Column: 'The Esoteric Beat: Africa's Lovin' It'

In this week's 'The Esoteric Beat,' a look at the latest goings-on in esoteric game topics, regular columnist Jim Rossignol takes a look at a real-world NPC, a fast food spoof in game form, and Africa the MMORPG. In this extract, Rossignol discusses Rapid Reality's in-development MMORPG, Africa: China and Korea have long been evoking their mythologies in designing game worlds, just as Europe and America have filtered Celtic folklore into the modern fantasy tropes we deal with the time: so why not do the same thing for the African cultures? Tracy Spaight, the lead game designer for Africa and the Vice President of Research & Development at developer Rapid Reality had this to say about the conception of the project: "The game began as a lunchtime conversation in January 2005. I found myself seated across from John Sarpong, founder of Africast Global Media and grandson of the late King Prempeh I. He's an extraordinary man with a powerful vision of Africa's future. We struck up a conversation about the power of video games to tell stories, convey ideas, and entertain. Wouldn't it be cool, I mused, to lead a caravan across the Sahara, to visit Timbuktu, to stroll through the Roman ruins at Lepis Magna, and to explore the vast jungles and savannahs of Africa?" You can now read the full Gamasutra column, including a bit of political activism and a frightening picture of The Hamburglar (no registration required, please feel free to link to the article from external websites).