Gamers save shekels as The Bible Online launches

Even the most esoteric backwaters of Second Life – the online universe in which users interact through avatars – can't compete with this. A new MMO (Massively-Multiplayer Online game) to be released next week lets gamers live out the Old Testament. They can't actually play God – but they can play Abraham, Jacob or Isaac.

Chapter one of The Bible Online, produced by games publisher FIAA, moves from testing to the real thing next week. The game is set in the time of the Patriarchs – about 50 years after the Flood – and is based on the book of Genesis.

Like a cross between the strategy game Civilisation and the role-playing 'virtual world' World of Warcraft, the game lets users construct villages, manage resources and protect a tribe. They can even horde a virtual currency – shekels.

Users can play either as a Patriarch, or alongside Abraham and his sons and are given quests to complete based on bible stories.

The first round of beta testing of The Bible Online is over, and the game launches for real in Europe on September 28. The 2,500 happy begetters who tried the game out will each receive 50 shekels for their time.

If that wasn't weird enough, a rival publisher announced this week the creation of Planet Michael, a 'virtual planet' devoted to Michael Jackson where players can trade sparkly gloves for sequinned socks with other fans, learn to moonwalk or wander through the Thriller graveyard.

It's not known whether you can also make repeated visits to a virtual plastic surgeon – though the game's publishers, SEE Virtual Worlds say they are prepared for a deluge of cheap gags just like that one. ·