Re: Online games

From: Jeffrey Howard Braunstein <braunj@rpi.edu>

Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 00:00:00 +0000

> Hi all.
>
> This may be a good place to ask this question, then again it may not judging
> by the amount of flaming that goes on...
>
> Does anyone know of a newsgroup for players of free online web based games
> such as Star Kingdoms, Utopia, Dominion, Planetarium etc?
>
> Also, does anyone here play Utopia at www.swirve.com? Looks interesting, but
> I think it would be easy to make a costly early mistake so if anyone would
> like to share their experiences with me I would appreciate it.
>
> Sarah

The game is setup with islands comprising of 50 kingdoms, each with 25
provinces in them. The kingdom you are in comprises your teammates and you
work together through the round. Technically, everybody else on the island
and world is an enemy, though many alliances abound between kingdoms.

I've played Utopias for about 7 rounds now. It is an interesting, somewhat
addictive game. An early mistake is costly if you intend on being the
highest rated player in the world. However, I can guarantee you won't be.
Almost all of the top players cheat, feed, or are members of an alliance.
By cheating I mean use multiple accounts (illegal). By feed, I mean the
rest of their kingdom supports the single province at their own expense
(not illegal). And alliances are an excellent deterrent from random
attacks.

All that said, the game is still interesting, but you need to define your
goals well in order to really enjoy it. Their are several different ways
to be useful to the kingdom.

Note, while it is a fantasy setting, there are no grand quests or anything
like that. The only way to really gain is to attack, thieve or cast magic
at another province, usually randomly, but sometimes in response to what
someone did to you or your kingdommates.

Hope that helped,

Jeff

References

Online games
"Phantom Of The Opera" <tigs9348no@spambreathemail.net>
Sun, 15 Oct 2000 00:00:00 +0000