Majestic's glorious Failure and AI's invisible success

Games
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It’s not difficult to recall EA’s experimental project Majestic that was set to completely change the way you play games. The disruption of playtime boundaries was unique and exciting to many. “It plays you” I believe was the tag line. Unfortunately there were issues that prevented the game from achieving critical as well as public success: The monthly fee, the linear and basic story line and puzzles, the long periods of waiting… to name a few.

However there was an experience that quietly arrived a few months before Majestic saw its release, funded by an unholy combination of Microsoft, Warner Brothers and Dreamworks no less. Within a trailer for the Steven Speilburg’s movie A.I., a “Sentient Machine Therapist” was credited by the name of Jeanine Salla. This was the silent gateway to an online success and failure.

Success because it had accomplished where Majestic failed (before Majestic was even released). Part of it was due to its not having to pay a monthly fee, but I have no doubt that it was only a small part. The story line was interesting and dynamic. The puzzles ranged from the benign to the obscure. The A.I. game was set up in such a way that demanded collaboration from a large group of individuals which supported a thriving community. The updates were few (once a week) but they incorporated many subplots and left the users with quite a bit to do and think about before the next update arrived. It was exciting, it was involving and it successfully brought in a new way to play games.

But this isn’t about A.I.'s moderate success, because after all was said and done this game was largely ignored by the gaming public. There were numerous articles on various entertainment magazines both online and print, but with regards to gaming specific media there was hardly mention that it existed. Did it just pass gamers by? Or is it something traditional gamers just aren’t interested in? I was fortunate enough to play through it since the beginning and I can’t begin tell you what an exciting and rewarding experience it was to be a part of. The innovative and original ideas it brought to the table I would think would make any adventure gamer salivate. I would’ve expected the critics within the gaming community to accept it with open arms, but instead all one hears about is Majestic and its colossal failure. To all gamers and especially those who have some influence and contribution with the gaming specific media, did you know about the A.I. game and were just not interested? Why?

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I guess I am one of the few that loved every minute of Majestic. It was something completely different for a change. I didn’t mind the waiting…that was part of the fun. When were they going to contact me? What would be the next clue? I agree that, for the content provided, the monthly fee was a bit high, especially if you finish quickly and have to wait 20 days for the next episode. That was something the designers needed to work on, agreed. They did give you other things with your monthly subscription, but they were all pretty crappy.

I am a sucker for a good adventure game, and Majestic was just that, with some new twists. I don’t understand why everyone wanted it to fail. It could have paved the way for the next step, whatever that may be.

I missed out on the AI thing - too bad.

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The concept sounded like a bunch of suits gritting their teeth in mental constipation, straining to “think outside the box.” The whole idea of a game calling me, faxing me, or emailing just felt too creepy – like EA was stalking me. The last thing I need in the middle of a workday is a game calling me on the phone. I don’t need to be played, thank you.

I didn’t even try the game; maybe I’m being hasty in concluding creepiness. Although, its dismal failure is evidence the game wasn’t very well thought out.

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You do realize this was optional, right?

I didn’t even try the game; maybe I’m being hasty in concluding creepiness. Although, its dismal failure is evidence the game wasn’t very well thought out.

The game sucked, though it appears some liked it, but now poor sales=poorly thought out? Like those poorly thought out No One Lives Forevers, System Shock 2s, Theifs, Deus Exs, Warlords Battlecry 2s, etc?

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No, poorly thought out = they didn’t run the game to its completion, as planned. They bagged the online version and released a CD version.

Testy, testy.

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To me, Majestic will always be the game that killed Multiplayer Battletech: 3025 because of its reputation as a financial black hole (Majestic)

A.I. : Never heard of it. Sounds interesting.

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I don’t really consider the AI deal to be a true game, rather a marketing gimmick to stir up hype for the movie. Did people really “play” it, or was that just spin? I don’t know anyone who played it. But I wasn’t interested in the movie either.

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Hmmm… Interesting. I was thinking that most would’ve at least heard more of the AI game then this.

Sparky, It most assuredly was for all intents and purposes, a game. It was almost in the exact same vein as Majestic with some differences. The most obvious one being that it was free.

It was less about a marketing ploy for the movie (although that did help pay the bills) and more of an experiement by Microsoft. There was very little to do with the actual movie aside from the setting.

For a good run down of the events that took place in the AI game here is a great read.

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also:

cloudmakers.org

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Ah, I see…like Microsoft BOB.

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Right, only this one didn’t suck. :P

Monty, that’s the ultimate link. I wanted to show a consise summary. Cloudmakers.org is the place to go for more information though.

