I have been meaning to report on Shards Online from Citadel Studios for a few weeks now, and I guess this is as good as a time as any because the Shards Online Kickstarter has just been launched!

Shards Online is a very ambitious MMO project that actually took a bit for me to wrap my brain around, so bear with me as I try to explain how the game will work. In Shards Online, all players will play on any one of a number of clusters, each of which comprise a number of shards. The shards act like different game worlds and zones within the clusters, while the clusters themselves act like the typical servers seen in many MMO games. Each cluster can have its own unique rule-set (PvE versus PvP, for example), and players can choose a cluster with a rule-set that appeals to them.

So far nothing I have described is all that remarkable. What IS remarkable, however, is that individual shards and even entire clusters will eventually be available for players to manage and run (for an extra cost). What this means is that players can help define, alter, and build entire shards for other players to explore, or manage an entire cluster of shards. Players can ultimately choose whether to play as a “mortal” and explore the various shards in a given cluster, or play as “god” and manage a shard (which will allow you to interact with the mortal players in interesting ways). Essentially this means that players in Shards Online could end up with a huge number of unique player driven and created game worlds to explore and conquer. Each shard will hold a certain number of players at any given time, so you won’t be alone in exploring and fighting. It all sounds very exciting.

As for gameplay, check out the new Shards Online gameplay trailer to give you more of an idea about how the game will look and play.

There is a huge amount of information available on the Shards Online Kickstarter page, so I recommend heading over there and read it over. If you do decide to pledge for the game, bear in mind that pledging $50 or more will grant you testing access. Oh, and I should mention that you can also sign up on the brand new Citadel Studios website for possible early access opportunities (whatever that means). Check it out!

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