Believe it or not FoM singe-handedly blessed me with my most memorable gaming moments of all time, shortcomings and all
Written December 6th 2007
As a brief forward, I participated on-and-off in the Face of Mankind open Beta for what seemed to be a solid two years. I experienced what my friend's and I called old-school FoM, with low-calibre graphics, as well as the new-school FoM, with its higher graphical polish. I witnessed the fall of American Enterprises, and the Asian Coalition, and the rise of Vortex Industries. I saw what life in FoM was like without police turrets, and I felt the fear of being in a dark alleyway in the Tokyo slums with some great gear on me all too many times. I let emotions get the best of me and waged war on the military; I raided prisons to free the convicts. I stabbed, shot, ganked, and outright murdered people for a 'greater` cause, and I befriended many along the way too… I was a victim, I was businessman, and I was a smuggler, an alien hunter, a gang-member, a gang-leader, and a citizen. Quite simply, we were all players in the Face of Mankind 'human expiriment' and my friends and I were there for it all. Although it's now a shell of what it once was, and will become even thinner, I feel a tribute to this game via an honest review, ought to be necessary, because the online experience it gave me in its prime has so far been unparalleled.
Where to start? There are no other words to define FoM well enough. Earlier, I referred to it as a 'human expiriment' and to me it still stands that way. I chose the phrase because the game essentially provides you with the ability to make a character, and thrusts you into an online world divided into clans, and run entirely by players. From economy to Intrigue, from politics to processes, from party raids to police forces, protests to power-mongers and even a civil war, Face of Mankind had it all. To me, Face of Mankind came by its name quite honestly, as it seemed to be developed from a question of "What would happen if we gave players an alternate life existence, in a political framework that breeds conflict? Would some band together? Would they betray alliances? Would they break down into war and chaos? Would they respect the law? Would they invent the law? Would might make right, or would wealth make a man?" Well, all of this occurred, and so much more. Indeed, Face of Mankind truly represented what Mankind was and is capable of, if there were no real-world consequences.
Truly, some were capable of rising to great power, others instilling great order with the creation of SWAT teams, and business ethics, while others were capable of far worse. Some became high-rolling mafia men, others drug-using corrupt cops. There were most wanted men who were the most villainous I knew, and businessmen who were the most cut-throat. There were self-made contract killers, turn-coats, terrorists, and just out-and-out thugs. There were politicians and protest starters, conquering commanders and clone-dead characters. Ugh, the reason I use such expansive alliterative phrases, or such parallel structure in constantly listing all of these things, is simply because Face of Mankind, was essentially human history in the future, made digital.
Every time you turned the game on, some new plot may have been a-foot, or a new peace struck. Every time you walked into the narrow alleys of Brooklyn, Berlin, or Tokyo there was no telling what kind of person might lay just around the corner. Every day there were new market fluctuations, while some struck it rich, and others became poor. The clan system, which formed the meat of the game, and of the politics, always had an unexpected turn…and what was beautiful about this was that all of it was player run.
To be fair, Face of Mankind… Was almost not a game, but an experience. It didn't have much content built in, but left that up to clans, clan-leaders, and players of any kind. Yes, there were many slow days where boredom set in…Too many, in fact, to warrant paying for the game monthly. Yet, when FoM was on, it was the best, most immersive, most adrenaline pumping, and brain tingling experience. There were days when your morality would be called into question, and others, your sanity. There was no fame or infamy, no goat or glory, by rights of a built in system, per se, but instead, simply but what the players around you –those in the world, in your faction, or in an enemy group- thought of you.
In FoM your actions, as well as your diplomacy made you a success of failure, and it is in all of these aspects that FoM happens to be my ultimate gaming experience that has yet to be beaten.
Again, it sounds strange to say, because I just remarked that it wasn't the greatest game in its incredibly loose structure, so how could it be my favourite experience in gaming? Well, to answer, I would simply say, because of friends. If my real-life friends didn't play the game with me, I would have felt decidedly less compelled to play it at all, just because the memorable moments just wouldn't be as readily there, or as shareable.
My friends and I on FoM did so many crazy things… We started mercenary in-fighting, sold drugs, and raided colonies with the now (and then) defunct Asian Coalition. We murdered cops, raided prisons, deceived people, and believed people. We shot first and asked questions later, got into yelling matches, held fight clubs, and even put each other to gun-point on occasion. We raided the 'un-raidable' space station, infiltrated private sectors, battled aliens, and looted corpses. A lot of us made a name for ourselves in our respective factions, and whether that yielded death, glory, or something even more hilarious, we were there.
Whether it was playing the markets, or lining up your mark, cheating out on missions, or causing a ruckus, we were there. Was there a political situation that was so packed with heat and hard feelings that one wrong move would cause everyone to pull their pieces and open fire? Yup. Could this send the world of FoM as we knew it into chaos, obliteration, and all manner of other interesting paths? Yup, and we were there.
The prevailing feeling in Face of Mankind then, for me, and I'm certain, for a lot of those I played with is that it was just a great amount of fun, all in all, to make a name for yourself in a digital world; no matter how skin-and-bones its structure truly was. In FoM, we wanted to be somebody or no one at all, doing whatever we wanted to do, killing whoever we wanted, but often times by the sheer politick of the game, we were weighted down…at least, for a few days.
Regardless, in things both good and bad there is no denying that my greatest memories came from Face of Mankind, and thus, no denying what it meant to me as a gamer. For although we often times thought about our own roles to play in the universe, we never imagined how much of an impact we would really have on the digital image and future of the world of FoM while it lasted, and I doubt I ever conceptualized how truly 'human' a lot of the things we did were. Whether evil or orderly, brutal or benevolent, all manner of humans were represented in the game; a game that some may argue (as I have) truly represented all that humans were capable of, in the right and wrong circumstances…The experience truly represented, to me, what the face of mankind truly looked like and for that, all the hilarity, and all the chaos, -despite its gaming shortcomings-, Face of Mankind was, ironically, the best gaming experience I have ever had.