The uninitiated may mistake virtual worlds as the territory of hermetic computer geeks, but Switzerland-based sports marketing company Infront is hoping to change that impression with the unveiling of Empire of Sports, an MMO devoted entirely to the sporting world, at this month's Leipzig Gaming Conference in Germany.
According to parent company Infront Sports' announcement earlier this summer, Empire of Sports will create a persistent universe for virtual athletes to create avatars, train, compete in sporting events and earn goods and awards.
"This is the first-ever virtual online multi-sports world with role-playing elements,” managing director Christian Mueller said in the announcement. "There are single sport online games, but no one has seamlessly integrated multiple games around the entire sports lifestyle. The user becomes a 3D avatar, capable of developing his or her virtual body, skills and capabilities through sport and training all-the-while socializing within the Empire of Sports community. We have built this game from the ground up to be a fun and competitive environment while meeting your friends and making new ones."
In an interview with WarCry.com, Empire of Sports' managing director, Mueller provided a few more details -- Empire of Sports will have a "lobby" interface surrounded by "virtual city-like" community centers based on real cities, and the first three sports available will be basketball, tennis and skiing, with both single and multiplayer options, and additional sports to be announced in the near future.
The extensive developer blogs on the Empire of Sports site provide a sneak preview into a particularly interesting feature -- the implementation of a lifelike body model, with metabolism and maintenance of energy reserves playing a role in a virtual athlete's success, just as in real-world competitive sports. "In the very beginning of the game play, metabolism doesn’t really matter that much. You just got to make sure that you’re always eating and drinking enough. You’ll see how your energy is consumed while doing sports and how that impacts your virtual athlete’s performance," Muller explains. "Over time, we’ll introduce you to the key principles of the metabolism through missions and training. This will allow you to understand and manage your metabolism better."
As of yet, however, Muller's mum about how payment will work. Though he says the world will contain shops and auction houses, it's unclear yet whether microtransactions will play a role. "I can't be too specific about the business model yet," he says. "The reason for this is that we're carefully watching the environment to see in which direction it is going and which model fits the game the best. We have noted the rise of micro-payment based models, and potentially it could work very well for 'Empire of Sports'. On the other hand, we know about how sensitive gamers can be and our ultimate goal it to provide unmatched value, which should be a combination of a fantastic new game with an attractive overall price."
The Leipzig Gaming Conference takes place August 24-27.
[In Part via WarCry.com]
