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A new Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game is currently being developed by a number of volunteer programmers. Called Magicosm, the game is being created completely using Sun's Java language and 3D API. Current developmental screenshots show the game's graphics, which look to push Java to its limits.

Here's a description the gameplay its creators intend to include:

Magicosm is an endeavor to create an interactive, multi-user world set in a fantasy setting. This world will be able to host thousands of players from around the world to participate in a rich environment of magic, swordplay and social exchange. Magicosm is about participating in a world with different rules than everyday mundane life, allowing people to live out their fantasies in a universe very different from our own.

First and foremost Magicosm is designed to facilitate many different aspects of gameplay. The traditional adventuring lifestyle is just one aspect to what Magicosm offers. No world, however interesting, can survive without the more social and economic dimensions. We are creating a place that will appeal to people who are interested in participating in a world where they can play a role in everyday life of a medieval setting. Gamers who choose to play farmers, merchants, blacksmiths and all sorts of tradeskills will find that they have a rich environment to work with in the world of Magicosm.

Java has matured considerably over the last couple of years and has entered the mainstream as a competitive technology. Nevertheless Java is not typically thought of as a game development language. We feel the benefits of Java far outweighed the slight performance penalty, and that it would only improve more with time. Since we are planning Magicosm to have a very long lifespan, we feel that Java will serve us well many years down the road. Java (and to a lesser degree Java3d) is relatively platform independent. It is our hope that Magicosm will be able to run on many different platforms as Java3d is ported to work on Linux, Macintosh and other hardware manufacturers.

Magicosm

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