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December 14, 2001 - Interview: An interview with Serafina, Lead Game Designer, was emailed today by Recon Online Newsletter. If you would like to receive a copy of this interview, please email: logan_horsford@agilent.com
Here is a quote from Serafina's interview:
"Again, Atriarch is not a slaughtering game. People seem to be stuck thinking in a small box due to the current games out there. Kill. Loot. Repeat. That cycle is not Atriarch. When add in the ability to architect structures, harvest, grow, directly affect the world, etc... then that cycle changes."
"Economy is key to Atriarch's environment. Resources for building and making goods are essential and will be important. They will also be geographical, giving people who like to explore an actual career in adventuring."
December 6, 2001 - As most of you have noticed, we have not been updating the website very often the past month. We've been focusing our efforts on Atriarch development. During the month of December, we will be allocating more time to put toward the website and giving everyone more updates. In the meantime, there was quite a long and informal chat with Serafina, Lead Game Designer and several gamers on Atriarch Stratics IRC.
DavidQuick of Atriarch Vault was kind enough to edit the chat and post it here. The main topic was new information about how the physics-based combat works in Atriarch and issues around targeting.
October 24, 2001 - We are going through this website and cleaning it up a bit to make it a little easier to navigate and to locate information. We have started with the Community Section. Although we will not be making any sweeping changes or major facelifts to the site (at least soon), your feedback and suggestions for minor changes are welcome. Email them to: webmaster@atriarch.com
October 11, 2001 - The Atriarch Community Section has been updated. A new Atriarch Community site has been launched. From their site: "Our Atriarch MMORPG Network Site is now up and running! We will be covering all news and information related to Atriarch and hope to be able to provide you with the best coverage of Atriarch news and events as best as we can. If you have any suggestions of improvements you would like to see on the site, please let me know. If you have any stories, fan art, top 10 lists or files you want to share with the Atriarch community, be sure to send those in as well! Be sure to stop by our message boards to chat with other about the game." Thanks to Genesi, Karl, and GaMeR for maintaining the site!
September 20, 2001 - Our Italian friends have designed great new Atriarch website for the Italian Community! Atriarch Italia Atriarch's Community Link Section has been updated. Atriarch Point Rankings have been updated. If you want to hold an Atriarch-related contest and would like give points to participants, please email poq@worldfusion.com He will make sure you are given an official point stash to hand out.
September 12, 2001 - Our prayers and hearts go out to
everyone affected by the recent acts of violence against the U.S. Atriarch
Watcher Relief Fund During the month of September, AT Watcher will be donating all
of the profits made from the sale of Atriarch swag (like, mugs, t-shirts, bags) to the Red
Cross. Visit them here: AT Watcher
Relief Fund. If you are looking for a way to assist, the Red Cross is looking
for volunteers, blood donors and donations. Give blood: 1-800 GIVE LIFE (United
States); 1-888-2DONATE (Canada) or
Give a donation: 1-800 HELP NOW (United States); 1-800-418-1111 (Canada) For more
information, you can visit their site: www.RedCross.org
September 6, 2001 - Quick Update: As most of the Atriarch community already knows, Atriarch's Beta began last week... Woohoo! Over 1,000 people were randomly accepted from the applicants to join in the Stage 1 Beta Test. We were overwhelmed by the incredible response and thank everyone who has taken on the challenge (and insanity) of technical testing. Even though we were unable to accept everyone to Stage 1 that requested it, be assured that we will be adding more people as testing progresses. If you haven't signed up yet to test Atriarch, you can fill out a beta application here.
August 30, 2001 - The Player Character Section has been updated with new graphics and the full character profiles. For those who have seen yet, the Creature Crucible is a fun little toy made by Iimzodar. It allows you to take chopped-up Atriarch Creature parts and make a new creature out of them. Have fun! oh ya... and remember to sign up for Beta.
August 29, 2001
World Fusion is proud to announce the opening of its new Beta Center. We are inviting everyone who is interested in helping us test Atriarch to fill out the beta application form. If you have questions about the beta test, we have provided a short Atriarch Beta FAQ.
