"'I definitely think that there's a very European, maybe even Scandinavian thing about Seed and the way it was about being part of a society, rather than just looking out for number one. Obviously, the strong focus and cooperation and belonging to a society was also designed to make people want to roleplay.' He cited the politics as another nudge for roleplayers, saying, 'As soon as people have something to vote about, they also have something to argue politically about. I definitely think that the fact that Seed was made by a Danish team meant a lot in terms of how the game was designed. I also think the fact that our main story writer was a woman played a role.'"

Shannon Drake speaks with Runestone about their now defunct, non-combat MMOG, Seed.

Seed on the Road

I really liked the art in this article. Was it based on game assets?

Additionally: Are there any copies of the client floating around, and also what about the possibility of setting up a private server?

I think the perfect MMOG would be the one where some brilliant game designer/storyteller figures out how to tell a strong, engaging story with the gameplay. Not with cut scenes, not with quest logs, not with NPC dialogue trees, but with the core gameplay of the game.

I need this game. No, scratch that. This is the game I've been planning on making one day(although not exactly in MMO form). I think it's the holy grail of video games.

Meophist:
I think it's the holy grail of video games.

Telling a story via gameplay sounds like fun... but what does it mean?

I'm very skeptical of this sort of thing. The answer is going to turn out to be "42", because we don't really understand the question.

Bongo Bill:
I really liked the art in this article. Was it based on game assets?

Additionally: Are there any copies of the client floating around, and also what about the possibility of setting up a private server?

Yep, it was based on the game's art style. You can see some screenshots here: http://media.pc.ign.com/media/776/776763/imgs_1.html

I don't know about the feasibility of private servers, etc..

If anyone can get this game up, let us know, this game or anything like it. I want to see how the game worked: I'm currently playing around with a swords-and-sorcery political game, but any input I can get is worth it.

I doubt we will see any private servers pop up. The code was/is part of runestone's (the company who made seed) assest and after they went broke it has most likely been sold off to help pay back the investors. Hopefully its been sold to some of the former runestone people...

Thanks for making the article! I enjoyed the read

We never got a chance to play seed even tho me and my boyfriend had long awaited it but we had connection problems and werent too keen on paying the price they wanted for a game that appeared broken. We crossed our fingers and hoped it would get things straight and i checked from time to time but then one day the page wouldnt open and i knew it was a goner. If I had the money I would have invested in seed because I think it was a great idea and that there is definitely a niche in the game community for this type of game.
I wanted to know if there is anyway to track down lars to write him about a game idea we have.
How would one go about tracking this guy? I think he is a genius and has some really good ideas for non standard gameplay.
i also thought that seed would have worked as one of those - i call them closed cycle games like utopia where you play out a scenario and then it starts over - oh well i am really sad it didnt work out for these guys.
well if anyone knows how to contact lars let me know and maybe we can find a way to communicate with each other safely

see ya