Anarchy Online

Q: What sort of challenges will players find when visiting these motherships?

A: Alien motherships are unique locations quite unlike anything previously seen in Anarchy Online.

Alien motherships are very dangerous encounters and you'll be wise to bring others with you. However, as with the mission system we developed for the original Anarchy Online, the mission will actually be scaled to you – so whether you're a low level player or a high level player, you can still experience the alien motherships!

Onboard the alien motherships, players will traverse environments that look very organic and living. Some of our beta testers have said it feels like being inside a human body, and if you look at the screenshots, you can easily understand how one might think that. It all looks very unique. There are also a host of brand new aliens and alien boss encounters for players to experience as well of course as some of their 'old friends' from the existing alien forces!

Q: Related to these alien motherships, there have been talks about something called the ACG (automatic content generation) system. Can you explain what this is?

A: Yes, the automatic content generation system, or ACG, is a feature that enables us to give players several different and unique experiences when doing alien mothership missions. The game will actually a distinct and unique environment each time you visit a new alien mothership, giving you a new challenge every time you log into one. Every alien mothership will have a familiar type of "architecture" if you may, but the layout of the corridors and where the enemies are placed, will be different. In all alien motherships there are also boss encounters, a massive alien that you must defeat to be victorious.

Q: Is there anything else that Lost Eden is going to add to Anarchy Online?

A: Aside from the actual gameplay content on the battlestations and Alien Motherships, and the character advancement of the research systems we're also adding tons of new weapons, items, armor and nano-formula (AO's version of spells).

With the Victory Points you earned on the battlestations and the alien motherships you can acquire a variety of great new unique equipment, such as a special new armor set that has been granted to each profession in the game. We're also adding new nanos that are particularly useful in player-versus-player combat, in that they target specific other player professions.

Q: Many would say Anarchy Online is getting old now. What is Funcom doing to maintain and add to the game, outside of the released expansions?

A: Anarchy Online has been very successful to us. Since the launch we've been working very hard on keeping it up to date and constantly expanding upon it, just as you need to do with any living, breathing MMO.

We have a full development team dedicated to it and we're constantly patching and adding to it as we go. Over one million people have actually played Anarchy Online and we have an amazing and loyal community that constantly drives us to improve the game. Without our dedicated players and such an amazingly devoted community it would be hard to maintain a game the size and scope of AO, but with so many people enjoying it on a daily basis its really more of an honor then a job to keep creating content that keeps people entertained.

The community around a game is almost as important as anything we could possibly code into it! That's why we always support the community with as much involvement as we can through an extensive volunteer program, active forums and a dedicated test server community.

Also I think one of the reasons why Anarchy Online is still going strong today is because we've dared to venture into new grounds and trying out new things. For instance, Anarchy Online was actually the first MMO to use in-game advertisement that means the free players provide a revenue stream as well, something vital to putting resources back into the game.

Anarchy Online was also the first western MMO ever to let people play it for free! You can download the original game for free from the Internet and play it for free without paying for the subscription!

Q: How does this free play work, and how do people get into Anarchy Online?

A: By visiting our website, people can download the client for free and install the original, core game Anarchy Online. It now also includes the Notum War expansion so people can engage in player-versus-player combat over land control.

Signing up is completely free, and if you only wish to play the original game and the booster pack, you will not have to pay any subscription. If you want to upgrade to the expansions, you will need to pay a subscription however.

If you purchase Lost Eden, you will get access to Anarchy Online, Notum Wars, Shadowlands, Alien Invasion and Lost Eden – all in one package. Note though to enjoy the exciting new features in our expansions you will have to pay a monthly subscription fee that can be as low as $8 a month depending how long you sign up for.

Providing people the opportunity to first play Anarchy Online for free, we think we're giving them the chance to see if it's something for them.