SOE making MMO based on India-based Ramayan 3392 A.D. comic book

[Miasma]

Futuristic Hindu comic epic?

[Venkman]

Ah, thought it was worthy a new thread, but you're right, probably not :)

Gamasutra has a writeup too.

So what's the deal? The comic any good?

[Signe]

THIS JUST IN!  (well, actually a day late in keeping with the thread topic)

Press release
SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT UNITES WITH VIRGIN COMICS TO CREATE ONLINE VIDEO GAME FRANCHISE
Leading Game and Worldwide Comic Companies Join Forces to Develop and Publish Massively Multiplayer Online Video Game Based On the Popular Ramayan 3392 A.D. India-Mythology Inspired Comic Book Series

SAN DIEGO, California & NEW YORK, New York (AUGUST 9, 2007) — Through a deal that joins two of the world’s most innovative entertainment brands, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), a global leader in the online gaming industry, is teaming up with Sir Richard Branson and Deepak Chopra’s Virgin Comics to bring the popular, India-based Ramayan 3392 A.D. comic book universe to life as an MMO video game initially for the PC.

The deal was announced today by John Smedley, President of SOE and Sharad Devarajan, Co-Founder and CEO of Virgin Comics.

“Ramayan has inspired the lives of millions of people through the ages. The re-imagining of this great ancient epic through the creativity of a game platform re-affirms the fact that Ramayan is one of the greatest stories ever told,” said Deepak Chopra. “The fact that the same creative team of young Indians that created the story will be involved in working with SOE’s game development team, is a testament to the innovative and mythic minds of these gifted Indian creators who will take a new generation to new frontiers across the seas of consciousness into new realms of mystery, magic, adventure, and transformation.”

Through this exclusive multi-year, worldwide license agreement, SOE will develop and publish an MMO based on Ramayan’s story of mythological lore. Virgin Comics will serve as a creative consultant on the project. Virgin’s creative involvement with SOE’s game development team will be spearheaded by its President and head, Suresh Seetharaman, who has also overseen the development of the comic series. Also involved is acclaimed filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, a co-founder of Virgin Comics.

“Virgin Comics approached us with a portfolio of amazing comic properties based on Indian lore. We particularly love Ramayan 3392 A.D., as we feel Virgin Comics’ telling of The R®m®yana is particularly gripping, graphically brilliant and lends itself extremely well to an MMO,” said Smedley. “This a fantastic time for us to expand our games to include this culturally rich storyline and we are honored to do this with a diversified, creative and experienced company like Virgin Comics.”

Virgin Comics’ Ramayan 3392 A.D., initially released as a comic in late 2006, re-imagines one of India’s greatest epics into a futuristic realm. Gotham Chopra, Virgin Comics’ Chief Creative Officer commented, “While many of the characters and settings remain familiar to the original lore, we never intended to re-tell the story, but essentially use it as the key inspiration for something fresh. What remains intact to our story are some of the core universal themes like duty, honor, sacrifice, and fraternity while also mining uniquely Indian ideas like karma (how action and consequence are linked) and the malleability of time itself. To bring all of these ideas into a game with SOE is just awesome.”

Devarajan concluded, “In a world increasingly dominated with games influenced by a western Tolkien mythos, Ramayan will offer gamers a chance to experience a whole new universe of characters and archetypes derived from one of the oldest cultures on Earth. Our mission at Virgin Comics has always been to allow this generation of Indian youth to have a creative platform through which to speak to the world. Through this collaboration with the likeminded visionaries at SOE, our young Indian creators will make gaming history worldwide.”

About Virgin Comics
Virgin Comics is a character entertainment company creating original stories and epic myths for worldwide audiences. The company was founded in November 2005 by Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Enterprises Ltd., alongside author Deepak Chopra, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and entrepreneurs Sharad Devarajan, Gotham Chopra and Suresh Seetharaman. Virgin is developing new stories with acclaimed filmmakers, actors and musicians including John Woo, Guy Ritchie, Terry Gilliam, Dave Stewart, Ed Burns, Nicolas Cage, Duran Duran, Sachin Tendulkar and others. Feature films based on Virgin Comics’ characters are also in the works, including an animated feature The Secrets of the Seven Sounds and theatrical live action feature films, The Sadhu in development with actor Nicolas Cage as well as Gamekeeper in development with Warner Bros. In India, Virgin Comics recently established a partnership with Studio 18 to pioneer the Indian “teen-horror” genre and a separate partnership with UTV Motion Pictures to develop new Indian superheroes. Virgin Comics also formed a joint venture with NBC-Universal to create new science fiction properties for graphic novels and television with the Sci Fi Channel. www.VirginComics.com

