Ever, Jane, the Jane Austen-themed, still-in-Beta MMO lead-designed by Linden Lab alum Judy Tyrer, has an amazing game mechanic I've never quite seen before in an MMO: Telling lies about other players' characters to cause player damage.

"The lies come from Pride and Prejudice," Judy tells me, citing the Austen novel that inspired this. Willoughby lies about Darcy. "We haven't sufficiently impressed stats on players yet but gossip affects your stats, so if a lie is spread about you, you start to lose reputation. If you catch the liar, the loss comes back to you double."

Which is fricking brilliant... and, I bet, likely to cause player vs. player ragequitting as brutal as when players shoot crossbows into each others' face. So you know this Jane Austen game is hardcore. (Video below.)

Judy tells me they're still integrating lies and the consequence of lies into the game's content: