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, the Jane Austen-themed, still-in-Beta MMO

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, has an amazing game mechanic I've never quite seen before in an MMO: Telling lies about other players' characters to cause player damage.

"The lies come from Pride and Prejudice," Judy tells me, citing the Austen novel that inspired this. Willoughby lies about Darcy. "We haven't sufficiently impressed stats on players yet but gossip affects your stats, so if a lie is spread about you, you start to lose reputation. If you catch the liar, the loss comes back to you double."

Which is fricking brilliant... and, I bet, likely to cause player vs. player ragequitting as brutal as when players shoot crossbows into each others' face. So you know this Jane Austen game is hardcore. (Video below.)

Judy tells me they're still integrating lies and the consequence of lies into the game's content:

Lies start around 3:20 in (contains salty British lad language)

"Eventually we will have events where [reputation] matters. like happiness balls," she says. As for the game itself, it seems to be evolving nicely: "It's going really well and the new patch has a story in it I'm super-excited about (a little something for Halloween). Plus a new exploration quest. And a ton less lag." Because who wants to lie when the lie lags?

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