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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."
It'll be interesting to see if the game can attract the blood thirsty gamers aroud today. It seems that death and chaos are often one of the more amusing parts of games, as sick as it may be to say. GTA seems to demonstrate this quite clearly.
-dave
http://millionnumbers.com/ - own the number of your dreams
If I wasn't already backed up until sometime after the third apocolypse with my game playing. The only answer is for me to quit my job.
Shows the developers know nothing about what motivated explorers. Early egyptology was a cutthroat business, funded by people with huge egos (not to unlike how much of North America was explored by botonists seeking to bring back exciting new specimens for their patrons in the old world.)
A well. Should be fun, after all, you can have lots of fun with Settlers of Catan and it doesn't involve (much) killing.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I have played a number of MMORPGs, work on the WorldForge project, and have been playing Tale on an off for well over a year now, and I have found it an absolutely facinating game. Above all else this game is about politics. The tasks that need to be done in order to make progress in the lang of egypt quickly get beyond the abilities of single players, and guilds become essential to achieve anything, and this is where the fun starts. True leadership is required to get a guild functioning effectively, and a guild can be made or broken by the effectiveness of its key members. The democtratic system in the game, which mean that the players can vote to implement almost any rule also leads to some interesting outcomes.
The various betas ran under wine long before the Linux game came out, so many friends who only play games under Linux have also been joining in. The arrival of the Linux client is most welcome though. I will almost certainly maintain a subscription to this game, and play it when I can, although free time is so hard to come by.
I did plenty of killing in The Sims and so did many others.
http://www.geocities.com/the_simms_ca/kill.html
Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
I'm an adult. I'm a gamer. I'm a person that has, not-so-recently, come to the point that the violence in video games has become so terribly overdone that I'm bored with it. This isn't just to say, "Oh, it's everywhere and it's getting played out." I'm distressed that violence has become boring to me. Noticing this brought to my attention that I have become so numb to it that I view all these games as just the same storyline and different characters. I know it isn't that way but the adage regarding some of the more graphic anime there's-only-so-many-ways-a-demon-can-rape-a-lady is spreading to the [M]ature game market.
For me to find a non-violent game I had to play either [E]veryone or [T]een games (and some of the latter titles are questionable). I'm not trying to imply that the worlds problems fall on the doorstep of companies that make violent games. I just think that there should be more games targeted towards adults that have a mature theme and storyline that doesn't involve overt violence and / or sexuality.
I want to make this perfectly clear; I'm not trying to rid the gaming market of violence and sex. But as we all know, there is a time and a place for everything. An I'm glad that some people have decided to buck the tide and try out something "new."
"From of old, there are not lacking things that have attained Oneness." - Lao Tzu
The Sims would be worth playing if you could kill.
I'd like to be a burglar or a killer. And I'd like it if I could release hords of locusts and rats carrying bubonic plague fleas.
If it's a game based on real life, where's the fun? A blurred out visit to a hot tub with a nekkid Sim? It's the violence in real life that makes it fun.
But it's not, so I have to release hords of locusts myself.
Just doing a quick scan of crime types on google, Sims should have: Abuse of the Disabled, Aircraft Hijacking, Animal Abuse, Arson, Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, Drunk Driving, Elder Abuse, Fraud, Genocide, Graffiti, Hate Crimes, Hazing, Homicide, Illegal Dumping, Kidnapping, Modern Slavery, Money Laundering, Police Brutality, Red Light Running, Sex Crimes, Speeding, Squatting, Stalking, Terrorism, Theft, Torture, and War Crimes.
riding round the world on an old motorcycle
m3g@k!LL: You cheater ...
BrainPower: What? How did I cheat?
m3g@k!LL: Howd you kill me so fast!!?!
BrainPower: Er, I didn't kill you. I was just trying to give you gold...
m3g@k!LL: awps r 4 l00z3rs dipw33d...
BrainPower: awps? I don't get it. Are you calling me names?
m3g@k!LL: no i mean awp snipers lamea$$
BrainPower: Sniper? This isn't counterstrike bozo...
m3g@k!LL: You have an aimbot
BrainPower: Er, there are no aimbots
m3g@k!LL: KILLING SPREE! I' fukin roxx!
BrainPower: ???
m3g@k!LL: This game suxxs, I cant kill. I'm goingto play unreal 3000...
BrainPower:
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
Comparing this game to The Sims is like comparing your 3-year old daughter's doll-house to Civilization. Sure both games have no combat. They also both don't have any penguins. They are still nothing alike.
The game has complex "city"-building, puzzles, trade and politics. And like most MMORPGs the game can be played fiercely competitive or extremely cooperative depending on your preferences.
$13.95 a month may seem like a bit, but you have to compare it to other new MMOs where you have to pay $50 to just get started. At least this game lets you try it for free (there's no charge to download the client and the first 24 hours of playtime are free).
Sprocket
- Does the little mermaid wear an algebra?
Coevolution or no evolution.
As a person who likes to just plain kill things in his video games, I've come up with several ways to kill Sims.
Try having one go use the stove, and when the sim is using it, enter build mode, and fence him in around the stove. He'll soon burst into flames and die, and there'll be a nice tombstone out front.
Another way to kill them, is to make them go swimming in a pool, and while they're doing that, enter Build Mode and remove all of the stepladders. they'll soon drown, and a shiny new tombstone will appear in the front yard. There are a couple other ways that I've figured out how to kill them, but there's two for you.
Be inventive.
Free trial - 30 days or 24 online hours, whichever comes first.
$14 sounds expensive, but consider you save $30 dollars by not having to buy a box.
It ends up being equivalent to a game that costs $12 / month that you buy at your local store for $30 and you play over a year.
I've downloaded the game this afternoon, and have been playing it pretty much continuously since then.
It's a killer for everyone who's bored of the FPS crap. And it's a great cooperative game, something that's been missing from most games recently (I loved Rainbow Six cooperative back when I still had windows).
One thing they did right is actually rewarding teamwork, and rewarding being nice to other people. I was in the game no 10 min. when someone volunteered to be my mentor and guide me through the first steps. A while later, I started a very productive cooperation with my neighbour at the river ("hey, I'm going to get some wood, should I fetch some for you, too?" - "sure, need any firebricks? I made more than I need right now.").
It's a great game. Got me hooked right away, and that doesn't happen often.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
and I have to say that it bored me out of my mind. Be prepared to spend hours upon hours doing nothing but clicking on things over and over and over, and running for about 45 minutes to get to places. The whole game revolves around building things, and it takes a LONG time to get the necessary materials collected, grown, or made. That being said, there is a sense of satisfaction when you DO manage to build something impressive or complete a task.