A special thanks goes out to Jahmbo, who helped us put together the new Atriarch Beta Center Website and to Herok for finding us a great hosting location.
We hope to see you in Atriana soon!
August 23, 2001 - Hey all! We have postponed the posting of Bolera screenshots for a few days. In the meantime, we gave our community fansites a couple less new screens to post that haven't been released yet.
Atriarch Points: Poq has been going crazy passing out Atriarch points. Every day now he has had some sort of zany event where he passes out points. Typically, these events occur while in the #atriarch channel on Stratics IRC. We encourage you to check out the events. They are short, fun and easy. As of this evening, all the points have been brought up to date. You can see if you are on the list in our Ranking Section.
A great location that always keeps me laughing is Scrudge's Atriarch comics. He is quite prolific. My favorite is the Eshlar with the building plans. Check out his Atriarch Askew Comics on AT Watcher.
August 16, 2001 - ... and we're back! A big hello *waves* to everyone who has been waiting quite some time for an update. As many of you already know, the past couple months we had an alternative site up for Atriarch. We've decided to take that site down and begin using this one again. The other site had several problems. It did not work properly with Netscape, older IE browsers, and Unix/Linux browsers, amongst other issues. Since we have always been such huge and vocal proponents of ease-of-use and supporting the Linux community, we want to make certain we have a site that performs nearly everywhere. So, we are heading back to the drawing board :-) In the meantime, we will be updating this site. Next week, we will post new screenshots of Bolera, a densly forested area with... well, you'll see :-) This weekend we will be working on this site to add some new sections and bring the ones already here up to date. Thanks for your patience, and we'll be back soon... promise!
June 20, 2001 - It has been awhile since the last update. As you know we are waiting to do the majority of updates as soon as the new website is up. We are redesigning it to accommodate the massive growth we've seen in the community and to make information more accessible to you. The new site should be up soon. In the meantime, we are working hard here at World Fusion to make Atriarch as amazing as possible. We are excited about a lot of new things, but we can't tell you about them just yet :-) If you haven't had a chance, please check out the new home of Crossroads of Atriana maintained by Herok. You can also download the Atriarch Windows Theme here.
June 1, 2001 - Development Update: an MMORPG FIRST!:
During the week of E3 many visitors swept through World Fusion HQ to
witness an MMORPG first. The world of Atriana now features a fully rotational sky, that
emulates planetary orbit to such a degree that the sun's position in the sky accurately
reflects the season. Even beyond that, the nighttime sky features a galaxy of stars that
can be used in navigation. Not to mention the breathtaking sunsets!
Atriana is a completely spherical, seamless world. Orbits and the environmental
phenomena they cause will have a broad effect on gameplay. Since Atriana is a globe
the different continents will experience different seasons, much like Earth. It also means
that day and night will cycle realistically with the path of the sun. Keen players will be
able to ascertain relevant information from the skies. And you can name constellations!
A special thanks goes to the Atriarch Player Development Team (APDT) for helping us define the orbits of Atriana's sun and three moons.
Contest Winners: Congratulations to the winners of the Creature Sound Contest. A list of the winners are here.
Atriarch Points Updated: All the contests and Community Events to date have been accounted for. Points have been added and updated in the Atriarch Point Rankings section. Please verify your listing. If you have any questions or corrections, email poq@worldfusion.com
Community: Keafa of OtherWorld Express posted an Atriarch Crossword Puzzle. You will find it in Issue 168. Woo Keafa!
PC Gamer: A big Woo Atriarch! goes to Michael Wolfe from PC Gamer who includes Atriarch in an article about Alternative Lives in the June 2001 issue.
"Then there's Atriarch, another sprawling world filled with strange creatures and compelling aliens... the strange new environments that break normal molds of typical fantasy in Atriarch are vastly appealing."
Site Redesign: Atriarch.com is currently being redesigned to accommodate the high volume of traffic to this site and the active community that has evolved around Atriarch. We thank you for your patience in waiting for the new and improved atriarch.com.
Coming Soon: As soon as the new Atriarch website is up, we will release all sorts of new game information and company announcements. We have a lot of exciting stuff on the horizon, including: new screenshots, music album, community events, character profiles, world info, and trade skill info. *big grin* See you again soon!
