If you're at San Francisco's GDC event, you just might be able to sneak peeks at upcoming games like Aika Online, gPotato's free-to-play online fantasy role-playing game. gPotato's representatives point out that the game will offer a strong amount of player-versus-environment (PVE) content in the form of monsters to slay, dungeons to loot, and quests to perform, but the primary focus of the game seems to overwhelmingly be on player-versus-player (PVP) competition, so much so that there are three entirely separate ways to engage in PVP at any given time.
Like many other fantasy-themed online games, Aika will let you create a character from various archetype professions, such as a warrior or wizard, and seek advancement by fighting monsters and performing quests (gPotato has purposely tuned character level advancement to move quickly so that players will be ready for PVP soon.) Likewise, you'll be able to deck your character out with various accoutrements, such as fancy weapons and armor, aika gold and there will be animal mounts you can ride, though the game will have a somewhat playful side--for instance, one of the in-game mounts is a giant armored hamster (yes, a giant armored hamster). In addition, once any character reaches level seven, he or she may take on a pet called a "pran," which is essentially an extremely young girl who will grow and develop into a young lady with various combat proficiencies depending on how you approach your relationship with her. Prans can use elemental powers, such as fire, water, and wind, and can be groomed to be intelligent wizards or fierce fighters.
