Roma Victor

I got an e-mail with a press release from Red Bedlam, makers of Roma Victor. It is always nice if some PR guys thinks that I am "press", thus I'm always blogging these press releases, which is obviously what the PR guy wanted. The whole public relations business is about flattering people into spreading the news about your product. And it works! :)

The press release is about a particular form of "ban" for a player who was found guilty of ganking other players: virtual crucifixion for one week. I'm not sure how it works, but I guess his avatar is visible to everybody nailed to a cross, whether he is online or not. And if he *is* online, he sees himself nailed to the cross and can't move or do anything for a week. Temporary bans in MMORPGs is a good idea, some "crimes" are just not serious enough to deserve a permanent ban for the player.

Roman Victor will officially launch on July 1st 2006, and as you might have guessed is a MMORPG with a Roman theme. As the FAQ is dated 2001, you can see that the game has been long in the making. Roma Victor has a new Virtual Economics Revenue Model (called VERM), which is similar to the Doubloons Oceans of Puzzle Pirates: You buy an account for £20, and get virtual currency worth £10. From then on the game is "free", there is no monthly fee. But you will most likely find that while playing you don't earn enough virtual currency (sesterces) to pay for all the nice virtual stuff you want to have. Then you can buy sesterces directly from the game company.

I think that this is in principle a good concept, we'll have to see how it works out in practice. It means that when you don't play, you don't need to cancel your account, you aren't billed anything. And if you play, you can choose how much money you want to pay for it. If you want to have the nicest possible gear, without earning it yourself, you can have it, but it will cost you cold hard cash, which then enables the game company to pay for their servers etc.

I don't know if I'm going to try this. Roma Victor has free-for-all PvP, with the possibility of robbing somebodies stuff, a concept of which I am not in favor. Just like EVE Online, there are safe zones, like Rome itself or Londinium, where a heavy presence of police forces prevents players getting ganked. But I'm an explorer at heart, and don't like being forced to stay behind walls to avoid being griefed and robbed. Of course if you love free-for-all PvP, this might just be the right game for you.