speaking of roleplaying events

The Matrix Online beta ended with a crash this week, as users were treated to a complete breakdown of the Matrix. A massive agent assault, spontaneously combusting player characters, and instant deaths were all experienced by players in the beta's final hours. As with the gesture towards Galaxies players, using the universe to convey such a simple act of shutting down the beta program made it seem almost worth looking into.

It was an open beta, and despite my comments I would have liked to give The Matrix Online a try. According to some quick impressions at Render, the feel of the movies was captured, but without any real content to fill out the rest of the package. The combat system is probably at the crux of the entire game, because after seeing the films everyone wants to know Kung Fu. Suprisingly, hand to hand combat shows actual connecting blows, instead of the familiar "wave your arm/weapon in the enemy's general direction". But what about classes? That's one thing I wanted to uncover for myself, because for a game that's steeped in environments similar to real life, what skill archetypes are used to differentiate players? Is everyone aiming to be The One? Player motivation is really unclear in the Matrix Online. I would find it hard to accept if the entire purpose is to run around hacking computers or beating up other NPCs, because we've already seen how much more is going on beyond the Matrix itself (not to mention the thought of paying a monthly fee for a fighting game). A story arc involving the universe's deeper elements would do a lot to push gameplay in a more absorbing direction.