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.

Comments

Re:Combat-Free MMO?

[I am Kobayashi]

Different strokes for different folks. Some people play these games solely to role play. And I could understand why as a combat person you find SWG boring, the combat system is pretty poorly designed. The crafting system, however, is great :)

Premise?

[mugnyte]

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.

Re:Premise?

[PainKilleR-CE]

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.

Of course, there are no statistics to back up any of your links to apathy and such, so we can just move on to this point: people interested in the politics of a virtual world may be more likely to participate in real world politics. It could also be possible to 'try out' unusual political solutions in a virtual world to give some idea of how people may react (and what effects it may have), in order to fine-tune the ideas before presenting them to real-world political bodies.

Just think what a mess they could've avoided if they could've simulated alcohol prohibition, or if they could've looked forward to see today's drug war budget when they decided to make certain drugs illegal. Sure, there's no perfect world simulation out there, but getting involved in the intricate details of a virtual politic could give rise to new thoughts on real-world government.

Re:Combat-Free MMO?

[Anonymous Coward]

Are there winners and losers? Is there some form of decision making? If so, it's a game regardless of whether the particular pixels look like combat or not.

I don't know much about ATITD, and from what I've read I wouldn't enjoy it, but just because it doesn't have combat doesn't mean it can't be an interesting game.

-Jeff

P.S. I'm too wordy; how about tetris?

Re:Combat-Free MMO?

[jafuser]

I don't like people who role play. I mean, what the hell? Get a clean shirt and a job and stop pretending you're a werewolf - you're not. Living in denial and never having sex in no way to go through life.

Your kind of rant is a thinly disguised attempt to sound righteous, but does nothing to promote a healthy social well being for people who fall under the category you are describing. In fact, it only serves to draw an even darker picture of reality for them as their experience with your kind of ignorance just further proves the worthlessness of trying to "fit in" with the rest of the world.

Don't tell people how to live their lives. If really you want to really do some good, go do community service, write open source software, or volunteer at your local public school. Don't sit around on geek message board and tell the geeks that they suck becuase they are behaving like geeks.

Social Experimentation

[Anonymous Coward]

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 ;)

Re:A Tale in the Desert is cool! But...

[Saxerman]

I've been in the desert for awhile now. I've gathered more than my share of mud and weeds and bricks. Indeed, the peon activities you find in RTS games. But I found a purpose beyond the crafting system which represents the core of the game. I looked beyond the various social tests which are designed to both bring the players closer together and tear our virtual society apart. And what I have found is something that is far more than the sum of its parts.

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.

But... you missed the point of the game

[liberte]

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.