When Second Life Herald reported that NASA had lost funding for its upcoming educational MMO yet continued to seek game developers willing to work for free, we became curious. Why would NASA shoot themselves in the foot, yet continue to hobble along as if it never happened? But we soon found out the entire story lacked merit.
In order to find out what happened vis-a-vis budgets, “non-reimbursable Space Act Agreements” and all the rest, GameCyte spoke with Daniel Laughlin, Project Manager at NASA Learning Technologies. As the game’s originator and the gentleman who wrote the Request for Proposals (RFP) that generated the swirl of controversy to begin with, he was both eager to clear his name — and eminently qualified to tell us what happened to the game’s previously reported $3 million budget.
Apparently, $3 million was the figure NASA Learning Technologies had provided for the year 2007, and funding had been lost for that year; but that only pushed the game back, delaying the RFP to 2008. According to Laughlin, NASA “still has a little over $2 million” to dedicate to the MMO project. But that money isn’t going straight into development.
Instead, Laughlin told us that approximately $1.5 million dollars is devoted to “attracting education experts to the project,” and an additional $350,000 is allocated to buying time from NASA experts in the four Mission Directorates. Both educators and NASA experts will offer their valuable knowledge and experience to game developers — something without which an educational piece of software would be rather useless.
However, NASA realizes that it’s not all about education either — fun is just as important for a video game, and they recognize that game developers require cash to generate fun. “If it’s not fun,” says Laughlin, “no one will play it and we’ll have wasted our time. The 90’s were littered with edutainment… but in order to stimulate, [an educational game] has to be compelling enough to be commercially viable.”
And, at the heart of commercial viability is that same, non-reimbursable Space Act Agreement. Surprised? You shouldn’t be; at least not if you think like a government contractor. Laughlin explains that the Space Act Agreement is a flexible tool used by NASA that removes restrictions on profitablity. “If it were a government contract, it would be illegal to be paid twice, once by the government and a second time by consumers.”
But because of the Space Act Agreement, NASA can pay a game developer nothing, merely providing them with valuable resources, and thereby bypass Federal acquisition rules — what Laughlin describes vividly as “a phonebook full of red tape.” And then, NASA’s game development partner is free to profit from their work, perhaps even selling the title on store shelves. “We would not rule out the possiblity of selling at retail,” Laughlin said.
“Brand placement”? That’s the grand prize for the developer who secures rights to the MMO. Assuming the end product is a shiny new title ready to simultaneously educate and entertain youngsters interested in space exploration, NASA will add an extra profitability boost — the NASA “meatball” logo.
Despite citing great interest from both within NASA and from the outside, Laughlin likened finished proposals to college papers, in that he doesn’t expect them to arrive anytime soon.
We’ll check in with NASA periodically to bring you updated reports on their MMO project.
UPDATE 4.25.08, 10:00AM: In-between playful jibes regarding the lack of proper fact-checking among all parties reporting on this story, Second Life Herald has reminded us that they broke the original story; we’re merely fixing it. :-) In all seriousness, we like to give credit where credit is due, and links have been updated to reflect that.
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