Text Me Maybe, or, How I Became a Gamer

A funny thing happened on the way to Draenor.

I was give access the beta for the new World of Warcraft expansion, and I spent a lot of time testing stuff, and...well, I pretty much did everything new in the expansion twice, so when the time came to actually buy it, I went ‘Wait, now I have to spend money to do everything a third time?’

So I didn’t buy it. I’m not saying Warlords isn’t good. It is really good. It’s just...old news to me. But, I have to get my daily rpg fix somewhere. So I’ve gone all the way back to the beginning. It’s a game called Lusternia, Age of Ascension. Its....well...actually, it starts before that.

In 2003 I came across an advert for a game named Achaea. It was a text-based role-playing game that you played in your browser. I had never  heard of a text-based game before, but it was free (not something very common back then), so I tried it out. To my eternal shame my first character was a dwarf named Battleaxe. The dwarf part was fine but it was very quickly pointed out that I should change my name to something that sounded like an actual dwarf name.

 

Dwarf from Lusternia. Battleaxe not included.

See, Achaea is what they call an enforced-role-playing game. You have to role-play. If you stood in the middle of a town square and say ‘Hey guys! This game is great! And you don’t even need a good graphics card to play!’ the players around you will look at you with sympathy, suggest that perhaps you have spent too much time in the sun and need a quiet lie-down, and whisper the word ‘lunatic’ to each other when they think you’re not looking at them. (Also, don’t call them players.)

That’s not to say that OOC (out-of-character) is completely forbidden. If it was, you wouldn’t be able to ask for help if you get stuck and can’t work out what to type to do something. ‘Newbies’ are given considerable leeway. Everyone understands there’s a pretty steep learning curve for someone who has never done text games before. You just have to be subtle, like keeping the OOC to messages instead of speaking aloud.

So anyway, there I was, a new dwarven Runewarden, learning for the first time how a text game works, how an RPG game works, and how to role-play, all at the same time. Fortunately there is a system in place that unites players towards a common goal, and thus make people want to help you.

Achaea’s system had two components - cities and guilds. (The guilds no longer exist in Achaea, but they were very important back when I played) A guild is a group of players, all with the same class, that (mostly) also belong to the same city. Some classes, like the Runewardens, had only one guild. Other classes had multiple guild you could join - there were five mage guilds, for example, one in each of the five cities. People from your guild and city would help you, even to the extent of giving out free equipment - because if you eventually became powerful, the whole city would benefit.

Runewarden with dual runeblades and a trained falcon.

Each class had three skillsets you could learn. Runewardens had Chivalry, Runelore and Forging. Druids had Groves, Metamorphosis and Potions. If you ever played WoW near the beginning, you may recognise this three-skillsets-per-class idea. (Achaea, by the way, was using it back in 1994, long before WoW even existed).

There is something else that Achaea did first (or so they claim). They were the very first online game that was free-to-play, but supported by micro-transactions. Now before you flee in terror, this is not your Candy Crush-style micro-transaction. Those sort of games have a  resource-based system where you run out of ‘energy’ and need to buy more with real money. Essentially they force you to stop playing the game if you don’t give them money. Which I think is the worst idea ever. Why would you want people to ever not be playing your game? They might end up playing a game that they like more!

Instead, Achaea has a thing called credits. Credits can either be converted into lessons that you can learn more skills with, or can be used to buy powerful magical items called artefacts. That sword you just made? It’s a really good sword. It has great stats on it. Just look at that speed value! But...what if it was a little bit better? Another 5 to its speed? There’s an artefact that does that. Just buy it and attach it to your sword. But, hey, wouldn’t it be nice if you were a bit stronger?  If you were, your sword would hit harder. Not a lot harder, mind you, but just enough to give you an edge. There’s an artefact for that. And how about that annoying mage who keeps jumping you and killing you? He’s a grook, you know. They’re frog-people. Weak to lightning. So...what if half of your sword’s damage was actually converted into lightning damage? There’s an artefact that does that too.

That damned grook who keeps jumping you.

Ok, ok. It’s probably...a way more insidious method than those Facebook games. But Achaea is still going, decades after text-games supposedly died, so it must work.

I played Achaea for a while, and got to about level 60 (out of 100), but struggled to advance any further. I died too much, and dying is really really bad, cause you lose a significant chunk of experience. But then Lusternia was released...and...

I have, as usual, spoken about so much other stuff, that I haven’t even gotten to Lusternia. So Part 2 is coming.