Alvin's World Announced -- Based on Tales of Alvin Maker Books by Orson Scott Card.

[JFo]

For those of you who are fans of Card's work -- his most notable novel being Ender's Game -- this news may be very interesting. A developer called eGenesis is working on an MMORPG based on The Tales of Alvin Maker, one of Card's more popular series. If you've never read any of the books, here's the lowdown. The story takes place in an alternate American history in which magic is real and the colonies lost the Revolutionary War. The story focuses on Alvin Maker, who is the seventh son of a seventh son and is endowed with the ability to create things out of nothing. This will serve as the setting for this particular game of which the news link above has this to say:

 

Four different magic systems, plus the technology track, offer players many ways to develop their characters; the presence of Calvin, Arthur Stuart, Peggy Larner, and Alvin Maker himself will provide plenty of complications and opportunities.

 

Above all, this alternate version of America will have ongoing events that players can affect, changing history each time a full game is played.

 

Sounds like it could be fun, although I'm not one to judge having never really sat down with a good MMORPG before. I'm not familiar with eGenesis or their games. Has anyone played A Tale in the Desert? Is this property in good hands? I know Card is very protective of his works (which is why we haven't seen a film version of Ender's Game come to pass even though it's been in development forever), and he does fancy himself an avid fan of video games. I hope those two qualities help result in a half-ways decent game. After he's done with this, they can make something based on the Ender's Game universe. That would be fun.