Worlds in Time (video game)

Doctor Who: Worlds in Time was a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) developed by Three Rings and published by BBC Worldwide. It was the first multiplayer online game in the history of the Doctor Who franchise. It was also the first game developed by an American company, and the first to be financially supported through micropayments.

Announced on 24 February 2011, after enjoying a lengthy public preview period which began on 20 December 2011, the game officially was released on 13 March 2012.

It was announced on 14 January 2014 that the game would be discontinued on 3 March of the same year. The game's services lasted to the end of the Eleventh Doctor's era, the Doctor central to its story, and closed not long after the debut of the Twelfth Doctor.

Synopsis
The players follow in the Doctor's footsteps, travelling through time and space, exploring alien worlds, encountering various species, and helping the Doctor save civilised cultures from various threats.

Intro
A temporal event has caused time itself to shatter into crystal shards. The Eleventh Doctor, realising this to be of grave importance to fix, decides he need "a cavalcade of help", and decides to recruit as many allies as possible to help in fixing time.

The Doctor lands his TARDIS in a dark room, and a figure cloaked in shadows finds him. The Doctor tells the figure they're just who he's looking for, and to come in.


 * This character, the player, now can choose their name, gender (male or female), and race (human, Silurian, Catkind, or Gelth).

The Doctor tells the companion to complete puzzles and to find him the scattered time shards. He then drops the human on their first mission.


 * Plastic Soul on Earth is always the first level of the game, but the player is able to play future missions in some variety of order. Despite this, missions typically have a set script, with the chat windows for characters and the chat window for players being separate.

Bigger on the Inside
The companion lands in London, which has been infected by the Nestene Consciousness. Nestene spheres clutter the streets, and plastic Autons are on a rampage. The companion enters a storefront, where he encounters numerous Autons and meets an employee, Vicky. Vicky tries to take them to the alley behind the store, but the back door is locked, so the companion has to pick the lock.

As they reach the back alley, they are cornered by Autons, before the TARDIS suddenly appears. As the Doctor exits the TARDIS, Vicky flees, saying she'd rather risk it in the streets. The Doctor exits the TARDIS, nothing he hasn't seen Autons in "ages." He notes that they have one weakness, as their molecular structure breaks down under the stress of a sonic device. To help you fight the Autons, the Doctor gives you a Psychic wand.

The Doctor reveals he has collected the first time shard, and that next they need to use the TARDIS to scan the Nestene Consciousness and discover when and where the Auton invasion began.

Domestic Disturbance
The Doctor drops the companion off with three other assistants just before the Auton invasion of Earth began. He detects a time distortion nearby, and instructs the team to investigate.

As the Doctor flees in the TARDIS, two humans pass by: Sylvia and Bernard, who are arguing over a crystal he has found and her fear that someone will come after them for it. The four companions interact with the pair, and convince Sylvia to trust them. Sylvia explains that Bernard found some strange object, and now there are "unsavory characters" living in their basement. She notes the companions seem to honestly want to help them, which Bernard sees as a problem, as it is revealed that he has been replaced by an Auton duplicate. With their Sonic devices, the four companions manage to defeat the Auton copy.

Sylvia takes them to the basement in their home, which leads to Bernard's locked office, guarded by Autons. The companions pick the lock and fend off the plastic invaders, making it inside the office. There, a hidden door disguised as a bookcase in unlocked, revealing a hidden room. Inside, a time shard is stored. Sylvia reveals her husband was once part of the Sword and Laurels Club, which he claimed was ancient and secret. She says if the groups follows her, she thinks she can lead them to another time shard.

Loot and Laurels
Sylvia takes the four companions to the house where the Sword and Laurels Club typically meets. She wishes them luck, and leaves. The four are then stopped by Constable Howe, who tells them they look suspicious. After sneaking by the Constable, they get into the house, where they are confronted by Patrick, a member of the brotherhood. After speaking to Patrick and picking a locked door, Patrick insists he must leave to tell his brotherhood about this.

Deep inside the home, they find a "hooded stranger," who tells them that they can not even imagine how deep the mystery goes, and how many time crystals are buried beneath London. As he flees, the four companions pick a final door, revealing a sercret chamber where another time shard is hidden.

Above and Below
In the TARDIS, the Doctor notes that the group have found Autons hiding as a secret society, with their sole purpose being hiding the unstable time shards. He hopes this next stop will help them finally get to the bottom of things.

The TARDIS drops the team outside of another London house. The four enter, to the annoyance of Ashley, a woman guarding the front room. As the companions pick a locked door, the man inside (Gerald) tells Ashley that the group are with the Sword and Laurels Club. Gerald also guards a time crystal, and the group manage to pick the lock to another secret entrance.

They arrive just in time to witness Rasha, a Silurian woman, stealing the shard for herself. She believes that the four are with the secret society, and flees, declaring she will not allow the last of her people to be wiped out. The four follow Rasha to the entrance of an underground Silurian cave and are told to leave.

