NCsoft announced it will launch the Immortality Drive - a time capsule with the digitised DNA of select video game players and space aficionados - into orbit when famed game designer Richard Garriott travels to the International Space Station in October 2008.
As part of NCsoft's Operation Immortality, Richard Garriott - the man who created Tabula Rasa, a massively multiplayer online (MMO) PC game that explores the destruction of Earth - is now venturing into space to save humanity.
During the campaign, U.S. Tabula Rasa players have a chance to have their DNA sequenced, digitised and sent into space on the Immortality Drive. In addition, all players worldwide with active retail accounts on September 2, 2008 will have their Tabula Rasa characters uploaded to the device, giving them the opportunity to go to space virtually. In order to make this unique opportunity accessible to as many people as possible, free trials of the game are available at NCsoft's official site.
Garriott will place the Immortality Drive on the International Space Station when he travels there in autumn.
"I've been able to do some very exciting things in the games business, but nothing of this magnitude," said Garriott, executive producer for Tabula Rasa at NCsoft. "I'm thrilled we can offer the once in a lifetime chance to millions of gamers to virtually go to space with me. A select few U.S. players will have their DNA digitised and sent. And, theoretically, if anything happens to the human race, it could be their DNA that is used to resurrect humanity."
Starting today and lasting through August 31, 2008, anyone with a PC and an Internet connection can go to Immortality Drive website and participate in weekly polls on humanity's greatest achievements which will be included on the Immortality Drive, such as "What is the greatest song of all time?" and "What is the greatest technological breakthrough of all time?" Current Tabula Rasa players, or those who download and play the free trial, will also be able to enter a personal message for inclusion on the Drive.
"This is your chance to leave your mark," says Garriott. "While everyone can participate in the polls at Immortality Drive website, Tabula Rasa players will be the only gamers in the universe who can say that a piece of them is in space, since we're sending their in-game alter-egos, and for some, their DNA, to space with me."
Tabula Rasa, which launched November 2007, is an intense, fast-paced, sci-fi MMO PC game that puts you in the middle of the never-ending intergalactic fight for freedom against a hostile alien race called the Bane. Players use high-tech weaponry, alien powers, and the help of other Allied Free Sentients (AFS) soldiers to rid the universe of the Bane threat.
