#A TALE IN THE DESERT REVIEW SERIES#

This typically culminates in the community constructing large monuments. The ultimate goal of each Telling is for the whole body of players to rise up and meet great challenges as a community. New Tellings introduced additional or modified disciplines, tests, and social structures that the previous ones lacked. While this would be horrific for most MMO players in typical loot-hoarding games, it worked to give ATITD players a sense of a journey, a real goal, and a clean slate to start anew.Įach Telling isn’t merely a server reset but an opportunity for change.

#A TALE IN THE DESERT REVIEW SERIES#

Indie developer eGenesis decided from the start that the game would operate as a series of “Tellings,” each one with a beginning, middle, and end. At the most meta, ATITD is the struggle between the task-giving Pharaoh and the mischief-making Stranger, both of whom challenge the players in different ways.Įndings are unheard of in most MMOs, but they are quite common to A Tale in the Desert. “Remember that ‘no combat’ is not the same as ‘no conflict.’ The game, especially at higher levels, can be highly competitive,” Lead Designer Andrew Tepper said back in 2003. The tests encouraged players not only to build a physical infrastructure for the world but to bond together and form lasting cultural connections. Players chose to pursue a variety of disciplines - from architecture to harmony - and accomplish a series of tests that each required. ATITD put players in the sandals of ancient Egyptians tasked with building a civilization from a virtual sandbox. Instead of fighting mobs-slash-loot piñatas, players were invited to shift their game worldview and focus on achievements, crafting and socializing instead. But if nothing else, A Tale in the Desert proves that there can be more than just fisticuffs and fireballs to MMOs. When an MMO has no combat, won’t people get bored in a jiffy? Looking a the vast, vast majority of online RPGs out there, you’d think this would be the case - combat comes as a factory default setting in most games, along with snide-impact dirtbags and hot air conditioning. Even though its focus pegged it as an eternally niche game, the MMO proved that constant fighting isn’t the only thing that can draw an online community together. It is an “odd duck” of a game, skewing as far away from combat as possible to focus instead on crafting and politics. Instead of storming down a path well-traveled, it took a machete and made its own trail - a trail down which few have followed.

Right there is the crux of A Tale in the Desert’s unique position in the MMO industry. Note that ‘innovative’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘successful.'” Richard Bartle, the creator of MUD, gave a succinct answer: “ A Tale in the Desert. Once asked what he thought was the most innovative MMO from the last decade, Dr.

A tale in the desert review