Diaspora (computer game)
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| Diaspora | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | "Phil" |
| Publisher(s) | Altitude Productions |
| Platform(s) | PC (Windows) |
| Release date | Beta: 18 October 1999 Public release: June 2000 |
| Genre(s) | MMO, Point and click |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
| Media | Download |
| Input methods | Keyboard and Mouse |
Diaspora was a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game created by Altitude Productions. Released from beta in June 2000, the game became an instant hit with the Internet community. By the Christmas of 2000, the game boasted over 35,000 registered user accounts. By April the following year, it peaked at around 70,000 registrations.
Diaspora was mpogd.com's game of the month [1] in September 2000.
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[edit] Altitude Productions Ltd
Altitude were a London-based web design and game production company. Their previous work included:
- QuizOasis - a "proprietary Multiplayer Quiz Engine" that featured on various websites, including nme.com, eurosport.com, and skysports.com.
- Various interactive television projects for companies such as NTL and .
[edit] Diaspora
On 8 October 1999, Altitude began advertising for beta testers for their new game. Ten days later, the game went live. The beta period later became known as "D1" among the game's community.
In June 2000, Altitude released the game to the public. This new release became known as "D2". The next year saw the game grow massively. Tens of thousands of accounts were registered. This flood of users may be partly attributable to the game's favourable review in .net (magazine), and a massive 95% score in the December 2000 issue of PC Gamer.
During 2001, Diaspora was dealt many blows. To cope with the rise in players, Altitude planned to migrate the game to a newer, more powerful server. However, a power outage mid-transfer led to the loss of much of the database. Altitude were forced to reset the game.
Following the reset, the game was beset by unprecedented levels of cheating. Account names of well-known game veterans were stolen; the game client was hacked, giving its users many unfair advantages; the website was hacked; and the forums lost.
In August 2001, the game went offline and never came back.
Diaspora's community, is, however, resolute. Players set up a new forum. Soon new games based on Diaspora were made by the community. Many of these games, and hundreds of members of the original community still exist today.
[edit] Gameplay
Diaspora was a 2D point and click shooter, written in the Java programming language. Players were immersed in an ever-changing player-driven universe. Various guilds struggled to attain power, and control key planets. Other players preferred to take a more peaceful route and trade their way to financial supremacy.
[edit] Ships and technologies
Diaspora had nine ship classes split into eight types. To gain access to new classes, players had to travel to distant worlds to purchase additional plans. All players started with Zephyr plans, and 20,000 Diaspora Credits (DCs) to buy a ship. The other available classes were: Arachne, Nisus, Talos, Nereid, Endymion, Nisus II, Talos II, and Helios. The types of ship were: seeker, fighter, carrier, hunter, freighter, attacker, destroyer, and behemoth.
[edit] Politics
One of Diaspora's most attractive aspects, and at times one of its most detrimental aspects, was the political situation that arose from one major gameplay aspect: the ownership of satellites that orbited planets. Each major planet outside of the "Gen Zone", the newbie protection zone, hosted a satellite. Satellites served mainly as a trophy for a guild. Guild members could land on satellites, repair them, and upgrade their systems. A fully upgraded satellite proved nearly impossible for a single person to destroy as one would need to repair one's ship so many times so as to render the attempt cost-ineffective.
These satellites were always held by major guilds, and some guilds considered certain planets to be their planet. For instance, the guild Iron Shield, known for its kindness towards beginning players, held the central planet of Lauis Metis.
Taking a guild's satellite would be viewed as a declaration of war. So, in the night, rival guilds would often "pop" another guild's station while no other members were online to repair it, leaving a nasty surprise for the rival guild in the morning.
[edit] Clones
The game's community has continued since 2001 creating versions (clones) of Diaspora, the first, and most popular, Funkarillaspora (later called Rillaspora) was based on a reverse engineered client created by veteran Guerilla. It achieved a notable success. Due to corruption in administration another popular spinoff, Xiaspora, was created by FreakNigh. Which the public enjoyed two years of continuous gameplay, but was dogged by eventual unreliable servers, little admin cooperation, and cheating.
Other clones are still in development and/or beta, as listed below.
[edit] List of clones currently being developed
In alphabetical order:
