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A Tale In The Desert's Social Evolution Examined
Thanks to Gamer's Pulse for their revised review of A Tale In The Desert, discussing their re-visiting of the unique Windows/Linux MMORPG. The review sums up the combat-free MMO title's goals as: "working together, being social, and trading with other people, all in the name of a unified Egypt", and the reviewer talks about the "new laws and structures and new technologies" being implemented, and the new problem of virtual deforestation: "Recently, the skill of clear cutting was offered in a new university, and some people didn't heed the warnings [that] once a tree was clear cut, you couldn't get wood from it for a whole week." The resulting wood shortages mean that "newcomers to the game won't be able to pass their tests to become citizens", but in-game, tree-friendly legislation may be pending.
Let me get this straight... there's a game where you can gather amongst lots of other people, harvest wood from trees, build things, buy things, work for a living, and NOT kill anything? I thought that was real life...
Seriously thought, Star Wars: Galaxies offers the ability to go through life without killing anything, but, having done it myself for awhile, it's extremely boring. It may come as a surprise, but the amount of time and money you spend playing games trying to make money and/or friends, you could make REAL money and REAL friends that will last a lot longer than whatever game you're playing.
"It's better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it." ~ Christian Slater, True Romance
The article mentions 'grief' players and 'griefers', is that just the communities way of describing asshats, or something more maybe. Looks like a very interesting game.
Cooperative Gaming. neato, what a concept. Howabout we combine this with Flash Mobbing and get back to reality: cooperative living!
WhoTF wants to get home from work to haggle about the rules of an imaginary country? If you spent that time participating in/giving educational compaigns for the real world (no matter what the cause), perhaps the typical apathy of the public would be gone.
Instead, we have yet another excuse to sit on our asses. "MMORPG's Egypt accepts 1 millionth citizen!" reads the headline, while voter participation is near 20%. Sheesh! I'm starting a potato chip company.
In the real world, large-scale social changes often only occur in a physically violent and psychologically scarring atmosphere. In virtual worlds, people can test out different ideas for how a society should be run. It is much more fluid and revealing than the real world where it pretty much boils down to money and power in every situation.
;)
Online communities are the future...if you can't see this, well then you probably can't see the green code dripping down all around you either
It's not a lot of fun. Conceptually, I was enthralled by the notion of the players creating and backing their own currency. Passing their own laws. Working together to accomplish a goal. Truly, these are things that hint at what wonders MMOGs could truly be!!
So I payed my 13 bucks. I played for two weeks, and all I did was make bricks, run around, click on a bunch of trees, and 'farm' flax plants by repeatedly clicking on the ground. A Tale in the Desert SOUNDS really freaking neat, but I don't get off on doing the job of a peon or peasant in Warcraft.
Seriously, these are things though that I would love to see in a game that's actually fun to play.
no thanks
have someone else try something like this: 1)A team of developers create, design and code the game, which is opensource. Lets call them The Founding Fathers 2)People who want to play, must pay a fee. This fee is to maintain the server, and pay the developers -as usual 3)After a period, comes election times. other developers step in, make their new propossal to the game and gammers vote. 4)So, this guys take the administration and improvement of the game on his hands, they rule the game and get paid for it trough the gammers fees. 5)GOTO 3 ..and you have a ever evolving game with democracy.
This is more about geek/developer involment on the game itself, not just the "rules" like ATITD "lawmaking", but actual improvements at code level to the game. Players should be able to choose what game do they want... trough some style of opensource license, gamers & coders who want to change the game itself may run as candidates for popular election, that way the game keeps improving or evolving in the way "citizens" want to. As in any world, citizens has responsabilities too. They must pay a fee, or taxes, to maintain servers, bandwitdh, etc and the developers/officials they elect to ensure quality. If you want to be commercial viable and bring some stabilty, maybe the so-called "founding fathers" could collect part of the "taxes"and with that manage the servers, mantain the framework on wich elected developers work on, market the game...etc.
For this to work, the game must be developed in a very modular way, enabling fast, dynamic and centralized changes on the way the game' world works.
I now find myself in a vast social web of politics and intrigue. We have no combat system, so our conflicts can't be resolved with raw force. This leads to odd bits of compromise, strange diplomacy sessions, and the rise of true leaders. I have seen raw emotional debates that have struck me more deeply than any 'video game' ever has. I find myself part of a larger story that is still evolving, both with and without me.
And so I work and plot for the day when this story ends and we discover if the strange band of players who have spent so much time together are able to overcome their differences and find a goal we can stand behind, or if chaos will claim our efforts and end our story in defeat.
I decided to look into Egypt since it was a free download and they had a native Linux client. I was bored with the same old cookie cutter games being churned out and wanted something new. What I found is a game in which I feel my efforts matter, and enough brain candy that I'll still be snacking long after our story ends.
A steaming cup of soykaf would be real wiz right now.
I currently play this game as you may think that having no combat is terrible, well it isn't. There is combat, but in a different way. We are fighting each other through laws and competing. We can make fireworks and compete. Winner gets to run faster for example. Most of all, its about working together and figuring how the game works. A user recently figured out how the food works, and it was very complex. He spent a month working on it. I give this 5 stars, as it is one of the best games out there. Also, everyone is more grown up here. We don't speak net slang, and if you do in this game, you are looked down upon and laughed about. You make a mistake, for example destroying someone's building, and you can be banned from egypt for good.
