Gods
Part of the Norse mythology are the gods and you as a player will have to interact with them. Each god is different from the other and keeping them happy will help you in your online life. It would be unwise to not pay any favours to the gods of the sea if you want to be a sailor. But it might make rivalling gods turn against you as well. In Midgard they aim to make the gods as real as possible, making sure that you are aware of their presence.

Death
You can not die by the hand of another player in Midgard, so there is no PK'ing as such. You can die when you are attacked by one of the fierce creatures roaming the world of Midgard however. When you are of the seafaring kind then you should be aware of the large Midgard Serpent who wraps herself around the world and just waits for someone or something to eat. But there will be many, many more, both in sea and on land.

If you do happen to die, you enter Valhalla. In Valhalla you can fight as much as you want. This is where PvP takes place. there are no penalties here when you die or when you kill, nor is your death permanent. And at any time you can choose to go back to the world of Midgard again and resume your life.
At the moment it is unclear what the penalties are for being careless enough to die and makes you enter Valhalla, but there definitely will be some.

The Engine
The engine used for Midgard is a new 3D engine, which has no relationship with Anarchy Online, even though they did learn from that of course. It uses a 1st person view and you will be able to visit tall mountains and deep fjords, cold glaciers and temperate forests, cities, towns, and villages, and it is played in real time with all the other players. It's a persistent online world, so it will keep on going when you are not there.

The world is being brought to life in a very good way, which they showed off with a tech-demo showing a boat that sails the sea and gets caught in a storm. The engine calculates the height of the waves, depending on the depth of the water, the wind and how the boat and the water interacts. Even though this is very complex it has been done very well.

The game is being made by the team members from "The Longest Journey", an adventure game that was a reasonable success. The development of Midgard has been done in parallel to the development of Anarchy Online. And hardly anyone from the Anarchy Online team has been designated to work on Midgard as there is still enough to on Anarchy Online. Rumour has it that they even managed to capture one or two persons from the old Ultima Online 2 team to work on Midgard.

What's Next?
Midgard looks to be very promising and will attract all those players who want to get immersed in a world, where your expertise and wisdom are more important than your muscles.
Jørgen explicitly mentioned no dates, on when they started, when the beta will be or when it is scheduled to be released. One of things they learned from Anarchy Online, as he put it ;-).

For more information you can visit their website: www.worldofmidgard.com and check out what they have on Midgard. The next big appearance of Midgard will be at E3. So if you want to have a first look, then that is your chance. Until then we try to keep you as informed as possible.

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