Allods Online taking sign-ups for closed beta

William Dobson — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Sci-fi, New titles, News items

gPotato has announced that Allods Online is just about to enter its closed beta phase of testing, and there is now a sign-up form available for those interested in getting involved. The upcoming free-to-play title is being developed by Russian studio Astrum Nival, who are responsible for localizing and publishing a number of online games for the Russian market, as well as developing Heroes of Might and Magic V (though they were known as Nival Interactive at that time, the core team is now part of Astrum Nival). With Allods Online, the team hopes to create a game that stands out in the free-to-play arena due to its high production values -- with a US$12 million budget to work with, they certainly have the opportunity to achieve this goal. It is based on a popular Russian single player RPG called Allods (or Rage of Mages internationally).

So what's the game actually about? Here's the developer's rundown: "Allods Online is a free full blown MMORPG set in a fantasy space opera universe with player-built and player-controlled space battleships, creating a new dimension of co-operative game play. Join one of the 2 factions at war in the deep storyline by choosing from one of the 28 classes available." If this has you wanting to find out more, then make sure to visit the game's site and sign up for the closed beta. It's set to begin in the next couple of weeks, with further invites being sent out in waves after the initial batch. There are also some incentives for players who reach certain levels during the test. Head past the break to see a trailer explaining a little bit about the title's battleship gameplay.

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Why Fantasy, and not Science Fiction, Part Eleventy-Billion

Akela Talamasca — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Sci-fi, EVE Online, Neocron 2, Culture, Game mechanics, Lore, Opinion, Star Wars Galaxies, Tabula Rasa

As my compadre Eli writes here, there is reasoning available that Fantasy MMOs have flourished due to there being a greater preponderance of Fantasy titles, in various media, upon which to draw inspiration to sustain an MMO. The lack of substantive Science Fiction titles of the time, therefore, leads to the correlating dearth of such MMOs. However, this argument only mentions in passing what I think is the more crucial element, which is this:

Fantasy titles are about the Hero's Journey, or the Epic. Science Fiction titles are about exploration of ideas. One of these story types makes for better adaptation to immersive gameplay. Guess which?

Now, I will back up a bit and acknowledge that as a blanket statement, what I said does not (and should not be considered to) cover every Fantasy or Science Fiction title everywhere. Clearly, Star Wars is the most well-known Epic SF story, but then again, Lucas based the plot almost entirely on Joseph Campbell's monomyth, which was itself formulated around the epic myths and stories of history. And perhaps one of the finest Fantasy titles ever written, John Crowley's Little, Big, uses Fantasy tropes to examine the idea of the complexity of human relationships, rather than one character's journey to overcome evil. But having made those concessions, let me make my case.

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Why Fantasy, and not Science Fiction, Part Eleventy-Billion originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 23 Jan 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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