

We always knew that about you, Mr. Asher. :)

In response to Anonymous' message, I should point out that the whole purpose of our 60 Second Previews is for us to sort of make a prediction in the "Speculation" section. Hence the name.

FWIW, I'm also looking forward to trying Majestic, but I find the concept dubious.

-Tom

"I'm intrigued by it too, but I'm extremely dubious about their ability to pull it off. For instance, I somehow think chatting via instant messages with a latter-day Eliza is less immersive than just loading up a traditional game and allowing myself to be absorbed by it. "

I think this game will be more about what you don't see than what you do. The Hitchcock formula for real suspense. I think this will make it a ton more immersive than anyone might suspect. This, however, leads to the question "Can you give a game a good sense of dramatic timing?"

"This, however, leads to the question 'Can you give a game a good sense of dramatic timing?'"

In my case the game will call me when I have a magazine rolled up under my arm as I head for the toilet. I know this will happen. That's the kind of drama I get in my life.

What, we have to rule out all future game genres because "it sounds like it might suck"?

Remember that Will Wright's SimCity got turned down by every major publisher. A lot of people thought that game would suck, too.

Who knows, Majestic might very well... suck. But at least give the guys credit for trying something truly new and different.

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com

"Remember that Will Wright's SimCity got turned down by every major publisher."

It did? Hasn't EA has been publishing Wright's stuff all along?

-Tom

I am intrigued by the game concept, but I think it would work better if you could move to a different physical arena that definitely segregated it from the real world. Like when you visit a Battletech facility to play Battletech, or a Lazer Tag facility to play Lazer Tag, or paint ball facility...you get the idea.

That way, the intrusiveness of the game doesn't muck up your regular life. Can you imagine being on a date and the cell rings and your date hears you mutter, "Roger! Captain Hokey is a go! Meet me at coordinates red 22."

'In my case the game will call me when I have a magazine rolled up under my arm as I head for the toilet. I know this will happen. That's the kind of drama I get in my life. '

Yeah, that's what I mean - the game could be more hassle than fun, especially for busy adults.

"...The game could be more hassle than fun, especially for busy adults."

That pretty well describes my feelings on this game. I'd like to try it but I'll probably end up filing it under "games I'd probably play if I was still single" and forget about it.

http://www.gamespot.com/features/maxis/page2.html

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Quote:

Not surprisingly, game publishers had a hard time buying into the concept. As Wright remembers, publishers such as Broderbund "just kept asking me how I was going to make it into a game." However Wright resisted the pressure to change his creation and as a result, SimCity didn't have a publisher for the PC or Mac. Wright would go on to release a Commodore version in 1987, but the main gaming platforms were out of his reach, at least until he met self-dubbed "idea guy" Jeff Braun at a pizza party in 1987. Braun was so taken by Wright's innovative SimCity design that the two decided to immediately start their own company to help publish the game on home computers. They'd call it Maxis.

By 1989, Wright and Braun struck a co-publishing agreement with Broderbund. But they still weren't sure if the game would sell. "Jeff thought it would do really well, but I was less optimistic," Wright admits. "It was just a much more cerebral game than anything else out there, by far." Initially, he was right. Sales were sluggish, and for the first few months, Wright handled all the tech support for the game out of Braun's Orinda, California, apartment.

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I was astounded when Mark Asher and Tom Chick got together to start this site... "Two of my favorite game writers! Guys with real brains and real opinions! Now if only they had Geoff Keighley, too!" You guys are the Holy Trinity of editorial game writing.


...Man, I sound like a journalism fan-boy.

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Quote:

I was astounded when Mark Asher and Tom Chick got together to start this site... "Two of my favorite game writers! Guys with real brains and real opinions! Now if only they had Geoff Keighley, too!" You guys are the Holy Trinity of editorial game writing.

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is this game gonna shoot at you like the movie "The Game" and also will there be a stand in "hot" babe to run around with ala "The Game"?

and if they call me on the phone, can we talk about "The Game" . . . ie. how do i cheat in this game?

weiird

etc

I just hope Majestic doesn't toy with players and suggest that its being a game is just a cover for some real conspiracy going on. In other words, I hope it's not a game pretending to be real acknowledging that it's a game and then pretending that it is real after all. I could see the "What's the frequency, Kenneth" types really biting hard on that.

Man, EA should get hold of an Art Bell mailing list. They'd sell out Majestic.

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Quote:

I just hope Majestic doesn't toy with players and suggest that its being a game is just a cover for some real conspiracy going on. In other words, I hope it's not a game pretending to be real acknowledging that it's a game and then pretending that it is real after all. I could see the "What's the frequency, Kenneth" types really biting hard on that.

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"Are you kidding me? If they pull that off it would be a huge success. And doesn't the X-Files (which I think is a terrible show, frankly) pull the same crap with its viewers-- Area 54 stuff?"

Yeah I guess, but I don't really like the X-Files. I don't mind their contained story within each episode, but that ongoing storyline just bores me.

I just don't watch much TV though, so I'm not much of a critic.

I'm a bit put off by it.

Unlike Tom, I did play that Assassin game in college. For weeks I walked around in a constant state of paranoia.

It came to a head when I went to a Ramones concert. My date and I were walking to the theater when I realized I had a dart gun in my coat pocket, another in my breast pocket, and a rubber knife slipped into the lining of my coat (just in case it came down to that hand to hand stuff). If I turned around to put them back in the car, we'd be late. Hrrrrmmm... well, forge ahead.

So we get to the concert, and most people going in are in black leather and there are biker types patting everyone down at the door. My date and I looked exactly like the two college kids that we were. I'm thinking this Hell's Angel guy is going to pat me down, find the guns, and I'm going to spend some time in a small room explaining things. My date laughs at me and says he'll just ask me about them and pass me, so I went for it. We approached the checkpoint, the security dude looks at me, smiles, and says, "No guns, no bombs?"

I smile at his joke and reply, "Nope."

My date, the smart-ass, says, "Well, only two, but they're plastic."

He laughs and waves us through without patting us down.

So I'm thinking maybe this Assassin thing has gotten a little out of hand. Maybe I should calm down. We're enjoying the concert, and occasionally someone jumps onstage to dive into the crowd. My target jumps onstage and I yell, "Oh my God! That's the guy I have to kill"

It's a good thing the Ramones are REALLY loud.

There's no way I could get involved in that kind of nonsense nowadays.

"And doesn't the X-Files (which I think is a terrible show, frankly) pull the same crap with its viewers-- Area 54 stuff?"

FYI - Area54 is an extraterrestrial disco in the nevada desert where secret mind control music projects are tested.

Studio54
Area51

Heh. You're right. A funny gaffe on my part. I guess I just marked myself as a fan of Disco and not a fan of extraterrestrial life.

Not too far from the truth actually.

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com