A Tale in the Desert: Status Report #2

A Stranger in paradise...

As you can see, new tests and content are being added to the game at a very fast pace. Not only have the number of tests constantly increased, but there have also been a lot of new and more complex technologies introduced to the game. I asked Andrew if all these additions weren't making the game too complicated over time. He agreed that this is very much the case, which is one of the reasons why a lot of people are actually looking forward already to the second telling. It'll probably be a relief for many people to start all over again with the easy production processes and not have to bother with the complicated machinery and constructions that are needed nowadays. As you may or may not know, A Tale in the Desert is not a continuous mmorpg that keeps going on and on. After the seven monuments, one for each discipline, have been built, the first telling ends. According to Andrew's predictions, this will probably happen somewhere early next year... possibly in February. When asked how the players are making progress in this right now, he said that some of them are getting rather close... especially in the Worship Discipline. The end-game is certainly something that Teppy is very enthusiastic about. He expects it to become "one of the best video gaming experiences ever... it will blow people away." We'll certainly be covering this end-game experience in more detail at a later time on MMORPGDot, but it will probably be presented to the players in various ways, including video footage. The second telling of A Tale in the Desert will have the same general concept as the current one, only with changes in the story, the tests, and the technology. Players from the first telling will be able to recognize a lot of the things, but they won't be completely the same. The general idea will still be to keep adding content and to keep the whole thing fresh. This won't change at all during the second telling.

In the meantime, there's only one thing that forms a real threat to the Egyptians: the Stranger. This character, a role-playing incarnation of Andrew Tepper himself, is trying to prevent the people of Egypt from building the monuments and he often makes his presence known... usually with huge consequences. For instance, about one and a half months ago strange stones with an eye-like symbol on them started to appear all over Egypt. Soon after that large but unfinished buildings with the same symbol on them started to appear, with the name "University of Progress under construction" on them. Soon after that those became "The Stranger's University's of Progress" and had some special skills that could be learned... albeit with a typical stranger touch to them. One of the skills that could be trained at the university of progress was the skill of Clear Cutting. This particular skill allows the player to chop wood at a greatly increased rate. The catch was that after doing to a tree, it wouldn't be able to produce any more wood for a full week. Within a few days time, 1/3rd of the trees in Egypt were dead, including nearly all easily accessible trees. This put the community under a great deal of stress. As a result, a law was made by players to regulate the use of clear cutting. They could've out-ruled it completely (ATITD's law-making options are very strong), but instead the player community decided to only allow usage of the clear cutting skill under certain conditions. Another interesting skill from this University of Progress is one called "speed of the serpent". When you have learned this ability, you can use your waypoint travel (which is the only way in ATITD that you can travel over large distances without have to walk) more often... but with one major drawback: you have to drink a portion of cabbage juice every 28 days. Otherwise, you die. (An amazing parody film poster about this can be found here.)

Hardcore and beyond.

When I quit playing A Tale in the Desert several months ago, a few large hardcore guilds were at the top of the whole technology process. Guild like "Crossroads" were huge and very well known in the whole of Egypt. "All this has changed", Andrew Tepper told us. "There's been a trend towards social soloing." Many of these monster guilds have been disbanded by now, among them the famous Crossroads guild. Since players can join multiple guilds at the same time in ATITD, there's a trend toward guilds being used for a specific purpose. For instance there's a special guild with only one purpose: helping each other to pass the Test of the Bedouin. Another example is the Nileside Cafe: a large social guild with the sole purpose of bringing people together to raise their gastronomy skills (yes, there is in-game cooking in ATITD). Many people now are either playing solo or in small groups, but are usually connected to each other in various ways through those loose guilds. "The whole guild system has become some kind of reputation system by now, which is a good thing." If you see that someone is an elder in a several well known guilds, you know that this is a solid person.

Another subject I brought up was about how enjoyable ATITD is for the casual player. Most of the research seems to be ultimately carried out by the hardcore players. Andrew replied that this depends heavily on the discipline you choose to advance in, and your approach to the game. Architecture, for instance, is typical a discipline for the hardcore players with a lot of time on their hands, while the discipline of Art and Music is enjoyable for a casual player as well. "We had a lot of burnout among the hardcore 100% builders." He himself still thinks that this game is the one he always had wanted to play... from the sounds of it he regrets not being able to actually play his own game. However if he'd participate in the game himself he said he'd do it lightly. Watching others compete for the leadership, not trying to be the best all the time. The reason most casual players do enjoy hanging around in A Tale in the Desert, is most probably because they all have their own roles. While in other mmorpg's you might be "a warrior", in ATITD some people are known as good gemcutters, others as reliable and trustworthy leaders... there's a role for everyone. The main difference is that these roles are based on the player's skill more than the character's.

The Demi-Pharaoh.

People often think of ATITD, being the mmorpg without combat it is, as a game for softies. But I can assure you that it takes quite some nerve and emotional strength to participate in the demi-pharaoh elections. Rivalry, jealousy, huge responsibilities... Those who choose the path of Leadership don't always have an easy task, that's for sure. Especially considering that the job of the Demi-Pharaoh is a difficult one. A new Demi-Pharaoh is elected every few months by the whole of Egypt. The player that is ultimately elected then gains 7 player bans to use when needed. For more information about the Demi-Pharaoh's, I turned to FaceAnkh, a widely known individual in Egypt who is currently running for the new Demi-Pharaoh elections. For him the primary reason for taking part in these elections was the amount of support from friends. For him, as for a lot of people moving in the high political ranks in ATITD, some of his experiences have been quite unpleasant and stressful. This becomes even more clear when Andrew Tepper tells me about how two of the three previous Demi-Pharaohs left the game soon afterwards. When asked about his personal opinion regarding the rather brutal Demi-Pharaoh and Covered Cartouche tests from the Leadership discipline, he says that those are indeed probably more interesting than fun. Or to put it simply: "It's very interesting and fun for everyone else... but for the Demi-Pharaoh himself... it sucks." When the first Demi-Pharaoh was confronted with one of the Stranger's actions, people started looking at her as if she was capable of doing anything about it.

"I think Amira burned out from helping too many people with too many things," FaceAnkh continues. The problems started with the magnesium mines event: "A person had possession of the only magnesium mines in the game. This person (in fact the Stranger), after gathering a crowd of people, made the mines public access. Whenever the mines were used, it started killing the nearby area and destroying buildings (the theme was that greed would destroy us). Of course, the people there couldn't be stopped from mining despite the destruction of the locality. Amira, who was the Demi-Pharaoh back then, was called and eventually arrived. But 7 bans against a crowd is useless. The best she could do was reason with people (no hope) and take names of miners down. She was pretty stressed by that." By a lot of people in the game, politics are taken very seriously. No wonder, as the in-game laws can have serious consequences for every player. As a result, being a Demi-Pharaoh can be a very hard task and is probably only for the emotional strong ones. Choosing to run the elections for the Demi-Pharaoh alone can put a wedge between in-game friends. A lot of the Demi-Pharaoh's power is not derived from the seven bans, but from his or her reputation. For instance, Igoka, the second ever Demi-Pharaoh of Egypt used his reputation to organize a particularly tough bit of research.

It is clear to me that a lot has changed to A Tale in the Desert, and generally for the better. A lot of new content has been added to the game, the player community is amazingly active and the developers are devoted as ever. It will be a pleasure to watch this game as it unfolds into it's first finale early next year. You'd better keep an eye on MMORPGDot if you want to stay upded... *grin*

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