GamesMMOPax DeiPax Dei, the new MMO from EVE alumni, is attempting a magic system where ‘you might be the only one’ who’s discovered a new spellWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesMMOPax DeiPax Dei, the new MMO from EVE alumni, is attempting a magic system where ‘you might be the only one’ who’s discovered a new spellWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Mainframe)

In the MMOs where I spend most of my time, big achievements tend to be things like guilds completing a raid before anyone else, or being the first player to hit max level at the start of a new expansion. And as impressive as some of these feats are, they are still part of the largely linear journey that most players will eventually experience. Pax Dei, a “social sandbox” that’s launching in early access soon, is doing things differently.
Mainframe Industries want to make a world that “does not feel like a journey”, says game director Reynir Hardarson. There are no levels or classes, so you don’t progress from level 1 to level 60. “It’s more of a place where you live in it.”
You find some land to call your own, or maybe join a clan and build a house, inn or shop in a village, or help your pals build a huge castle on the side of a mountain. Then you find a role: a trader, a tailor, a smith, or a soldier sworn to a knight, who serves a baron, who’s just one noble in a kingdom.
“Everything is discovered in the world itself,” says Hardarson. “You will find new magic, new skills, new recipes in the world; it’s not part of a level unlock. And you might even be the only one who has this new magic, or found it, and then that kind of spreads out through the player organisations.”
My conversation with Mainframe also touched on the feudal system, the player-run economy, PvP wars and the effort I went through to make a pair of scruffy trousers, so for more take a look at my fullPax Dei preview. You’ll also be able to check the MMO out for yourself when it launches in early access on June 18.
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