once commented on this in an interview with IGN: "I feel that a sense of familiarity and association is a powerful thing, and may be used to heighten a player's emotional experience in the game. If something can be tied into existing imagery (even if only subtly so) and be enhanced by or play off of pre-existing feelings and conceptions within the player, why throw away that extra bit of power at your disposal?" Later in the interview, Maldonado explained how the world of Torn came about: "I was given a set of directives by Feargus Urquhart, Black Isle Studios' division head. He was clear that he would encourage the sort of mature, gritty setting that we used in Fallout or Planescape: Torment, but didn't want a world that was simply "covered in darkness"... there should places of light, darkness, and a whole lot o' gray in between. He also wanted some sort of clear, conflict that influenced all things on some level but didn't simply overpower everything. We decided on Order vs. Chaos as it's far less black and white than Good vs. Evil... after all, agents of Order or Chaos could potentially use any means at their disposal to bring about the rise of their cause, meaning that either side has its share of goodies and baddies." To this end, the game's plot was to contain a splinter group of Order followers who would scheme to destroy the entire world, in order to re-create it as a new, unblemished one, so as to achieve "ultimate order." Torn's primary narrative revolved around a wandering protagonist character, cursed to bring pain and misfortune wherever he or she traveled, and to whomever he or she traveled with. A misguided king, later revealed to be the game's ultimate antagonist, would have acted as the player's benefactor, assigning them various quests in order to discover the truth about a series of apparently conflicting prophecies. It would eventually have been revealed that all the prophecies, and even the protagonist character's mysterious curse, could be rationalized, and were in fact related to the protagonist character, effectively granting the player control over which interpretation of the future was realized. Development Announced during GDC 2001, Torn was subject to much interest by the press, because the team behind the cult classic Planescape: Torment was revealed to be developing it, and the game itself was to use the