The Online Gamer Diary tells the tale of the online gamer and the online games he encounters on his travels. RPGDot wishes you lots of fun with this diary. Feel free to comment, ask questions or suggest new topics on this diary via RPGFool or mail us.

This time we feature:

Mimesis Online
Earth - 5115 AD. A war is going on between The Corporations and the "Born Again Church" who took over control a long time ago. The Corporations want to bring atheism to Earth because they believe it will truly free everyone. For this the "Born Again Church" needs to be wiped out completely. There is a weapon named CHRON, which made mass war clean and sterile. No mess, no rubble no death bodies. CHRON wipes everything completely clean. The perfect weapon. Then on the 17th of April, 5115 AD, CHRON fell on Earth.

But CHRON has side-effects. It affects the time-space continuum, when it sucks the rubble in, it sometimes spits out something else. No warhead was ever big enough to spit out large objects, so nobody worried about it. But then the "Born Again Church" counter attacks and destroyed all CHRON devices belonging to The Corporations on one of the planets in the Alpha Ophiuchus system. Then this huge amount of CHRON started to suck everything in that was in the neighbourhood. The "Born Again Church" fleet and all the planets in the system. This was bigger than anything they created before. And something came out... Something came in our universe, obeying different rules. Something that should not be here.

Earth - 5703 AD. A new civilization has risen on Earth. A new civilization knowing nothing about what once was. A new civilization where several diametrically different intelligent species are living side by side. A new civilization created by the short term linkage of long-term mutual penetration of two or more parallel universes resulting in the presence of beings which do not belong to Earth (xenoids), and the presence of phenomena and substances not behaving according to the laws of Eucleidian physics. A new order is established, one where entropy rules. Those who survived the catastrophe have rebuild their world, each in their own way. They once again wanted to enforce on the natural chaos their order, their ways - authority, money, prejudice, cruelty and conviction of their own superiority. Once again, they showed the unlimited ability of intelligent races to adapt and survive. However the forgotten civilisation is waking up and slowly but surely emerging as the "new" civilisation - and how similar it is to the old one.

This is your world, a world where the borders between reality and illusion do not exist. You survived the cataclysm and find out that the struggle to survive has only just begun. This is a world where none can be trusted. Where only the strong and merciless survive. You are on your own and travelling with others might be your survival or your death, only time will tell.

This is a part of the background story behind Mimesis. You can read it in more detail by visiting the Mimesis website. Mimesis is a new massive multiplayer online RPG by polish developer Tannhauser Gate. In contrast to other online games, Mimesis uses a different concept to create the online world. The basic unit of a world is called 'land' and is about 100 square kilometres. Each land has it's own characteristics and features such as climate, creatures and vegetation. You can travel from land to land, but there is only one single session which inhabits all online players and all servers. Lands are divided over several servers meaning that if you decide to visit an other land you might actually move to an other server.

Mimesis uses a proprietary RPG rule system in which you create your character. This character will be shaped by the events that happen while playing the game. Like in other RPG's you gain experience by solving quests, exploration and killing creatures and by fighting other players. But you get to do more than just fighting and exploring. Your character interacts with others. It is possible to form alliances, travel in groups, and join clans. Both of these ideas have their advantages - it is possible to consult with others, solve problems together, and complete quests together. The idea of the clan also carries with it the advantage of having more permanent allies, a common crest, and a certain amount of common property. It is also possible to travel alone, which, while it can be more dangerous, leaves more freedom of movement.

Mimesis uses a 3D engine in which you as a player observe the world in first person perspective. The engine supports both DirectX and OpenGL accelerators and utilizes all possibilities we come to expect from modern 3D engines, including weather elements. In addition to that, vegetation will grow over time, resulting in forests growing and increasing in area when nobody cuts the trees down.

Mimesis looks promising and soon we will have more information when we will have our interview with the developers. In the mean time you can register at the Mimesis site for the beta test which will start in May. Mimesis Online is scheduled for release in the summer of 2001.