Last winter I finally jumped on the Skyrim bandwagon. One minute I was selecting my race, and the next I was trying to outrun a fire breathing dragon. Talk about instant immersion! I was up half the night helping monks, stealing cabbages, and trying to teach Lydia to sneak in a way that didn’t attract bandits.

But after a couple of weeks my new obsession went from leaving me overwhelmed with immersion to bored with the sheer redundancy of the quest lines. Crossing the mountain was less of a fun challenge and more of an annoyance. And worst of all, the only person I had to talk to on a regular basis was Lydia.

Real World Concepts in Fantasty Games

The best RPGs are built on real-world concepts. That involves interacting with real people. Unlike games like Skyrim and Assassin’s Creed, which depend on players following a script to get from point Newb to Winner, once the initial coding is in place, most RPGs allow players to write their own storylines.

I’ve been playing text-based MUDs since I discovered one in the AOL Games area back in 1997. While it was a great jumping off point, the best thing I learned there was that there was this other game…this better game, called Achaea, a game produced by Iron Realms Entertainment.

I like text games because they remind me of Zork – but without the grue. Instead of starting in a forest and following a path to a house, Achaea starts you off in a newbie trial of sorts. I have to say, it does seem a little boring upon first start because it runs through all the basic commands. I see where it would be helpful for those totally brand new to gaming though.

A World of Adventure at Your Fingertips

Achaea offers a seamless marriage between basic storyline and game mechanics. Playing the game itself is like living out a perpetual Choose Your Own Adventure book. There are stories upon stories that delve into everything from mythological times before the first players ever entered the game through detailed accounts of current events. Just because you weren’t logged in doesn’t mean you’re left wondering what happened while you were gone.

Regardless of what type of personality you attribute to your character, there is something for you in Achaea. Here is a quick list of the multiple players I have in the game.

• SERPENT – This loner stays phased (a type of hiding / invisibility) so she can spy on her enemies. This class is all about stealth and shadows, and comes with abilities like pickpocketing gold from other characters, or implanting hypnotic suggestions in other characters’ minds.

• DRUIDS – A quintessential tree hugger, this little guy spends his day picking herbs and brewing up healing potions. This class is united with the forest, so much that the only houses (which are like guilds) that accept them are in the forest city, Eleusis.

• MAGI – Spell casters, unite! This class not only has kick-arse fighting abilities that make use of sonic vibrations, but they also use their powers to create newly enchanted items – or boost the features of existing ones. My favorite is the one that gives shoes the power to walk on water.

 

The entire list of classes in Achaea includes: Alchemist, Apostate, Bard, Blademaster, Druid, Infernal, Jester, Magi, Monk, Occultist, Paladin, Priest, Runewarden, Sentinel, Serpent, Shaman, and Sylvan.

Each class has a rich history and is distinguished by unique abilities and features. For example, priests can summon a mace to use as a weapon, and jesters can use pranks like suicide mice or jack-in-the-boxes to slay enemies.

I love playing old school games, because they remind me of what’s really important when it comes to gaming, and that’s having fun. I know that I can log into Achaea and have a fun quest to complete, boss creature to hunt, or friends from different time zones around the world to chat with, any time day or night.

What’s keeping you from joining me in Achaea? Roll up a new character now so that you can begin your own journey on a fantastic adventure!

 

There have been a lot of games that I played and the first few hours were great. The introduction was good, the gameplay seems to have a lot of depth, the visuals are good, the stories are good, everything. But for most games, I usually lose interest after those first magical few hours. I learn the gameplay is not quite as complicated as I thought it was. The stories start to take disappoint (quality-wise) turns. Visuals get less and less impressive. But the multiplayer text-game Achaea has been a blast ever since I got hooked, and things are just as fun as when I got used to

 

It did not lure me in with a shiny introduction or anything bait-ish like that, it was one of those situations where I had to find out for myself whether I would enjoy it or not. The Bal'met event was amazing and eventually got me invested into the game, and the gameplay is what keeps me invested. There are a lot of really interesting parts to Achaea, from the atmosphere to some of the players, from the mechanics to how they are presented, from the idea of 'flavor text' to how the volunteer game-masters can use it.

