Atriarch E3:

Impressions

by Shiina “Kir” Liao

Next up on my E3 schedule is Atriarch by World Fusion. Said to be an MMOG depicting life on the alien and organic world of Atriana where everyone can affect the world, it’s a game that not too many people know about, although it had its start a long time ago. Any simple internet search would reveal that there are a number of articles referencing this game which are dated between the years 2000 to 2004, with many lulls in between. A disclaimer of sorts was given about how they had rough starts, and even ran into an investor that stole their money and as a result was stuck in debt for a while. What a messy situation. But apparently they are back into business, and once again making progress with development. Serafina Pechan, President and Lead Game Designer, along with three of her crew in tow, came to show us in more detail just what Atriarch has become now, using the power of their laptop!

The Team

That’s right, this roving band doesn’t have a booth. Our meeting place was the lounge, and their presentation was a pre-alpha build running on a laptop. Right after coming from the NCsoft booth, this was quite the change of pace. Serafina started by asking if we had any questions. However, since their site was down -- and info for their game being somewhat spare on the net -- I responded by asking her to show us what she’s got, demonstrate what’s new, and then go on from there. The laptop was opened, and the game brought into focus…

Wait, another disclaimer comes from them. The graphics engine is very outdated, and they understand that revisions are needed, but we can still get a good idea of the game concept. And it’s true, the game does look very much pre-alpha, but let’s not get hung up on that. The interface looks very minimalistic and plain, and provides just the information right now to get things done. API plug-ins are to be used so the user can play the way they want, and macroing will be free-game. In fact, there is a very simple macro-like system already built-in where players can queue up different commands to be performed, one at a time. There are names and variables seen floating about have yet to be completed, but that’s to be expected when they are still working on fleshing out the concepts. As per standard, there are a variety of races and classes, all with a different theme. Each will be able to contribute meaningfully to the world, and they want to ensure that everything that’s done will be useful. Even from the beginning—they want to avoid the dull tedium of the early game, in which a novice adventurer would have to slay rats and bunnies to grow up. “How are they going to make it different? What is it going to be like when a player first logs in,” I asked.