Genesis Online:Roleplaying

One of the most powerful features in this game is role playing. Unlike most “role-playing” games, Genesis involves far more than gathering loot and increasing your stats. Role playing is actually part of the game, not just something bored players make up within the game to entertain themselves. The Genesis engine uses expert systems and several forms of artificial intelligence in ways that aren't normally used. More specifically, these systems are used to interpret players' actions to see what outcomes the actions would have on their character's morals, temperaments, and so forth. The game actively rewards players with experience for role playing; a system similar to “ambitions” in The Sims 2 is used, although it is far more complex. For example, if your father in the game is killed, the systems interpret the effects this would have on your character's morale, and it creates new ambitions for your character. Namely, your character now has ambition to avenge his father's death. This is a very simple scenario, and much more complex storylines can be formed with this engine.

My goal with the Genesis engine was to make something that could recreate all of the scenes in books and movies, interactively. Suspense, betrayal, mystery, love, passion; all of those buzzwords that grace film critic's reviews – I wanted to be able to apply them in my game. Virtues and vices (as associated with each element) correspondingly play a large role in Genesis. Those who follow virtues attempt to bring order to the world, while those who follow vices attempt to bring chaos, all via the ambitions that are created around these concepts. Gameplay gets interesting when virtues come into conflict with each other. For example, if someone is aligned with the Air element, honor is a high priority for them. But what action should they take when doing the right thing means sacrificing their honor? Immediately, for those who have played it, this brings to mind Richard Garriot's Ultima series, although it could be argued that Genesis is not copying his ideas as conflict and virtues are as old as storytelling itself.