Realtime Worlds has lifted the lid on its urban crime MMO

Despite letting players run riot, APB still has narrative elements  to draw players together. "There’s no overarching story that the players will embark on when they play APB. APB is about players creating their own story," explained Realtime Worlds community man Chris Collins in the latest APB vodcast. "They can do that in many different ways; the creative elements that APB has to offer enables players to create their own brands, vehicles and their own real characters. But also players will be able to interact on a social level, which will enable them – using the video recording functionality and screenshot functionality – to create their own stories."

APB's lead creative designer Stephen Hewitt (aka KitKat) added: "APB has a lot of story material written for it. We’ve had various professional writers producing a lot of material. One of the challenges of writing a story for an MMO game was to work out a narrative that you can put into a game like that without leading players down one massive story trail."

"There isn’t a massive meteorite about to hit earth," continued Hewitt, "but there are very important things happening with the characters and personalities within the city, and the story interweaves all those elements together to create a joined up narrative. And if you follow all the different trails you start to get the feel of the city itself and the people that live within it, and the things that they care about and the things that they do."

Hewitt also confirms that there will be four major organisations in the game. The two criminal gangs comprise militant criminal skatepunks the G-Kings, and the Blood Roses, made up of bored trust fund rich kids, trying crime for kicks. Realtime Worlds is promising more on the enforcer groups – The Prentice Tigers and the Praetorians – sometime soon. For more on some of the key individuals in the city of San Paro check out the APB vodcast.