More than an MMORPG, Mark Laukien, President of Mutable Realms. called Wish, an Ultra Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (UMMORPG).

On first glance, Wish looks like any other MMORPG. However, unlike current MMORPGs where players log on to separate shards or worlds with several hundred players, Wish employs a scalable server cluster architecture that will allow tens of thousands of players to play simultaneously in a seamless fantasy world.

What is Wish? It is a Skill-based Game centered on European Mythos. Wish encourages cooperative play in a world that allows a player to choose what he really wants to be by selecting skills. Choosing a character to play depends on the simple choice of a race. There are the standard fantasy races of Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes and Halflings, with Cyclops, Orcs and few more races still in the design and planning stages. Each race will have their own racial attributes and modifiers which might make it faster for one race to learn a particular skill; however, you do not select a class but start with base skills and develop the ones that interest you as you progress in the game. A craftsman might be an excellent swordsmith, yet also know a few spells. A mage could have a dagger in his back pocket to finish off his enemies.

Usage of skills will hone them. You can be a powerful tank-mage, but in Mark’s own words, you will have to practice very, very hard to be proficient in both sets of skills. The combinations are endless in this skill based game. There are no classes or “levels” per se, only skills, which makes the social aspect of this game very appealing. A relative newbie who has decided to only be a healer can be effective while grouped with a seasoned player with several developed skills. Wish also distributes experience according to what characters contribute. So, even if you only managed to bash the giant on it’s toe while your seasoned wizard buddy finished him off in one nuke, you still gain some experience.

One can fire an arrow at a MOB standing just inside a door-way and the mob may decide to turn around, run through the room and collect all its buddies before exiting the door towards you. I about drooled when this was demonstrated to me. Movement in game is point-and-click. However, instead of straight line movement, your character actually moves in a logical fashion to get to the destination you select.

Mark demonstrated this feature to me. With his character standing in the middle of a street, Mark selected a point on a verandah of a building behind him. I stared agog as his little gnome turned, ran through the building, around the barrels, up the stairs and out onto the verandah. He demonstrated this concept again by moving to the back of the fort and clicking on a point outside the log wall. That little gnome turned around and ran just as fast as its little legs could go, through the streets of the settlement, out the front gate, along the wall and back to the selected spot.

What RPG game is without its eye-candy and how immersive can a game be without customization? Graphically, the game is beautiful. Much character customization is planned in terms of tweaking character features as well as what an avatar can wear. Individual pieces of armor can be dyed and re-dyed.

The human settlements are based on medieval European architecture but the fantasy races are based on the designers’ imagination. Landscapes encompass the whole gamut: Alpine forest, desert, you name it. The couple of settlements I saw were very nicely detailed, as was the landscape when we stood upon a hill to gaze upon the lands beyond. Creatures from European legends and myths populate the lands although I’m sure a few nightmare creatures also made their way in.

NPCs all have scripts that they follow. The farmer is not merely standing in the field; he is harvesting wheat or hoeing. The blacksmith is actively hammering at his anvil. A nice departure and improvement from the static NPCs in other titles.

What else is there to Wish?

• Mark boasts of many, many, many quests in Wish, ranging from the “FedEx” quests (get something, deliver something) to those that build up in stages and could take months to complete. A handy quest journal will be available to help you keep your quests in order.


• Combat is never far in most RPG games and both PvP and PvE combat will play a major role. PvP however, will be limited to specially designated areas such as arenas.


• Animal taming: One skill that was I saw was animal taming – several commands that could be used such as stay, follow, attack and release.


• Travel: Among the ideas in development are magical portals at druid rings, spells and ten fantasy mounts – some can fly.


• Housing: Wish is leaning towards guild housing rather than individual housing, however that has not yet been decided.


• How death is handled has yet to be decided. At this time, we go on a naked corpse run.

The Mutable Realms team consists of 25 employees and their strategy is to leverage available technology and concentrate on developing game play and immersive content. The game is based on ICE (Internet Communication Engine) developed by ZeroC Inc., the 3-D Engine is NDL’s Gamebryo (also used by Bethesda in Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and Mythic in Dark Age of Camelot), and IDV’s SpeedTreeRT provides beautiful and realistic trees.

Good quality graphics? Check. Good potential for immersive content? Check. Attractive character development system? Check. Good potential for socializing and role-playing? Check. Pardon the pun, but in Wish, I’m seeing many concepts that I have wished for in an MMORPG (sorry… UMMORPG) and I’ve decided that this is a game I want to keep my eye on.

Beta applications are now being accepted and Closed Beta is expected to begin the end of 2003 with release set for the end of 2004. Check Wish out at Mutable Realms and prithee good sirs and madams, perhaps I shall meet you one day, in the realm of Wish.

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