A Tale in the Desert: Tale 5 Starts August 7th

[Bunni]

Anyone looking for a change of pace in the MMO rat race might want to consider checking out ATITD. It is not a new game by any means but it is a player driven world with a story told in cycles called "tales". The newest tale is starting soon which means a rare chance in MMO terms. A mature release with the opportunity to start from the beginning along with everyone else.

This is NOT a game for everyone. It tends to be very much love it or hate it. There is no combat. None, zero, zipp. It's a world building sim and the focus is on player cooperation to help research technology and further the goals of both individuals and the world as a whole. ATITD is not without conflict though, some of the tests involve things like competing with other players in elections or tournament games. Problems like pollution are also tossed into the mix making players often have to make serious decisions about progression.

Advancement in ATITD is focused around passing tests in 7 different areas of concentration. They start simply, things like finding 21 people to sign a petition for advancement in Leadership or identifying 35 different types of plant within 20 minutes for Principles of the Human Body. As technology improves you will have the chance to design fireworks and create complex puzzle games for other people to play.

This is a world with an amazing amount of depth and many of the tasks involve both dedication and individual skill. Everyone might be able to try out Blacksmithing, but not everyone will have the patience or skill to create high quality tools since in ATITD you don't simply click "make blade" you actually have to pick and choose between blacksmithing tools and hammer away at a virtual piece of metal. Not interested in metalworking? How about studying the genetics of flowers? Maybe something like winemaking, glassblowing or gemcutting?

ATITD isn't going to wow you with it's amazing graphics but that isn't the focus either (you are looking at a dev team of literally a couple people). It's attractive and functional which goes a long way. The game itself is free to download and you are welcome to play for 24 hours before you would had to subscribe.

To download: A Tale in the Desert IV, crafting MMO, tradeskill MMO
Info: Main Page - A Tale in the Desert
(There are forums but most real information is updated in the wiki and in game chat is automatically logged and used more extensively than in most mmos so much of the forum chitchat is unnecessary.)
Microcosms: Dancing in the Desert ? A Tale in the Desert Introduction | Ten Ton Hammer

I played most of Tale 1 and part of 2. Plus I've poked my head in now and again afterwards. I'll be playing casually with the start of Tale 5 and I'm Bunni on the main T4 shard but it's a brand new character so if you say hi don't expect to be showered in gold. Sand maybe.

[Snott]

Does that mean it is time intensive? I like the sound of it otherwise

[Bunni]

Hm, yes and no.

It depends a lot on how you want to play the game. While there are player events and things that require cooperation much of what you do in ATITD is up to you. Joining a guild can help distribute the workload and you can spend more time on the things that interest you and less time growing onions to keep the sheep happy. Many people enjoy playing more independently though and that's viable as well. It just means you are going to have to rely on trade for some of the things that you can't (or don't want to) do yourself.

[kiwiitis]

How time consuming is the game,are you playing Aion at the same time?

Just had a quick glance at the Wiki.I will get a good read of it tomorrow hopefully.May at least do the 24hr trial which I presume is game time?

I see there is a Linux version be nice to play something not on windows.

[Bunni]

Aion is my main MMO these days but I'm usually fiddling around with something else on the side. Occasionally I even play games literally at the same time, like when I was getting my WoW dailies done while leveling crafting in Aion. >.<

ATITD puts the sand in "sandbox game", it doesn't really tell you how to spend your time so how time consuming it is is up to you. There are no instances to run or traditional levels to grind. There are plenty of things to take up your time but joining a guild can help a lot if you don't have much time to spend. Unlike many games, here a new player isn't useless until they hit "max level" and joining a guild can give you access to new technology quickly without having to spend so much time building everything yourself.

[MMOGAddict]

ATITD CAN be time intensive, it is also strangely addicitve for some explicable reason, I played ATITD 3rd interation and it was a fun few months, certainly its not like any other mmorpg that you would have played before.

You also have alot of repeitition in the game, for example if you wanted to build a large building you are going to spend hours apon hours making bricks etc.

[Filadan]

I like ATITD. I played a lot during the first tale but I've never been able to find another community like the one I found in T1 so largely skipped T2-T4. I started a trial account for the 5th tale and if I find a good community to play in I will probably play long term. My character name is Zuberi if you happen to be playing between 8:00 and 10:00 CST.

The game is fun when played with a good community and I don't think it's really meant to be played completely solo. A great deal of fun comes from working together to meet a goal such as unlocking a new technology. Even as someone new you can help contribute as it was mentioned earlier so you can join any group for any activity. This has always appealed to me as I hate the 2 to 3 months of solo play in an MMO to get to max level so I can finally join dungeon crawls/raids.

[kiwiitis]

I've started up find it rather refreshing for a change.Certainly lots to do and repetitive but what mmo isn't?Most likely sub for a month to keep me going till ffxiv comes out.

My char is Zinn and I started in Maia region built a CP and started to add to it.

I had read the guides then find that a new tale starts from scratch not even a starter island.The short tutorial was helpfull.

[Bunni]

Been on vacation in Denmark for a couple days but should poke my head in on Saturday when we get back.

[Bunni]

Ok, created 'Bunni' on the T5 server and added you guys to my friends list.