About Sony Online Entertainment
Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) is a recognized worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online games, with hundreds of thousands of subscribers around the globe. SOE creates, develops and provides compelling entertainment for the personal computer, online, game console and wireless markets. Known for its blockbuster franchises and hit titles including EverQuest®, EverQuest® II, Champions of Norrath®, Untold Legends™, and PlanetSide®, as well as for developing Star Wars Galaxies™, SOE continues to redefine the business of online gaming and the creation of active player communities while introducing new genres on various entertainment platforms. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, with additional development studios in Los Angeles, CA, Austin, TX, Seattle, WA, Denver, CO, and Taiwan, SOE has an array of cutting-edge games in development. SOE is owned by Sony Pictures Digital and Sony Computer Entertainment America.

SOE, the SOE logo, EverQuest and PlanetSide are registered trademarks of Sony Online Entertainment LLC. Untold Legends is a trademark of Sony Online Entertainment LLC.

Source

[sam, an eggplant]

Makes sense to me. There's over a billion indians; their middle class is larger than the entire population of the USA. And they all seem to work in IT. We have entire industries targetting south korea, a substantially smaller population. Why not try to tap into india?

Also indian mythology is just as rich and epic (if not more so) as western swords n' sorcery, it's about time someone raped it for a videogame.

[Sky]

South Korea is a modern economic powerhouse.

India, people still bathe in stream with cows shitting next to them.

[WayAbvPar]

India's middle class? What do they earn, $800 a year? Hard to squeeze in a $15 a month subscription on that kind of budget.

[schild]

Also indian mythology is just as rich and epic (if not more so) as western swords n' sorcery, it's about time someone raped it for a videogame.

There's not a goddamn thing "cool" about indian mythology though. That's why it's a bizarre choice. Kids still giggle about red dots and shit. Let alone fucking weird gods and shit from a fucking weird religion.

I'm tolerable, but I'm willing to admit when shits just weird.

[Amaron]

Also indian mythology is just as rich and epic (if not more so) as western swords n' sorcery, it's about time someone raped it for a videogame.

Western "swords n' sorcery" mythology is neither rich or epic.  Sword and sorcery is largely an invention of the late 20th century.  What little came before that is mostly boring and dull as hell in it's original version.  I don't know anything about Ramayan but I suspect unless it's a story that predates hinduism it's probably going to bore western audiences to tears.   That's assuming that they stick to the subject matter of course.  I find Christian mythology to be boring as hell too but several anime and manga loosely based on it have been fairly entertaining.

[Sky]

There's not a goddamn thing "cool" about indian mythology though.

There I completely disagree with you.

[schild]

There's not a goddamn thing "cool" about indian mythology though.

There I completely disagree with you.

Didn't I call you a hippy a few weeks ago? And "cool" is in quotes because I'm right. It's not trendy. It's not a fad. It's not "COOL."

Edit: I don't know why I mentioned the hippy thing. >_>

[Teleku]

You're relatively new so I'll be nice, but when I say things like "stop being a broken record," I mean it.

Does this mean your going to stop randomly popping in the WoW forum/threads to express how much you hate the game over and over again?

 

Western "swords n' sorcery" mythology is neither rich or epic.  Sword and sorcery is largely an invention of the late 20th century.  What little came before that is mostly boring and dull as hell in it's original version.  I don't know anything about Ramayan but I suspect unless it's a story that predates hinduism it's probably going to bore western audiences to tears.   That's assuming that they stick to the subject matter of course.  I find Christian mythology to be boring as hell too but several anime and manga loosely based on it have been fairly entertaining.

Modern sword and sorcery shit is based off old western mythology that dates back easily many hundreds of years.  I happen to enjoy reading that stuff (and Christian mythology is the only thing I like about the religion, heh).  Out of curiosity, is there any mythology/lore that you do like?

