Ruin's Got A Pretty Neat Interpretation Of Social Networking.

But as senior social media strategist Sid Shuman admits, there's much more to the game than that.

"Ruin’s developers are quietly building a wide, deep social network designed to keep you interacting whether you’re on the couch, on the bus, or someplace in-between," Shuman explained.

The solution is a feature called the Lair. "It’s an extension of you. It’s an outwardly facing construct that other players interact with,” senior producer Travis Williams chipped-in. “You’ll spend as much time equipping your Lair as you will your character.”

The Lair system is important because it works in two ways. It adds to your offence when you're playing, and defence when you're not. “If you and I were rivals, you wouldn’t attack me,” Williams continued. “You’d attack my Lair.”

The Lair is customisable depending on your loot and playing style. As you earn relics and objects you'll be able to place them in your Lair, enhancing your character's offensive abilities and boosting the fortitude of your stronghold. Relics can be swapped in-and-out at will, depending on your current method of play. “There’s a relic called the Poison Ivy Trophy, and you could place it in your Armory and any weapon you use will drip poison,” Williams added. “Or you can put it in your Beastiary to enhance your Lair’s monsters with poison damage.”

But then of course comes the competition. What if you see an item on another player that you want to steal? Williams cites a powerful item known as the Heart Of Titan to get illustate his point. “If you want to take that item from [another player], you can challenge him. You can bet on his Heart of Titan with another valuable item. If he agrees, the game will put both items into escrow while you beat the hell out of each other’s Lairs over the next 24 hours.” Once 24-hours of real-time have elapsed, the player with the highest aggregate score will claim both items.

Fascinating stuff. Ruin clearly has some seriously lofty ambitions. We just hope the game can come true on its promise. There's much more information on the PlayStation Blog.

[Thanks PlayStation Blog]