The year is 29,475 AD. With the help of many and varied technological advancements, humanity has reached out into the distant depths of space. Within the expansive area of the Milky Way, almost innumerable planets have been discovered, explored and colonized, both for the simple purpose of expansion and also in order to search for much-needed resources. One of these countless worlds is Rubi-Ka, an arid, inhospitable speck located on a far frontier of the galaxy. However, belying its seeming insignificance, control of the planet is critical. The sole reason for this is that it holds rare and extremely valuable deposits of Notum, the substance required to power nanotechnology. The huge Omni-Tek Corporation began terraforming operations thousands of years ago, but even today, humans inhabit only a small part of the uninviting surface, where rebel clans challenge the company's regime. 

This scenario served as the backdrop to Funcom's Anarchy Online, which launched in the summer of 2001. After a decidedly difficult start, the team and the game recovered very nicely, going on to win both substantial acclaim plus a number of awards. Naturally, the project has evolved with the passage of time. In this respect, the Notum Wars booster pack added elements that allowed players to benefit by mining pieces of land, if they could hold them. In the fall of 2003, the Shadowlands expansion more than doubled the total area with a series of strange, new playfields reached via a mysterious portal. Then last year, Alien Invasion brought an attack from a completely new threat. To tell us what lies ahead in the next add-on Anarchy Credits- Lost Eden, we got hold of the Game Director, Morten Byom.

Jonric: In case any readers are not familiar with it, how would you outline the conflict that provides the foundation for the base game, Anarchy Online?

Morten Byom: Anarchy Credits is a sci-fi MMO set some 30,000 years into the future. Humans have left Earth in their search for knowledge and power. In their travels across the galaxies, they discovered a planet granting extraordinary abilities to its occupants. This is the Rubi-Ka, where the game takes place.

This future world is governed and run by corporations dominating the different solar systems. Omni-Tek is the largest of these corporations. It rules with an iron fist, stopping at nothing to maintain its supremacy.