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Role Playing (Games) Government Politics

Africa, The MMOG 110

Posted by Zonk from the travel-from-the-comfort-of-your-own-home dept.
Via Joystiq, an MTV Games story about a MMOG that attempts to encompass Africa in a game. From the article: "Less reserved, Adam Ghetti, the teenage creative director at Rapid Reality, the company actually creating the game, said he hopes the game will right some wrongs. 'The white American board developers of the large MMO development companies out there right now don't honestly have the right background and knowledge on the continent of Africa and its lore, mythology and rich history, and quite honestly neither did I,' said Ghetti, who is white. 'They just don't teach it over here.' The game is designed, in part, to change that."
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Africa, The MMOG More

Africa, The MMOG

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  • Hmm... (Score:5, Funny)

    by The-Bus ( 138060 ) on Monday February 06, 2006 @03:36PM (#14653230)
    It better run on Ubuntu!

  • factions (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Which faction will you roll your character as Tutsi or Hutu?

    Ah, PvP!
  • Anyone here remember the game "Heart of Africa" from the 80s? I thought it was a pretty good game for learning the physical geography of Africa.

  • If its done right... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by MrTester ( 860336 )
    this could be a great thing.

    When I was a teenager I read a lot of fantasy, until I realized that 99.9% of the fantasy genre is taken directly from Tolkein. The same can be said about fantasy games. Its all Knights, Wizards, Orks, Elves, Dwarves and Dragons. Maybe they will mess with the names, but the roles are set in stone.

    Anything realizeing a vision of its own would be a welcome change.

    Not that any of that will help a crappy implimentation...

  • This does not sound good... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Stormwatch ( 703920 ) <rodrigogirao@POL ... om minus painter> on Monday February 06, 2006 @03:50PM (#14653369) Homepage
    "The average cycle on MMOs is two to four years," he said. "We can turn out the same content, better graphics, better gameplay in eight months to a year." He said games from his company, including "Africa," will have graphics that surpass the current industry gold standard of the Unreal Engine 3. When he talks about the ability for every computer-controlled character in "Africa" to react uniquely to each human-controlled character, he scoffs at prospective doubters. "They say it's impossible. Maybe if we were doing it in the archaic way everyone else tries to do it."
    Uh-huh. Yeah, sure. Whenever anyone makes such wild claims, you can be certain that they will blow it. This game will be either full of bugs or delayed for years.

  • Africa (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Alex P Keaton in da ( 882660 ) on Monday February 06, 2006 @03:50PM (#14653375) Homepage
    I think one of the issues that we (Americans) have is that you normally hear of "Africa." It is the only continent that is mentioned as a country (aside from the obvious Australia which is a country, or Anarctica, which has no countries). I don't think people(in general) realize that Africa is made up of distinct countries with distinct cultures.
    Then again, many of my country men can't name 10 state capitals in the US... so maybe understanding other cultures is too much...
    • I disgree: I would bet almost everyone who has some kind of formal education can make the distinction. Also, not knowing 10 state capitals in a foriegn country is far far worse than not recgnoizing Africa is a continent made up of many countries.
      • I think the grandparent poster meant that he knew americans who couldn't name 10 state capitals in america. And that wouldn't really surprise me, since I've been hearing similiar reports for years.
      • I would agree with you- But look at the number of high school graduates in some areas of our country... It is sadly low... Plus, check this out... If 11% of American kids can't find the US on a World Map, well....
        From the nation Geographic Article (exerpts)
        About 11 percent of young citizens of the U.S. couldn't even locate the U.S. on a map. The Pacific Ocean's location was a mystery to 29 percent; Japan, to 58 percent; France, to 65 percent; and the United Kingdom, to 69 percent.
        In a nation called the
    • aside from the obvious Australia which is a country

      Well, we (the rest of the world) let them think that. ;-)

    • Re:Africa (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      At least I know that countrymen [m-w.com] is one word.

      Perhaps you are not so superior to those you feel the need to denigrate.

      I don't think of Africa in the way you ascribed me, why do you generally assume others do?

