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About Rainier

PC gamer, WorthPlaying EIC, globe-trotting couch potato, patriot, '80s headbanger, movie watcher, music lover, foodie and man in black -- squirrel!

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'Blade Mistress' Goes Open BETA

by Rainier on Aug. 30, 2002 @ 1:31 a.m. PDT

Aggressive Game Designs has just made its new MMORPG, Blade Mistress, available for all players during a free open BETA period. Blade Mistress is a server-centric, ultra-low bandwidth, persistent world, massively multiplayer, 3D graphical fantasy role-playing game.

In a magic world filled with dangerous monsters and fantastic adventure, the eight Great Spirits watch over a matriarchal human society. The heroines
of the land include warrior Blade Mistresses, magical Enchantresses, and artistic Craftswomen. All three types of heroine protect and promote the small human population that exists in this fearsome and challenging world.

Blade Mistress currently has PvE combat, trading, crafting, chatting, character advancement, and magic. It also has dungeons that can be edited by the players themselves.

"We're in this for the long haul," said Frank Chang, Community Manager. "The difference between us and other MMORPGs is player participation. We want players to feel comfortable investing in our world, so we're giving them unprecedented control over the direction of development. Other MMORPG development
efforts say they listen to their players. We expect to be building, extending, and polishing this game for years, and our players really will dictate our development direction."

Blade Mistress lets each player create up to eight characters. Each character can be named, and can be customized with an array of faces and clothes. The hair and clothes can also be changed to almost any color. The creation process also lets the player distribute points among the Physical, Magical, and Creative statistics of the character. These statistics modify the different skills and actions of the character in the game.

What does "ultra-low bandwidth" mean? Thom Robertson, the game's designer, explains. "It means that bandwidth costs big bucks, so the only way our small shop can bring this game to the players is to design the game from the ground up with a commitment to using as little network bandwidth as possible.

"The most noticeable result is a game map that is divided into large squares, and you move from square to square, instead of just going anywhere you want.

"In testing, it took players a couple of seconds to wonder why they couldn't just move anywhere they wanted. Then a light bulb went on, and they got it, and
were happy with it.

"We think that our players will understand that we can't compete with the big boys on graphics and flash, but to compensate we're gonna strive for something fresh and fun, and we're gonna listen to the players and take the game in the directions they choose."

The latest version of the game can be downloaded HERE. The web site also has instructions, a FAQ, and a forum. The Aggressive Game Designs web site.

Blade Mistress was created by Aggressive Game Designs, an up-and-coming developer of quality games for the Windows platform. Aggressive Game Designs uses technology which allows the developer to rapidly create high quality games, and allows the designer to quickly prototype new ideas and creative directions.

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