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A Tale In The Desert Gets Second Telling

Posted by simoniker on from the bedtime-storie dept.

Thanks to Stratics for its interview with the creators of indie PC MMO, A Tale In The Desert, discussing the 'rebooting'/upgrading of the game: "ATITD was never intended to be a single persistent world but a chapter like-story in the development of Egypt and the 'creation' of that perfect society. However, Tale 1 was a large undertaking and lasted longer than originally intended. ATITD2 will have a 6-month life-span before ATITD3 begins the cycle anew." Among topics discussed are better graphics ("We've had a new scaling graphics engine so, if you're using a newer card it will take advantage of fragment shaders for terrain, etc.") and dealing with griefing ("The community has tools to deal with griefers, including inventing laws to permanently exile those people from Egypt.")

4 of 25 comments (clear)

  1. doesn't this make.. by gl4ss · · Score: 2, Insightful

    doesn't this make it worthwhile for hardcore gamers to only get on the train at the start of the 6 month perioid, what's the point on starting to play mmo just few weeks before recycle?

    --
    world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  2. Sigh by Twirlip+of+the+Mists · · Score: 1, Insightful

    the development of Egypt and the 'creation' of that perfect society

    Displaying one's ignorance of history is a social faux pas, like farting in church. At the very least, one should act embarassed and say, "Excuse me."

    --

    I write in my journal
  3. Six month limit by oskillator · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I have to say that I appreciate very much that this game has an ending. There are so many hours in the day, and while it's one thing to get heavily into an RPG for a week, it's quite another to get heavily into an RPG for the rest of my life.

    This goes for all serial media. I loved "Watchmen," for instance, but I don't read series comic books simply because they're a constant time-sink, and I've already got enough of those in my life.

  4. Re:I like ATITD. by jkerman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    not too soon after the start of live, we passed a bunch of laws about those damn bonfires. the biggest one was the "Departed persons act" which allowed people to tear things down after their account expired/quit or their trial ran out.

    There is another law that says something to the effect of "any bonfire made with less than 10 wood can be torn down by anyone after an hour". so if you want to grief, its going to take some effort.

    boom. no more bonfires. Intended or not, "the bonfire problem" was actually pretty fun to work out via the legal system. it was a really interesting game dynamic. the developers gave us the tools to fix it. so we did.

    As a matter of fact, i could tell you played a long time ago before you even posted it. there havent been issues with bonfires in months and months.