Shakespeare as a MMORPG

For those of you who don't know, MMORPG stands for Massively Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game. Apparently, a professor at Indianna University, Edward Castronova is creating a new MMORPG based on the Shakespeare play Richard III. That in and of itself is interesting, but to make it more interesting, Castronova will actually be using this game to do social-science research. Because he can create parallel worlds with different aspects changed, he can see how it affects the players in each game.

The article also talks about how this could be used as a learning tool because players are immersed into the play. They can learn about Shakespeare's plays by actually "living" in the play itself. It gives players a feeling of living during that time period. I also thought it was somewhat appropriate to talk about teaching in virtual worlds when we're about to embark on a new project where we use simulations (similar to virtual worlds) to increase knowledge.