MxO: Social Commentary Through Design

The fifteenth issue of The Escapist features an article entitled "MxO: Social Commentary Through Design", which discusses the unique flavor of The Matrix Online. If you've never played the MMORPG, this two-page article just might convince you to...
People will create something that mirrors them. As an artist, when I construct a portrait without a model, features from my face inevitably make their way into the sketch. When a 3-D artist at a game studio builds a model for production, his best source of reference material is a mirror. Racial minorities are infrequently represented in popular video games because most of the people staring into those mirrors don't represent those minorities. This is why MXO is unique in the gaming industry. Building upon the vision crafted by the Wachowski brothers, Monolith employed an exceptional design team and focused the art style on a hyper-real version of gritty urban décor and hip hop fashions.