Sure Dragon Empires is another entry in the crowded fantasy MMORPG market, but it will introduce some unique features that its designers hope will make it stand out from the crowd.

The first difference is that the game provides a strong social background that does more than provide a setting for the game’s storyline. The world will be broken up into empires each run by a dragon elder and players will align themselves with an empire and become part of the struggle for power. In addition, there will be room for players to carve out a powerbase of their own as the cities in the game are all clan-controllable. Clans will be able to capture a city and then run it as they see fit, designing the defenses and even setting a tax rate.

To encourage players to fight for their empires, players who accept missions in enemy territory or cross borders to cause trouble will accumulate a special experience point pool known as temporary experience points. The harder the mission or the longer you spend in enemy territory, the more temporary experience points you accrue. If the mission succeeds, then the player is awarded these points as if they were regular experience points. If another player stops the invader, then the temporary experience points will go the defender. You can even send bounty hunters after these killers who will be rewarded with the temporary experience points if they successfully avenge their empire’s loss.

Dragon Empires will also support a fully player controlled economy. There will be an open market for player-crafted items and the prices will fluctuate with supply and demand. You can even try to control the market by controlling the materials needed to craft items or by bankrupting other players by flooding the market with cheap goods.

As for the RPG basics, there are three races in the game. Humans who make good magic users, dragonblood who are natural fighters, and shadows who make excellent scouts. There are five unique classes per race, so you’ll able to follow one of fifteen paths in the game. The designers feel that it is important that players be able to customize their online personas, so there will be a lot of leeway in setting the look of your character. Dragon Empires is set to launch in November 2004.