MYTHOS: Phil Shenk of Flagship Studios goes deep into details today on the creation and direction of the company's upcoming, free-to-play MMO, MYTHOS.

In a chunky Q&A at play.tm, Shenk discusses the back story for the game and why they chose a familiar fantasy setting -with unexpected twists - ala Diablo, and also goes over the recent Alpha testing, combat, how players will be grouped and more. Readable MYTHOS.

"I think this was part of what made Diablo so successful. The world seemed familiar, a medieval Scottish town, a church above a dungeon that was infested with demons. But then we took it and ran with it. We never mentioned real religions, angels were similar to what we think of, but they were also different. We deliberately didn't set it on 'earth', or in a real historical context, so that we could use all those strong, familiar archetypes, but not be a slave to them. This is my favorite way to create a game world. It's familiar, yet different."