 

My character has felt fluid and able to react to every situation she has been in, she has developed in a really interesting way and it has been a very enjoyable experience so far. It is really easy for me to get fully immersed into my character and that is something I appreciate about Achaea. There are few other games where I feel connected to my character, at least to the point that I do with my Achaean character. Of course, player-character separation is important, but the immersion is quite enjoyable for me. Here is a list of my favorite things about Achaea:

• The volunteer(!) game-masters that put incredible amounts of work into making the game enjoyable for the players. Some take on the role of gods, and the god of my character's Order is incredible. She has amazing timing and has played a tremendous role in my character's life.

• The immersion is flawless for me, and I love my character. She is a blast to play – she is a feminine paladin, who tries to be very gentle but is rarely met with any options other than killing. The roleplay is really fun for me, and definitely one of my favorite parts of Achaea.

• The combat system is incredibly in-depth. In other pvp games, there is a metagame that is often figured out effortlessly and does not really evolve very much over time. I have been involved in Achaea's pvp for almost four months and have not had more than three fights that were just like others.

• The amount of detail in the world is astounding. There are different descriptions for every almost every room, thousands of npcs, different attacks, player-characters, even clothing. It is really refreshing to see the custom effects compared to the one-size-fits-all that other games can have.

My absolute favorite thing about Achaea is the player-base though. They can be really supporting and helpful, and the enemy characters often try to keep things fun for the opposing side. Sure, there are some jerks and griefers (there are some in every game) but for the most part, Achaea's player base is really kind towards new players. We want you to enjoy yourself, too! The more people playing, the more fun – more people to meet, interact with, fight with, everything. If you have not already, I would suggest giving Achaea a try. You just may end up playing for months on end!

So when I play any RPG, I try to have a few general guidelines for my character and let it live its life. One of the traits for my character in the multiplayer text game Achaea was being intensely passionate, and that led her to learning to fight to protect her loved ones. At first, it was really overwhelming for me, but things got a little easier when I stopped and looked at the mechanics.

My first strategy was as a Shaman build, it was just to prevent my target from attacking. I would curse paralysis, then curse peace and keep them paralyzed while the peace provided a buffer to keep them from attacking between paralysis curses. This proved to be quite effective at hindering (this fact supported by the multiple expletive comments regarding it when I was practicing it) and it was the foundation of the rest I learned about combat.

 

My only combat experience was in spars and just looking at all the pieces, and it was really overwhelming at first. But then I decided to just jump into raid defense one day, and it was a lot less terrifying than I thought it would be (though it was quite the adrenaline rush). I sparred a bit (in the arena, where there is no real loss for losing – outside costs experience) and practiced a ton, but I learned that shaman was suited primarily for 1v1 combat and was extremely limited in raid combat. There was a really good roleplay opportunity for my character to become a paladin, so I decided to run with it. Paladin is really good at group fighting and has potential for 1v1, too!

I got really excited and practiced really hard. As with almost everything, there were some naysayers that said a certain strategy would be impossible, but I tried anyways and a few very talented fighters helped me develop it to the point where it became possible. This strategy is one nobody else really uses often – called damnation. It is really hard to pull off, but I refined that strategy they helped me with and found different ways to build up to it, ways to help resolve some of its weak points, and ways to make it a little more likely to succeed. It was not long before I started winning duels against some notable fighters, and I practiced against people much stronger than my character was just for the practice of it. Because of that, people my own size were a lot easier for me to kill.

 

Here is the 'progression' of my learning:

• Studying, sparring, just getting the basics down – herb balances, what afflictions do, etc. I spent a few weeks on this part, it is probably the most important.

• A ton of practice and theorizing with really good fighters. I really wanted to get better, so I kept on practicing, and I was really determined. Hearing what they thought about strategies and giving me the reason they would not work helped me figure out things that would work.

• Raid environments gave me a lot of experience dealing with different situations and gave me a ton of practice adapting to new situations, which is vital. I have heard that adaptation is the biggest part of combat.

 

Most importantly, just enjoying myself kept things fun. I got excited when I won and if I lost, I looked for why and tried again. It is not easy for everyone. I got to the point where I can win against really good people sometimes.

 

Now my character is in the Order of the Lightbringer, and is one of her warriors. My character leads raids, defense against raids, fights alone, and handles a lot of combat situations that arise. She is becoming a champion of her faction, and it is really fun to experience.

