Mimesis Online from Polish Developer Tannhauser Gate, is a role-playing game which transports you to a world where the borders between reality and illusion do not exist. An unimaginable catastrophe on a cosmic scale transformed this world, playing havoc with the natural order of things, twisting everything, even time itself, wiping out civilisation as we know it. For the Universe itself, everything changed and nothing changed - a new order was established, one where entropy rules, without intelligent beings working to hold it back. The beings who survived the catastrophe have tried to rebuild their world, each in their own way. They once again want to enforce on the natural chaos their order, their ways - authority, money, prejudice, cruelty and conviction of their own superiority. Once again, they are showing the unlimited ability of intelligent races to adapt and survive. The forgotten civilisation is waking up and slowly but surely emerging as the "new" civilisation - and how similar it is to the old one.

On a regular basis we will feature a developer's diary made by the Mimesis Online development team. In this diary Derek Handley, one of the staff writers tells us how they came up with the name Mimesis.

Part 2. "What's in a Name?"
May is a beautiful month in Poland. After the uncertainty of April, where sun and gentle breezes can give way to snow in the space of two days, it's a pleasure to have the brilliant blue dome of the sky above you, and the sun on your back. I'm going to make the most of the good weather this weekend - the mountains are a joy to behold right now. Besides, the fresh air will get the old creative juices flowing, and that will help with work on the revised version of the Riven, one of the player character races. They're undergoing some changes.

Change is something that goes on a lot during the evolution of a game, or of any creative project for that matter. Because we only ever see the finished product, we could be forgiven for thinking that what it looks like when it reaches our screens was the same way it looked when it was first made. Which is far from the truth. So many things undergo changes - races come and go, powers and skills are added, dropped, and added again, all in the name of reaching that most elusive of creatures - perfection.
"Mimesis Online" is no exception to that rule of change. Right from the start of its existence as a game, it had to put up with being twisted and tweaked. It even had to change its name.
I told you about the film origins of the game - the film was to be called "Exodus", and that was the name of the game too, in the early days of the project. "Exodus Online". A game set in the far, far future, in a world a few hundred years after the end of a galactic war. The film told the story of that war, and ended with the destruction of reality as we know it - a cosmic-scale event that resulted in elements of several realities finding themselves in tentative co-existence in one universe. The game was to tell the story of that "new universe", as the beings in it tried to co-exist, and deal with the new order.

Now, "Exodus Online" sounds fine, but it wasn't much of a description of the game. "Exodus" fit the film - it was to begin with humanity finally being able to leave the confines of the Earth. Humanity's exodus from the Earth indirectly led to the situation which exists in the game, but the title just didn't fit any more. So it had to go. To be replaced by...
Not so fast. I don't know if any of you have ever tried to do your own comic, or film, or book, or start your own band, but if you have, I think you can imagine what the name change process looked like. The people involved around a table, bouncing ideas off each other. The ideas getting sillier as the evening goes on. Someone opening a dictionary at random and throwing words out. "Let's call it Scoliosis Online." "What's that mean?" "I dunno, but it looks good..." "How about calling it 'Hot Babes in Skimpy Bathing Suits Online' - that'll get people interested..." "I'll pretend I didn't hear that...Nameless Online?" "Hot Babes! Hot Babes!" "Stop that, it's silly.." "...Online."
Anyway. Marcin called a halt to the meeting for a while, and that's when he started thinking about what the name should mean. The game is about creation...about survival...about trust...about an entirely different world. A new creation. And a little light bulb came on in his mind. There was an article he'd read during his student days...
After digging through piles of old notes and photocopies, and reading through the half of them, he found it. An article touching on Aristotelian philosophy, and specifically the act of creating a world, a new reality - Mimesis. And that name stuck.

Now that wasn't the most important change the game went through in those days, but on the other hand a name can be an important thing - it gives a thing form somehow. Mimesis Online by any other name would still be a computer game, a labor of love, a far future scenario and a picture of a completely new world...but it wouldn't be the same somehow. There's a similar story related to the naming of the Skirros, the only player character race to be there from the very start, but that's for another time.
So I'll leave you, wondering how many of you would be reading this if it was the developer's diary for "Hot Babes Online"...

Take care all.
Derek.