"This isn’t Highlander … when it comes to godhood, there can be more than one."

The world of man has slipped through your fingers, leaving few traces of that former life. There was a time when the lands knew your name, and songs were sung to your glory. But now, you are a fallen hero, a memory ... or maybe not. As one road ends, another begins - though this time, it is a path from the valley of legends to the halls of the immortals.

If you walk this path well, you will ascend into godhood.

When Mythica was shown at E3 in Los Angeles in May, the din naturally associated with the event was increased by the sounds of jaws hitting the floor. Stunning to look at, this massively multiplayer online role-playing game from Microsoft Game Studios, is rich with game play and redefines how fellowships will work together in this game genre.

Based on Norse mythology, the game places players in the role of a fallen mortal hero who has been called to Valhalla. Odin has granted you immortality and enlisted your aid to combat the Chaos that is spreading throughout all the planes of existence. But there is also something more at stake here - as you progress through the battles you will uncover forgotten details about your past life.

Success in these wars means glory and godhood.

Stepping into this realm will indeed be a rich experience.

Players will be able to customize their characters for a unique look, and as you move along, you will gain followers or worshipers. The game features a hybrid of class- and skill-based systems. Players will choose a Patron God, which in turn determines what skill trees are available and what physical and mental attributes the avatar is blessed with. There are two types of Patron Gods - the Aesir (physical) and Vanir (magic). There are eight general classes and within each class family there are more specialized classes.

For example, Thor is an Aesir patron, and in particular, the patron of berserkers. As berserkers progress in power and stature, they stop wearing armor and begin sporting tattoos and symbols on their bodies. The class is one of power and offensive battle skills.

Mythica is a deep, involving and amazing vehicle that is slated for release in 2004, and could be one of the titles that not only resets the bar graphically on the MMORPG genre, but redefines the rules of game play.

Matt Wilson, Mythica’s Executive Producer, took time to talk with GameZone.com about this highly anticipated title.

Matt: The Mythica Engine is all homegrown. Our Client Team, led by Bruno Silva, built the graphics engine completely from scratch. Of course, they first looked at what other games were doing, but decided the available engines either didn’t meet Mythica’s needs, or were too intrinsically tied to their particular games. It took the Client Team about three years to develop the Mythica engine, and we’re all extremely proud of the results. After all, it had quite a challenge to meet—generating entire planes of existence for the very Immortals to travel!

In addition to the Mythica Engine itself, a number of other technical efforts went into the game. Our character animation is handled by another talented team, led by Robert Smiley, whose mission is quite simply to create the most realistic, astonishing detail possible. One success came when we pushed the boundaries of mocapped data as far as possible; although mocap has traditionally animated the PCs and more humanoid characters, we’re taking it to a much wider variety of creatures. So even the lowly Hulderfolke now have emotes!

We also incorporated the Havok 2 Engine to animate character "danglers" — the swinging or dangling parts of a character’s costume, such as the Pyromancer’s skirts or Demonologist’s chains. Matt Lee heads that part of the animation process (among many other things), which we feel goes a long way toward bringing the characters more vividly to life. You’re an Immortal after all — you’ve got to dress to impress!

Q: This may well be the game that redefines the concept of fellowship roles in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG, or MMP for short). Can you explain the rationale behind this format?

Matt: If you mean our focus on class-specific roles within a fellowship, then yes, that is something in which we strongly believe…and I’d be glad to go into the rationale.

In any MMP, we feel success must come (in large part, though not exclusively) through promoting effective group play. In Mythica, we’re doing this through a number of systems, including chat, guilds, and the specialized classes.

In a structured class system, your character has a clear role to fill in any given party. Of course, that role is entirely yours to choose, based on how you prefer to play. We feel you should have a strong sense of your character’s role and that your class is best at that role — to know that your character has an effective and distinct way to contribute to a party. This is, by the way, why we don’t support a jack-of-all-trades class. Not only do jacks-of-all-trades encroach on everyone else’s role, but their own skills are diluted across several different classes so that they play at relatively lower levels of challenge than their peers.

Of course, if you’re going to implement a class-based system, your game play must be tailored to support it. In Mythica’s Private Realms, for example, you’ll find goals, challenges, and rewards for each of the various classes, and the best success will be found by well-balanced parties working together. In addition, different classes can add their magic energies together to cast powerful, collective Ritual spells, far surpassing the power of any individual character. Of course, solo players will still be able to explore, adventure, and continue the path to godhood; but in order to really pursue the "multiplayer" aspect of this MMP, we put considerable thought and attention into systems that support balanced group play.

Q: How many character classes are there, and are there different races?

Matt: There will be eight classes, and the nature of each will be determined by its patron god. Choosing your class will be simple…first, you’ll select either a Physical or Magical focus. Each of these primary foci contains two general roles, representing the Order and Chaos disciplines. Each role in turn contains two specific classes, for a total of eight classes overall.

We’ve already introduced the Physical classes, from Order’s Warrior and Berserker to Chaos’ Huntress and Trickster. In demos and interviews, we’ve also mentioned the four Magical classes—the Druid, Stormwright, Pyromancer, and Demonologist. In days ahead, we’ll be exploring these latter classes in much greater detail.

The general focus of game play is your progression from Immortal to God; this happens largely through your interaction with the mortal factions. Help these factions, and you’ll gain worship, skills…and more and more of their physical characteristics as well. So while your actual "race" doesn’t change, you will develop the appearance of either your Human, Alfar (elves) or Dvergar (dwarves) worshipers. The more you are worshipped by a faction, the closer your appearance becomes to theirs.

