A Tale in the Desert II continues the social experiment that started off in the first game.  But this time the developers are going to do something that some developers never do in a MMORPG.

At the 2004 E3 I had the pleasure to talk with Andrew L. Tepper, President of eGenesis, and the developers of A Tale in the Desert II.  eGenesis didn't have a booth on display or any footage of the new game but Andrew was kind enough to discuss the concept behind the game, what the sequel will bring to the game and how his game is different than the other MMORPGs. Sit back and read the information about the game and see if you want to become the next person to learn about A Tale in the Desert.  Maybe you will find a new favorite that you previously haven’t heard of. 

The basic premise of the game is what can be called a social experiment.  The game isn’t your typical standard MMORPG such as Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot or Ultima Online.  The entire game is about building your character and building relationships with other players.  The game is about solving social puzzles not puzzles to discover more loot or gold.  The game is based in ancient Egypt where you have to finish seven tests based on the 7 disciplines: Worship, Leadership, Art/Music, Conflict, Human Body, Thought and Architecture. 

Andrew explained that with A Tale in the Desert the entire world is control by the players.  The game world is designed based on what the gamers do in the world.  The current version of the game actually had players within the game create the dominate currency within the game.  When the game was initially started there wasn’t a currency for the game.  Everyone had to work with each other to trade for items need or learn new skills to create the items they need.  But a few select groups of individuals created a way to assign value to a currency they created.  After a few weeks or months, there was only one dominate currency within the game.  All of this was created and voted upon by the players.

Yes I did mention voting.  The players can vote to create new rules and laws within the game that controls the gaming world.  One rule that was voted upon was something called the Dead Person Act (sorry if I don’t have the exact name down).  This is a rule where the players in the game can have an inactive players “stuff” permanently removed from the game if that player is inactive.  The reason this rule had to be created is because the current game would allow you to build a building within the game that would permanently become part of the game.  It didn’t matter if your character was active or inactive in the game, your house would become an actual piece of real estate in the game that no one could take away. 

Another big difference between A Tale in the Desert compared to other MMORPGs is there is no combat.  No combat!  The ultimate goal of the game is to complete all 49 tests within the game.  None of the tests involves combat; they all revolve around the 7 different social skills.  For most MMORPG this is a huge departure and could leave some gamers scratching their heads.  But why do you fight in the other MMORPGs?  Usually because you need to level up so you can find a particular item you need to finish a quest.  So it seems to be a big cat and mouse game for other MMORPGs while in A Tale in the Desert this annoyance is eliminated.

I asked Andrew what will be the difference between the first game and the second game.  He mentioned several changes that will be implemented in the new game.  First the travel system is being overhauled.  A new road system will be in place that allows you to run faster while on a road then off a road.  This was an issue with the first game where you would have to run for several minutes before you would even reach anything.  Another improvement is the graphic quality of the game has been bumped up from the previous game.  The character models have been improved and the landscapes have better textures & animations.

The difficulty level has been lowered from the first game to make it more open to casual players.  Hopefully new players won’t feel overwhelmed when they start off in the game.  Another area of improvement is the city building system.  Your building will still be accessible to anyone in the game but it won’t take up a huge portion of the gaming world.  Instead players will be able to go inside of your building and explore anything inside.  Instead of having a massive building outside in the gaming world, now you have one inside of the building. 

The game is currently scheduled to be available within a few weeks, sometime in June.  The current game is available from the developer’s website, which is http://www.atitd.com/ . The game costs $13.95 a month and the first month is available free of charge, with no credit card required.  Two big news items for the sequel is the fact that the first game will no longer exist once the sequel is released.  Andrew mentioned that in order for the second game to exist, the first game must end.  So the servers that host the game will go down and when they come back up only the second game will be available.  The next news item is something Andrew is calling one of the greatest experiences in gaming history.  He mentioned that it’s coming within two weeks and it will be huge!