A new computer game from one of the world's biggest gaming companies is blurring the lines between real and imaginary storylines and providing a compelling experience to users who don't have time to spend hours every day playing with their computers or game consoles.
Majestic, from Electronic Arts, has been available to players since Monday. Unlike conventional games, you cannot buy Majestic in stores and it is not available on compact disk.
Rather, Electronic Arts is offering the pilot version free for download and then hopes to sell monthly US$9.99 subscriptions for at least eight further episodes.
But the game's innovation goes far beyond its retail model. Majestic weaves an intriguing story line that is a cross between the conspiracy theories of The X Files and the reality TV shows in which the real drama is triggered by the lives of participants.
In a nutshell, Majestic invites you to become a participant in cracking a vast conspiracy by a shadow government fearful that its mind control policies are about to be exposed by a game company.
When the company's offices are mysteriously blown up in a massive truck explosion days before the release of a revolutionary computer game, the CEO is killed and you become involved in a brave attempt to locate the surviving members of the company and expose the government's devilish scheme.
But this is far more than just a regular whodunit, partly because Neal Young, the renowned game designer at Electronic Arts, realized that as his family grew he had less and less time to spend fragging monsters on his computer screen.
His solution was as ingenious as it is spooky. Majestic contacts you with information through every electronic device you own: e-mail, webcam, telephone, fax, instant messages and voice mail.
"Majestic offers the opportunity to explore storytelling in a completely new and different way," says Young. "It uses common, everyday devices that are connected to the Internet through which to tell its story."
Adding to the feeling of veracity is the fact that some of Majestic's messages will be generated by fictional characters in the Majestic narrative.
Others will come from friendly players who seek your cooperation or ask for your help in solving the Majestic mystery, but there is hardly any way to tell which is which.
The game further blurs the line between the real and imagined by directing you to numerous Web sites, some of them real conspiracy theory web sites and some of them spoof sites created just for the game.
This uncertainty makes for a gaming experience unlike any other.
When so much of the narrative is tightly integrated into the essential fabric of your life, it becomes disturbingly easy to forget that this is just a game -- even when a sinister government agent is on the verge of assassinating you.
"You don't play Majestic," says a favorite line of the marketing team at EA.com. "It plays you."
The game can be so disturbing that Majestic requires players to be at least 18 years of age. It also gives them control over the times at which they will be contacted so that for instance your boss does not get death threats when he answers your phone at work.
Players so far have found the game so strangely addictive that many chafe at the design parameters limiting most players to a maximum of two-and-a-half-hours of play a day.
But reviewers have greeted Majestic as a defining moment in the evolution of the Internet.
"Majestic is simply going to [mess] with your head," said a writer in the Computer Gaming World Magazine. "The Internet will never seem quite the same again."
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