Zork Returning As a Browser MMO

[Mr. Analog]

The /. summary was great so I'll repost it:

Gamasutra reports that Jolt Online Gaming is teaming up with Activision to revive the Zork franchise in the form of a casual, browser-based MMO. The  Legends of Zork website provides some basic background information: "The Great Underground Empire has recently fallen and the land is in disarray. The Royal Treasury has been sacked. The stock market has collapsed, leading even mighty FrobozzCo International to fire employees from throughout its subsidiaries. A craze of treasure-hunting has swept through the remnants of the Great Underground Empire. The New Zork Times reports that trolls, kobolds and other dangerous creatures are venturing far from their lairs. Adventurers and monsters are increasingly coming into conflict over areas rich with loot. It's a dangerous time to be a newly-unemployed traveling salesman, but it's also a great time to try a bit of adventuring." Gamasutra also has a brief interview with Jolt's CEO, Dylan Collins. There's no word yet whether or not players are likely to be eaten by a grue.

Yay for text based adventuring!

[Darren Dirt]

Earlier today, online gaming developer Jolt Online announced the forthcoming release of Legends of Zork, a browser-based "persistent online adventure" based on the world of Infocom's 1979 text-based adventure classic.

Interesting -- but will it be a graphical MMO visually moving around an avatar in the Zork world? Or will it be more like Myst but ever-changing?

Or will it be text-based, letting the user's imagination do the painting and the orchestral score? <--doubtful.

[Mr. Analog]

Earlier today, online gaming developer Jolt Online announced the forthcoming release of Legends of Zork, a browser-based "persistent online adventure" based on the world of Infocom's 1979 text-based adventure classic.

Interesting -- but will it be a graphical MMO visually moving around an avatar in the Zork world? Or will it be more like Myst but ever-changing?

Or will it be text-based, letting the user's imagination do the painting and the orchestral score? <--doubtful.

I would prefer text based actually, otherwise it wouldn't quite be Zork!

[Darren Dirt]

Based on a quick skim of the 2 articles, apparently all we know right now is it's gonna be a "casual" RPG ... so you level up to some degree, and with the "freemiums" business model, the more-than-casual players will have the ability to invest more $/time into the experience.

Nice idea, but will we have to wait 3 years before the beta? If so, there's stuff out there to make the wait less painful

[Tonnica]

Or maybe give the Googletalk bot a try so you can play Zork 1, 2, or 3 with Googletalk or Jabber.

I can't believe they're making an MMO of it. I mean yes I could see another adventure game, but an MMO? I hope it's straight text. It'd keep the darn kids off my classic gaming lawn.