In the sandbox MMO game Achaea, my character has become something of a bad-ass these last few in-game years, and the path there has been extremely fun and enjoyable. She became a Paladin at the return of two ancient gods of Good (after the newer ones were killed off) and grew quite quickly with the crazy events Bal'met. That got me hooked, and I ended up sending me character into the path of joining the Order of the Aurora, the Lightbringer. In there, my character found a really good mentor (one of the leaders of the Order) and learned a ton about the enemy factions and the Order itself, all while steadily becoming stronger.

My character got recognized as a 'fighter' when our faction was beaten in a raid, and the enemy group was still attacking. She challenged them to a duel and won against someone she had little chance of winning against, and they backed off, then both of the new gods spoke with her about it. It was a pretty awesome experience – Aurora and Deucalion are exceptionally amazing. Soon enough, Hashan destroyed a statue of Aurora in its city, and of course that provoked her. She sent her Order after Hashan, and it was pretty much a war. My character fought in it, and it was a really enjoyable way to learn more about the combat system of Achaea.

There were a ton of line-of-sight fights where people primarily used bows to shoot one target down at a time, chaotic melee rushes where everyone mostly fought in the same room, times when we were outnumbered and times when we outnumbered them. Over a hundred shrines of Twilight, the god of Darkness (no connection to the movies!) were taken down, and it was a blast to participate in all of the crazy pvp combat. If the events of Bal'met got me hooked, it was the incredibly enjoyable combat against Hashan that kept me hooked, there was always something to do and I never felt like I had to go play another game if I wanted to have fun.

Here is an overall outline of what happened for my character in this campaign:

• She learned the lore behind everything regarding the conflict, and was extremely well informed. This kept it from feeling like another random 'pvp' game where you have no idea why you are fighting, you just are. It did wonders for immersion.

• She fought in endless battles, each very different, and learned a huge amount of new tactics and ways to handle different situations. There were duels, small group fights, huge group fights, guerilla warfare, everything.

• She tried to convert some of the enemies, and then her bloodsworn was killed. After that she hunted down everyone who had been involved in combat at all in the conflict, and killed them. There were quite a few discussions on that regarding whether it was 'honorable', and it led to a really good conversion talk.

• Finally, the climax of the battle came when their city leader wrote a post about his intentions to preach on the necessity of Light... naturally, we decided to kick his butt first.

The conclusion of the campaign was brutal. Our characters felt that if he was going to taunt and talk trash about our teachings, we would kick his teeth in first. A group of almost 20 of us went in to Hashan and held a position, raised a shrine to Light and stayed there for over half an hour, and soon there were almost 25 enemies from both Hashan and Ashtan trying to get us out. My character led that assault, and it was incredibly intense. We left and let the shrine stay behind as an offering to them – that they may embrace the Light or damn themselves to be forever without her grace. It was a really classy way of offering an end to the war, and it felt like one of those perfect video game endings.

While I was playing my Paladin character in Achaea, the home city of the Good faction was destroyed by winged beasts summoned by a foul God. Our guildhall was destroyed, along with many player shops. Naturally, all of my character's friends were devastated. It is a lot to lose at once, and things were really hard for the first few days. Before long, we were taking refuge in one of the nearby villages, called New Hope.

As jarring as that was, it was actually a lot of fun. I am really good at finding things to do, and I found a lot of interesting players who enjoyed the chance at a fresh start. There were problems in the old city of Shallam and it was interesting to see who mourned it and who moved on quickly. I was still new and I gradually got more and more interested in combat, so I had a lot of interaction. People wanted to teach me combat, and they also wanted to make sure I was okay as a novice. A lot of sweet people provided a lot of help for me.

My character got into one of the pre-order clans, the Votaries of Light dedicated to Aurora, the Lightbringer. She got an amazing mentor and that made things very enjoyable, he was a great teacher and guided my character throughout her education. This is just one character though, there were a lot of others who were really worried about the future. We were hemorrhaging refugees, and they were leaving for the more peaceful good city, Cyrene.

Soon enough most of the people who were not happy with where things might be headed were gone, and we were left with mostly people who were really excited about where things could go, with the potential of a brand new city and a fresh start without any of the problems of the old city. We spent a few real life weeks (five or six) being refugees, and it really was not bad for me at all, or people I played the most with. Some people felt like there was nothing to do, but I disagree. Here are some of the more enjoyable things the refugees did:

• We were completely redefining what “Good” meant. It was definitely different before, all of the gods of Shallam were slain or abandoned us, so our new ones helped us redefine what “Good” really was.