Another item is the demi-pharaoh. We elect a leader that has the power to ban anyone at any given time. That is combat itself, in a different form.
I urge everyone to try it out, but please, you will be laughed at if you make a stupid username, or act immature.
If you only build bricks and farm flax, that would indeed be boring. Maybe you were in a far corner of Egypt with no one else around to help you... that would indeed be boring. But if so, you really missed the game entirely.
Did you not see the hundreds of other kinds of buildings that you can make and dozens of technologies you can use? Did you miss the challenges of the tests of the seven disciplines? The early tests are easy, and give you something of the flavor of the later, harder tests, which are often so difficult that you must rally the cooperation of many other players to help you accomplish your goals. Did you miss the collective challenge that, by the end of one year, for each of the seven disciplines, at least one person must complete all of the seven tests?
The game is not without its flaws. But in some cases the flaws are deliberate, and we the players are challenged to collectively figure out how to fix the problems that come up.
Yes, it is an artificial world, set up to work much like real life in a couple ways. And yes, we could be putting similar energy into the real world, but here is why I do it. 1. I already do put similar energy into the real world, and it is nice to take a break from that. 2. There are many things very unlike the real world that are fun to play with. 3. We get to change how the game itself works, by passing laws and voting on new features. 4. I don't care for the combat games - I don't need that particular thrill.
There is no other online game like it (cooperative, evolving, overarching goals, in a massive online multiplayer environment), not that I know of. Please post if you know of others - I'd like to play more games like this.
Daniel LaLiberte https://www.facebook.com/daniel.laliberte
It is intended to be finite, lasting a year, starting over in a (presumably) modified form afterwards. There are specific goals (Tests) in the game, in different Disciplines- the players will need to have at least one player for each Discipline who's passed all the tests for that Discipline; and do some other things which are as yet not so clear, and as a group can win the game. Or lose it.
So it's set up as a cooperative game in theory... although individuals will often act in their own self-interest much of the time, of course. Some of the tests are of a familiar accumulate lots of stuff and build a big object type; others require large-scale player cooperation, others are purely competitive; there are art design tests, competitive strategy minigames, design of minigames/puzzles in game... lots of variety.
Another point of difference between this and other MMORPGs: communications and guilds. There is no talk to everyone command (like an Everquest /shout) normally available. A player may belong to any number of guilds (which establish a chat channel between members)- and these guilds run the gamut from full community property to being only a chat channel. There are metaguilds formed to discuss regional issues, to discuss experimentation in some area of the game such as brewing or viticulture, to focus on passing a particular Test or set of Tests, to accomplish some particular large-scale undertaking (e.g. the 'Nileside Cafe', building larger pyramids.) Reputation matters even more than in most other games. There are also now a few microphones, which allow one-way communication to everyone who's joined a corresponding channel to hear the messages.
As to PeteyG's experience: if someone shows up and is willing to make bricks and grow flax or do other other tedious tasks all day, there will be some people happy to tell the newbie to do that... but there's nothing stopping you from leaving and finding something more interesting to do. There are no 'levels', within a few days characters can make most things as rapidly as established characters, and it's usually easy to trade for more difficult items.
It's a free download, and the first 24 hours of in-game play are free as a trial account. It's not for everyone, but if the above sounds interesting give it a try. Finally, in addition to windows it's available in Linux... and this is Slashdot.
I have played this game since about May. In real life I am an engineer. I play various computer games at a moderate level. I have to say I am hooked on ATITD more than any game since I was in high school probably. First off, well this game is heavily advertised as being cooperative and not competitive, that is clearly a half truth. The resources needed to build things range from being very common to very rare. There is MUCH competion to get the rare resources, and have the biggest and best camp. Secondly, there is 49 "tests" in the game. These tests range from having the tallest obelisk in a region to getting the most votes on your artwork. Almost every test is very competitive, where many attempt a given test, but few can pass. Pros: Puzzle solving. Almost every new technology Egypt discovers comes without directions. We have to try different things, post ideas to the forums, and do experiments to figure it out. My engineering mind absolutely loves this (yes call me a loser but even after a hard day of work, I can't wait to get online and work on pretend problems:) ). Game system in general. Most games involve very little risk. The companies make sure that the games don't negatively impact anyone playing them. This game does not do that. The developers have allowed the player base to screw up the game by passing or not passing certain laws. The clear cutting of trees is a good example. How many games allow the players to have enough control to screw up to the point where new players might not pay money? It happened in this one. I find that very intersting, that the player base is allowed a very high level of power to change the code of the game. Cons: There is a lot of time spent "working", gathering resources. Especially for new players, as you progress you get to the more interesting stuff. Steep learning curve. This is not a mindless game, where a person can come in and start playing and understand what is going on. You almost have to research the forums and fan sites, and find an experienced player of guild in game to really know what is going on. I think a lot of new players quit, cause they come on and have a hard time at all knowing what to do. In conclusion, I think this is game has some of the most deep content out there right now. It is very unique, very deep, very powerful. That said it not for everyone. Clearly not everyone wants to play this type of game, and would not like the amount of thought, time, and work that is needed to really get the most out of it. It is a niche game, where some people like myself are just blown away by it.
- Your specialisation?
- Lumberjack.
- Recent work experience?
- Sahara forest.
- Hey, Sahara is a desert!
- Now it is...
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