Q: If this is a pursuit to godhood, and you have four characters working together, will all advance together, or will some sacrifice for others?

Matt: Part of the beauty of a polytheistic setting, such as Norse mythology, means having plenty of gods. Every player character is on the path to join them. The way isn’t easy, nor will everyone make it, but those with enough courage and skill can all find their way to the top. This isn’t Highlander … when it comes to godhood, there can be more than one.

Q: Is this game strictly player-versus-environment (PvE) or are there player-versus-player (PvP) elements in it? Is there a crafting system of any kind, or do characters merely level up combat skills?

Matt: There will be some PvP, but only in a limited setting. When designing the game, we felt that we could really only implement one combat style (PvE or PvP) in a truly complete and meaningful way. We went with PvE. This echoes our goal of supporting cooperative group play, and of achieving a sense of community and heroism against the evil creatures of the world — especially the Fire Giants.

However, we also want to include some elements of PvP — not as a primary system, but as an additional activity for players to experience. As you may have seen in our FAQ, the use of limited PvP goes all the way back to our source material, the Norse myths. After all, the immortal warriors brought to Asgard battled each other every morning as practice for Ragnarok! In Mythica, we’ll also have limited PvP battlefields for players to use.

Q: How is the chat system set up? Is this a game of individuals banding together or will there actually be guilds or allegiances and prolonged co-joined efforts? Will the game have live events? Will new content stream in or will there be down times and patch days?

Matt: Our chat system is another aspect of the game which was built from the ground up. Full details haven’t been released, but let’s start now by saying the system will better organize chat into different channels — friends, guild, and world channels, for example. As with the classes, chat should help to promote a system of cooperative and rewarding group play. Guilds will certainly be a big part of this as well, and you should even see instances where multiple guilds work together to complete epic goals.

Other content will indeed include live events, although it’s too premature to go into details or specifics at this point. However, we can say that additional content is planned through both ongoing patches and expansion packs.

Q: The game takes place in the era of ancient Norse mythology. In terms of the existing world and its evolving nature, how much is accurately representative of the mythology and how much is developer's imagination within the parameters of that mythos?

Matt: Mythica was never designed as a "Viking simulator", or, for that matter, even as a "Norse mythology simulator." We did feel Norse mythology made for an absolutely rich and compelling foundation, as have other modern fantasy authors and designers — it’s the basis of everything from Dungeons & Dragons to Lord of the Rings. At the same time, we didn’t want to limit ourselves to just the "gospel" of the myths, so to speak. We wanted to use them as an underlying influence — as a starting point to shape the myths in our own creative direction.

The Mythica gameworld is definitely based on Norse mythology. It encompasses the known gods, the creatures, and the planes of existence; those familiar with this myths will definitely be familiar with the Mythica gameworld as well. However, while the elements are all there, they’re presented in a way which is unique to our game.

As an example, I’d point to our interpretation of the Fire Giants. Or our version of Grendel — artist rk post used key phrases from the original text to assemble a creature which has simply never been seen this way before. Imagine a huge, lamprey-like mouth, arm crudely reattached, and proboscis used to drink the blood of men. Creepy, and oh-so-cool.

Q: While classes such as archer have some wondrous gifts, the true power in this game — based on E3 observations — seems to be magic. Is this perception false or does the game lean heavily in that direction?

Matt: In Mythica, true power comes from your status as an Immortal, much more so than your particular class or method of fighting. In fact, this is the very theme we’re trying to present in every aspect of the game. For one, combat is larger than life, frenetic and very, very destructive — a fact which holds true across all the classes. In the E3 demo, you saw the Pyromancer cast massive, fiery effects. But you also saw the Warrior grow to giant size and pound out earthquakes with his hammer. Other powers may be more subtle, but no less effective. Consider how the Huntress can cloak herself to sneak into otherwise inaccessible areas, or how characters can possess and use heavy siege weapons to destroy enemy fortifications.

Believe me, magic is there, and in frightfully powerful form. Characters can work together to cast Ritual spells, able to wreck absolute mayhem. But life as an Immortal involves all sorts of power…magic, physical, and otherwise.

Q: This game sports a lot of new concepts to the world of MMORPGs. Aside from the fellowship aspect, what other gameplay elements do you think will have the biggest impact on players?

Matt: I’d have to go with our Private Realms. Mythica creates private instances of adventuring spaces, unique to you and your party alone. If you’re going to become a god, there should be some perks to the position — with Private Realms, you’ll be able to experience the game in a way that really does make you the hero of the story. There’s no waiting in line, no griefers to deal with (even Thor wanted Loki off his back!), and no camping the same spawn point as hundreds of other players.

The Private Realm technology not only allows us to isolate individual parties, but also to provide each one with truly dynamic and handcrafted content. In the Private Realms, we feature such elements as in-game cinematics, destructible environments, multiple and complex goals — a whole host of features which would be practically unfeasible in a traditional public space.

Q: Will this game have an open or closed beta and when might that happen?

Matt: Both. We’ll start with a closed Beta, then slowly open it to the public as we’re able. As far as timeframe goes, we’ll start the process at the end of this year or early next year. We really can’t wait to invite our players into the game, but we also must make sure it’s in a state where their attention and feedback can be best appreciated. That’s in everyone’s interest. And for those looking to participate in the Beta, we suggest taking an active role in any of our fan sites—we do read the message boards there, and participate in the threads as time permits.