City of Eternals: A Facebook Game You Can Sink Your Teeth Into

As most Facebook gamers can attest, the bite-sized games that live on Facebook are just that -- bite-sized. It's easy to sit down and play them for 15 minutes, and just as quickly go about your normal lives. There's also not a whole lot of depth to these games -- in FarmVille, you plant crops and harvest them to earn coins and experience points, then move on to Mafia Wars, you go on missions to earn cash and experience points. The move on to Pet Society ... you get the picture.

That's where the new vampire game City of Eternals steps in, promising to deliver that same easy-in, easy out game experience you get with FarmVille and Mafia Wars -- and applying it to a game with a deeper storyline, more options on what to do in the game and playing with other people at the same time. Think of this game as World of Warcraft for the Facebook set, except the swords and sworcery have been replaced with scheming vampires, and it'll be a million times easier to jump right in and start playing.

Unlike WoW, the game will not require you to download anything or customize a character. You'll log in through Facebook or from the official site, and you'll have a character right off the bat. Characters will be customizable after the game starts, but the goal is get you from login to game experience as quickly as possible.

Once you're in you can take on missions, customize your home, clothing, weapons, create a coven -- with the ultimate goal of becoming the most powerful vampire in the world.

The driving force behind City of Eternals is the relatively new Ohai, headed by former Silicon Valley investor Susan Wu (whose interview we will post in the near future) and Don Neufeld, who previously worked on brand name MMOs such as EverQuest 2, Star Wars Galaxies and Planetside.

The vampire MMO will be free to play, but will be supported by players spending real-life cash on virtual items. Right now, the game will not include the direct marketing offers (some of which have caused heartache for Zynga), though Wu says that might change in the future.

Right now, City of Eternals is in its early stages, but Wu says the game will officially launch later in November. We've been talking about what Facebook and other social games will look like in the future -- this vampy thriller looks like it might be giving us a sneak peek at what's to come.

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