Tyrusin Screenshots (click the image to visit various Atriarch fansites)
May 10, 2001 - New Screenshots: 12 new screenshots were given to four different fansites. We apologize for taking so long to put up new screenshots. We had hundreds of beautiful ones ready, but they were... uh... err... ok ok, it was my fault... accidentally deleted. Anyway, you can see some quick new shots we took at the following sites. A whole new set of screenshots will be made soon! Atriarch Vault, Atriarch Stratics, Zang's Atriarch Web, Crossroads of Atriana. Developer Chat Tonight: 6 PM PST on Stratics IRC in #athoc for an Atriarch Stratics House of Commons! The main focus for this HoC will be Combat, so get those questions ready! If you are new to IRC, you can get instructions on how to join us here. Hope to see you there!
May 9, 2001 - Developer Chat: Tomorrow, Thursday, May 10th, at 6 PM PST (9 EST) on Stratics IRC in #athoc for an Atriarch Stratics House of Commons! The main focus for this HoC will be Combat, so get those questions ready! If you are new to IRC, you can get instructions on how to join us here. Hope to see you there!
April 26, 2001 - Six New Creature Animations all taken from from Atriarch's "A" list. The animations were spread amongst six different Community Sites. If you have not yet seen these animations, the you can access them at the links below. Atok: Atriarch La Source, Ati: Crossroads of Atriana, Akandra: Atriarch Stratics, Akava Rock: Atriarch Vault, Appadill: Gameznet Atriarch, Andol: Ends of Atriana. Creature Sound Community Contest: What kind of sound do you think the above creatures will make? The above six animations have no sound. Anyone is welcome to participate by submitting the sound you think those creatures would make. You will receive Atriarch Points just for participating. The rules and detailed description of the contest is here. There are always Community Events in which anyone and everyone is welcome to participate. Since we are late posting the creature sound contest on our site, we are extending the deadline to May 7th. FAQ Changes & Combat: The old Features and FAQ information was updated to reflect the current status. We also added new information to the combat section of the FAQ which describes a little about disciplines, techniques, maneuvers, and attack zones.
April 7, 2001 - Four new Atriarch Player Factions are approved for our official list. Congratulations to: Traveler's Alliance, 14K Triad, The New World, The Palatine Hegemony. New community sites have been added to our Community Links Section. New sites added are: Zang's Atriarch News and Gameznet Atriarch. If we have missed anyone, then please send an email to poq@worldfusion.com and let him know that you should be on the list.
March 30, 2001 - We are back from the Game Developer's Conference. It was a wild week. There were a lot of great people and sessions. You can order audio tapes or cd's of the session at their site if you are interesting in listening to any of the sessions. The Atriarch Point Rankings List has been updated. Everything we have should be up to date and current. If there is a problem with your listing, then please email poq with the details. A new community event starts on Monday. Check back then for details.
March 19, 2001 - We are headed for the Game Developer's Conference this week. When we get back, we will update the list of everyone's Atriarch Points. There are also some new factions that have been waiting for official recognition. We promise to put that up when we get back as well.
We have added 15 more creature parts to the Creature Crucible. Per your feedback, we added a "depth" button, so you can stack things. Have fun and we'll see you when we get back.
March 15, 2001 - New Creature Toy: We are kicking off Creature Month (and a half) with a fun Flash game called, Creature Crucible. You can make your own creatures from chopped up creature parts. All these parts come directly from a creature that inhabits Atriana. Some of them you may recognize from the Creature Animations on the Vault. Some of them are from creatures you haven't seen yet :-) GDC Presentation: Next week, most of the Atriarch team will be at Game Developer's Conference. Arc, Atriarch's Chief Architect, will be on a panel entitled, Server Load Issues for Massively Multiplayer Online Games. Drop by to hear him speak or just to say hi. Atriarch Team on the Boards: The Atriarch Team has been on a posting spree. Some of the topics include: music, customizability, technology, game religions, player-construction, and more. You can discuss topics with us or read our replies to various topics on the discussion boards of any of the following three sites: Atriarch Stratics, Crossroads of Atriana, or Atriarch Vault. Play Atriarch Survivor: Atriarch Stratics is hosting the game AT Survivor on Stratics IRC. The winner of these contests win Atriarch Points to put toward prizes. It is a live Atriarch Trivia game that is a lot of fun to play. Don't get voted off and you could may come out the winner!