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" don’t understand why everyone wanted it to fail. It could have paved the way for the next step, whatever that may be."

It was a bit of a reaction to the marketing campaign and the idea of a game “that plays you”, I think.

Two things killed it, I believe. 1) They had a lousy registration system. Some ungodly percentage of players who attempted to register to play abandoned before completing the registration process, I remember reading. 2) The game should have been designed so players could play an episode from start to finish on their own pace rather than the game’s pacing. Gamers are prickly types and it doesn’t take much for us to decide to ditch a game.

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Murph disagrees with this assessment, I’m sure. <duck>

The thing that made Majestic a non-starter for me was the slow pace. From what I read in reviews, the game was poorly paced, with virtually nothing happening most of the time.

I’d never heard of the AI thing – completely went over my head. I must’ve been busy tracking down and following random people I didn’t have the courage to talk to that day. :wink:

ASJunk

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What he said. Absolutely zero appeal. When I’m at work, I’m working. And if my wife starts picking up the phone and getting game calls, the computer is going out with the trash.

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EA probably did a poor job of communicating how configurable the game was. In their haste to market what they thought was cool – “it’s the game that plays you!” via phonecalls, faxes, emails, and IMs – they didn’t impress upon people that all of that was configurable and controllable. You could turn off phonecalls and faxes, set a time period for when you wanted to play (and thus only receive emails during that time period, etc.), never receive anything at work, etc. About the only thing you couldn’t do was proceed at your own pace, and I guess even that was controllable to some extent if you waited until near the end of the month to play the episode. By then all the parts were released, so I’d guess you didn’t have to wait on the game.

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Well, I’ll bring this back up to post some concluding thoughts on the poll results and thread responses. It saddens me that the AI game truly did go un-noticed to most gamers. It’s a game that turly should’ve been experienced by all within the gaming community, especially those designers that shape and mold the games of tomorrow and those journalists who are the gateway to the masses.

I understand that many people don’t like to have their gaming boundaries blur, and for those I know that there will be wonderful gaming experiences for them as well in the future, but for those gamers that would like to challenge the conventional notion of games and experience a new medium of entertainment this area should not be overlooked.

I apologize if this post reads like a bad PR babble, but I just want to dramatically convey what was there and missed.

Elan Lee was one of the lead designers for the game and gave a talk at the GDC last year. I’d urge those who are even slightly interested to check out this handout for a good transcript of his talk which covers lots of interesting aspects that transpired between the designers and the players.

I’ll end with a letter that was given to all the players at the end of the game which shows the love (I don’t what else to call it) and respect shown on both sides.

Dear Players:

Now our play is ended. We have drawn aside the curtain, and let it drop for good.

But we wanted to write one more time, to say again what a profound pleasure and extraordinary privilege it has been to work with you.

We had a magical team to put this thing together. How lucky we were to find a team every bit as magical on the other side of the curtain! Your passion and energy and intelligence has kept us going through more dire emergencies and long nights than you can imagine. We always thought a community could form around this project, but never dared to hope for an audience so engaged and so resourceful. You demanded that we experiment, and were generous enough to stick with us when some of those experiments didn’t work out quite as we had hoped.

The best audience an artist can hope for is one that forgives error but never cynicism; that demands your best work and then appreciates it; that contributes energy and ideas to create something better than you could have ever made on your own. At this moment, we believe we have been blessed with the best, smartest, most passionate audience imaginable.

We think that all of us, puppetmasters and players alike, have been given a chance to be part of a truly original and groundbreaking experiment. There will be other projects that attempt to use the web as a distinctive artistic medium, ones with bigger budgets and larger audiences: but we here were first.

Once again, our profound thanks. It was dazzling, wasn’t it?

The PMs

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I resurrect threads of the dead. This type of game appears to be called ‘Alternate Reality Gaming’ and while Majestic failed (I blame Joey Pants for that), several other iterations exist in one form or another.

One I am ‘playing’ right now (though I am more following the story and trying to pick up the clues from the websites) is called “Chasing the Wish” about a guy who, in a moment of suicidal despair, gets a wish granted to him. His wish comes true, but at a very high price. So far, the game has taken us to the following sites:
http://www.aglauranj.org/
http://www.aglauranj.org/library/library.html
http://www.aglauranj.org/emporium.html
http://www.klepsydra.net/


http://www.ashgrovepark.com/
http://www.collectiveprotective.com/

Tomorrow morning a ‘press conference’ with the mayor will be held with seven of the players to discuss a tragic auto accident in the town.

A good index of the activities can be had here, along with clues and puzzles. There are other games going on there as well that are documented, such as Tron 2.0.