The Future

[The_Future]

As time goes on, people often cite 2007 as a landmark year for the now famous game, The Eternal City. It's become almost a part of our culture, reviving Rome as a viable subject for nearly any genre of video game, as well as leading to a resurgence of Rome in other media. While no one can say with certainty that The Eternal City will continue to thrive, it is the opinion of many industry analysts that the brand now touted as SOE's strongest will live on for many years to come.

They say hind-sight is 20/20, but few would have guessed that The Eternal City was headed for greatness near the end of 2006. Many of the oldest players of the game had left, and the older characters they played, and played with, were beginning to be either killed off due to boredom-inspired conflict or from simple lack of care. It was a dark time for the players and staff alike.

But then, on Christmas of 2006, an announcement was made by Scott Martins, the long missing founder of Worlds-Apart, which would become SOE-Denver, and the producer of The Eternal City. As his former company had been purchased by Sony Online Entertainment, Mr. Martins had now been freed up to spend time thinking about the future of the game which started it all. He spent countless nights in the lead up to the Christmas announcement, trying to decide whether he was biting off more than he could chew, or if he might actually bring The Eternal City to the heights of greatness to which is once aspired.

December 25, 2006. A press release is made by SOE-Denver, formerly Worlds Apart. It is send to major gaming publications, as well as posted on the forums of Skotos, the company which was currently providing hosting for the Eternal City. It announced sweeping changes which were to be made in the following year. Gameworld expansion, the reworking of classic weapon skillsets, and the implementation of a large social system were at the forefront, but the press release covered many topics. A small section of the press release which was widely ignored, however, would be what would change TEC forever:

"In addition to the changes we plan to bring to the gameworld are a reworking of our enemy NPC artifical intelligence as a part of a wider change focused on long-term player goals."

Amid the announcements of new weapons, new skills, and large new character-specific enhancements, this jargon-riddled sentence received little attention. Many speculate that Mr. Martins worded the comment on purpose, in case the changes he attempted to implement turned out less revolutionary than he would have expected. If these claims are founded, then Scott couldn't have been more wrong.

Changes began to roll in, even before the start of the new year. A healing revamp, which had long been screamed for by the community, was released near the end of January. It included a set of skills similar to herbalism being split between healing and the outdoor basics skillset, pertaining to its upcoming disease system, which was released in the weeks following. Herbs could be found, medicines could be made, and characters would get ill, and despite the problem that this faced to characters, the -players- accepted it as a necessary, and exciting change for their beloved game.

Around this time the GMs started holding events, largely unscripted, but with the power of a dynamic gameworld beginning to appear. Those hunting in the grasslands would begin to stumble upon camps of brigands, and even cineran marauders. New items would begin to roll in with greater frequency. A release in March of a blacksmithing skill brought armor and weapon customization to the forefront. A few weeks later, the outdoor basics skillset was updated to include skills for the discovery and mining of minerals and specific woods for use in the new forges rising up around Iridine.

Fairly soon it was realized that the camps of Marauders began to have more purpose to them. They were no longer spawning due to GM influence, as was previously thought, but they seemed to be spawning of their own volition. As they had been largely ignored, they started moving closer and closer to the city, with larger outposts being created by the invaders. Still thought to be a nuisance, only a few groups would begin to attack them, as the money they gained was negligible. Mechanical changes continued to be regularly added by a revitalized Eternal City coding team. People were enjoying the changes, but something was still missing. People were having fun, but it was still mindless fun. Then it happened.

Burning was seen far beyond the walls of the city. No warning had been given, no event scheduled. It wasn't even peak time for players. But suddenly, the Cinerans had taken Vetallun. They began to slaughter NPCs from the crowds, causing the citizens to flee. The shops became empty, and Fern disappeared, later to be discovered living in a shack near Blackvine. They marched through the village, pillaging and burning, until they reached the fort. There, the legio, largely out on the front, not expecting such an internal threat to arise, never saw it coming. The fort was completely decimated, and the soldiers stationed there were killed.

The players saw what had happened, right under their noses. They started to put two and two together, and swore that it would never happen again. The characters of Iridine put aside their squabbles, and everyone chipped in to take Vetallun back from the nefarious invaders. It was then the GMs announced new outpost-building mechanics, which would require regular player attention to stay up, including the foraging of wood to build them, the creation of armor and weapons to arm the guards, and of course, the job of the players to assist the weak NPC guards assigned to the outposts. By the time the larger action had taken place, the cinerans had marched dangerously close to the city, and almost all travel outside the walls was considered foolish.

The players began fighting back, pushing the cinerans back to Vetallun. The Fort was recaptured, the city was freed, and the players had their wish. They had beaten the Cinerans. They had beaten the GMs. They had won. But the battle was not yet over. The outposts continued to be built north of Vetallun, they continued to push the cinerans back. As they pushed further north, they discovered new sections of gameworld which had been built while they were confined to the city. New cities had already been taken by the Cinerans, and had to be liberated. Defeats were regularly suffered, but they only made the victories that much more sweet.

Amid all this, new skills and features were constantly being added. The combat system itself hadn't seen great change, but the way it fit into the gameworld had. Everyone had a place under the new system, no matter how skilled they were or how long they had played. Everyone could make a difference. And this is what changed TEC. Not the weapons, not the skills, the players. The players had found a game where everyone could belong. And everyone did.

-The Future

[Forest Bandit]

Well written.

[Slaser]

I like it.

[Genes]

We could only wish we'd get that kind of love.

[NewPatriot]

I always thought there'd be robots.

[Zemis2]

nice , exactly what we needed.

[kaffieneaddikt]

That's amazing. Hire that guy as a GM!

[Anonymoose]

bumpededed

[MrSelfDestruct]

Originally Posted by NewPatriot

I always thought there'd be robots.

What about ninjas? I always thought there'd be ninjas too.

Maybe zombies? Or Zombie ninjas? Or zombie pirate ninjas?

[NewPatriot]

There is no such thing as a pirate ninja.

[MrSelfDestruct]

Originally Posted by NewPatriot

There is no such thing as a pirate ninja.

You never know what miracles the future holds.

[Othento Tiburon]

http://www.stanford.edu/~scodary/tkam.htm

[Phwoar]

I like it. I was kind of waiting for Skynet to become self-aware toward the end.

[The_Future]

MisterNumbers sucks.

[Red431]

Originally Posted by The_Future

MisterNumbers sucks.

Now, or just in the future?