• We (the Votaries of Light) went on a campaign against another city, and it was a lot of fun. I learned a lot about player vs. player combat in it, and I even got to lead the final assault!

• We had a lot of ceremonies and special mini-events, and we were really spoiled with all the attention we got from the new gods.

• Planning! With the city and all of the Houses (guilds) gone, we had plenty of time to plan. So we did. A lot. Mostly, this was great for conveying the message that whatever Shallam was, the new city would likely be very different.

At the end of the sixth week, our patience paid off. The new gods just created a new area for us to build the new city on, and they named it Targossas, the Dawnspear. They did it by diverting a river which created islands, and it is right next to the sea. There are two waterfalls and it is an incredible area. The city is already being constructed and it is amazing to see it evolve over time. Already there have been two phases: roads being constructed, then plants being cleared away and a shelter being built for the second. I am really excited to see where this goes.

An empire of  F2P MMOs has cropped up in the industry. Most offer free accounts that come with an entire list of restrictions. But what happens when you get hooked on the game and want more?

Although it didn’t make much difference while you were running around the game as a noob, suddenly the restrictions slapped onto the free to pay model become more apparent than ever. You can’t go past a certain level. You can’t talk on certain channels. You can’t access certain areas of the game, or some types of specialty items.

Meanwhile you watch others gain more XP, loot, and specialty items in exchange for real-life money while your character just sits there. How is that fair? Truth be told – it’s only fair to the game devs who run these games. Restricting “free” accounts is supposed to encourage people to buy into the whole package, using real-life dollars.

Real Cash for Virtual Stuff

We live in a virtual society. Everything we do is online, including our entertainment. It’s not like that Visa gift card that your grandparents gave you for your birthday isn’t sporting Benjamin Franklin’s visage. That makes it even easier to use your plastic loot to buy virtual stuff for the characters you play in games, whether they’re on your Xbox or PS3 console, or browser-based online MMOs.

On the SWTOR message boards, one player made a very good point about the F2P model:

"You have to keep in mind that the driving goal is to keep the paying customers as the top tier, if they give everything away why would a pay to play customer pay them anymore? They would lose more money from lost subscribers than they would ever make from f2p cash shop purchases. The idea is to give a very open free version but with hooks there to convince you to subscribe."

When you look at all the top MMO RPGs that work off a F2P model, it’s hard to argue with the above statement. It does seem like those who subscribe get special treatment. However, there’s one game I’ve found that continually goes against the grain on this issue. They really do treat all players fairly. Seems impossible, doesn’t it?

A Tale of Two Serpents

A friend and I both started playing Achaea (the game that started the F2P model) around the same time. We chose the same race (Mhun, for the speed bonus at the time) and class (Serpent, because we wanted to be the Bonnie and Clyde of the MMO, only I wasn’t wearing a dress!) and started out.

After fondling sheep and inflicting pixies with sumac venom until we’d leveled out of the newbie areas, the real fun began. Sadly my friend’s grandparents are far wealthier than mine – and he had a part time job. It was nothing for him to drop $30 on credits every few weeks or so. Without those kinds of resources, I was left to fend for myself. Here are some of the ways I found to get credits in-game:

• Bardic and Artisanal Contests – By entering poetry, prose, and visual arts (like digital paintings or real-life sketches) people can win big prizes for their characters in the game.

• Credit Market – Buy all the credits you want as long as you have the in-game gold to support it. Stealing gold from adventurers helped a ton with this one, as a serpent, but fishing, catching butterflies, and hunting also played a part.

• Special Jobs – Players can apply to be a newbie guide or a mortal builder, both of which pay out in credits.

While none of these offered any kind of a get-rich-quick plan, over time I did amass a great amount of credits. I was able to buff up my character pretty well, if I do say so myself. And my friend? He ended up joining the Iron Elite program, which offered credits (a type of in-game currency used to build skills and buy special weapons, called artefacts) and other benefits for one low, monthly fee.

Hard Work vs. Easy Payout

My friend doesn’t play as much anymore. Personally I think it’s because he took the easy way out! Meanwhile, because I spent so much time earning in-game gold and credits to buy my coveted possessions, I’m completely immersed in the game. I wouldn’t say addicted (I can quit at any time!) but I do like to check in daily for messages and to see what’s going on with worldwide events.

