The first thing I was shown was the game world, a huge part of the game that the developers are very proud of. The map scales to about 15,000І miles or 40,000І kilometers, and even a hardcore player could satisfy themselves with the role of explorer. Farlan also prides themselves on their easy travel system which makes their massive world less daunting; if a player doesn't want to make the long run across the globe, they can ride dragons or dodos, pilot balloons or gliders, take "busses", or warp with the game's easy to use teleporting system.

In Dark and Light you aren't confined to the usual hack-and-slash methods to progress through the game. You have two experience bars: social and combat, and your social EXP can matter just as much as your combat EXP. Social EXP affects/is affected by trade skills and politics, and can also grant helpful combat abilities such as commands or skills for special situations. Both social and combat EXP can help you gain a title in Dark and Light: cities and forts can be taken over by guile and intellect, by a public vote, by sieging a fortress, or by cutting off its supply line.

I didn't hear much about crafting, but what I did learn was quite fascinating. Crafting depends just as much on your environment in DnL as it does on your materials. For instance, crafting a magical item during an eclipse or under a special constellation creates a far more powerful item then if you'd done it on an average day. All I know about the political system is that you capture cities and fortresses to obtain titles such as Baron, Duke, or even King.

So, one might ask, what does any of this have to do with the name of the game, Dark and Light? When you create your character you choose to be on either the Dark or Light side, and this Dark vs. Light system allows PvP between the two sides. And yes, a level 10 Dark character can kill a level 2 Light character, but this will generate "griefing points" for the higher character and cause guards and other players to hunt them down. No news yet on how to get rid of griefing points. Note that Dark characters cannot kill other Dark characters, and Light characters cannot kill other Light characters.

If you want to fight without the threat of griefing points, two guilds can declare war on each other and nullify this penalty. Guilds have no maximum size, nor do alliances (groups of guilds), and leaders can share permissions with members to create a democracy, or keep them all to themselves to run a dictatorship.

The downside is that very little of this seems to be in the game yet, and though the company is pushing for a November release, it doesn't seem all that possible. The world is large, and the travel system looks cool, but when I tried it out I couldn't get my skills to work and I had a tough time finding anything to combat besides Tamed Dodos and Dragons. I also had a tough time getting questions answered. Due to a language barrier (the developers speak a bit of English, but mostly French), I was paired up with a beta tester to answer my questions … and he knew very little about the plans for the game.

Dark and Light is a great game in theory, and as long as Farlan can produce by November or be willing to push the date back, the game will be a must-have for MMORPG lovers. Let's hope that their slogan, "the largest MMORPG you've ever seen," will soon apply to their player base as well as their world!