    • Re:Africa (Score:3, Interesting)

      by MMaestro ( 585010 )
      Its because Africa is more or less the black sheep of history really. With the exception of Japan and Russia, nearly every single major imperial/regional/military power in history has exploited Africa at one time or another (slave trade, colonies, subjugation of local population, civil wars, colonial wars, 'border disputes', 'skrimishes', colonial fighting during World War I and II, etc.) No political group/government/nation really wants to get involved with Africa since it'll open up a lot of old historica

    • Re:Africa (Score:2, Redundant)

      by moranar ( 632206 )
      I think one of the issues that we (Americans) have is that you normally hear of "Africa." It is the only continent that is mentioned as a country

      Interesting. Especially the part where you refer to a whole continent (America) as if it was just one country (The USA).

      Try again, better luck next time :)
      • American's come from america. We do this because our name (USA) kinda means united states of america.

        I wish no luck on your future jabbing at other postings, but I reccommend you not try so hard.
        • Oh yes? I come from Argentina. It's in America. You know, the continent. When "USians" refer to themselves as "americans" I think "well, what are all the other americans? chopped liver?" This, compounded with a very aggressive diplomatic policy (past and present, for the last 200 years), makes many people angry. Thought I'd just point it out.

          Of course, this might have to do with the fact that being called "USian" sucks ass. Which is not my problem. I didn't usurp the name of the continent.
          • "It's in America. You know, the continent."

            Sorry smart guy, but there is no continent of "America".

            There is "North America" and "South America", but NO "America".

            Just thought I'd point that out.

            Stop acting like a smug asshole, especially when you're totally wrong.
            • If there is no 'America', then what is 'North America' the 'North' part of?

              If there is no continent of America, then what are the 'United States of America'? United states of a place that doesn't exist?
              • "If there is no 'America', then what is 'North America' the 'North' part of?"

                Nothing. It's a continent named "North America".

                "If there is no continent of America, then what are the 'United States of America'? United states of a place that doesn't exist?"

                Then kindly point out the continent of "America" on a map. Shouldn't be too hard.

                And while you're at it, point to "carolina" and "dakota".

                Why is it so hard for you to understand?

                • Nothing. It's a continent named "North America".

                  Why would it be called North America if there is no America? You're really not making any sense here. May as well call a place 'North Znvcmnvxcvcx'.
                  • "Why would it be called North America if there is no America?"

                    It's a NAME. N-A-M-E.

                    "You're really not making any sense here."

                    Hmm, funny coming from a guy claiming there is a continent named "America". And interestingly, you didn't post any links that show this mystery continent.

                    It's a name. There is NO other context.

                    I can't figure out if you're really this stupid, or just acting like it for fun.

                    And you STILL didn't support your argument, you just keep insisiting that you're right, when EVERY SINGLE INSTAN
                    • It's a NAME. N-A-M-E.

                      Yes, and the name comes from the continent. Some states were united, that were in America, hence the name 'United States of America'. If the country started in Asia, it would be called the 'United States of Asia'.

                      Before the US was formed, the area currently occupied by the fifty states was not known collectively as 'America', that word referred to the whole continent.

                      The only reason the US is called 'America' is because the name USA is too long, and the only reason that US citizens are
                    • So you think because people like you are too stupid to use the correct names, and instead lump the two ENTIRELY SEPARATE continents into one, that you've proven something?

                      Find a current map that agrees. Wikipedia, the source anyone can edit before using as a citation, doesn't count. 400 year old maps don't count either.

                      One current, official map. That's it.

                      But since such a thing doesn't exist, you can choke on my dick.
                    • "It's not on a current map I kind find"

                      That's all you had to say.

                      The rest of your post is a pathetic attempt to explain why it doesn't matter what the REAL name is. I DOn't give two shakes what a bunch of primives call it. Their ignorance, and yours, changes nothing.

                      By the way, I love that

                      "I can't find a map, but that doesn't matter because, well, because I have to be right"

                      I'm going to let you in on something. Ready?

                      IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK, OR HOW MANY LINKS YOU POST, NOWHERE ON ANY CURRENT MAP
                    • "So, when did the original poster who wrote about the American continent mention anything about seeing it on a map? He didn't, that's your ad hoc criteria, and it's bogus."

                      The names on a map are MY criteria? No, that's THE criteria. If you don't like it, take it up with the cartographers.

