approaches sentience. Olga Pirofsky—One of the many actors for the Net-based interactive character Uncle Jingle. She is a widow, having lost her husband and son about 30 years prior to the beginning of the series. While working as Uncle Jingle, she begins having headaches. As she researches Tandagore Syndrome, which she suspects she has, she begins to learn of the children who are falling into comas around the world. Calliope Skouros—a Greek-Australian detective who is assigned a 5-year old unsolvable murder case. As she researches, she begins to notice similarities between this murder and the MO of a famous serial killer (Dread). Christabel Sorensen—a girl of approximately 7 or 8 years who has a special friendship with the strange old man Mr. Sellars. She is unaware that Sellars is under house arrest, and willingly helps him with his plans. Cho-Cho—a 10-year-old street boy of Mexican descent who sneaks onto the army base while Christabel is trying to help Mr. Sellars. He becomes involved with Sellars's experiments. Adaptations Video game On October 1, 2008, RealU and dtp entertainment announced that they were developing a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) based on the novels. The Otherland MMO was scheduled to be released in Europe and North America in 2012. However, after dtp entertainment (RealU's parent company) entered insolvency, RealU confirmed that it was laying off its staff and that development on the Otherland game was cancelled. On October 9, 2014, Drago Entertainment revealed that it had taken over the game's development. The game was preparing for early access through Steam in August 2015, but the release was postponed until September 10 due to bug problems in the U.S. and German servers. After releasing through Steam Early Access, Otherland's development woes continued. The game was removed from the Steam store due to alleged technical issues on January 28, 2016. The game became available again on 4 October 2016. Servers for the game were shutdown permanently on September 23, 2021. Film In January 2012, Warner Bros. acquired the film rights to the Otherland novels. The producer of the planned feature film is to be Dan Lin, and the script is to be written by John Scott III. See also Influences German Power metal band Blind Guardian has composed a song titled "Otherland", which is dedicated to the series, on its 2006 album A Twist in the Myth. Science and technology Mind transfer Second Life