EA looking Majestic?

Sometimes a developer or publisher will hit you with an idea that will make you think, “Wow! That’s neat! Why has no one done that before?” Then you wait a week (apparently it gives something called perspective. Wouldn’t know about that....) and your reaction will normally always fall into one of two categories: you will (most of the time) end up still buzzing after the week (a la Black and White for FOUR LONG YEARS) and you will continue to think that it is a good idea. Occasionally, however, you will be saying to yourself “What were they thinking? What was I thinking?”

Abnormally, though, I have been mulling over “Majestic” from EA for more than a week and still have not made up my mind. Worse still, the whole concept is hard to describe and thus you may have trouble making up your minds too: still, you must be dedicated, cutting-edge gamers to be reading this so let’s give it a go.... Developed by Anim-X (www.anim-x.com) the game claims to make the Internet that we know and love “not just a platform but a tool for gameplay”.

This looks set to be one of the most high-profile “convergence games” – i.e. it can utilise both a PC and a WAP phone (although this in itself raises questions given the low U.S. adoption of such phones) and as such will probably cost a fortune for EA to run (especially considering the hugely ambitious and hyper-advanced nature of this project – the “so real you won’t be able to tell the difference” between them and real people in-game characters will communicate with the player via e-mail, ICQ, even telephone calls!” – and the number of players Anim-X intend to support) although they haven’t yet made it clear how the pay structure will work (I hope they do not employ an Ultima-online “creeping pay” system).

The plot is complicated to say the least: it takes its name from a bunch called the Majestic 12 who investigated UFO sighting during the 1940s in the USA, and relies heavily on X-Files lite conspiracy theories t place the gamer as “a wannabe Mulder or Scully, one of potentially thousands of online investigators in a race to solve the mystery” (source: www.pczone.co.uk - well worth checking out).

EA wants the details of this game to remain elusive (guerrilla Marketing 2K1 style), but we do know that the Majestic program itself (see www.majestic.ea.com) will be small and will stream new information from the internet (broadband, oh broadband, where are you when we need you?!) and we have also been told that the game is nearing completion. Spring is the mooted release date in the US, with no regional releases announced yet (if any US players sign up, could you let me know how it goes at dan_caines@suite101.com as we UK gamers are shut out for the moment).

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