March 8, 2001 - Gamespy posted a new developer journal from Serafina, Lead Game Designer. There are also five new creature images released along with the journal. If you would like to read past versions of her developer journal, a list of entries is in our Press Section.
March 6, 2001 - The categories in the Community Section have been changed around a bit to more easily locate Community Event information. Congratulations to the team of Phinehas and Ysharros for the winning entry in the Pikatan Story Contest Event. Your story has been added to the official Story Section of the website. They will be splitting the 10 Atriarch Points (1000 Atrios Points)!!! There are a list of honorable mentions from the Pikatan Story entries that each of the Atriarch Judges have listed. Each of the honorable mentions will receive an additional Atriarch Point for each time they are mentioned. The Atriarch Points will be added to your names soon. These events have been so successful, we are going to keep having them. Stay tuned this week for the next theme of events and contests! Thank you to all the participants!
March 5, 2001 - The Community Section has been updated with a listing of Atriarch Point Rankings. Please check to see if your points are accurate. They include anyone who sent in an entry for the Pikatan Contest as well as the Community Story Event. We are still tallying the points from Atriarch LaSource. The winner of the Pikatan Story event will be posted in the next day or two. Atriarch LaSource has sent in their Story from the Community Story Event. There is both a French and an English version. Thank you Aschatan!
March 1, 2001 - The Community Story Events and Contests were an HUGE SUCCESS! Lots of people participated, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. We are looking forward to future events. The Pikatan Story Contest Entries have been posted in the Community Section. We will use this weekend to read all the entries and post a winner next week. In the meantime, you are welcome to read through them. When you see how many entries there are and how lengthy some of the are, you will understand why it will take some time for us to read through them all :-) The Community Story Event where all the sites wrote a chain story one sentence at a time on the discussion boards has also been posted. It is a lot of fun to see where everyone took the direction of the stories. You can read the entries here: ATS Chain Story, COA's Chain Story, and ATV's Chain Story. La Source's entry will be added as soon as it is submitted. Atriarch Points will be handed out as soon as we clear up some name issues. Some people have multiple names and emails. Please email poq with your real name, email and nicknames that you use so that we can track your points properly. If you send an email to poq, then please put in the subject:: Atriarch Story Email
February 25, 2001 - The next story episode is on its way. We had a couple different publishers come to visit us last week, and it put a small dent in our story-posting schedule. We thank you for your understanding. Atriarch Points: We have updated the Community Section of our website to include sections on Atriarch Points, Community Event Results, Point Rankings, and Point Prize List. There are only three more days to participate in the Pikatan Story Ending Contest and the Community Chain-Story Event (see below). The deadline for these events is this Wednesday, February 28th. We hope to have all the submissions posted by the following Tuesday. Be sure to join the discussion on COA and let us know what other kinds of community events and contests you would like to see. Atriarch Combat: During a live chat a few days ago, poq described his first experience in the world of Atriana and went into detail about how the combat system works. The log of this chat is posted on the following sites: ATS, COA, ATVN.
February 19, 2001 - Question of the Week: Gender. This week we continue our discussion about gender in Atriarch on Crossroads of Atriana. Atriarch's inhabitants reproduce asexually. Last time we discussed the options of genderless pronouns. This week I would like to discuss the option of putting several genders into Atriarch. The gender would be alien and based on something other than reproductive organs. There could be biological reason for the genders or cultural reason. So, the question is, now that you've had time to read some of the Atriarch episodes and hopefully participate in the Community Story Event (see below), what do you think about several, alien genders based on something in the world? We encourage you to join in and give your opinion. You can post feedback here.
