A Tale in the Desert: Status Report Q&A #1
Wouter "Hyrrix" Ryckbosch, 2003-08-07

In the Status Report feature we bring our readers a short Q&A on a regular basis with the developer team of currently active mmorpg's. It is our aim to provide them with a short overview of the changes and improvements that have been accomplished in the past few months or are still in the pipeline. Today we ask about the current status of the non-combat mmorpg A Tale in the Desert to AndreW Tepper, president of eGenesis.

Andrew Tepper: 5.5 months actually. We're around 1600+ paid subscribers right now, and that number has been steady for a while. We've had a couple periods of growth and a couple of decline. I can usually tell where we're going. For instance, we had a problem about 1.5 months in, where casual players were finding they were spending lots of their play time on mundane chores - growing onions for their sheep, for instance. I could sense the frustration. So, I talked to many people in the game. And came up with a small feature called "offline chores" where you could set your character to be doing something while you are logged out. This was a huge win for casual players - and not long afterwards we started to grow again.

Andrew Tepper: All along I have said that a smaller number of players who finish the game saying "that was one of the best computer game experiences I've ever had" is a more satisfying result than a huge crowd that comes away saying "what a waste of time." And there's no doubt we're succeeding there. I would certainly like to have a larger crowd for the second Telling of the game (which will start early next year), and I'm confident that that will happen.

Andrew Tepper: You know, that's one thing that bugs me... Look at how many reviews are out there that say great things about the game, but then always end with that line "but it's not for everyone, so..." Almost like they think they have to appoligise for liking the game. One of the funniest things I've heard someone say about the game was "I wish there was some sort of class I could take with a title like 'How to tell your friends about this game without sounding like a complete moron.'" Everyone figures that this game *must* have very limited appeal because it doesn't center around combat. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Everyone figures that this game *must* have very limited appeal because it doesn't center around combat. But nothing could be further from the truth. I've received around 50 phone calls and many more emails from people saying "This is the first game I could get my girlfriend to play with me."

Yet there's this perception that the game *must* be niche.

Andrew Tepper: We have a new PR team that just started - the same people who did the PR for Anarchy Online. They've been fans of the game for years - going way back into Beta, but worked at Funcom back then. And so with good PR and advertising, we should be able to get the word out to many more people.

Our "churn rate" (percentage of people that leave in a given month) is right where it should be for an online game. And our "conversion rate" (percentage of those that try the game, pay for at least a month) is very good. So by all indications, if we can simply get more people to know about the game, we should have a bigger online community for the 2nd Telling.

Andrew Tepper: There's a lot in this game where I don't know how it will turn out. In fact when I'm writing a new piece of the game, if I don't know how it will turn out, or if I don't know the limit of something, then it's almost certainly a fun item.

Our first Demi-Pharaoh, Amira, has been very reluctant to use the power of the Demi-Pharaoh. She ran on this as a platform, and has remained true to her word. But I didn't "plan" for the DP's power to never be used, or to always be used, or to be used to threaten... I just sort of put it out there, and who knows what odd twists will emerge from this?

Andrew Tepper: I'm amazed at how good many are at organizing huge building projects. Empty Hand Towers, Deep Wells, Pyrotechnics Laboratories - these are all incredibly difficult projects, yet people figure out how to build a group of like-minded individuals, and tackle each of these projects. Membership in multiple guilds is something that has evolved in the last few months, and is I think unique to ATITD. A "guild' is just a group of people who can collectively own items, and that has a common chat channel. Their use has evolved beyond the traditional notion of a guild in an MMORPG, to one that can be formed for as little as one project. Meta guilds have also formed for handling regional affairs - trade, currencies, events. Social guilds have formed. The Nileside Cafe, although formed with the purpose of promoting Gastronomy (yes, it's a real skill in the game), has become a very social guild. When you click on an experienced player, you'll often see a guild list that reads like credentials: "Elder in Bedouins, Patriarch in Hands of Horus, Associate in Eye of Ra". That's something I would have never imagined.

Thanks to Andrew Tepper for kindly taking the time to answer our questions!