                      "People call New York the Big Apple, but you won't find that on most maps."

                      Right and if someone asked me the NAME of the city, it wouldn't be the Big Apple. I realize you're an imbecile, but even you can understand the d
                    • Before the US was formed, the area currently occupied by the fifty states was not known collectively as 'America', that word referred to the whole continent.
                      No, the continent was and is called "North America".

                      I've seen some lame flame wars in my time, but one over a fact that can be checked by looking at a map?

                  • Why is it that naive, idealistic comments get modded up, but harsh realistic comments get modded down?
                    Because they're not as realistic as they pretend to be?

              • Re:Nope (Score:2)

                by fm6 ( 162816 )
                Learn to read, dude. Didn't say "there is no America". Said, "there is no continent named America." And there isn't.
      • "Americans" means from the United States of America.... The same as French means from France. North Americans however, would refer to people from the continent of North America. There is nothing worse than a smug idiot. If you are going to insult someone, don't be incorrect....
        asshat
    • Could that have anything to do with the fact that so many countries pop in and out of existence in Africa?

      I freely admit that my African geography needs work, but that's mainly because I don't want to bother relearning it every six months.
  • The things most worth talking about in Africa are unfortunately pretty nasty... things like ethnic cleansing and the yearly starvation of hundreds of thousands. Somehow I don't think that's what they have in mind here...

    It looks like the goal is more something along the lines of stereotypical Africa... a lot of elephants and odd piercings. That, somehow, doesn't seem educational either.

    I'm just confused. It's to be a fantasy game, but it's still somehow supposed to teach about Africa? Did anyone learn about

    • Re:What's the... point? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by the grace of R'hllor ( 530051 ) on Monday February 06, 2006 @04:14PM (#14653647)
      I think *you* are the point of making a game like this.

      Africa is a friggin' continent, for god's sake, several times larger than the US, with a lot (!!) more history. I am assuming you are from the US, here, for reasons that should be obvious. If, all over Africa, there were nothing other than millions starving to death or dying of AIDS, if everyone were killing everyone else, it would be a complete wasteland within the decade. And it's not. Mythology might be heavily animal-based, but so it is with American Indians. Not surprising, when you're living among so damn many of them.

      As for your jibe concerning LOTR, there's a difference to fantasy in an imaginary world, like LOTR, Krull or Star Wars, and fantasy based on mythology, like American Gods, Chronicles of Narnia or even The Iliad. Fantasy has many levels. If you look at Neil Gaiman's books, they tend to be about our world, with legends and mythology made flesh. Something like that would work well in 'the cradle of humanity'.

      The execution of the whole deal would be tricky, though, you're right. It's too easy to fall into triteness, rather than actual interesting cultural exchange.

      • Re:What's the... point? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by jdray ( 645332 )
        This may be something of a troll, but since Africa is a continent, as you point out, you should compare it in size to North America, which is also a continent, rather than America, which makes up some fraction of North America.

        I have to say that my elementary school education regarding Africa was spotty, and completely non-existent in high school, except for the "cradle of civilization" part. As a teen (many years ago), I could have told you that Egypt was a part of Africa, and that the Congo was, but had

      • Africa is a friggin' continent, for god's sake, several times larger than the US, with a lot (!!) more history.

        That's right --- why, Africa had been up and running for millions of years before they even got around to laying the bedrock for the US!

      • That's correct, Africa is a friggin' continent. So's North America. Can you imagine trying to create a single game that captures North America? It's a silly concept.

        Why does everyone not from America assume that every American is completely ignorant of the rest of the world? You can complain about America in as many ways as you like, but the fact remains that our humanitarian efforts for the rest of the world outweight the contributions of every other country on Earth combined. As soon as your country excee

    • Beats my education on Africa (Score:4, Insightful)

      by RingDev ( 879105 ) on Monday February 06, 2006 @04:37PM (#14653872) Homepage Journal
      Slaves came from Africa. Anglo-saxon men are bad.

      What I wouldn't give for a Multi-Cultural class that actually studied different cultures instead of how the white Anglo-saxon male has subjugated them.

