We sat down with designer David Jones to discuss APB, the upcoming massively multiplayer crime game from Real Time Worlds and Webzen. There was little to see other than a promotional video trailer, which showed members of rival gangs attempting to out-caper each other to secure stolen goods while fleeing from the fuzz. Interestingly, you'll be able to play as either a gang member or a member of "the enforcement"--so in other words, the game will definitely ship with player-versus-player combat. However, it's a good bet that most players will prefer a life of crime, pulling off high-profile heists, warring for turf, and giving the cops the slip. Jones explained that part of the idea behind APB came from his own examination of massively multiplayer role-playing games, which have, in the past, sometimes proved to be repetitive. Yet the designer also noted that fans of the Grand Theft Auto series, which he helped create, spent hours upon hours on that series' open-ended gameplay, stealing cars, getting into gunfights, taking on missions, fighting off the cops, and so on and so forth. Of course, the game will attempt to go beyond simply making another massively multiplayer time-sink with carjacking in place of beating up orcs. It will instead focus on continuous online play in a massive, free-form city ridden with crime.

In APB, should you decide to live your life on the wrong side of the law, you'll be able to run with a gang that consists of real-life players (who are also controlling characters who are gang members), as well as computer-controlled gang members you can recruit. As a gang leader, you'll apparently be able to create your own custom gang with its own custom colors and uniforms, and you'll even have a custom Web page created for your gang by the game. These pages will keep track of every gang's membership and exploits and will be a great resource for any ambitious gang leaders looking for their next target--or looking for recon on the gang that just ambushed their turf while everyone was offline.

Apparently, APB will be built around turf wars. According to Jones, the world itself will consist of some 30,000 different territories that you and your buddies will be able to seize by engaging in urban battles against rival gangs to seize their territory. When your gang's territory comes under attack, APB will e-mail you and send an SMS message to your mobile phone. Each territory will act a bit like a resource and will be able to produce "goods"--you know, like Uzi submachine guns, which you can use to equip your fellow thugs or sell on the black market. Some territories may even have a "chain-linked" effect that will offer even better advantages when you control certain nearby territories all at once.

But at least some of your funds will go to stationary defenses to keep tabs on your turf when you're not around. Jones suggests that even though your turf can and will be attacked when you and your fellow thugs are offline, you'll be able to enter into an editing mode that lets you station defenses around each of your territories, placing a computer-controlled thug on this rooftop with a sniper rifle, while hiding a few other computer-controlled thugs in that alley over there armed with handguns. This kind of setup will resemble a building strategy game like Bullfrog's classic Dungeon Keeper, but as Jones suggests, having to worry about defending vulnerable territories will act as kind of a self-balancing measure for gangs that get too big. The more turf you control, the more you stand to lose to hungry young gangs after you log out for the night.

On the off chance that you decide to play as the thin blue line, you'll spend almost all of your time in the game fighting crime, either following leads on an all-points bulletin put out on a specific gang member (another player, that is) or hitting the streets while actively pursuing thugs. Just like gangsters can be customized, cops can be personalized to look like SWAT officers or 1970s TV supercops like Starsky and Hutch, complete with a souped-up hot rod.

APB certainly sounds intriguing and very, very ambitious, but Jones admits that the project is going to be challenging, and his studio is soliciting production help from publisher Webzen. The game is tentatively scheduled for release in 2007.