Well, I have to say, when I heard Planet Michael was happening, it immediately filled my mind with that scene from Being John Malkovich when John Malkovich goes inside his own head and sees a world entirely populated by him with everyone saying, "Malkovich. Malkovich. Malkovich." over and over again.
(Laughs) I do remember that scene! Right! I guess your question is "what is Planet Michael"? OK, well, are you familiar with MMO's?
Yes.
OK, so Planet Michael is what I'd call a light MMO and has some virtual world mechanics, as I'd call them. So you could expect a style of gameplay that's similar to something like World Of Warcraft, although we don't focus on the violence. Our game focuses much more on the nurturing, dance music, adventuring and questing gameplay that you'd expect to find in a world inspired by Michael Jackson. We really believe very strongly that the social aspect of the world that we would create that is always present in these (MMO) games and we would focus on that. We would like Planet Michael to be a destination for all forms of Michael Jackson fans; those that are hardcore gamers right up to those who have never played a video game before in their lives. Anyone who would find it cool to be immersed in a Michael Jackson-themed world and hanging out with like-minded people.
In terms of what we're looking at with building the world, we're looking to take Michael and the most iconic moments of his career and we tend to look at that through the lens of his songs and music. So what we talked about – and all of this is in pretty early stages, because we're in pre-production now – potentially having an environment called Billie Jean City. Billie Jean City would take its thematic lead from 'Billie Jean', from songs like 'Don't Stop', so it will be a more urban environment. Then you'd have another area which is more a Bad land, so to speak, and there the theme would tie into songs like 'Smooth Criminal' or 'Bad'. We've talked about having a more organic, more natural area on Planet Michael, like a Neverland that would tie into songs like 'Earth Song' or 'Heal The World'.
In a certain way we're trying to allow players to really immerse themselves and live within a Michael Jackson-themed environment, and the segments which make up that environment are going to be many and varied.
There's certainly potential for Plant Michael to be an online forum for fans, but in a lot of MMO's the world-building includes lore and back story which provides potential for questing. How will that aspect fit into Planet Michael?
Well, we're in very early stages of development so we haven't yet finalised how we're going to tie everything together. What I can say is that we're looking at the standard MMO activities. In terms of the lore, there's been a lot of discussions but I don't feel comfortable with any of it in terms of saying 'well, here's the back story of the player going into the world'. I can tell you that there will be one, there will be a thread that ties these different areas together and focuses the player in some consistent thematic way. It's all still open.
From an activities point of view, it's important at this stage to take a step back and say that Planet Michael is going to be implemented in what is called The Entropia Universe. That's a platform that was created by a Swedish company called MindArk and they are our partners in this endeavour. They have a product out now called Project Calypso which is a sci-fi-themed planet. Planet Michael is the first of many themed planets we intend to push into the Entropia Universe.
So the Entropia Universe provides the infrastructure for all the games we will do a the SEE Global Entertainment family. That infrastructure provides for all of the standard MMO activities from hunting, to crafting, to mining – all of the questing abilities and group abilities. It's very much like any other MMO, it's just that we will be theming them to Michael Jackson. So in a standard MMO you have a lot violence and killing. In a Michael Jackson world those sort of thing are out of step with how he looked at the world – we're looking a lot more towards music and dance. In a PVP (player vs player) situation, we might be having a dance-off. Those will be the skills we're looking towards; players level up by becoming proficient in certain types of dances, along the lines of the iconic moves that Michael Jackson did. We looking to blend those very heavily into the game.
So, just looking at the community aspect and the non-violent content, would you say that Planet Michael would be a virtual world, closer in spirit and design to Second Life, rather than an MMO like World Of Warcraft?
Not really. There are some elements of Second Life in it, sure, but Second Life didn't have almost any game aspect to it at all. We're planning a very strong set of abilities, quests and tasks for players so we're not like that at all. You will be questing in our game. You will be fending off monsters. You will be interacting and meeting with other players. You will be earning, looting and collecting items in the game. For example, you may find yourself in an environment where there are tractors destroying the world. It will be your job to take them out and heal the world using the skill set you've built up – probably dancing and using some sort of magical behaviour – to earn points and credits by defeating the tractors. That's just one idea of how we would blend a Michal Jackson theme into an MMO experience.
If the visual aesthetic from the world comes from the videos and images associated with Michael Jackson's life, will that extend to the character models too?
Absolutely. Yes. The NPCs will be themed that way too.
A lot of Planet Michael, as you've said, is visually themed around Michael Jackson's life and work. Will his music feature in the game?
You will absolutely hear many of Michael's iconic songs in the game. I have to be very careful here because ...
It's a feature you're not allowed to talk about yet?
(Laughs) Exactly right! At this point, though, I can tell you that we're obviously very aware of the importance of the game's music. Some aspects of the game are easier than others, mind you. With the music, though, you run into a lot of rights issues, which I'm not prepared to talk about today. But I can tell you we would not create a Michael Jackson world that did not have Michael Jackson's music in it.
Where did the idea come from?
Well SEE's background is in themed entertainment. Our company and the people we have working for us come from the entertainment business. We've got very strong relationships with the film and music industries, sports and entertainment. At the same time, MindArk kind of found us and we decided to form a relationship.
The question then became, 'what would really put us on the map?' and Michael Jackson just came up as a topic. The people at SEE are obviously aware of the impact of Michael Jackson. We proposed the idea for Planet Michael and reached out to the estate (of Michael Jackson) and when they heard the idea they became really excited about it. They felt that it was the sort of thing that, were Michael Jackson alive today, he'd want to be involved in, he'd want to play and he'd want to play with his fans and friends. That's really how it all started.
The MMO market is traditionally really tough to crack. How would you go about tackling that with such a left-of-the-dial concept like Planet Michael?
Well, I'd reply to that with two words: Michael Jackson. (Laughs) I think that we can easily penetrate the mind share of the people attracted to MMO's with him and he just opens the door to access of millions of people who are incredibly interested in him. He's a world renowned icon and I believe it gives us a very big leg up here. If we had to come out of left field with some unlabeled, unknown MMO, it would be a very hard slog. With Planet Michael, if we can execute to the level we expect to, just having access to the license for Michael Jackson's incredible portfolio of music and video and look and feel – the whole essence of him – gives us an advantage in and of itself.
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