A Tale In The Desert Gets Second Telling

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.")

Comments

I like ATITD.

[Anonymous Coward]

I was one of the original ATITD players, but I just couldn't take the clicking. My work life is centered around typing and clicking and I just didn't have what it took to conduct two million clicks every night to play this game and just barely keep up. Not to mention, all the griefers leaving bonfires over all of your property so you couldn't expand your domain, raise bees or dig for minerals and gems got to me.

Re:I like ATITD.

[TheSacrificialFly]

Totally, it felt like everquest's crafting system except that was the whole game. (arrgh, metal bits, no more!)

One thing that is really cool is the legal system, the devs have spent a considerable amount of time on this and I really think it shows in the community they've developed.

Some of the larger mmorpg's should look long and hard at the way these guys support and maintain an almost "self regulating" group of gamers.

Re:I like ATITD.

[Drawkcab]

As someone who stuck around for quite a while, I have to agree and disagree with you. It wasn't anywhere near as mindless or repetitive as everquest's crafting. Almost every task that you have to do a lot of can be automated at higher levels of technology. If you didn't have access to those technologies or stick around for long, you might have an exaggerated impression of what the crafting system is like. However, the legal system pretty much broke down after the first 6 or 8 months. At first it was incredible, no question about it. But as their developer resources stretched thin, new laws were one of the first things to go. Now they're implementing about 2 laws a week, but there is no limit on how many laws may be submitted, which means there is a backlog of laws that have been rotting for several months without even being voted on. That kills the legal system, since any petition written may never be voted on much less implemented. I do agree with your third point that the larger mmorpgs could learn quite a bit from this game. The broken legal system might not be the best example though, at least not without some modifications to make sure they can actually handle following through with whatever system they implement. The concept is great and really important, its just inherently labor intensive unless they can find a way to make implementing it easier on the developers.

Re:I like ATITD.

[Drawkcab]

There is a negligible amount of actual griefing that occurs in ATITD. Really. What I'm inferring happened is that you were a relatively new player who ran afoul of the unwritten social conventions. There is a huge amount of land in atitd. In some ways too much land for the few thousand actual players. And resources are spread all over the huge map, meaning that if you look for a while, you can find a place to build your camp and acquire resources without any interference. The problem is that new players start near welcome banners, and usually start building without looking around very long or hard for a good spot. You can't blame them for that, of course, but it does lead to conflicts with more established players who have already built in the area. When new players start building very close to them it causes them problems (the same problems you see from bonfires), so a small minority might respond undiplomatically to what they perceive as an infringement. Also you may build certain kinds of buildings in places that can cause pollution problems for others or collapse their mines. Once you learn the unwritten courtesies of how to coexist with people, nobody would have any reason to grief you. And even if you don't know the rules, most people would try to talk to you first rather than grief you. If you're polite in response, you'll find many people are very helpful to newbies, and you may end up with more in return than you bargained for.

Re:I like ATITD.

[jkerman]

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.

Re:I like ATITD.

[Hirokache]

A few notes on this: The reply was not that the player was too low level, but that the world itself was too low level. The technology level in the game changes, and the focus of what you do on an every day basis in game changes with it. While the beginning of ATITD didn't appeal to the first poster here, the middle or end might very well have done so (and the same may be true in the next Telling). There were also some very drastic interface changes that eliminated a lot of the clicking that was such a problem for everyone.

doesn't this make..

[gl4ss]

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?

Re:doesn't this make..

[jkerman]

of course not! First of all, you learn how the game works, so you can get a full start on tale n+1.

Also, the game is a VERY social game. and while some people will change their characters, most probably wont. The game resets, not the people :)

Also, the game has a very unique technology system. each region has "universities" that offer skills. they require massive amounts of resources, but once the skill is unlocked. it is free for all citizens to learn. When i started at the beginning of this tale, all i could do is make bonfires, and bricks. If you started today (and with a no-credit-card required free trial, you really should) you could just do a quick run to the universities and pick up about 100 some skills. and in a few days when your accustomed, you can get started on researching the most current technology.

Ill never forget the weekend when me and about 6 other people pulled an all nighter to unlock that gearbox automation tech in our region. but this game has given me countless fun times like that. theres always more around the corner.

As for having a meaningful role in the game... If you have passed as little as *one* of the 49 tests available, you can have a meaningful role in the "endgame". But even if you cant be the one who actually gets to build the monument, you could be the one who helps them cut the gems they need. or helps them organize groups of people to dig for stones. (trust me... its more fun than it sounds)

All things considered, there really is no bad time to join up.

Six month limit

[oskillator]

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.

Re:Sigh

[jkerman]

The game is set in egypt, and has a fictional background story about how pharaoh thinks egypt is a perfect society, but a mysterious stranger mocks him and challenges society to prove him wrong.

had you read the story, you might have picked up that its not trying to be historicly accurate. its just a setting for a roleplaying game. but hey, this is slashdot. nobody expects you to read the story :)