In Jane Austen-Themed MMO, Telling Lies is a Player vs. Player Mechanic

Ever, Jane, the Jane Austen-themed, still-in-Beta MMO lead-designed by Linden Lab alum Judy Tyrer, has an amazing game mechanic I've never quite seen before in an MMO: Telling lies about other players' characters to cause player damage.

"The lies come from Pride and Prejudice," Judy tells me, citing the Austen novel that inspired this. Willoughby lies about Darcy. "We haven't sufficiently impressed stats on players yet but gossip affects your stats, so if a lie is spread about you, you start to lose reputation. If you catch the liar, the loss comes back to you double."

Which is fricking brilliant... and, I bet, likely to cause player vs. player ragequitting as brutal as when players shoot crossbows into each others' face. So you know this Jane Austen game is hardcore. (Video below.)

Judy tells me they're still integrating lies and the consequence of lies into the game's content:

Lies start around 3:20 in (contains salty British lad language)

"Eventually we will have events where [reputation] matters. like happiness balls," she says. As for the game itself, it seems to be evolving nicely: "It's going really well and the new patch has a story in it I'm super-excited about (a little something for Halloween). Plus a new exploration quest. And a ton less lag." Because who wants to lie when the lie lags?

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Comments

[JohnC]

Anyone know what game engine was used to create this or if they created one of their own.

[JohnC]

ok I think it's unity

[JohnC]

This could easily be SL. This kind if dialogue based role play is the norm in SL, I have run several sims that do just this. It is real RP, whereas most of what is called RP in the big outside world of games has nothing to do with role play at all. Nice to see someone attempting to offer a more social gaming idea to the FPS gun toting masses.

[Melissa Yeuxdoux]

I hope Judy meant the double loss is accrued by the liar, otherwise that sets up a nasty positive feedback loop.