The exclusive, multi-year, worldwide license agreement between Virgin Comics and Sony Online Entertainment was first announced by John Smedley, President of SOE and Sharad Devarajan, Co-founder and CEO, Virgin Comics.
Under this agreement, SOE will develop and publish an MMO based on the Ramayan story which consists of mythological lore.
Deepak Chopra, an Indian medical doctor and more noteably known for his spirtuality books said, “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.”
“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,” Deepak Chopra added.
Virgin Comics will serve as the creative consultant on the project and SOE’s game development team will be headed by Suresh Seetharaman, who also oversaw the development of the comic. Acclaimed film maker Shekhar Kapur who is also a co-founder of Virgin Comics will also be involved in this Ramayan MMO project.
Virgin Comics’ Ramayan 3392 A.D. was initially released as a comic in late 2006.
Gotham Chopra, Virgin Comics’ Chief Creative Officer explained, “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.”
Devrajan concluded by saying, “”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.”
The artwork of Virgin Comics’ Ramayan looks great. What remains to be seen is whether SOE and Virgin Comics translates this aptly into the MMO game.
source:techshout.com