I also agree with sky.  India actually has some pretty awesome mythology (and some neat martial arts) that is largely unknown in western pop culture.  With Japanese and Chinese culture/myth already big in pop culture here, I think its due for explosion, as it has enough of its own to match either of those.

[Nerf]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gq--g4zIuNA
If the game plays anything like that, I'm fucking sold.

[sam, an eggplant]

By swords and sorcery I was flippantly referring to king arthur, beowulf, etc. Indian mythology is just as epic, we just haven't really been exposed to it.

Obviously india's middle class has less money than ours does, but there are SO much more of them that it's just insane. And their standard of living is rising rapidly; 8 years ago I paid bangalore DBAs 7 lakhs/yr (US$14k), now they make 18-24 lakhs (US$43k). And that's real money.

[schild]

I know, it's fantastic. The moment they meet up with he price of American tech folks, all the business comes back here and the country drops back into the stone age. Why are we talking about this anyway? It's a game based on a comic no one cares about. It's a bizarre choice for a license. It just happens to be made by Indian People. I'm about 90% sure it's not FOR indian people.

[sam, an eggplant]

You really think so? The indian gaming market is pretty much untapped, and PCs are the way to get to it. They all have PCs at work, but xbox360s are incredibly expensive luxuries.

[SnakeCharmer]

I know, it's fantastic. The moment they meet up with he price of American tech folks, all the business comes back here and the country drops back into the stone age. Why are we talking about this anyway? It's a game based on a comic no one cares about. It's a bizarre choice for a license. It just happens to be made by Indian People. I'm about 90% sure it's not FOR indian people.

At least they'll be able to do their own tech and customer support.

[schild]

You really think so? The indian gaming market is pretty much untapped, and PCs are the way to get to it. They all have PCs at work, but xbox360s are incredibly expensive luxuries.

I don't see Indians enjoying the personification of their gods IN A GAME.

No, this definitely isn't for Indians.

At least they'll be able to do their own tech and customer support.

For who? Sam just said the point I'd make - they have computers at WORK.

[SnakeCharmer]

OK, it was a joke that apparently didn't work.
Indians?  Get it?  An MMO taking place in India?  Indian players?  Tech support farmed out to India?  Hence:  they can perform their own tech / customer support? 

Gah.  I'm just not very funny :(

[Nerf]

You really think so? The indian gaming market is pretty much untapped, and PCs are the way to get to it. They all have PCs at work, but xbox360s are incredibly expensive luxuries.

Tech Support: Hello, how are you today, my name is bob.
Nerf: Bob? Your name isn't fucking Bob.  It's Hadji, and either way, I'm having some minor problems with the Dell I just ordered.  Every time I try to launch minesweeper a midget jumps out and stabs me in the cock.
Tech Support:  Please to make sure the computer is turned on.
Nerf: Jesus fucking christ, of course it's turned on, and everything is plugged in, its a software issue.
Silence
Nerf: Hello?
Tech Support:  OH YES, YOU LIKE THAT YOU FUCKING NOOB! TAKE A FUCKING SEAT!  L2P!!! DING MOTHERFUCKERS! ALL YOUR LOOT IS MINE!
Nerf: What the fuck?
Tech Support: Please to be on hold while I research your issue.
...
Tech Support: I'm sorry, but I cannot to help with this issue. *click*

I think it's a great idea, lets take somthing that barely works as is and then distract them.  Wicked awesome.

[schild]

Every time I try to launch minesweeper a midget jumps out and stabs me in the cock.

Oh shit, you too?

[Amaron]

Modern sword and sorcery shit is based off old western mythology that dates back easily many hundreds of years.  I happen to enjoy reading that stuff (and Christian mythology is the only thing I like about the religion, heh).  Out of curiosity, is there any mythology/lore that you do like?

You are correct that it's based off the old stuff.  My point was that the old stuff is neither rich or epic taken in the context of the way he was using those two words.  Those elements are a mostly modern creation.  In a literal sense there were epics but that depends on how broadly you define things.  I would not include Roman/Greek/Etc as "swords and sorcery" mythology.   Some of the old Viking/Norse stuff could fit into that mold but I don't really think it applies.   The true basis for Swords and Sorcery has some epics of course but I don't think those would really apply to his meaning.

