Watch the entire video. It might be a little confusing at first and not apparent where it's similar to .hack, but about halfway through it should click...
This has great potential - throw in a few clever hackers (or maybe they'll even implement something to allow for it!) and you've got something pretty close to The World
It looks like they might have an AI(DA)-ish thing going on already. There's a weird virtual fish(?) invasion from the sky. Just watch, you'll see :p
Screenshots
http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/118/1187781p1.html
More The World and .hack-like points mentioned in the interview.IGN: Do you follow along with a main story in the game, can you give a few hints as to what it will be like?
Andrew Carter: Set after the events of the books, the Otherland game sees the player battling against the virtual offspring of the Grail Brotherhood, the originators of Otherland, as they manipulate the tattered remains of the Otherland Multi-Verse to rebuild their empire and resume their position as the terrible new Gods of Otherland.
IGN: Are the explorable areas wide open for all players? Or do you have to perform special tasks to access each new world?
Andrew Carter: All of the worlds are freely open to be explored by all players providing they have aquired the portal address needed to reach them via questing and leveling. The only limits are organic.