February 16, 2001 - Atriarch Community Story Event: We invite everyone to participate in this fun community event. Here are the instructions: Goal: for each Atriarch community site to write an original Atriarch story as possible Who Can Participate: Anyone and everyone! This is how the event works: There is a single sentence on the discussion boards of every Atriarch fansite that is participating. Each site has a different beginning sentence. From there, the community finishes the story one sentence at a time. Each post following must only be a single sentence. Every individiual is allowed to only participate a total of four times per board. At the end of the month, we put together the string of sentences and read as a story. What do You Win: Everyone who participates will receive 25 Atrios points for each post up to a maximum of four entries. (100 Atrios points = 1 Atriarch point) Points are redeemable for prizes that we will post at the end. This is meant to be fun, so if the story goes off in a weird direction, that is ok. We just ask that you do not spam. Here are the beginning sentences: Atriarch Stratics: A red glow floated about the darkness as Devar, the Moon of Fire, eclipsed Altoos. Atriarch Vault: The wind howled as Mantar, the Moon of Fury, eclipsed the Altoos Sun. Crossroads of Atriana: The Aub was long and cold as Gentar, the Moon of Frost, eclipsed the warm glow of Altoos. Atriarch LaSource: They stared at the sky in awe, for they had never before seen a triple eclipse of Altoos by all three moons. Ils regardaient le ciel avec crainte, parce qu'ils n'avaient jamais vu auparavant une triple eclipse d'Altoos par les trois lunes. hint: Altoos is the sun of Atriana. Aub is a measurement of time and equals the cycle of the the Altoos Sun and one of the three moons.
February 13, 2001 - New Story Episode: A new story about a Master and Apprentice Scientist in the Cavolon Kuj Labs has been posted in Atriarch's Story Section. If you would like to learn more about the Cavolon and their Nine Labs, visit the Cavolon Species Profile on PC IGN.
February 12, 2001 - Creature Animation: Story month continues with the release of a short creature animation of the Pikatan which is the animal featured in Atriarch's Story Contest. Visit Atriarch Vault every week for a new creature animation.
February 9, 2001 - Story Month: February is Story Month for Atriarch. Look for a new official Atriarch Story Episode every Tuesday, including new creature animations from the stories! We will also be posting questions of the week and other Atriarch news updates regularly. Story Contest: We've written a short beginning to a story. You write the official end. You can change the story, rewrite it, add to it... whatever you want. It is up to you and your imagination :-) Whether you are a perennial Fan Fic auteur or a total narrative newbie we encourage you to participate! The winner will receive an Atriarch t-shirt, the notorious Atriarch bumper sticker (accept no imitations), and will receive ten Atriarch points to put toward prizes or a beta account. To participate in the contest read the instructions and story here: Contest Story - The Pikatan Atriarch Points: Throughout Theme Months, Atriarch will be hosting several community events and contests. Everyone in the community who participates in these events will receive Atriarch Points. The winner of each contest will receive an Atriarch t-shirt, the infamous Atriarch bumper sticker, and an extra 10 Atriarch Points. So what are these points good for? At the end of the theme months, you will be able to redeem them for nifty prizes (I guarantee you will like them) and of course, beta testing slots. If you come by #atriarch on Stratics IRC this weekend, we'll be online and answering your questions about how this will work. Newsletter: A newsletter was sent out today with a tidbit more news than is posted here. If you did not receive your newsletter, then send an email to news@atriarch.com and write "join" in the subject. Movie Day: Sorry we did not get the posting of the theater up soon enough. We will have another movie day very soon. For future reference, we almost always attend this theater for movie day: Edwards Metro Pointe.
February 6, 2001 - We have decided to take a couple more day to finalize the rules of the contests. Each theme month will have a contest with a monthly winner. We have a few more details that need to be ironed out before making it public. We hope that you will enjoy what we have in store for you :-)
February 5, 2001 - Movie Day: This Friday afternoon, the Atriarch team will be heading off to see the movie, Hannibal. Anyone who wants is welcome to join us. I'll post the time and location of the theater on Friday. We are located in Costa Mesa, California.
An Atriarch newsletter will be emailed this week, so if you haven't signed up for it yet and would like to receive it, send an email to: news@atriarch.com and write in the subject: join We will post a notice here once the newsletter has been sent.
February 1, 2001 - We've been laboring over the theme months in order to present you with the best... but we're not quite ready.
