Are you tired of being a murder hobo in MMORPGs, tasked with little more than mindless slaughter in between gear grinds, achievement hustles, and lockbox shenanigans? If so, you’re going to want to take a look at Occupy White Walls, which is not actually an April Fools’ Day joke. Developer StikiPixels is calling it a “PC sandbox-building, AI-driven MMO where people play with Art,” complete with gobs of actual historical art, architectural assets, and oh yeah, a mysterious AI on the loose throughout the museum-ish setting. The website’s whimsical, quirky prose should give you an idea what you’re getting into.
“Once you’ve built it, fill it. Your aesthetics, your interests even your art. Curate your own collection from hundreds of thousands of artworks, from the old masters to faeces on canvas. Learn, explore and comment on art. You will find art you didn’t know you’ll love and a new generation of artists will find the audience they deserve. Don’t know anything about art? No matter. Our Radical AI Discovery Engine (D.A.I.S.Y) learns your taste in art and helps you find art you’ll love, and keep you away from stuff you’ll loathe.”
It’s in a closed alpha now but can be accessed by signing up on the official site. According to the press release, only a solo building mode exists right now, with plans to develop for “guilds of people.” And as for the business model…
“The ‘Art Market’ is already cynical, patronising, unethical and geared for the very-very-rich, we don’t see a point in making an online ‘Art fantasy land’ like that too. OWW is as far away as possible from ‘social casino’ and ‘Pay-to-win’. No matter how poor you are, if you are creative (you are), opinionated (that too) and enthusiastic, you’ll do great in OWW. Fair-to-Play means that OWW has no loot boxes (sorry) and no ‘real money’ required to buy any of the game elements – you can realise your way to whatever you like, organically.”
Check out the official site and videos below and we think you’ll agree with our headline. In a good way.
