Diaspora (video game)

Diaspora/Xiaspora
Developer(s)	"Phil"
Publisher(s)	Altitude Productions
Platform(s)	PC (Windows)
Release date(s)	Beta: 18 October 1999 Public release: June 2000
Genre(s)	MMO, Point and click
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Media/distribution	Download

Diaspora was a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game created by Altitude Productions. Released from beta in June 2000. 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. The game went offline in August 2001.

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 Telewest.

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.

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.

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.

References