Anarchy Online is Funcom's highly anticipated futuristic massively multiplayer online role-playing game. As with other online role-playing games before it, Anarchy Online will let you create and play as a single character in a virtual world. But unlike any such game before it, Anarchy Online will feature a futuristic, sci-fi theme in which player characters will fight their battles with big guns and advanced technology.

　　Since Anarchy Online is a futuristic game, it will feature appropriate characters. Though you will be able to create your character from four different races and a dozen different classes, you won't play as a dwarf warrior or an elven sorcerer. Instead, you'll be able to create a genetically engineered thug, a stealthy secret agent, a technological prodigy, and more. You'll be able to customize the way your character plays by using the game's complex skill system, and you'll also be able to customize your character's appearance by purchasing and equipping hundreds of different kinds of armor and clothing.

　　Anarchy Online will be a distinctive online role-playing game for a number of reasons, not the least of which will be its ongoing story, which is scheduled to take place over the course of about four real-time years. The game's story deals with an underground rebellion on a futuristic mining colony against the huge supercorporation that bought the entire planet. Over the course of the game, you will be able to join the rebellion, ally with the corporation, or remain a neutral free agent. However, in the struggle for the planet and its rich resources, free agents will be hard-pressed to remain neutral, as each opposing side will offer attractive bonuses to prospective recruits and heavy-handed threats to stubborn ones.

　　No matter which side you choose, you'll appreciate Anarchy's many handy and well-thought-out features. For starters, you probably won't spend time "camping"--that is, sitting in a single place and waiting for something to fight--because the game will feature a dynamic quest system that creates missions on the fly. What's more, you'll be able to use references--snapshots that any player may take at any time--to create your own quests for other players to complete. And if you aren't in the mood for quests, you'll be able to fight against both the alien monsters that populate the gameworld and also against opposing characters in logically, unobtrusively separate battlefields where you'll be able to pick your fights if you have a score to settle.

　　Anarchy Online is scheduled for release at the end of June. We'll have more coverage of the game right from the show floor soon.