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October 20, 2006, 03:33 PM ET
Gaming With the Bard
"Praising what is lost," Shakespeare once wrote, "makes the remembrance dear." Recapturing what is lost might be even sweeter, though, at least for Edward Castronova, an associate professor of telecommunications at Indiana University at Bloomington.
Mr. Castronova, an expert on the economics of online gaming (The Chronicle, August 1, 2005), received a $240,000 grant yesterday from the MacArthur Foundation to develop a game called Arden: The World of Shakespeare. It should bear a resemblance to virtual worlds like Second Life and World of Warcraft, but it will be populated by Elizabethan characters instead of fanciful avatars.
"Video-game companies make these worlds where millions of people get together online to encounter orcs and dragons," says Mr. Castronova. "Why not Shakespeare? He's just as fun, and better for the soul."
The professor offered more details about the Arden project in an interview this week with CNET News. --Brock Read
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