I just received an email from the good people at Realtime Worlds. I suppose its because they are my sole friend on Facebook, and feel chummy enough with me to share their latest developments. I have pasta'd the entire thing here so you can read it and because I am lazy.

Greetings All,

Firstly let me thank everyone who has so far registered their
interest in Realtime Worlds and APB: All Points Bulletin. It’s great
to see so much interest at this stage and hope we can grow that
interest over the coming months. Anyone who still hasn’t registered
and would like to receive news direct to their email can sign up at:
http://www.realtimeworlds.com/index.php?id=399&pid=3

September Update:

September has seen the APB project moving forward, with progress made
on various parts of the project, so this month’s update will cover
this progress, along with what to expect from the team in October.

Game News:

In the middle of September we moved into the final phase of internal
alpha testing with regular play tests involving 100+ employees
enjoying the various elements of APB currently available. The aims of
this phase are to tidy up the current experiences whilst we prepare to
move out of alpha, in the future phases we will begin the tentative
process of allowing others into the game. Initially this will be a
very core, select number of trusted friends of employees, but does
mark the start of what can be considered the ‘Closed’ Beta stage
of APB. Whilst any dates for future phases depend on the progress
made, we will keep you updated in our future monthly updates.

Via various fan sites and forums, we have been collecting up all the
ideas you guys have put forward for APB. Moving forward we plan to
focus on 3 ideas in each newsletter, to help give you folks an idea of
the direction of APB and how your ideas fit with that direction. Each
month we will highlight one idea which already exists in game, one
which we have taken under consideration for the game, and one which
has been rejected (along with explanations for each) so please keep
your ideas coming.

Idea already implemented: Arrest / Capture system

Enforcers have an arrest system available to them which serves to
take out a criminal player until they are freed or the arrest timer
expires and they must respawn as if killed. This can reduce the
criminal force for longer periods of time than killing them would
unless freed by their criminal group-mates.

Idea under consideration: Stealth systems

We are currently working on ways of implementing “stealth” into
missions, however details of how this will work are not yet finalised.

Idea rejected: Selectable Classes such as Detective or SWAT

At this time there are no plans for playable ‘classes’. Instead a
players ‘class’ is defined by their play style in game.

Community News:

We have this month agreed on the new official APB Logo which is
designed to have a stencilled ‘graffiti’ penis feel. We believe it fits
in well with the art style we are going with in APB and the overall
theme of the game. Following on from this we have also been working on
the final stages to finish and release our new teaser website at
http://www.apb.com. This will serve to generate interest in APB until
the fully integrated version of the website is ready (which will also
incorporate our new official forums for the game).

The official forums will mark a key stage for the community team here
at Realtime Worlds..........what’s that? I hear some of you asking
how I can call myself a “team”? Well that leads me onto the next
bit of news. I’m pleased to announce that Chris ‘Deum’ Collins
is joining the community team shortly and will be let loose on the new
forums when they are released. He comes in with a big interest in APB,
and I’m sure some great ideas/plans for you folks.

As some of you may already know, we are now listed on MMORPG.com at
this link;

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/358

If you haven’t already, please head on over and join in the
discussions, and if you want to show your interest in the game please
hype it.

Coming up in October:

Here’s a little teaser of what to expect in next month’s
newsletter;

- More news on our use of Facebook as a major community tool

- Update on the new teaser website and forums

- Chris ‘ Deum’ Collins’ thoughts of his first month at
Realtime Worlds

- Updates on the APB game status

- Announcement of our Facebook Art design competition winner

- Lots more

Competitions and other news:

We are currently running a competition via our Facebook group where
fans can submit APB themed art to the fan pictures section here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/All-Points-Bulletin-APB/10139489470
; We will announce the winner next month who will win a custom framed
APB artwork incorporating the winning graffiti design.

Finally I’d like to send a big thank you to Richard and the guys
over at Saitek http://www.saitek.com who have provided us with some
full Cyborg sets to give the community team an edge over the rest of
the employees in our play tests.

http://tinyurl.com/Saitek-gear

Be sure to check them out when you are upgrading your gaming
equipment, and keep a look out for the new official forums as we will
be giving one set away as a prize in a future competition (technically
its Deum's set but he can go back to the standard kit ha-ha).

Until next month,

Chris ‘Ulric’ Dye

Community Relations Manager

http://www.realtimeworlds.com

http://www.apb.com

Can't Wait.