However, a group of Silurians soon approach, who fail to give the passphrase, and are revealed to be Autons disguised as Silurians. The four companions help defeat the Autons, convincing Rasha that she can trust the four, although she still has some hesitation.

As the four reach a terminal, Rasha theorizes they can produce a sonic blast that will disable the Autons. After the four companions help hack the terminal and defeat more Autons, Rasha reveals some information to them. She explains that long ago, while the Silurian race slept in hibernation, their caves were invaded by the Nestene Consciousness. If they can not defeat the Nestene, their planet may be destroyed.

Rasha gives the quartet the time cystal she stole earlier.

Crystal Caverns
Rasha wishes the four companions luck on their journey to find more time shards in the Nestene-infected cave system, as each shard claimed will weaken the Nestene Consciousness for good.

The four search through several rooms in the cave system, picking locked doors, hacking control panels, and defeating several Autons. Eventually, they find another time shard.

Back to the Blitz
Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor notes that the Nestene Consciousness has wiped out the entire Silurian race, and that this won't do. He decides to take his four companions even further into the past, to try and identify where things went wrong.

The group arrive in London, circa World War II. There, they see a Lieutenant arguing with Watkins, another soldier. The Lieutenant witnesses the four travelers, and asks why they are out in the streets.

After conversing with the pair, they convince the Lieutenant that they were "sent by brass" and he leaves them alone with Watkins, who explains that he's been picking up some garbled signals, and he's been trying to use their equipment to find the source. After the four use their sonic devices, Watkins is able to track the source, and they follow him to the source.

After picking another locked door, they find a cult worshipping a sweltering vat of plastic, which is attached to a time shard. The cult appears identical to the "cloaked figure" from before. As the cult notices the visitors, they are revealed to be Autons.

The group shut down the plastic vat and collect the time shard.

Bombing Run
Watkins helps the four companions track down another Auton signal, and hunt through several rooms before finding another time shard.

Muck and Brass
currently unarchived online

Elementary, My Dear Watkins
currently unarchived online

Shard of the Earth
currently unarchived online

Characters

 * Eleventh Doctor

Companions

 * Companion
 * Talia
 * Silas
 * Noma
 * Mal
 * Meera
 * Darren
 * Gethin
 * Will
 * Nneka
 * Steven
 * Camille

Plastic Soul

 * Pedestrian
 * Shopper 1
 * Shopper 2
 * Vicky
 * Sylvia
 * Bernard
 * Constable Howe
 * Patrick
 * Hooded stranger
 * Gerald
 * Ashley
 * Rasha
 * Martha
 * Tyler

Blitzkrieg

 * Lieutenant
 * Watkins
 * Soldier
 * Ainsley
 * Brigham
 * Darby

Menace in Venice

 * Tullio
 * Franco
 * Chief Magistrate

New Earth

 * Jeremy
 * Rebecca

Mars

 * Nick

Citizens of other worlds

 * Ronnie
 * Major
 * Reginald
 * Kingsley
 * Corwin
 * Thornton
 * Bassani
 * Caravello
 * Grato
 * Astronaut
 * Genero
 * Antonia
 * Bezio
 * Lina
 * Marcella
 * Servius
 * Aelus
 * Laelius
 * Lunius
 * Nona
 * Abel
 * Betty

Level layout
Worlds in Time was split into ten main worlds, besides from "Home," which was the player's room in the TARDIS. Each world is split into several "Interventions", later renamed "Adventures", with each Intervention/Adventure split up into numerous stages. The game would begin on Plastic Soul, but otherwise Interventions/Adventures could be played in almost any order.

Plastic Soul

 * 1) Bigger on the Inside
 * 2) Domestic Disturbance
 * 3) Loot and Laurels
 * 4) Above and Below
 * 5) Crystal Caverns

Blitzkrieg

 * 1) Back to the Blitz
 * 2) Bombing Run
 * 3) Muck and Brass
 * 4) Elementary, My Dear Watkins
 * 5) Shard of the Earth

Menace in Venice

 * 1) Ahhh, Venice
 * 2) Market Instability
 * 3) Heart of Glass
 * 4) Ode to Bezio
 * 5) Council Counsel

Roman Holiday

 * 1) Do As the Autons Do
 * 2) Burning Rubber
 * 3) Wake-Up Call
 * 4) Unnatural Formations
 * 5) They Could Look Like Anyone

Troubled Times

 * 1) Luna Landing
 * 2) There Goes the Neighbourhood
 * 3) Foreign Legion

Ood of New New York

 * 1) Undercity Market
 * 2) Bargain Hunter
 * 3) Ood for a Song
 * 4) Rush Hour
 * 5) Fractured Franchise

Breed Lines

 * 1) Of Two Minds
 * 2) Inside Job
 * 3) Robin Ood
 * 4) Shard Runner
 * 5) Special Victims Unit

Underbelly

 * 1) It's a Trap
 * 2) Infirmary Infiltration
 * 3) Bioshards
 * 4) Shards Stat
 * 5) Sanctuary

