Popomundo

Popomundo.PNG

Popomundo (frequently shortened in-game to Popo) is a browser-based MMORPG in which players compete for fame in a virtual music industry. It is the invention of Swedish Developers ExtraLives AB, also creators of the football (soccer) management game Hattrick.

While the music component at the heart of the game is free to play, there is also an optional non-renewing, subscription-based VIP package which adds several bonus features, such as potential ownership of a company, opportunity to participate in the in-game politics to name just two. However, the developers state that the VIP package does not give any gameplay advantages over the free core game although this is a topic of some debate among the userbase.

Cities

As of January 2008, the game had over 280,000 registered users competing in 33 different cities throughout the world. Many of these are either 'legal' second characters (such as children) or characters that are no longer ACTIVE. New cities are often created, to match the fast growth or translation projects of the game's userbase.

Buenos Aires, Argentina
Melbourne, Australia
Brussels, Belgium
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
São Paulo, Brazil
Montreal, Canada
Toronto, Canada
Shanghai, China
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Copenhagen, Denmark
Berlin, Germany
Tallinn, Estonia
London, England
Helsinki, Finland
Paris, France
Budapest, Hungary
Rome, Italy
Vilnius, Lithuania
Mexico City, Mexico
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tromsø, Norway
Porto, Portugal
Moscow, Russia
Glasgow, Scotland
Belgrade, Serbia
Singapore, Singapore
Barcelona, Spain
Madrid, Spain
Stockholm, Sweden
Ankara, Turkey
Istanbul, Turkey
Los Angeles, USA
Nashville, USA
New York City, USA

Internationalization and community

The game interface has been translated to 17 different languages, listed here in chronological order of in-game appearance: English, Swedish, Spanish, French, Finnish, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, Italian, Norwegian, Lithuanian, Croatian, Turkish, Portuguese, Dutch, Estonian, Serbian, Chinese, Russian and Hungarian.

Users are able to play the game in any of the above-mentioned languages, as well as pick their currency and date format of choice.

English isn't the predominant in-game language, although it's the "native" language used by its developers. English is currently being used by roughly 19,000 users, while Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese are being used by 21,000 and 22,000 users, respectively. The implementation of Istanbul saw a massive increase amongst Turkish users, who are almost 60,000 already. The exact number of users per country isn't known, as the game provides statistics only about the number of people using a particular translation, not accounting for those who opt to play in English or any other language.

Apart from an in-game message system, the players are able to communicate with each other through built-in forums. Roleplaying and in-character communication is encouraged and desired in the game's multiple language-divided General, Newbie/Questions and City forums, but there is also an Off-Topic forum where players behind their characters can engage in any form of out-of-character communication. There is also a game chat which is moderated by volunteers. The chat has recently been separated from the game itself by the developers. No reason for this has been given but many users feel it is to protect the developers from legal recourse because of questionable actions of some of the users in the chatroom.

Characters

Upon entering the game, the player is able to choose the name of their character from a predetermined list of available name and surname combinations, generated by the system, using the lists of real-life names and surnames provided by the game's translation teams. The character's name will depend on the city they decided to start in. Also available is choosing the character's gender and age, and to a degree, their early biography.

Popomundo characters have mood and health levels, can get sick (catch a cold), depressed (if a friend or a pet dies, or from general neglect), and female characters can even become pregnant and give birth after six weeks real-time, providing the one legal way for a player to control two or more in-game characters. Every character also has an indicator of their personal Star Quality, and can get various in-game achievement points (for example, for performing in front of more than 1,000 people, or performing their first 'perfect' concert).

Also describing characters are their five personal attributes, described by one of the 27 in-game rating levels (ranging from 'truly abysmal' to 'GOD SMACKINGLY GLORIOUS'): charm, looks, IQ, voice and musical talents, each of them being important for a certain aspect of the game. Attributes are improved early in the game via starting "newbie experience points", given for 21 days, after which it's up to the character/artist to earn up to 3 experience points per week, depending on their in-game activity (specific actions they performed, such as doing shows, jamming and recording songs, etc). The experience points can be spent on either attributes, or health/mood/skills/songs.

Skills and career

Popomundo contains a number of skills (more than 150) that players can learn in order to further the abilities of their character. As a player works on a skill, they become better at it, adding stars to signify their skill level. Skills can go up to five stars/levels (and after teaching a skill, 6, up to 10), at which point they have been perfected.