      -Rick

      • Re:Beats my education on Africa (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Actually, while the Anglo-saxons are the most well known part of the slave trade (particularly since, as the cultural forebearers of Europe and America their history tends to show quite a bit, and since their impact was more pronounced on the fabric of African society), the Arabian slave trade from East Africa to the Middle-East and India started earlier and culminated in tens of thousands of people a year being transported into slavery.

        Personally the growth of Islam as a religion among african americans is
      • You're a racist.
        • I think the term you were looking for is satirist.
        • No, that was the education that was presented to me by both my Female Native American high school Multi-Cultural Literature teacher, and the teacher from my Multi-Cultural Studies class (online, no idea on the teachers race, but she is a woman).

          Me personally, I LOVE to study foreign cultures. I spent time in foreign exchange after highschool, I got stationed over seas in the military, I enjoy literature and documentaries about foreign cultures.

          What I don't like is the "education" I have received from organi
      • What I wouldn't give for a Multi-Cultural class that actually studied different cultures instead of how the white Anglo-saxon male has subjugated them.

        Why not both? A class that ignores the effects of western colonialism would be just as useless as the one that focuses solely on it. If it's a Cultural Studies class that focuses on the present day situations it would be a huge oversight to ignore the effects of colonialism on cultures. Look at the number of countries that now speak English, French or Spani

      • What I wouldn't give for a Multi-Cultural class that actually studied different cultures instead of how the white Anglo-saxon male has subjugated them.

        How about a field trip? I went to West Africa (Senegal and Mali) for four weeks last winter, and while there's a lot to learn, it gave me more understanding -- and more hope -- about Africa than a lifetime of reading news papers and watching the nine o'clock news.

        It was not my first trip to the third world, but it gave me a lot of perspective on things like
    • Oh I dunno.
      I hear Kenya [weebls-stuff.com] has lions and tigers.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Jilting at windmills (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Locke2005 ( 849178 ) on Monday February 06, 2006 @03:52PM (#14653402)
    1) Africa is a big place with hundreds of different languages and cultures. No single artwork could possible "encompass Africa", it can only try to present a small representative sample.

    2) The designer of the game claims both that it will have state of the art graphics and that it will run on low-end computers. Sorry, but you can't do both at the same time! Also, much of the gameplay that works great when you're on the same Ethernet segment as the server is virtually unplayable when you're on a dial-up on a different continent than the server.

    In general, you can't be all things to all people; you need to pick your battles and focus on doing just a few things, but doing them well.

    • The designer of the game claims both that it will have state of the art graphics and that it will run on low-end computers. Sorry, but you can't do both at the same time!

      I'm not sure I agree with that compleatly. I've noticed that over the last ten years, graphics hardware has evolved at a much higher rate then graphics itself, something I've attributed to a propensity to develop software graphics engines that are bloated and inefficent. In the span of 18 months, the raw power of a graphics card may doubl

      • To be fair, graphics quality isn't like network throughput. You can't really say, "this screenshot is 20% better than that one." Things like bump-mapping and dynamic lighting may make only a small improvement in image quality but requires, to pull a number out of my ass, 3x the processing power.

        Also, the bloated or slow code is a tradeoff. Maybe they traded it to get proper error handling or graceful degradation or to make it more easily extensible (unlikely). Maybe they traded it to get it into your hands

      • It's a trend I see in every aspect of computer hardware. For example, in 1995 I had a computer with an 80 meg HDD. The driver for the ethernet device in the latest motherboard I purchased was 35 megs. I highly, highly doubt that the network capabilities of my new computer really requires a jump from a few K to drive the device up to 35 megabytes; I simply think that the party that designed the driver produced a bloated driver because it was. . . well, easier.

        Drivers nowadays are usually unified packages,

  • Potential.... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by ELProphet ( 909179 )
    Seeming to be a comon thread amongst MMOG's these days (Star Trek, Star Gate...), this looks like it has tremendous potential. I truly hope that this project succeeds in all the areas that the spunky 19-year old developer hopes. If this goes well, perhaps we may see some other games in this genre; Pre-columbian Native Americans, Han-dynasty China, Shogun-era Japan. I could see this becoming a major franchise. As for that 19 year-old head, I just wish I had a company to help me put my game ideas to code...

