| Product: |
A Tale in the Desert |
| Date: |
16/08/01 (130 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Revolutionary, New
Disadvantages: Long, Only lasts a year
Oh dear. I'v just realised that I cant put two opinions on the same subject on the one topic so this gives me a problem. It makes this op very very long so if u need to go to the toilet or get a cup of tea do so now. Are you sitting comfortably? Then lets begin...
Ill try not to go over general information found at the end of this op but i do need to say a little. This gmae is set in Ancient Egypt in the time of Pharoes and Pyramids. Unlike any other internet, or indeed any other game peroid this game does not revolve around killing monsters, terrorists or anything like that. It is a game about co-operation and community. The most exciting things on paper are politics and building. Now I iimagine half the people who have read this far have decided to stop and play Quake 3, but for those who choose to read on you truley deserve to play this game.
As of yet the game i still in production and has been for around 3 years now. Now before I am asked how I know how i know how good this game is I have to point out that alpha and beta tests have been done and i have been very fortunate to partake in some of these tests. But frankly this game is stunning to play and even better just to watch.
Graphics in this game are astounding. Grass and water move as if they have their own seperate AI adn even far into the distance adn up into the hills it is almost crystal clear. Even with this and the imminsety of the game there is very little lag. Once the average sized client software has been downloaded (Which took about 1:30 hrs on a standard V90 56k modem but if you are with NTL and get disconnected after 2hrs that can be a real pain) and a few initial in-game downloads have finished (Which slowed me down a bit) i was able to play with very little lag at all.
This may not sound astounding but once you consider that i myslef am on a 56k, the server is in America adn teh amount of info that must be needed to make this game run it b
ecomes much more impressive. But due to this the majority of players will undoubtably be American, therefore it leaves to reason that the game would make its major changes while we are all asleep. But also, while the Americans themselves sleep we Europeans can come out to play and i doubt anyone wil be playing this or any otehr game 24hrs a day.
What does it matter when we play you may ask. Well a lot actually and this is one of the things that sets the game appart. In this game there is a storyline which reacts on the actions and needs of teh people playing. An example is that in one of the beta's a swarm of locusts were found eating our flax plants and we had to deal with it. Unfotunately because of this the game has a set time limit, so be thankful you are hearing about it now rather than when the game has started and you begin behind everyone else. The game will last approximatley a year, that is the time the creators have set that is should take all the players to discover all the mysteries in the world. But do not fret, we have been promised a great storyline and if all goes well then egenesis will undoubtably work on a new game for us all to enjoy.
But i still have one little surprise left in my goodie bag. A part of the game that is a large part of the politics section of the game, was a great influence in the beta's and is sure to envolve a lot of fun for us all. The law system. This may not sound exciting but it needs a bit of explaining. The creators have essentially given the players an almost free reign over the computing code. This means that laws governing the players and the players world can be voted on adn be applied to the game itself. This is done by drafting a law proposal and then either having the majority of all the people online at the time to vote or have around 1000 people vote to have your bill become law.
But there are limits to players powers. You cannot the change the basic mechan
ics of the game or anything that would overload the server. For instance it is not possible to have a law proposing that water can be turned into gold when combined with grass or to create a floating sky city where everyone become pigs. Though it is full possible to say that all red headed women must walk about naked on tuesdays while picking up grass for 10mins or else they cannot log in for the rest of that day. It is unlikely to pass but 100% possible...
This is it for the moment, chances are I will remember something important later that needs to be said and ill probably forget it before i connect to the internet but I will try. But if you can log onto the egenesis website sign up for the next test do because you will not regret it (And mention Logboyl wrote an op on it, k?). You will be on the verge of gaming history and in years to come be able to say you played the original, best and much cloned A Tale In The Desert.
***General Information***
Ancient egyptians wrote about the "Seven Disciplines of Man." The folklore was that if a society could perfect all seven disciplines, it would enter a golden age, and be immune to collapse. Evidently that didn't happen in the real egypt; the empire was eventually brought down by Alexander the Great.
You will enter the game as an Egyptian peasant. While there are many individual goals, there is also a society-wide goal of perfecting the seven disciplines of man. Perfecting, say, the discipline of Worship means constructing the "Monument of Worship." This is a huge project, probably too big for any one person to accomplish without help. The only characters able to lead this project are level-7 worshippers.
Each discipline has seven "tests" - similar to quests in traditional RPGs. Many of these tests are structured so that it's impossible for every character in the game to pass. In some cases, you are competing "Survivor-st
yle" with other players.
Nearly all of the 49 Tests involve other people. In a few cases, all participants receive the promotion. For instance, in the Silent Sun Ritual within the discipline of Worship, fourty people must coordinate their actions. The entire group either receives the promotion or fails. (Each person may participate again if the group fails, but must wait half a day.)
The game can handle 100,000 players, with up to 15,000 logged on at once. The game continues, even while you're not playing.
The map is a scaled-down version of Egypt.
It will take about 1.5 hours to walk from the west end to the east end, and about 4 hours to walk from the north end to the south end. There are faster modes of transportation.
"SimCity meets MMORPG" is one way we've described this genre, although that doesn't capture the story aspects. "Massively Multiplayer Adventure Game" sounds awful.
In the 80's everyone knew what to expect from an "Infocom Game". Maybe someday people will know that an "eGenesis Game" is a combat-free MMORPG based on building, exploration and politics.
As anyone would like to point out this is indeed not all my own stuff. Frankly i am not a creator and to describe this game in the detail that is deserves would have me here forever and this op too long to be feasably possible to read. So those who have heard about it dont complain..this is purley for information purposes, i will write my own op in the future...
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