Majestic

EA.com plans to make us change the way we think about video games with its ambitious online mind-bender, Majestic. Are you playing it?or is it playing you?

EA.com?s latest PC project, Majestic, is an ambitious online mind-bender of a game that will leave you wondering if you?re playing it?or if it?s playing you.

In Majestic, you take the role of?you. You get to live your own X-Files?caliber suspense thriller, complete with wild conspiracies, secret government contacts, and all sorts of other shady dealings. The strangely circular premise? You?ve just signed on to EA.com?s new game, Majestic. Before long, the game will start reaching out, and mysterious ?allies? will begin to drop you clues and information that things might not be quite as they seem.

Yes, that?s right, Majestic will e-mail you, call you, fax you, and send AOL Instant Messages (yes, for real) at any time, day or night, 24 hours a day, seven days a week?making it the first PC game that you keep playing even after your computer shuts off. Your job is to follow the clues; Instant Message and chat with your A.I. ?allies;? sort through conspiracies, murders, and lies on the World Wide Web; figure out what?s real and what?s not; and, in the end, uncover the truth?because the truth, as Mulder once taught us, is out there.

If that sounds a little too creepy or invasive for you, don?t worry: You don?t have to give it your phone number; you can have the game send clues to you Majestic Alliance Inbox (a modest little application that runs on your Windows desktop) instead of your fax machine; and you can set things up so your phone isn?t ringing at three in the morning on a work night. Even so, because of the particularly intrusive nature of Majestic, EA.com is requiring you to be 18-years-old to play the game.

The game?s structure will be episodic, with a trial Episode 0 and two full Episodes available at launch, and a new episode rolling out approximately once a month. Episodes 0 through 8 will make up Majestic?s first ?season,? and EA.com already has a story arc planned for a second season after the first is through. EA estimates that most episodes will take 12-15 real days to unfold if you?re playing at ?full speed.?

Yes, Majestic is gonna mess with you a bit, but EA.com assures us that the game will not steal your car, use your credit card to subscribe to porn sites, or get you fired from your job. That?s probably you doing all that.

It?s hard to capture screenshots of a sinister phone call, and pictures of AOLIM windows are pretty boring?but here they are anyway! Prepare to question your sanity when the first three episodes of Majestic launch with EA.com?s subscription-based Platinum Service later this spring. The service will cost $9.99 per month, and will also include access to EA.com?s Sports Service (EASS) and four other yet-to-be identified games. In the meantime, check out www.ea.com or http://majestic.ea.com for more information?or is it disinformation?

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