Next week we will begin Story Month! Expect a whole slew of great activities and content starting Tuesday! See you then :-)
January 27, 2001 - Serafina (Lead Game Designer) and Firemist (Community Liason), will be attending the ISDA USC Conference. If you will also be attending, be sure to yell, "WOO ATRIARCH" so we know to go up and say hi *smile*
Kraith, a self-proclaimed Atriarch fan, decided to get the ball rolling. He sent me this picture of him earlier today.
January 23, 2001 - We apologize for any interruption in our web activity. Our service provider informed us that they had SIX OC 192 lines physically cut during construction by the phone company in Texas. (Although, we are told it was an accident, we are not ruling out other possibilities.) We are told that a truck with replacement cable is on route to the site to replace their backbone. They could not give us any estimated time of repair. So, if anyone sees a truck with a bunch of optical cables spewing out the sides and a gun rack in the back speeding down the highway, please let it pass :-)
January 16, 2001 - DavidQuick, an active fan in the Atriarch Community, has begun a ceramics project that we all think is just awesome! *smile* He is making 2 foot ceramic versions of the Character Species.
His ceramic
Tyrusin, a work in progress.
QoTW: The next installment of "Maximizing Immersion and Culture Through Words" This Question of the Week discusses alternatives for genderless pronouns. Since Atriarch Character Species are asexual, then using the traditional feminine and masculine pronouns may not be the best for roleplaying and immersion. In this week's question, we debate the alternatives. This question is posted on the Crossroads of Atriana boards. I look forward to your thoughts and feedback. Community Profiles: Crossroads of Atriana have posted two new community profiles: Thant and Vosx. Stratics IRC: The Atriarch channel on Stratics IRC is the place to be for live debate about Atriarch issues. For more information, visit Atriarch Stratics. We show up there often to talk directly with the community.
January 15, 2001 - Atriarch team members have been actively participating in online discussions with members from the community. We encourage you to join the discussions. Currently, there are two excellent discussion threads on Atriarch Vault: Beyond Banks: Atriarch's In-game Financial Institutions; Siege Weapons and balancing them against custom-built structures Several active members of the Atriarch Community have begun what is called the APDT, Atriarch Player Development Team. This group discusses issues surrounding Atriarch including gathering ideas and offering feedback for the game. It is the perfect opportunity for anyone who wants to join in on the development process. We look forward to your input. All you fans (and hopefully soon to be fans) are doing a great job supporting Atriarch in the community! Thanks!
January 10, 2001 - Happy New Year! The Atriarch team is back from a long holiday and moving full speed ahead. We have a lot of exciting announcements and events planned for 2001. World Fusion finalized a partnership agreement for Atriarch support and distribution in Australia and certain Asian countries. We will send out a press release with the details this month. Beginning February 1, Atriarch will begin a series of theme months. Each month we will release a host of new Atriarch information accompanied by community events and contests. Quick Development Update: Although most of the Atriarch team have been gone for the holidays, there was some time for improvements to the creature A.I. Creatures have been updated so that they choose from several attacks instead of just one attack for each creature. New construction pieces for the Cavolon have been added. The Torpor Storm sound effects that were just added sound incredible. Some work has been done on the Lost Continent, but we can't tell you anything about that (you know, since it is supposed to be Lost and all). The content team is currently working on several more specific Character animations, like crawling, walking backwards, climbing, etc. It was difficult to get the aliens to sit still long enough to attach the motion capture equipment to them, so we opted for an alternative approach. We have assembled an expert team on alien animation and will be incorporating their valuable observations into Atriarch. We are very lucky to have these rare people. It is in fact true that only a few individuals have actually seen a Cavolon walk backwards. We'll keep you posted. Community Update: While we were on holiday, Atriarch community sites kept everyone abreast of Atriarch happenings. Crossroads of Atriana posted four new Community Profiles: Bialar Crais, Soralis, EtherDais, and Zepath. Atriarch Stratics will be hosting a faction summit tomorrow on Stratics IRC. Thursday January 11th at 8:30pm EST #atfaction. If you would like more information on how to chat on irc, go here. Atriarch Vault has two new pieces of fan fiction posted on the Story board.
Last updated: January 06, 2005
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