So if you’re tired of being nickeled and dimed, try Achaea. You can accomplish anything in the game, without spending a penny of your real-life money that you can accomplish with buying credits from the website, or even joining the Iron Elite. It might take a little longer, but in the end this serpent can attest that success was well worth every minute of the wait.

The player creations in Imperian, the multiplayer text online game, are very different from player creations in any other game I have played. In most mmorpgs, crafting is all about pre-defined plans that involve the same (or similar) materials, a 'cast time', and in most cases little to no variation, sometimes not even random stats on the item created. Due to this I was not really expecting much when I thought about making items in Imperian, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Not only are there several different kinds of player crafting (tailoring, jewelery, heraldry, forging, even writing things!) but there is a lot of depth to each. Although it is all done through text, I find that all of it to be a much more fulfilling experience than in other multiplayer online games. You can customize almost everything about your customized creations in Imperian, from what material they appear to be made from (such as silk, leather or dragon scales), to how they appear on the ground (“dropped” description), how they appear worn, and how they look when you examine them more closely.

I was a little suspicious at first – how can you describe a shirt through text, I wondered. It is really not all that difficult, though, and it is actually quite interesting. It allows for a lot more depth and 'tone' of items, such as things that are classy, dangerous, girly, plain, whatever you like. This is mostly for jewelery, tailoring and writings/paintings, but there is also a unique system for forging your own weapons and armor.

In Imperian, forging can take a long time, but there is an artifact that cuts down on the required forging time by fifty percent. For weapons there are three 'stats': damage, accuracy and speed. With each hit of the hammer, you add 2 (or 4 with the hammer) to a random stat. The stats for armor are cutting and blunt resistance. Usually, the best weapons are either extremely high speed, extremely high damage, or well balanced, so it will take a bit of luck to make exactly what you want, but it is not very difficult at all.

If you really want, you can customize them and make them last a year and a half or so, for only 50 credits, but what I like the most is how unique you can make everything if you want to. The customer service is great in Imperian and it only costs a little bit to customize something and make it truly unique and completely yours. You can even put reactions on things, such as a clank when you put your gauntlets on, fire blazing from a magic sword, whatever you like.

Some of my favorite custom creations have been:

• Extremely well-designed rapiers, I have seen some that would fit right into a movie – they were not overly gaudy or anything of that nature, just really nice.

• Some stylish clothes that read really smoothly, the text-tailor was really talented and made me want the clothes in real life! The amount of detail people put into these things can be astounding sometimes.

• Custom pets that are very interesting, such as phoenixes or undead jaguars that were meant to be purified, an intimidating roc that screeched at enemies, even a cool phase hound.

This really just scratches the surface, and it is fascinating to see how creative some people can be. I have even seen gifts from Divine that retain their special quality, despite how special some other things can be. It really says a lot for the atmosphere Imperian can create, and it helps immersion a ton. Come try it out! 

Some people play games to avoid the political news of the day; I know I found myself seeking the refuge of a fantasy world rather than hearing the political talking points during the last electoral campaign! Some, however, play games to participate in politics and organizations with their characters, and games with player-run factions like the MUD Achaea: Dreams of Divine Lands, lets you do precisely that!

Most MMORPGs like World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy have NPCs that "run" the cities, though there isn't much in the way of running day-to-day activities. Mostly, they're quest NPCs or purely there for flavor. In many MUDs, including Achaea, however, cities are run by the players! Everything from relations with other cities, to setting prices in the training arenas, to declaring enemies is done by other players.

Games generally offer different things for different kinds of players: for the blood-thirsty, there is player-versus-player combat; for the creative, there's crafting; for the grinder, there's leveling. But Imperian is unique in that it also gives players an environment to roleplay a political career, or "How To Make Friends and Influence People, Gamer Edition"!

When you start out, you're low level, know no one, and are rank one in your city. It takes time and sincere effort to get yourself involved in the political arena, and it's not just limited to long-time players. Getting involved as an aide to an elected official and showing your eagerness to help out your city will move you quickly through the ranks. From there, it's up to you to make friends, back-room deals, whatever in your character's personal code of ethics (or lack thereof) it takes to advance your character's political career!

So leave the real world of politics and join us in Imperian, where you can rule a fantasy city as a tyrant with an iron fist or as a benevolent dictator, a backstabbing senator or a smooth-talking devotee to a cause. The choice is yours, and the choices are endless!

