March 21, 2005 - Encompassing a total of 15 neighborhoods, the district officially known as Richland lies to the south of the river that runs through the Megacity. Belying its name, the area is actually a poor, dilapidated one, usually referred to as the Slums, where violence and crime are both normal parts of the inhabitants' daily lives. Perhaps its only saving grace is the fact that the locale to the west is even less desirable. Formally called Westview, its condition reflects a history of slow decay and ineffective attempts at repair, a combination that has led to its far more frequent appellation, the Barrens. To the northeast, the International District is a melting pot of Asian cultures, a new-age amalgam of small shops, narrow streets, plazas and modern edifices. Naturally, Downtown is home to tall buildings full of assorted bureaucrats, accountants and lawyers.

In Monolith's The Matrix Online, which will begin commercial service tomorrow, these are the four sections of the cyber-reality gameworld players will see when they jack in, joining those who took advantage of the pre-order offer that included the chance to start on Saturday. All of them will take part in the canonical continuation of the Wachowski brothers' cinematic saga that began in 1999. The first film fired the imagination of millions with its intriguing premise and explosive action. The trilogy ended where the persistent state world picks up, with the humans, Machines and Merovingians in an uneasy truce where a small group or even an individual might sway the balance of power. Last Thursday, at a media event in San Francisco, invited members of the gaming press had the opportunity to learn how the impending title will stand apart.

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A couple of days earlier, the open beta phase had closed in a manner that turned quite a few participants' heads. War broke out between the Machines and the humans of Zion. The Merovingian made an appearance in-game to lead the Exiles away from the conflict to await its resolution. Other familiar characters who came forth included Morpheus and Seraph, both of whom were seen rallying players to their side. So did Niobe, who was also seen heading into battle against a number of Agents. The Machines turned the sky a bloody shade of red, filled it with eyes and then set out to delete individual avatars, calling them out by name and sending extermination squads after them. Later, the Agents set loose a Fire Virus that quickly infected all the player characters. Then, in a final attack against Zion, the Machines crushed all the players and re-booted the Matrix

This event was quite a revelation for many of the participants. Before it took place, the team and various publicity materials put out by co-publishers Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Sega of America had talked about the project being the continuation of the films. However, there hadn't been much to indicate what the obviously critical story element will be like, so the experience was not only positive in its own right, but also served to address the feeling that had been building up in many quarters that the frequently-stated emphasis on narrative was being over-emphasized as an aspect of marketing hype to which the actual play experience would not fully live up. While only a single sampling was provided, it gave participants a glimpse of what's possible and provided an indication that The Matrix Online might be an offering that takes massively multiplayer storytelling to the next level.

On Wednesday, the two companies followed up by announcing that a specialized role-playing Live Events Team is in place to help drive the ongoing tale by playing continuously written roles such as Morpheus, The Oracle, Seraph, The Merovingian et al. No numbers were stated at that time, but during part of his comments on Thursday, Warner Bros.' Senior Vice President Jason Hall said approval had been given to hire some 20 people to fulfill these roles. He also noted that this number had been approximately doubled following the end of beta event and the favorable reaction it elicited.

The idea of having staff whose sole function is to support in-game role-playing and events is very cool. Of course, the actual implementation is critical, and it's premature to gauge how successful that will be. However, it's clear that the team is counting on the story aspect to be a primary point of differentiation that makes The Matrix Online much more than just another persistent state game dressed up to look like the film property. The willingness to take this direction is rather exciting in itself.

The writing responsibilities will be handled by Paul Chadwick, a veteran comic book author and artist selected by the Wachowski brothers, who then worked with him to lay out the themes and story arcs. Naturally, he didn't want to give away too much information - the same reason what may be the endeavor's defining element didn't emerge within the beta until the very end. However, we do know that an immediate core premise, perhaps for the first year, will be the above-mentioned fragile peace and attempts by various parties to sabotage or destroy it. Chadwick will also produce The Sentinel, an in-game newspaper that will aim to keep bluepills, humans who are unaware that the Matrix is an elaborate electronic facade built of code, from discovering the truth by explaining away any unusual happenings they might have seen.