A Tale In The Desert MMORPG
I am absolutely terrible about keeping up with my blog. I take off months at a time and I flitter around with what I write and there is no method to my madness. That being said, I am back until something else shinier catches my attention.
I have been a long time fan of MMORPG, but have bounced between the different games like LOTR Online, Everquest II, Second Life and most recently Metaplace and A Tile In The Desert. Everquest II was the first MMORPG that I played many, many years ago and I am currently playing ATITD.
A Tale In The Desert is different from traditional MMORPG and personally I’m enjoying it a whole lot more. You start our as a newcomer to Egypt who has to learn how to become a citizen. You become a citizen (level 1) by learning a variety of different skills you will need to gain levels, like picking grass to be turned into straw and growing flax that will then be turned into twine and eventually into rope or canvas.
Once you have become a citizen, you will be able to gain levels by visiting schools and universities to take tests. Each test needs a set of skills and/or technologies to complete. To get new skills you either need to pay for them at the schools, unlock them at the university or have another player teach them to you. These skills also allow you to build up your house or compound as it is called in ATITD. Each person is allowed compounds where they can build storage to hold your numerous items and tools that are needed to produce additional materials needed.
Getting new skills and levels is the name of the game. Each level unlocks a new set of skills at the schools which you then need to gather, make or trade to the necessary materials need to buy the skills needed for the next test. The number of materials needed to unlock each skill is manageable by each individual player.
You can also pick up “free” technology from the various universities. Well, free for each individual but those skills are locked until enough material has been donated to unlock that technology. Those donations are made by the players. This is to foster community in the game. A group of players come together to make enough materials to unlock each technology, which most of the time this meeting of players becomes the start of a guild. Each guild has a guild compound which can store materials that can be used by anyone in the guild.
The last way to gain skill is to learn them from another player. That player may have learned that skill from a school or university, but he or she can teach it to you. Each skill learned from another player has multiple lessons that take five minutes to learn and you have to learn all the lessons to be able to use the skill. Some skills have more lesson than other skills. It can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 1 hour to learn a skill, which is probably how long it would take you to gather the materials need to learn that skill at a school or university. This is especially helpful at the beginning of a tale since some areas have unlocked skills that other areas haven’t.
Once you have the skills need to pass the test, then you just fulfill the qualifications for the test and gain a level. Some test you can take all by yourself, some need approval of a number of other players and some you need another player to complete. Some of the tests are building your compound to a certain size; planting, growing and gathering different vegetables; building a sculptures which then needs a vote of interesting from 21 players; getting players to sign a petition or even getting another player to practice acrobatic moves with you. Once you complete the test, you gain a level and new skills are open for you to learn.
I am having a blast playing this game, but for most MMORPG players, they may find the one thing I love about this game to be what makes this game a no go. There is no fighting in the game. No monsters to fight, no bugs to kill, no violence at all. It is unique in this way and that makes this a totally cool game to play. The only drawback I find to this game is that there is no user created items. I’m not sure if that is something that could be added to the game but I like making my own user content.
A Tale In The Desert lets you play a MMORPG without having to worry about dying and having to start over with whatever task or level you were working on completing. You learn about working together as a team to unlock technologies, working alone to unlock skills and cooperating with your fellow players to move the game along. The first 24 hours played are free, after that it is $13.95 a month to play. I paid my membership fees within the first 8 hours of play. Check out A Tale In The Desert!
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Happy Thanksgiving!
I just found this over at Dragon Blogger’s site and thought I would share it as a Thanksgiving post!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!
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