Good online roleplaying games come in all shapes and sizes. Lately I’ve been playing the games that showed up in my Christmas stocking, like Assassin’s Creed 3 and Dishonored. (If Felicia Day recommends it, then it has to be good, right?)

My first experience with any kind of roleplaying game was tabletop D&D in high school. When I discovered my dad’s old Commodore 64 computer and a copy of Zork on a 5 1/4" floppy, I was hooked on computer games. By the time I hit college I was enjoying 1P FPS games on my console, but still they lacked something.

Then my parents bought me a laptop and I discovered good online roleplaying games. My favorite was Imperian, a MUD. It was so much better than playing on my console because I could play with friends back home – even though I was at college and they were back home. I can’t even tell you how many times I sat in the dorm geeking it out with my buddies.

The PvP server had so many benefits over the other ones. Here are some of the ones I personally enjoyed most.

•  Fun to kill other people’s characters
•  Adds a new dynamic to quests
•  The thrill of never a dull moment
•  Forces you to learn your skills / abilities
• Allows you to fully use your weapons

Best of all, after I leveled up, I could get revenge on all those people who ganked me and corpse-camped to loot my stuff when I first started. Some people get all bent out of shape over ganking, but I like the challenge of staying alive while killing off my enemies, one by one.

During a visit home over Christmas vacation, a virus infected my computer and I had to put a hold on my WoW activities. Being at home, I turned to an alternate source of amusement.

But then one night my sister walked in and caught me mid-stride through the reservoir, “Tube o’Gunk” in hand. How embarrassing, having your older sister catch you playing a text MUD on your dad’s computer instead of the good online roleplaying games on your own laptop.

Instead of harassing me, she introduced me to a different game. It was the perfect juxtaposition of Zork’s imaginative text and the PvP I loved in my high-res graphics games. Believe it or not, for a MUD, this game has great PvP! As the player behind Beatrice said on the forums, “It gives us a more graphical view of death without the graphics.” Here are some samples of what you might see when people die in the game, using a Romeo (the helpful newbie guide) as an example.

-          Chalking up another victim, a murderous thug has brutally slain Romeo.
-          With a mighty blow of his flail, Lieutenant Serentesh has caved in the skull of Romeo.
-          Wreathing herself in chaotic power, Maim de Vermiis has decimated Romeo.
-          Ensnared within the web of Lachesis the Spider Queen, Romeo has finally perished.
-          Inflicting excruciating pain in the name of science, Dr. Kortoxian has obliterated Romeo.

The game is called Achaea and like I said, it lacks graphics. Expect to do a lot of reading. I’ve since done more reading in Achaea than I have for my college classes. Because I get totally immersed in the game, it doesn’t feel like reading at all, though! Here are some of the other things I noticed (and really enjoyed) about text PvP.

• Classes are better balanced
• Higher level cap
• Customizable, badass weapons
• Quicker bug fixes
• Quests are more interactive
• Admin are more personable

Even though my laptop is back up and running, I still play Achaea – like when I’m sitting around waiting for the GM to show up and lead a raid. I don’t think I’ll ever completely give up watching blood splatter across the screen for reading about it, but I will definitely keep playing Imperian. After all, someday I hope to reach level 99 and make dragon!

There’s something I find incredibly stupid with the grind/loot MMO genre - your character is already buff from newbiehood. You enter the newbie tutorial with bulging muscles and tribal tattoos, as if your character spent his entire life being a badass. Then you get ripped a new hole by a group of kobolds who taunt, “do you even lift bro?”.

This state of perpetual buffness is ridiculous, my character should be a scrawny little twig who can barely pick up a sword as a newbie. If you played GTA: San Andreas, you’ll remember how CJ was skinny, but going to the gym increased your character’s strength and made CJ visibly buffer over time. Or in Fable, how you could become fat by eating too much, your character’s belly jiggling with every step.

I’m tired of glowing, sparkling, spikey-covered fullplate armour being the tell-tale sign of a high level character. It’s ridiculous and it’s poor roleplay. Why don’t characters who run and explore look leaner and more athletic than those who sit around the tavern? Why don’t characters get covered in dirt and blood?

