In light of the recent developments in other countries, NC Austin believes that it has found an innovative way to advance its version of Lineage as well. After recent polls, and many late hours at the creative table, they believe to have found a new way to communicate with users and make the game more fun than work for all users.

“Well,” spoke Melanthus, who recently asked players for their ideas on new events, “We couldn’t really use any of the player suggested events, because they all had to do with changing the game in some way, like adding monsters or items or increasing the drop rates. The general public does not seem to like those types of events. So Garriott and I came up with our own idea, which personally I feel is much better than the ideas of said players, that a God will greatly enhance game play. It should, if everything works out correctly, give the game much more depth.”

The idea is to change the Game Masters that exist in Lineage to “Gods.” These “Gods” would be like emissaries from a bigger God. They believe that when a player has the chance of meeting a god, that he or she will gain knowledge to share with fellow players much like a prophet would.

“This just seemed like the natural way to go. Players always seem to be saying ‘Please speak to me GM (Shorthand for Game Master)’ or ‘God, Gm whisper me.’ Obviously Game Masters are already seen as Gods so making them act as Gods only seems right. Besides, the new sprites are like, so cool, ya know?” Leilo from Croft Austin told us.

Admittedly, other than the new sprites and name changes, the “Gods” will not do much more, Richard Garriott tells us.

“Meeting with a God should occur very rarely, I mean it isn’t like I see God just walking around regularly. I don’t see Him making deposits in an off shore bank account in my name, why should players accept the same?” remarked Garriott, “After all, we created the whole world they exist in, we deserve to be praised. Without us there would be no ‘Lineage.’”

When players were asked what they thought, they seemed generally happy with the idea. Many players planned on killing these “Gods” and often asked what the “Gods” would drop and what their spawn times were.

Veterans on the other hand seem to despise the idea, saying that this won’t change Lineage at all. It is just a ploy to make it look like they are doing something, just an excuse for making it impossible to actually find and talk to a game master.

It isn’t a ploy NCAustin assured us. The next episode has been pushed back to make these sprites. We are confident that players will enjoy praying to these gods. When asked what the Gods were going to be doing or if they would reward followers, we were told to wait and see. There will be a day when the followers are rewarded, but only the true believers. They ensured us that they would wait to get as many believers as possible. We were told that NCAustin plans to wait as long as it takes for users to pray to them before dishing out rewards, no matter how long it takes.

Besides NCAustin says, we’re creating the most amazing looking temples and dwellings for the gods to live in. Though it will be very rare for a mere player to visit one of these temples or dwellings, they will be there in that lucky instance that a player manages to speak with a God. The Chaotic and Lawful temples that exist in Lineage will also be retooled to serve these new gods, so that players can give offerings.