Why You Should Help Kickstart Ever, Jane, a Jane Austen-Themed MMO from a Linden Lab Alum

Ever, Jane is a seriously innovative MMO set in the world of Jane Austen with gossip and scandal in place of killing rats and dungeon quests. It's playable right now, but the development team has launched a Kickstarter to fund its continued operation and further development:

Ever, Jane is the brainchild of Judy Tyrer, who was a senior engineering manager at Linden Lab, and is applying her experience with Linden and Second Life to make Ever, Jane possible:

"Second Life is a user-curated experience and often there isn't a lot of curation," as she tells me. "I think [SLers] will enjoy this because we are dedicated to curating the experience. We offer all the tools they need. It will be less about them building worlds than just living out their stories." And given the high amount of user-generated stories in Second Life, I suspect SLers will enjoy generating ever more stories within an established, belovedf fictional context:

"[I]t will be the user's stories that make the game," says Judy. "Even now with very little gameplay beyond invitation and gossip we have people in-world almost all the time (it takes hours for me to find a time when the world is empty to kick the servers, delete logs, etc). Today they were discussing why French silk is superior and why they run the mills in winter. One character opined that at least they could always get cotton from the colonies."

And fortunately, her experience at Linden Lab should help keep her world operational: "I was the senior engineering manager for the Engine Room team (lots of engine in there) which wrote the code for the servers on Second Life. Technically I learned about server roll outs at a huge scale and the critical importance of customer support tools. But more importantly I learned not to panic over small things that can be easily fixed."

Read more about Ever, Jane on the game's Kickstarter page.

Hat tip: David Cartier.

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Comments

[VirtualMediaDev]

"Jane is a seriously innovative MMO set in the world of Jane Austen with gossip and scandal in place of killing rats and dungeon quests." Give em a few months then the fun will start D

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

I can foresee one issue they might have....most Austen fans are women. Unless some of the women are willing to play gentlemen, they will be rather short of gentlemen. They might have to forego the "gender rules of the time" idea they have.

Personally I would want to go hunting, play the piano-forte, wear cute bonnets and own an estate in my own name worth 10000 pounds a year.

They should also be willing to have an invasion of "Unmentionables" on Halloween as a nod to P&P&Zombies.