From June 2002 issue, PC Gamer magazine (All rights reserved, no permission was gained for this transcription):
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More Online, Hold the Anarchy
It’s been a wild year for Funcom. First the Norwegian developer/publisher released Anarchy Online last June, and MMORPG that even they admit was so hideously broken that few players could successfully play it at launch. They fixed it, slowly regaining lost credibility and ultimately winning PC Gamer’s Best Massively Multiplayer Game of 2001 award. Now, Funcom is preparing AO’s first expansion pack.
Shooting for a Christmas 2002 release, Funcom says that the soon-to-be named add-on will embellish the existing conflict between the Omni Corporation and the Rebel Clans on the world of Rubi-Ka.
Says AO Online Services Director Henning Solberg: “The expansion will, among other things, uncover why the resurrection technology works only on Rubi-Ka and nowhere else in the universe. You’ll find out that something is happening to you in the white light floating from your corpse before you’re resurrected at the save point. You’ll also discover a new world – a shadow realm!”
Besides adding planes of existence to the game, the add-on will also introduce a major new city to explore – Jobe – plus new static dungeons and quests, new weapons and armor, modifications of the four existing character breeds, and new visual effects.
Though Funcom won’t institute new professions in the add-on, it will establish “profession specializations” for your in-game avatar. “At certain stages in their career, any profession may choose areas in which to specialize,” explains Solberg. “They’ll keep all existing abilities while branching off into a specialization. New titles will also be available for you.”
A special “perk” system will also be introduced. Earned through quests or by following special instructions, perks can augment your skills or provide special abilities, such as increasing your hit points or giving you the power to teleport back to your start city.
Solberg also told us that changes are afoot in Rubi-Ka whether you buy the expansion pack or not. During the next few months, you can expect patches to enhance Anarchy Online’s functionality and ease of use by implementing a new in-game tutorial and help system, a personal digital assistant, and changes to the character-creation process. Future patches will also see the introduction of multi-level dungeons, an innovation that AO supporters have been demanding for months.
We have a lot of cool features in the works,” Solberg told us. “We’ll definitely keep PCG readers informed as more features are added.”
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Boy I love having a subscription to PCG. Figures that they find out about it before we do. Oh well, looks like I'm gonna have to shell out some Christmas money this year!
Catch ya planetside.
Sounds good!