Revolution

 * 1) Friends of the Foto
 * 2) Red-Eye Roundup
 * 3) Wolves at the Gate
 * 4) Distractions
 * 5) Free Ood

Survivors of Sardicktown

 * 1) Hands of the Clock
 * 2) On a Hot Tin Roof
 * 3) In the Cooler
 * 4) Time's Up
 * 5) Caretakers

Smoke and Ember

 * 1) Cloud Nine
 * 2) Vapour Trail
 * 3) Sunshine on a Cloudy Day
 * 4) Repo Men
 * 5) Chimney Sweep

Spare Parts

 * 1) Heartstrings
 * 2) Thicker Than Oil
 * 3) The Pit and the Pendulum
 * 4) Home and Hearth
 * 5) Mechanical Escapement

Countdown

 * 1) By the Ticking of My Thumbs
 * 2) Spanner in the Works
 * 3) Cold-Hearted Cogs
 * 4) Dreams of Futures Past
 * 5) Dawn of the Clockworks

Life on Mars

 * 1) Martian Invaders
 * 2) Seeds of Destruction
 * 3) Botany Bays
 * 4) Red Planet, Green Thumb
 * 5) Martian Safari

Time Flies

 * 1) Last Gasp
 * 2) No Time Like the Present
 * 3) Red Planet Blues
 * 4) These Twisted Times
 * 5) A Bit Too Quiet

Bringer of War

 * 1) The Watchers
 * 2) Welcome Wagon
 * 3) Resistance is Viable
 * 4) Prisoner's Dilemma
 * 5) Past, Present and Judoon

Frontier Justice

 * 1) Blast from the Past
 * 2) All Judoon, All the Time
 * 3) Citizen Arute
 * 4) Judge and Jury-Rig
 * 5) The Time is Ripe

Part One

 * 1) Truth and Ragged Edges
 * 2) Hax and the King
 * 3) The Underground
 * 4) Apartment Hunting
 * 5) A Whale of a Time

Part Two

 * 1) Unwelcome Guests
 * 2) Rank and File
 * 3) A New Wrinkle
 * 4) Fine Kettle of Fish
 * 5) Prime Mover

Part Three

 * 1) Ghost of a Smile
 * 2) Hanging on the Telephone
 * 3) Changing of the Guards
 * 4) Jailbreak
 * 5) Kings and Queens

Part Four

 * 1) Design for Leaving
 * 2) Room to Breathe
 * 3) Sontaran Sensibilities
 * 4) Clock Watcher
 * 5) Brains and Brawn

Messaline
to be added

Malcassairo
to be added

Up Against the Wall

 * 1) Ten Minutes on Skaro
 * 2) Consult Your Doctor
 * 3) Another Brick in the Wall
 * 4) Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
 * 5) A Second Opinion

Time and Time Again

 * 1) Air Supply
 * 2) Deva Vu
 * 3) Let My Mutos Go
 * 4) No Time to Waste
 * 5) Time Keeps on Slippin'

When Worlds Collide

 * 1) Adrift in the Rift
 * 2) Wild Kingdoms
 * 3) Whiskey Tango
 * 4) Action Plan Omega Thunder
 * 5) Heart of Darkness

Written in the Stars

 * 1) The Fourth Wall
 * 2) Doctor's Orders
 * 3) A Dalek a day
 * 4) The End
 * 5) Time After Time

Crew

 * Daniel James - Three Rings CEO

Story notes

 * The intention of each level is that it be played with four "Assistants," or companions. If the user had three friends in 2012-2014, three extra players could have been added to their team each play-through. If multiple players did not join, NPC "Assistants" would be selected to assist the player. These NPC assistants were: Darren, Will, Mal, Meera, Noma, Nneka, Silas, Steven, Talia, Camille and Gethin.
 * Skaro was added to the game after launch. While it wasn't the final planet added to the game, it was consistently listed at the end of the levels. The names of the final stages, "The End" and "Time After Time," seem to imply the game had an ending. Most of the game's material has not been archived online, so it is difficult to know for sure.

Gameplay
Worlds in Time was a multiplayer online game in which the players solve various puzzles and challenges in a multiplayer environment. Although free to play, many of the things needed to progress in gameplay required chronons — the in-game currency — that regenerated at the rate of one every half-hour until the limit of 50 was reached. This limit could be exceeded by purchasing more with real money.

Like many other MMOs, the narrative experience each player had with this game was unique. Indeed, the player could play the same scenarios over and over again, each time with a different group of player-controlled and non-player-controlled (NPC) characters. The game also had a significant social aspect, which opened up the opportunity for roleplay, further customising the player experience. Thus, there is no singular narrative which arises from Worlds in Time.

Creating a social space online was presented a major motivator behind this game. According to a BBC spokesman, the game "offers players a multitude of elements and opportunities to socialise ... our goal is to become the largest Doctor Who community ever assembled."