A Tale in the Desert is a fascinating software title simulating life at the dawn of civilization.
This is a MMORPG where participants function as a person in ancient Egypt. By learning basic skill, flax plants are harvested and can be traded. New skills are learned from mysterious education centers which barter their knowledge for crops and other player created goods. While the education centers can also be used to unlock new technologies for all people, anyone wishing to use the technology needs to travel to that center. Egypt, in this software, is so vast that it might take 8-10 hours to travel there from one side to another. Instead of traveling to the unlocked knowledge, you may instead wait for the knowledge to be passed by word-of-mouth to your area, as players train those around them with the new skills.
This training cooperation required within A Tale in the Desert speaks to the heart of the software's premises. In this simulated Egypt, there is no shooting, no violence, and there are simply challenges to be overcome which can be undertaken by all participants working together. For this reason, we chose to highlight ATITD as the first review here at LGW. The idea that all players of this grand opera of computing can be working together to better their environment is an exciting prospect.
In ATITD, you will enjoy the path to cultural enlightenment, too. One terrific part of ATITD is the endless miles of beautiful terrain. There are many uniquely spectacular areas that you may pass by, and when you find one that you like, you can set up your home there. It is really as easy as that. There are no rents or quests that need to be completed before you can occupy an area with your buildings and other contributions to the world.
In my time participating in this ancient Egyptian world, I had very memorable experiences. First, exploring the map was a delight, and through my wandering I found some very rare spawned items, a usable boulder and a wild livestock. I communicated with others in my local area to fashion these items into usable, simple farm apparatus. With a leg up on the other people around us, we began a commune to manufacture slightly more advanced materials. People around our area came to us for trade, and our area began to look like a small town. I formed a guildhall, it was like a town center, and began recruiting more folks to join our community. Those new people brought more people, and so on. Eventually, it became a comparatively enormous group of over 100 participants, or so. The simple town became a minor metropolis. Within a few weeks, we were undertaking huge endeavors, with engineers constructing even pyramids that took days to construct. After ten months or so, ATITD restarts and gives new players a chance, too.
Simply saying that ATITD software has a Linux version is an understatement. The software seems to have been written for the Linux version, while the MacOS and Windows clients appear to be ports from the Linux original. For example, the game only runs in a window-mode, and ATITD runs Linux on the world servers. The graphics will run very well on most video cards, since the action is not fast-paced by any sense. You will find many Linux users here, and you should have a lot of fun experiencing this ancient area together. The client software is free to download, and the first month of gameplay is free with a small monthly fee afterward. Give it a try and see a Linux title that really embodies the spirit of your operating system.