I find some of the older Indian stuff to be interesting.  Japanese stuff is also interesting but in it's original form I find it dull.  I like Greek a lot as long as it's modernized but Norse/Viking stuff really turns me off because people almost always seem to use it as inspiration for depressing crap.

In general though I despise all lore/mythology in it's original form.  Such things are usually full of moral lessons which I abhor as barbaric.  Not only that the characters are usually full of faults we don't accept in civilized humans (such as racism or some such).  I don't possess the trait of being able to enjoy literature when it has protagonists whom I despise as humans sadly.

[HaemishM]

But does the midget breakdance before or after stabbing you in the cock?

[schild]

But does the midget breakdance before or after stabbing you in the cock?

He reveals all the flags in minesweeper.

He's a real son of a bitch.

[Amaron]

But does the midget breakdance before or after stabbing you in the cock?

I think that's a Vista feature.  XP only has the cock stabbing.

[Murgos]

In a literal sense there were epics but that depends on how broadly you define things.  I would not include Roman/Greek/Etc as "swords and sorcery" mythology.

Gimmie a minute to reply to this.  I'm a bit busy killing Minotaurs and Cyclops's with my Necromancers animated skeleton pet in EQ2 to figure out where you are incorrect here is but I'm sure you are.

[schild]

Titan Quest says "Hey, I updated ur mythology."

[Teleku]

In a literal sense there were epics but that depends on how broadly you define things.  I would not include Roman/Greek/Etc as "swords and sorcery" mythology.

Gimmie a minute to reply to this.  I'm a bit busy killing Minotaurs and Cyclops's with my Necromancers animated skeleton pet in EQ2 to figure out where you are incorrect here is but I'm sure you are.

Incidentally, I'm not the one who said that 

[Amaron]

I'm a bit busy killing Minotaurs and Cyclops's with my Necromancers animated skeleton pet in EQ2 to figure out where you are incorrect here is but I'm sure you are.

I'm not "correct" I was merely speaking of what I'd include.  "Swords and Sorcery" isn't really a proper mythology grouping in the first place.

[Murgos]

So your point is that if you exclude most of the major works of supernatural content influence from western history it has very few influential works of supernatural content?

I'm not sure what's more 'Swords and Sorcery" than Odysseus Perseus cutting the head off Medusa but, well, if it works for you.

[ajax34i]

The word "history" is probably what throws people off.  It's all boring.  Mythology, on the other hand, and works of fiction based on beliefs in the supernatural, are interesting, at least to me.  I imagine they could take Indian mythology and mess and mix it up and come up with a nice epic story that is strange and different enough to interest people.

The Indians' reaction to it?  I don't know; why do you imagine it's the same as a stereotyped Catholic's reaction to all these games with "good" witches and demons and dragons?  Most westerners don't react like that, and have no trouble differentiating between a work of fiction based on a derived mythos, vs. what happened in history in the past, or their religion.

But anyway, it doesn't even matter, since it's likely to just be a grind for XP so you could level up to max and raid something or other, and/or PVP.  Yay for different raid boss models and different quest text?

[Trippy]

I could've sworn somebody posted about this yesterday.

[Amaron]

I'm not sure what's more 'Swords and Sorcery" than Odysseus cutting the head off Medusa but, well, if it works for you.

Odysseus is about as far from a Swords and Sorcery protagonist that I enjoy as you can get without putting me to sleep.  So I'll admit that's probably shading my opinion.  Plus most of the supernatural stuff in Greek is related to gods, titans, monsters etc with all the mortals being mostly at their whims which seems in contrast to modern western fantasy.

[tmp]

(wikipedia)

The story primarily deals with the battles between the last kingdom of humans with demons (called Asuras) in a post-Apocalyptic world. The series' prime protagonist is the human prince Rama who, alongside his brothers, aim to bring down the demon-lord Ravan.

Humans vs demons round 12345, go.

[TripleDES]

The "3392 AD" thing suggested to me that it may finally be another scifi franchise, yet checking out the comic, it's just another retarded fantasy franchise. It's about as much scifi as Tabula Rasa, that is none.

[Miasma]

I could've sworn somebody posted about this yesterday.

I did!  I gave it all the attention it deserved too, four words and a question mark.