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The Importance of Being Somebody
Matt Firor
Executive Producer, Mythic Entertainment
Today, most MMORPGs don't invite a new character into their world. Think about it - when you create a character in most current MMORPGs, the new character appears in the world, usually in front of an NPC, and that's it. There's no real direction given, no reason why your character is there, no reason why the world really cares that
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you've shown up in it. It is time for this to change, and this is one of the major new things we're attempting to do with Imperator.
Our goal for Imperator is to make all new characters feel welcomed in the world from the moment they enter the game. We do this by working under the rule that "the player character is special".
The way we are implementing the feeling of each character being special is to come up with a backstory that gives each player of the game an explanation of who their character is, where they came from, and why they are special. There will be no "rat killing" in Imperator - everything the player character does in the game directly helps Rome defeat the Mayans. From level one, the player is defending Rome or its colonies.
To enhance this feeling of superiority, we have designed the Imperator universe to explain to the player why they are special. In order to better defeat the Mayans, Roman authorities have scoured all colonies for the best and brightest students, aged 5-12. These children are selected based on extremely high intelligence and physical stats. They are, literally, the best that Rome has to offer. All candidates selected are sent to the famous Roman Academy, where they are instructed in the latest medical, technical, and combat techniques. Each student, while a Cadet at the Academy, selects a specialty in which to concentrate - ranged combat, close combat, biomedicine, and engineering.
Upon graduation, Cadets become a member of the Viritori class of Roman society - the pinnacle that any Roman citizen aspires for. Viritori are the leaders of Rome in the future. They are the generals, medical experts, politicians, advanced engineers, and they are looked upon by the general populous of Terra and the colonies as the savior of the Republic. While not exactly supermen, they are the "rock stars" of their society, all the more so because they are physically protecting Rome from the Mayan menace.
All player characters start Imperator as Cadets in the Academy, and soon are made full Viritori - after being combat tested. Because their Viritori status, all Roman NPCs act strongly positively towards them. Organizations in Rome actively vie for the right to have player characters run missions for them. NPC shopkeepers fawn over player characters, for having Viritori purchase items that their store enhances their reputation and is the best form of advertising.
This concept of making each player character Viritori and "special" has far-reaching consequences on character development, and it is ingrained into the player in their very first set of missions. I'll go into both the philosophy of character development as well as the "beginning of the game" in future dev diaries.
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