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A Tale in the Desert
Sandy99 writes "A Tale in the Desert is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (mmorpg) that has been in development for 4 1/2 years and goes live tomorrow. There is no killing in this game. It is all about cooperation to unlock the knowledge of Egypt. A basic overview is at
the official site.
Discussion forums are at atitd.net. Maps of Egypt and construction knowledge are at
atitdmaps.com. Everything has been produced by a handful of independent developers and a bunch of volunteers. This is also the first mmorpg to debut with both
windows and linux clients."
I'm thinking The Sims Online has beat them to the non-killing MMORPG market. This game looks utterly bizarre, and since when did Ancient Egyptions have genetically modified crops complete with mutagen agents?
I'm thinking I must have missed a few Discovery channel episodes. It probably would have been easier for them to reskin The Sims Online and release that..
I'm not seeing the importance or significance here, they are basing their engine off Cal3d and are releasing the source for their engine, which roughly looks like shit. Parsec just released their source, which is incredibly cool, and their engine looks good.
For $13.95 a month, I think I'd be pretty pissed off if this is what I got.
Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
and I think that the only problem with it is that it will be limiting. The thing about MMORPGs that are sucessful, they appeal to most gamers. Most people who play games can understand that you have to go an kill 50,000 wombats to get a level and collect the shinys. It's as old as video games. The hard core few who spend all their waking days and nights to play those games can because that's the way they are designed. This game doesn't seem to have a limitless supply of things to do as eventuatly you will run out of fun stuff to do.
Also, MMORPGs give you the feeling of accomplishment even if you are not really doing anything. Even if all you do is kill one or two wombats, you earn a FEW XP and it looks like you are advancing. I don't know exactly how htis game is setup, but if I think that if the players don't feel as though they are always moving forward (like in EQ) then many will not play.
Also I heard that some of the goals are strange, like you have to get like a hundred (or however many) people to an area and they all have to pray for a certain amount of time or something. And that's a goal. Strange stuff like that. So it could be interisting, I just don't think that it will be as big as many of the other games.
Wouldn't it be cool if the players failed miserably, and it all turned into a desert? oh...wait a minute....
*ahem* Maybe this will be a haven from all the rabid player killas we have all grown to hate in online games. It's nice to see someone trying to create something constructive, instead of completely destructive. The destructive games make me think our culture is perpetually stuck in adolescent mode...heh, well, I guess it's that in combination with everything else ^^
Killing, no killing.. whatever. EverQuest is as successful as it is because of the interaction of the players and other design factors - not because many of use like killing creatures.
If these people managed to incorporate good, involved game play - then i'll put down GTA3:VC and try it out.
Also, if it costs and arm-and-a-leg, then see ya (a la XBox live- only $10 month.. Ha!).
Moderators need an additional choice: "Karma Whore" for people who cut-and-paste articles as their comments!
Ever hear of a little non-killing game called The Sims and how it became a best-seller??
:\
Killing is not the only basis there is for a video game, or more spacifically a MMORPG, but it is an over used one
Oh and I see they finally release a P2P game in a way that makes sense.... free.
Well, I don't know that you're entirely correct. After all the two best selling PC games of all time are The Sims and Myst. Both of which are relatively death and chaos-free. (Sadistic Sims players being the exception.) Of course, your central point probably still stands true with people who consider themselves gamers.
The test of Trust. To complete this challenge, a player must place a significant amount of gold in a ritual vault, and give keys to ten high-level individuals. If, after 24 hours, none of the ten powerful individuals has stolen the gold, then the player really does know who to trust. He passes the test, and gains a level in leadership.
;)
Then a high-level clan with 11 cooperating members can have everyone pass the test quite easily, if I'm not mistaken.
The lack of violence will have everyone aim for the next most regarded status : godlike stats or inane "test" scores.
Look at the way people like to impress each other with cellphones in countries where you can't carry weapons
Karma cannot be described by words alone.
Am I the only one that thought deserts were made of sand?
I sure hope so, or else the state of geography education has gone downhill fast. All desert means is that the average rainfall per year is a given, arbitrary level or less. The sagebrush country of the eastern part of the state of Washington in the U.S. is desert, as is most (all?) of Antarctica.
All 4 screencaps on their front page show grass.
Well, let's see what geography and history we can dig out from our junior high days. If I recall correctly, a large river runs through Egypt. You may have heard of it; it's called the Nile. Also, given that people have been digging up three-thousand-year-old human corpses from big stone tetrahedrons, apparently built by humans, we can deduce that a civilization has existed there for a while, and you can be pretty sure they didn't eat sand and scorpions.
From those two facts, you can deduce that while a good part of Egypt may be desert, the part that's been heavily inhabited for the last few millenia must be capable of sustaining some sort of vegetation... and a lot of it. <grin>
But to your point, yes, just like in real Egypt, there is a heck of a lot of sandy desert in the game world. Problem is, just like in the real world, there's no reason anyone would want to build homes, towns, or anything worthy of a screenshot there.
But you could, possibly, make the argument that the title is misleading. I think if you take up the issue with the developers, you'll learn that "A Tale in a Group of Loosely-Affiliated Oases Located Throughout a Region Otherwise Consisting of Sandy Desert" was rejected, because it wouldn't fit on the splash screen.
Beta 3 of ATITD just wrapped up about a month ago. I have been playing since early in Beta 2 and I can without a doubt say this is one of the best MMORPG's I have played. All of those who are posting 'game sucks no killing' would obviously not find the appeal in this game. It is meant for a more intelligent community as opposed to the games that cater to your average hack and slash fan. This is a damn good game, well thought out, and with friendly and responsive developers. I encourage everyone to play. Game starts Saturday the 15th at noon. '/chat quantumz' if you want to get mentored!
-quantumz[HoM]