As a player of MUD games, I’m used to being able to fully customize my character’s appearance on the fly. I just type DESCRIBE ME (what I want to look like), and then anyone who LOOKS at me will see the appearance I described for myself. For example, this is my character’s appearance now:

(I also designed some of the clothes I'm wearing, like the surgical mask)

At any time, I can completely change this appearance with the DESCRIBE ME command, or I can add to it. So if I get into an epic fight with a dragon, for instance, I could describe a fresh scar on my chest. It’s this freedom to constantly update my character to reflect the persistent world that keeps me coming back to MUDs instead of MMOs.

I'm an avid gamer, as my significant other can attest. If I'm waiting in line, I'm playing a puzzler, I play Magic: the Gathering at my local game store on Thursdays, and I have spent many hours playing games like Final Fantasy XI, League of Legends, Guild Wars 2, and World of Warcraft. Many of my friends are gamers, too, and when they see me playing a MUD game like Imperian, they often wonder if I'm programming. Nope, I'm a priest commanding my angel to rip out the soul of my enemy. But more on that in a bit.

To the uninitiated, it seems daunting at best, and bizarre at worst. "Why would you play a game without graphics when it's not the 1980s?" they ask. The answer I give mirrors those who prefer the book to the movie made from the book: I prefer to create the graphics with my imagination and let the gameplay speak for itself, with no graphical crutches. Don't get me wrong, I love pretty graphics, but graphics can't replace a great storyline and engrossing gameplay.

Of course, for those who are blind or vision-impaired, graphical games might as well not exist, as they are not accessible at all to them. Text-based games like MUDs, however, have a significant and strong blind and sight-limited community. In Imperian, for instance, one of the top fighters is totally blind! Few other games and genres could say the same.

So, back to my angel ripping out my enemy's soul: the possibilities for a graphics-based game are limited, as the designers can only depict what humans can see. What can be vividly shown in a mind's eye cannot be easily rendered in graphical format, if at all. Similarly, many find books better than movies because a film can only display so much, even with modern advances in technology. The human mind is the greatest graphics engine of all!

Join me in the rich, immersive text world of Imperian, where the roleplay and combat are deeper than any MMORPG!

I'm sitting in front of my computer, a black screen with multi-colored text seeming to whiz by at an imperceptible rate. First wondering if I'm programming, my friends look on in awe as I explain that I'm actually raiding, and -- oops, I just died. Most players of MUDs such as Achaea: Dreams of Divine Lands have a similar experience. Despite being avid gamers, most of my friends have never heard of a MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) and don't understand why anyone would play a game without graphics. After all, they like to tell me, it isn't 1980.

No, it isn't 1980, but graphics have little to do with how fun a game is. I also play games such as Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: the Gathering, neither of which are graphical video games, yet each has hundreds of thousands of players worldwide. I view MUDs as the happy medium between these three types of games: MMORPG, storytelling table-top, and strategy. 

1. MUDs and MMORPGs
Playing a game by oneself is rather boring, and it seems most people agree, as social interaction in video games has increased significantly in the past few decades. The explosive growth of MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft is another testament to this. There are few things more exciting in a game than playing at the same time as a dozen of your friends to take down a foe.

2. MUDs and Tabletop Games
The basis of both of these is storytelling and roleplay. In each, you're thrust into a fantasy world where you are controlling a character who can cast spells, fight dragons, and speak another language. As such, they require a high level of interaction and immersion. Some days, I log into Achaea and do nothing but roleplaying; some days, I only fight. Much like a tabletop RPG, each session of a MUD is different, and that is what makes both popular!

3. MUDS and Strategy
There are some strategic elements of MMORPGs, but MUDs like Achaea generally have dozens and dozens and dozens of different abilities, each of which require the user to know what situations to use any give ability in. Achaea also has lots of afflictions, which require smart prioritization that depends on who you're fighting and what their skills are. Whew! Most MMORPGs I've played have a dedicated healer who takes the role on, but MUDs make you pretty self-sufficient. With great power comes great responsibility, however!

MMO players who are fans of tabletop games like Magic: the Gathering should definitely try out MUDs. They combine elements of all of these games into something greater than the sum of its parts.

I will be honest, it took a little while for me to really get hooked in the multiplayer online text game Achaea. I started out just doing my own thing and trying to keep to myself, I was not very good at things like pvp or bashing, and I just wanted to make text-clothes and paintings (it seemed like a good way to make money!). I was not playing for very long at a time and my interest had waxed and waned, I primarily played in phases of whenever I could be bothered. That all changed very quickly once something drew me in, and now I play very actively and can understand how some players can play for many hours a day and spend a lot of money on the game.