Some skills also serve as prerequesites for other skills; for example, one needs level 3 in 'Basic String Instruments' to begin learning 'Electric Guitar'.

There are various sorts of skills which aid the character in different ways. Genre skills, such as 'History of Heavy Metal', improve the artist's ability to jam (rehearse) and improve their songs. Personal stage skills, such as 'Basic Dancing', improve the player's ability to perform on-stage. Instrumental skills, such as 'Play the Drums', improve the player's ability to play an instrument live and on recordings, while other musical skills, like 'Basic Record Production', allow the character to better utilize other aspects of the musical industry. Some generic skills, like 'Basic Manners', are also useful when performing various show events, as well as used in player-to-player interaction.

Apart from skills related to music, Popomundo features a number of skills useful in other career types. Although the core of the game is music-related, players aren't bound to a specific in-game progression, and can choose different career paths, such as criminal and police activities, politics, medicine, science, engineering, law, comedy, poetry, etc.

There are four main categories of skills in Popomundo, with regard to their visibility and commonness:

public skills, visible to everyone (examples: Basic Fashion, Pharmacology, Electric Guitar)
private skills, visible to everyone, but without knowledge of the skill level (examples: Basic Yoga, Rhetorics, Flamenco)
secret skills, visible only to their owner (examples: Basic Religion, Jujutsu Mastery, Street Lore)
secret underground skills, visible to their owner only, very rare and special (examples: Basic Crime, Tantric [...], All-Night Partying)

The game's VIP package offers an extension of the occupational aspect of the game. When one subscribes to the package the character may get a job as a CEO, SWAT officer, Judge, or Special Agent, in addition to those available to all players. Purchasing the game also allows players to start their own company. The company can purchase locales, including Clubs and Security firms (among others) and the owner's task is to raise the quality of such a locale to the extent where it is profitable. This is done mainly by hiring staff, the more the better. As quality reaches the upper echelons, it can only be raised further with the purchasing of another locale, a HQ. This serves the purpose of providing a quality boost, although the strength of this boost is determind by the quality of the HQ!

Genres

Popomundo features the following musical genres:

African music
Blues
Classical
Country & western
Electronica
Flamenco
Heavy metal
Hip hop
Jazz
Latin music
Modern rock
Pop
Punk rock
R&B
Reggae
Rock
World music

The game also features a wide variety of sub-genres contained in the main genres, such as post-punk, black metal, rockabilly and industrial.

History

Popomundo has its very own history. There are a lot of characters in the game whose names are known to everyone, as they participiated in big events, did horrible things or are simply playing awesome music. For example, the very first dictator of Popomundo was Melvin Stjärnblom, a developer-controlled character with overall authority above player cities. His life was taken by an angry mob in London, under the first real in-game revolution. Since then, every city has its own government. 1

On 9 October, 2007, the developers of Popomundo changed the game's name to Poplove. In the Developer's News entry titled Welcome to Poplove, it was explained that the name change was because:

Popomundo means "obscene" things in most of our major translations. It's also hard for a lot of people to remember, spell, and pronounce. 2

In the Popomundo forums, there was a collective outcry from many of the game's players, who hated the name and pressured the developers to change the name back. On 11 October, the name was temporarily changed to The Game Formerly Known As Popomundo and the URL was changed back to www.popomundo.com. The change not only came about because of the massive outcry, but due to the fact that the domain www.poplove.com was formerely a pornographic site, and due to this, it was blocked by internet filters, blocking some players from accessing the game. 3

Stability

The game is stated to be in beta and has been since the beginning. This 'Beta' has lasted many years and many believe the game will never actually go Gold. Radical changes to the gaming system (such as the introduction of politics for city management) or even disruptive events (such as the "Popogeddon", when lots of people "died" in the game, only to be "resurrected" while the game updated itself 4) are not uncommon.

Popomundo in mainstream media

An article about Popomundo appeared in the Spanish edition of the Rolling Stone Magazine in July 2006. (article text, translated to English)

External links

da:Popomundo de:Popomundo es:Popomundo id:Popomundo it:Popomundo nl:Popomundo pt:Popomundo fi:Popomundo sv:Popomundo tr:Popomundo