Face of Mankind - An Innovative MMO Concept...

[Radman2307]

 

Greetings chaps,

 

I was just talking on OOC ingame and found there are a fair number of ex-FoM players onboard the station, just wondered how many of us there actually are.

 

For those of you that dont know what Face of Mankind is/was it was an open world, sandbox MMORPG where players joined various different factions each with their own roles and goals and negotiated/battled/cohabited with one another - you even had to negotiate internal power struggles within in your own faction. The world in which it was set was originally a very dark, cyberpunk style universe, with polluted cityscapes and far off colonial worlds/research centres far out into the depths of space...

 

Within the FoM universe Mega-corporations were vying for power, a corrupt failing government was constantly trying to maintain control of the masses and of course numerous criminal elements were out to make money by any means they could... Imagine the original Deus Ex crossed with Bladerunner/Aliens and you sorta get the idea of just how the world looked and felt to play.

 

The factions ingame came in three flavours, there were:

 

1. Government

2. Corporate

3. Clan

 

Government factions consisted of an ingame police force known as the Law Enforcement Department (LED), a military arm named the Freedom Defence Corps (FDC) and an actual government that was GM and player run known as the 'Global Dominion.'

 

Corporate factions changed many times, when I played back in 2005-2006 you had Asian Coalition, Euro Core, Colonisation & Mining Guild and American Enterprises. Later on some of these corps were removed and replaced with others, one being Vortex Incorporated.

 

Clans consisted of the 'shadier' side of law and order, Mercenaries of the Blood (guns for hire), Brotherhood of Shadows (Criminal) and Guardians of Mankind (Tree-hugging independents.)

 

The game was innovative at the time and the concept remains so to this day, there was no grinding or level progression involved it was all about social interaction with players and making a name for yourself ingame. The only real progression mechanics involved gaining 'rank' within your respected faction, things however changed, both the mechanics and playerbase seemed to focus more on the broken combat system, the developers tried (and failed horribly) to turn it into a team-deathmatch style game ruining the original open-world and sandbox appeal that drew me and many others towards it.

 

A sad state of affairs considering no-one really plays it anymore and the kickstarter that was launched last year did nothing to save the game but did contribute to it's further downfall - the ingame graphics were changed and the player characters went from looking dark, cyberpunk and grungy to 'power-ranger esque' in style... The closest thing you'll find to the original FoM is probably SS13, no developer out there seems to want to push the boat out and launch a truly player-run, open world, role playing game - everything just seems to be a WoW clone of sorts.

 

The old trailer and a fairly interesting fan video:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some screenshots from how the game looked in 2005-2006 before the Milestone patch was introduced destroying much of the original feel.

 

 

Edited May 12, 2014 by Guest

[Streaky Haddock]

I came after the ruined patch. I found some enjoyment in it, but even fall of the dominion took that away.

[Radman2307]

 

I came after the ruined patch. I found some enjoyment in it, but even fall of the dominion took that away.

 

Fall of the Dominion removed the structure of the game and has turned it more or less into a free for all with no backbone supporting it.

 

The original idea behind FoM however remains an untapped goldmine to this day, publishers/developers dont seem to be interested in it though.