I was still rather new, and there was some stuff going on with an illness with the Xorans, a reptilian race exclusive to Achaea. A week or so later, there was a huge event where one of the most beloved NPCs of the game, Ashaxei the Great White Dragon, was killed by ormyrr. Many players had a connection to this NPC, it was the NPC that grants the dragon race upon reaching level 99 and had been for a very long time. There were really well written events posts from the administrators detailing everything that happened, and I found myself curious and drawn to what was going on.

So while all of this was exciting I had trouble connecting it to my character. I was not really very invested into the game yet in either time or money, and was still curious about whether I should stick around or not. And then all of a sudden I hear gods shouting, and one of the gods is taken prisoner in this strange new world. A few days later, other gods go in to rescue him, and all of them die. Yes, the gods died. There were orders for these gods (with players in them, of course) and I am sure each order had a lot of work put into it, but still, some gods were killed and their orders were disbanded.

I can only imagine how devastating that must have been for some players – some of their characters have been in these orders for real life years. A few days later, more gods die, and the gods eventually get into this crazy, epic battle royale. It was intense and felt like I was reading the climax of a book, it was incredible. It made me want to actually get invested into the game. As things progressed things got more and more intense, and I got more and more impressed with the game. I do not want to completely spoil the rest of the event for potential players, but here are some of the other things that happened:

• An entire player city that was here since pretty much the beginning of the game was completely destroyed (without even any ruins!), and an entire faction was built around this city.

• Many gods were killed, from really active ones to ones that were not active at all, two were brought back, and even ones that were not active in the last few centuries showed up!

• A new god was summoned, and he got stronger and stronger from the other gods' essence and strength.

• Characters all became demigods and demigoddesses and battled hundreds of Dala'myrr, some of the most mighty denizens this game has seen, and helped the rest of the surviving gods kill the new god that threatened the world.

Needless to say, the final battle was the most epic experience I had had in any game, and although there were a lot of technical difficulties, it was amazing. I am now one of those people that spend probably far too much time on the game, and would spend too much money if I had it.

I'm a pretty avid gamer, as my significant other can attest: puzzle, platformer, adventure, and RPG, I love them all. My biggest love has been MMORPGs, though: I played Final Fantasy XI Online (FFXI) for four years, leveling up many jobs to the max level and spending untold hours raiding, camping monsters, and having fun.

Vana'diel, the world of FFXI, had tons of seasonal events that generally coincided with holidays across the world, but mainly in Japan. There was a festival in-game for Valentine's Day and Christmas, a summer festival, and a doll festival. This was the most that FFXI had to offer for world-wide events. Any other storyline events were missions, which were basically a long line of quests.

While I enjoyed participating in those events and missions with my in-game friends, they were all very scripted quests that most people did just for the item at the end. When I started playing the MUD Achaea, it was Logosmas, the in-game Christmas festival. I thought that Achaea did a similar thing to FFXI, namely basing in-game events off existing real-life holidays and having various quests that didn't influence anything. Little did I know.

One week later, a huge planet was forged in the heavens called Nurazar by two Gods, Lords Phaestus and Twilight, eventually bringing about the alchemist class. Events like this happen very often in Achaea -- huge story arcs happen much more often than expansions for other MMORPGs are released, and they happen in real-time for everyone who plays. It never made sense to me that I personally was saving the world for the fortieth time in Final Fantasy XI. All of those problems are fixed in Achaea because everything is happening in real time, and you can interact and influence how the events unfold.

Just recently, an entire city was completely destroyed. And no city was instantly remade for those whose livelihoods and homes were destroyed. Three months later, we're still rebuilding, road by road, brick by brick. We're rebuilding how we want our city to be, with the help of the Gods, of course. No other MMORPG can even come close to that. Even using a system like Rift where random "events" happen in certain areas, they just spawn monsters to fight. Another grind, nothing compelling.

When there was a great threat to be defeated, the Destroyer of Worlds, it wasn't an instance that a party could enter and defeat, grab his loot, and repeat ad nauseum: it was an epic three-hour-long battle that everyone in the world who participated was instrumental in defeating. We were transformed into demigods and used our newfound powers to eradicate the threat.

Come join me in Achaea: Dreams of Divine Lands, where when events happen, they're worth participating in!