14 DAY TRIAL // While some games set out to be an artistic statement or to simply generate income, though far fewer, some are developed for the sole purpose of acting as an advertisement medium. A perfect example lies within America's Army that, as time passed, proved, according to local studies, to be one of the most effective recruitment tools it ever devised. So, if something works, don't fix it. NASA has decided that it too could use a little bit of publicity to attract future collaborators, so, just like the Army considered, a video game was the way to go.
This was the premise that gave birth to Astronaut: Mars, Moon, and Beyond, the MMO that will have people lining up at NASA's door to become space explorers. The project seems to have been in the works for quite a while, considering that GamePolitics reports that a demo for it is inbound and preparing to land in early 2010. Moonbase Alpha is the name of the sneak peak we'll be getting at the title, and the in-game story will start in 2035. Apparently, this is the estimated time when people will start building settlements on something else than good, old-fashioned Terran soil. While some of you might think this is going to be another EVE Online, don't be too hasty in judging.
While there will be some common ground for the two games, Astronaut will make use of “science, technology, engineering, and mathematics learning,” so don't expect this to be something anyone can handle. Apparently, NASA also plans to use the MMO to offer course accreditation, so the game will probably have a very elaborate gameplay structure. The idea in itself might have worked for the Army, but it might not work as well for NASA, simply because of standards.
While pretty much anyone can join the Army as long as they pass a psychiatric evaluation and can run the training course and rank anywhere higher than a couch-potato, being a part of NASA is, well, rocket science. If anything, the only target audience of the game would be the attention deficit disorder geniuses that find taking classes too dull, but might stick around long enough to level up.