POM is built on the single basic premise that "everything we do gives way to, or is in response to, some perception such as sight, sound or pain". While it may seem rather logical, it provides a concept that is radically different to existing and older MUD codebases, such as Envy or Circle. Every Entity within the world will react to any perceptions that it can perceive, as appropriate for its type, race, skill set and so on. More details will be covered in the section labelled "Perceptions".

     In an Object Oriented context, this concept gives rise to a whole series of innovative functionality that has only been briefly touched upon in legacy codebases. Actions become naturally grouped into perceptions, providing a quick and easy structure for commands; a command consists of a series of actions that cause perceptions in nearby Entities, causing a large proportion of command functionality to be implemented by the perceiving Entity.

     Perceptions also provide a perfect type of data structure with a form of meaning that can be used quite readily in a Knowledge Based Artificial Intelligence context.

     POM also aims to take the opportunity of a clean slate to introduce a variety of functions from the ground up, including but not limited to
     * A database oriented system with the ability to easily change in game settings and messages
     * Administrative consoles external to the game
     * Arbitrary enumerations, such as race, hair and eyes, editable by administrators at run time
     * Arbitrary equipment slots, editable and updateable at run time time
     * Timezone and Weather systems systems
     * Flexible interaction and transformation between Entity types
     * A departure from traditional level and class based systems
     * City Economies