Comments on: The Making Of: A Tale In The Desert

By: ATITD Launches Player-Run Shard | It burns when I PVP! | MMORPGs

ATITD Launches Player-Run Shard | It burns when I PVP! | MMORPGs — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:24:27 +0000

[...] The Making Of: A Tale In The Desert [...]

By: Andara

Andara — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:27:22 +0000

I’m a regular resident of Egypt, formerly of Sinai (Tale 2) and Khartoum (Tale 3) and future resident of the region currently known as Cradle of the Sun.

JustSomeGamer, I think you missed out on a lot by thinking that you had to get involved in the social aspects of the game. One of the more noteworthy residents of Egypt is Zomboe. He does blacksmithing. That’s all he does. He passes no tests, gains no levels, he just makes superior quality blades and tools.

One thing that is not mentioned here is the notable fact that in ATITD, you can be a member of multiple guilds. This is brilliant. It allows you to have a realistic list of friends, based on interests and goals.

In fact, guilds are so easy to start up and so useful, there are hundreds that only ever have a small membership and exist only for a single purpose (such as a guild made for a group attempting the test of Pilgrimage).

Someone else mentioned something about “not getting” the game by making bricks and growing flax when that is the last thing you want to do. While I wouldn’t use the same words, the sentiment is essentially accurate. If you don’t like making something, figure out what you /do/ like to make and trade for it. After all, you don’t currently churn your own butter, do you? No, you buy it. It can work the same in the game. The Goods is a guild that operates for the purpose of barter, and they do an amazing job at it.

Finally, this is a great game for explorers. There are some of us who are crazy enough that we actually enjoy the prospect of running the entire Nile river from the far south in Khartoum all the way north to the sea in Lower Egypt. Who knows, you may find a cicada cage for the Test of the Singing Cicada, or you may find tracks leading to a Desert Rat for yet another test, or perhaps a cache of rare herbs that will allow your local cook to create a meal that will give the entire area the ability to carry more or run faster.

Teppy’s Egypt is full of opportunities.

By: JustSomeGamer

JustSomeGamer — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 04:52:41 +0000

There is little else anything like ATITD out there. It is brilliant, but also deeply flawed.

The brilliant part for me had nothing to do with the social puzzles that Tepper meant to be at the core of the game. Those never appealed to me in the least, but I did play the game a fair amount for a while.

I first tried the game because I read a review that talked about what a great crafting-centric game it was. I got drawn in by the many crafting mini-games that are built into it. Making charcoal, smithing, glass blowing, were all delightful examples that made me realize how hollow and weakly implemented most MMORPG “crafting” is. Prospecting for good mining spots by putting in test mines was also fun. These are just examples, and there was a lot more of the same high quality and inventiveness.

But then I started to run straight into the rather ham-fisted ways that Tepper tries to force his players to “get it,” i.e. to play the game the way he wants them to, by participating in the grand social experiment. The odd thing is, the game advertising or official documentation, such as it was, never seemed to say, hey this is really a game about competitive social networking, so don’t come here for crafting, building, or having the chance to build a community that would form naturally around such activities.

So I ended up feeling like a sucker for getting drawn into the game in the first place.

I very much wish that someone would create a high-quality crafting-centered MMOG. Taking a good look at the cleverness of ATITD’s crafting would be a good start. But leave out all that silly social engineering.

One other point. Tepper was smart; he created a pay to play game that actually saved a lot of support costs by getting players to do most of the game peripherals, e.g. the game forum is provided by players, as is almost all the game documentation. I found this to be more dodgy than clever. It would have been fine for a free game or very low cost game, but not for one charging standard MMORPG subscription rates.

By: Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:17:18 +0000

ATITD has got to be the most epic, and enriched MMO environment I have ever had the pleasure of “playing” in. The community is wonderful, and the ability to interact with the Environment is what turned me on to this “game”. I really see it as more of a social or economic experiment than a game – and I have played on and off since Tale 1. But… as many others … it is TOO time consuming to advance, and play, and that is valuable time I just can’t afford… I love the game – but the time investment is much too steep.

By: ErMurazor

ErMurazor — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 05:34:25 +0000

I also miss ATITD it is a great game I have played both in tale 2 and 3. But for my RL ATITD is to time consuming. But I will check back for tale 4 because I miss ATITD and none other MMO can compare to this epic game.

By: Thesper

Thesper — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 20:52:14 +0000

I do miss ATITD. The problem is that the early game is such a chore. Making 6 bricks is alright, but making the thousands you need to advance up until automated brick machines is horrifying unless you’re good at programming macros (which are legal if you’re sitting at the screen while they’re running, I believe due to RSI related concerns if they weren’t).

The late game’s more fun, but the sheer effort required to do some of the Tests is mind boggling. As is the detail in some of them, I remember one about flower breeding where you could breed at random, but if you wanted to see how far down the rabit hole went you discovered each flower had a genome that could be manipulated by various methods and….I think there were maybe a dozen players in the game or less that actually understood it really well.

By: Tumaini

Tumaini — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:29:41 +0000

I played for about a year in Tale 1 and for a while in Tale 2, as well as the beta in Tale 3 (quit because of the level system that was put in). Even though I’ve tried many other games, there is no other game like Atitd, and I always keep coming back to it. Teppy has promised to downsize the level system and make it much less important for Tale 4, and if this is true, I will most probably return to Egypt once more, and refound the City of Nubia!
You’re all very welcome to join us all there!

By: Kieron Gillen

Kieron Gillen — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 11:56:57 +0000

I made 6 bricks!

By: Martin

Martin — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 08:35:44 +0000

@Trooper6: Well, it seems as if you are one of the many that didn’t quite “get” the game then. :)

By: Trooper6

Trooper6 — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 22:10:14 +0000

I played for a couple of months in Tale 3. At first it was quite addictive…but then…well…I got tired of making all those bricks. The grind to make materials just got too much. I thought…if I have to harvest another 1000 flax….

By: Kieron Gillen

Kieron Gillen — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 13:01:47 +0000

DuBBLe: I’m only a minor visitor to the realm, and have barely played it. Since we’re 15 months into the third telling, I dare say there’s some histories online detailing how the games went, if you go looking for them.

By: Martin

Martin — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 09:40:54 +0000

I took interest in this when it was in beta but never latched on to the idea (or ran out of time – which is more likely).

Now I’m quite eager to see what it can do for me as I’ve grown tired of WoW for the time being.