I played FOM on the open beta for a few weeks before it finally went live.

The player driven politics affecting alliances, even the possibility of interfaction violence in some cases impressed me most.  The players at the top ranks of the factions and companies effectively run the government,  which I've never seen in a game before.

On my first weekend of play (I had joined the Freedom Defence Core, aka FDC), I was still trying to find my way around the game when the Shadow (mercenaries) attacked Tiergarter in Berlin.  For the remainder of the weekend the Freedom Defence Core had constant attack missions running to retake Tiergarter.  By Sunday evening, while our missions were still classified as attack, we were merely running mopup and patrol missions while enforcing martial law.

During that weekend-long battle (remember that one hour in real life is four hours in game), several civilian players (typically players working for one of the corporations) were killed when they would wander into the middle of an ongoing street battle between the FDC and the Brotherhood of the Shadow.  The spate of killings caused an outcry by the corporations, whiched forced the police (the Law Enforcement Department, known as the LED) to send LED members as "monitors" on all missions with the Freedom Defence Core ensure that the soldiers aren't just shooting at anything that moves.  Effectively, placing such soldiers under arrest.

In the game, getting arrested lands you in jail, where you have to work (during game time) until your release.

I started out in Paris, and found that using the sale terminals there caught many players off guard when their characters were robbed and murdered by petty thieves (living in South Africa, my cautious ways to not turn my back to just anyone came in handy there).  Once killed by another player, and the game server perceiving your death as having been committed in cold blood, you'll find a chit in your inventory after you respawn (assuming you have clones left).  By passing this chit to an LED terminal, you effectively report the crime.  Eventually, the LED will run into that player, and arrest them.

I myself found it difficult to not run out of cash all the time, (having to equip myself to help the cause, while the cause was not helping me), and I was eventually recruited by a team of Freedom Defence Core members who were selling protection services to the corporations.  We were essentially mercenaries, and the money from our work paid for our weapons and even our allowances.  We were properly outfitted, and it made me a happy soldier.

However, as FDC command realised that sub factions existed that weren't following supreme orders (unless our commander okayed it first), they tried to disband our group.  It came to a head when, while we were guarding the EuroCore buildings in Paris, the building was blocked off by conventional FDC soldiers (mostly rookies), who attempted to storm the installation.  These were the same soldiers who weren't properly equipped by the army.  We taunted them as we heard them chatter outside.

After failing to take the building, the ranking FDC officer that caused the building to be stormed did not get his way (our commanding officer made an agreement with Field Marshall De Winter to incorporate us as a seperate battalion reporting directly to him), he quit the FDC and joined the brotherhood, which in turn sent a small squad of mercenaries to attack the EuroCore building on the same day.

A few weeks after I had stopped playing, I heard from other players that Field Marshal De Winter was assasinated (by perma death).  It was probably staged, but the political effect is important.

I believe there is much to this game, and it should be developed even further.  If the game engine works well, and the concept of earning game cash by doing missions as work is fluid, that a politically affected game is quite possible.  Now if only I could more easily get around, and not get murdered every time I spawn in Brooklyn...

Revisiting the website almost a year later, I can say that the site has not changed at all.  I still struggle to use the interface, odd bugs appearing here and there.  I wonder whether the game has had any success since?