Interlude 01: Game Dive

“Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining me on this, episode 43 of Game Dive. I am your host, Foster Minerez. Joining me today is Jaime Sodlund, Creative Lead on the upcoming PVP slaughter-fest, Mark of Rekorim. Welcome, Jaime.”

“Thank you for having me, I’m very glad to be here.”

“Jaime, can you tell us a little bit about Mark of Rekorim? For those watching who aren’t familiar with it.”

“Certainly. Well, Mark of Rekorim is a PVP-centric Dive MMO that takes place on the fantasy world of Ventalis. Players will play one of the Marked, chosen champions of the God of Justice, Rekorim. As a Marked, you are tasked with bringing justice to the mortal lands, and depending on which faction you choose to allign yourself with, what justice means can be completely different.”

“Sounds fascinating.”

“Yes. Players will fight other players in massive open-world battles, with thousands of both players and NPCs participating. Battles can take place anywhere, in cities, out in the wilderness, and even deep underground in one of the game’s many dungeons.”

“You can PVP in dungeons?”

“Foster, you can PVP anywhere. Nowhere is safe in the game.”

“Amazing. Now, you say the game takes place in a fantasy world. Will players be playing the usual elf, dwarf, halfling type of races or can they choose to play different ones?”

“Well, Foster, since the God Rekorim is not only the God of Justice but the patron god of Humanity, all Marked will be human. In this way, conflicts between players will be about differences in ideologies, not about races.”

“Very interesting. I know this is a Million Worlds game, so how about Founders? Will they be able to pick different races?”

“Ha ha, no, no. Founders too will have to be humans. There is no pay to win elements in this game.”

“Excellent. Now, I know the game is still in development, but one of its most lauded features is pretty interesting to me. Can you tell us more about the Magic Creation System?”

“Ah, yes. The MCS.”

“Yes. Tell us more about it.”

“The Magic Creation System, or MCS, will allow players to make their own magic spells.”

“Now, when you say make our own spells, you don’t mean just a change in color palette for spell effects right?”

“No, I mean you create a completely new spell. If you are tired of Fireball, you can tinker with the spell casting mechanisms and make it into a Fire Lance or maybe a Fire Arrow. Or maybe you want to make some sort of sleeping spell, you can do that, too.”

“That sounds amazing.”

“Yes. There are almost limitless ways to create spells, too. Players can do this by deep meditation, or changing the chants upon casting a spell, or even swapping out the ingredients for alchemical concoctions. It won’t always work, but experimentation is key when trying to create new spells in the MCS system.”

"That's great. Now, for another question. This one's kind of divisive amongst the community, but I have to ask it: permadeath?"

"Ha ha ha, yes."

"So, will permadeath still be in your game?"

"Yes, it will. In Mark of Rekorim, player death has consequences. In this case, it is the ultimate consequence: your character profile is completely deleted. It is a permanent deletion as well since we can't bring back the character on our end either."

"That sounds brutal!"

"As it should be. Mark of Rekorim is for players who crave a challenging, epic experience. We want it so that players will always feel a sense of dread and danger at every second while in our game."

“Fantastic. It sounds like a game I really would love to play. When does the game come out?”

“Right now Mark of Rekorim is in an alpha building state, so it’s still collating. But we estimate that it will be ready for full release sometime next year, possibly Spring of 2064.”

“Excellent. Well, thank you for being on today’s show, Jaime. I can’t wait to play Mark of Rekorim.”

“Thank you very much for having me, Foster.”

“Well, next up on Game Dive. Do Artificial Intelligence systems deserve the same rights as people do? We will speak to leading AI Rights activist Dr. Steven Zickolny on this hot button topic. We’ll be back shortly.”