  • Y0 NEED PARTY! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Stavr0 ( 35032 ) on Monday February 06, 2006 @03:55PM (#14653442) Homepage Journal
    CONNECT: SteveOkembo72
    SteveOkembo72 waves.
    SteveOkembo72> HAV3 10M GPS IN DUNGEON. NEED SOME1 TO /GIVE SOME GP TO UNLOCK CHEST
    SteveOkembo72> WILL SHARE LOOT 50% WIT U.
    SteveOkembo72 waves.
    SteveOkembo72> MSG ME. KTHXBYE
  • To do the Heart of Darkness quest. Willing to split silver that the yellow cons and up drop.
  • ...that it will turn out to be some over romanticized vision, and will be about as accurate as the Mars (Barsoom) of John Carter?

    Oh, that's right. I a total cynic. That's why. Never mind.

  • I wish the author well (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Jakuta ( 643082 ) on Monday February 06, 2006 @04:17PM (#14653674)
    Africa, from an inside flavor. This will be interesting to see and i for one am going to be expectant of the views presented. Will this be of the time of Egypt? Will it cover the Congo and Llukumi existance and history of the west coast? The Ethiopia, Swahili and Zulu nations of the east coast? There are a number of pantheons and diverse cultural histories to be represented either correctly or fictitiously. Perhaps crickets are not all that would be heard and maybe you might learn something about Africa from the game, unlike LOTR which was not set in europe....
    • Oh and just for fun Jakuta is an African preternatural being

    • Swahili is not really a "nation", it's a language. Mostly a lingua franca. With hundreds of different languages/'nations'/peoples in East Africa, they needed a common language, and Swahili is that. There are over 50,000,000 speakers but almost all of them are second language speakers - the actual number of people who speak Kiswahili as a first language are probably less than 2,000,000. (Also there are a number of different Swahili dialects and regional variations.)

      I don't see how it would be feasible to wr

    • I'm completely burnt on the standard elves and orcs MMO, but unfortunately of all the MMO's I've tried, these seem to have the best game play mechanics for how I like to play. I'd love to see a new MMO that has some depth to it with a different cultural setting. I don't particularly care if it's a romanticized view, so long as it's fun and different.

      Since the game is set in 13th century Africa, I'm assuming "learn something about Africa" means "get the flavor of African mythology". The knight/castle/dragon
    • I'm looking forward to instancing King Soloman's Mines; That dude's got some phat lewtz. Gotta remember to bring my rifle though!
  • Am I correct in assuming that this will be a PvP game?

    Foreign powers killing natives, natives repelling the foreign powers, natives killing each other. This could be a really cool game.

    • Foreign powers killing natives, natives repelling the foreign powers, natives killing each other.

      Foreign powers offering natives guns in exchange for slaves, and suggesting that since they'll be back in a few months' time, it might be worth the natives' while going and enslaving the village over the hill, who haven't got guns...

      Ah, I'm just swelling with patriotism at the thought of Britain's glorious history ;-)

  • s/Africa/Duke Nukem Forever/g
    s/Rapid Reality/3DRealms/g
    s/Adam Ghetti/George Broussard/g

    Oh, right! I knew that sounded familiar...

  • Adam Ghetti is Swahili for "Derek Smart".

    I bet this is the last MMOG anyone will EVER own.
  • Here's what the 19-year-old programming wizard responsible for developing this ambitious MMOG promises he'll deliver just 10 months from now, thanks to supposed paradigm-changing technology that reduces development costs and timelines by "ninety percent or more"

    Thanks... I needed the laugh :) Don't really need to read past that.

    Everyone and their dog seems to be trying to make an MMOG. Heck, I have a few ideas of my own and I'd really love having the time and the resources to implement them. The truth is
  • Cool, I want to play a 419 scammer.
  • Americans aren't all isolated and ignorant of the world. I've had quite a few friends in Africa that I've been in contact with for a while and am trying to help out. Strangely enough, most of them seem to be relatives of deposed generals in Nigeria trying to get their massive fortunes overseas.
  • I hope the kid making this game doesn't go too far "representing" Africa. The place has some major challenges (AIDS for example), and they are complex: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/9 [nybooks.com]

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