Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
- 6.2K All Categories
- 3.1K Everything Achaea
- 1.5K North of Thera
- 26 Archives of the Terraformer
- 257 The Matsuhama Arena
- 885 The Golden Dais of Creation
- 299 The Scarlattan Theatre
- 149 The Blank Canvas
- 2K Getting Help
- 412 General Questions
- 258 Quick Class Questions
- 1.3K Tech Support
- 313 Client Help
- 486 Curing Systems and Scripts
- 841 Off-Topic
- 255 The Wander Inn
- 586 The Universal Membrane
- 298 Class Discussions
- 298 Individual Class Sections
- 20 Alchemist
- 9 Apostate
- 30 Blademaster
- 9 Depthswalker
- 14 Druid
- 4 Infernal
- 20 Jester
- 19 Magi
- 34 Monk
- 11 Occultist
- 8 Paladin
- 7 Priest
- 29 Runewarden
- 18 Sentinel
- 26 Serpent
- 20 Shaman
- 9 Sylvan
Why Do You Play Achaea?
I think it will be interesting to see why your fellow Achaeans play this game 
ITT : List your own personal top three reasons and justify them.
1. Escapism
The text-aspect of Achaea lets me visualize things in my mind within a certain set of rules. This leads to imagery and a large room for creativity which online graphics games can't capture on the same level.
2. Hobby
I like building up who my character is, from positions to artefacts/levels etc.
3. Interactions
From family RP to whatever, some people are nice/fun to interact with. Others, not really.
Maybe.. Combat
Though, it's one of those weird games where coders can really excel versus people not bothered to invest time learning how to code elaborate offensive triggers.
ITT : List your own personal top three reasons and justify them.1. Escapism
The text-aspect of Achaea lets me visualize things in my mind within a certain set of rules. This leads to imagery and a large room for creativity which online graphics games can't capture on the same level.
2. Hobby
I like building up who my character is, from positions to artefacts/levels etc.
3. Interactions
From family RP to whatever, some people are nice/fun to interact with. Others, not really.
Maybe.. Combat
Though, it's one of those weird games where coders can really excel versus people not bothered to invest time learning how to code elaborate offensive triggers.
5
Comments
Social interaction - I'm chronically ill, I spend a lot of time in bed. I have tons of RL friends, they are amazing, they visit me, I sometimes go out with them, we also spend a lot of time chatting on FB and stuff. I don't feel like I'm necessarily lacking. But I do really enjoy the social interaction aspect of Achaea, especially the roleplay that goes along with it, and that I can do all of that and be a social butterfly from bed sometimes is fun. And I get to know people I might not get to know in real life.
Stress relief - For whatever reason, bashing and sailing/fishing are incredibly good stress relief to me. I work a lot and my jobs are pretty stressful - I love what I do but sometimes I just come home and the last thing I want to do is think or be productive with my RL hobbies, and bashing/sailing/fishing really help me process stuff and get some mental space when I am stressed.
Creativity - I love making things, I love designing, crafting, player houses, writing performances, collecting neat and unusual items, customizing stuff, etc. in Achaea. I love the worldbuilding aspect of the game, exploration, all the different areas, the lore, etc. I couldn't imagine getting bored with Achaea. This is a big reason why I joined the Virtuosi - although I can see being happy in other Houses and still doing creative stuff anywhere in the game, I love that the House is so close-knit socially and also focuses primarily on art as it's really in line with what I enjoy most about the game as a player.
Escape:
Life can be hard, it's fun to be someone else for a while.
Mechanics:
Figuring out how stuff works, and why it works that way. Why I died versus why I lived. It's the reason I could care less that I've probably died more than anyone ever has for my characters age (2600 deaths, get on my level).
Friends:
I've made some pretty damn good friends through Achaea, and they keep me coming back for a lot of it.
Combat:
I want to be Tanris when I grow up
Penwize has cowardly forfeited the challenge to mortal combat issued by Atalkez.
Variety - Not only can I do a variety of things in Achaea, I don't feel as if I'm being driven to or forced into one aspect of the game, as most games end up doing. If I feel like bashing, I bash! If I feel like writing, I write! I don't feel as if I'm missing out on a large portion of the game by focusing on another portion, as I would in most MMOs (that are usually leveling- and end-content-centric).
Interactivity - I absolutely love Achaea because of the feeling that I can actually affect the realm. If I want to create something, I go out and create it. If I feel like something should be a part of the game, I can IDEA it or bring it up on the forums, and the community either considers it seriously or rips me a new one cause I'm being an idiot, but the feeling of having input, having a voice, is brilliant, especially in a system as (amazingly) deep and complex as Achaea. As well, it's possible to get an explanation as to why something works the way it does, or why something is a part of the game, if I'm confused about something or think something is utter nonsesne. Plus if I report a bug in Achaea I don't have to wait twelve months for the next major dev patch for it to be fixed (<3 @Tecton @Sarapis
Community - Achaea has a lot of great people, both IC and OOC, and I enjoy interacting with most of you both in game and on the forums. From what I've seen, both the administration and the community as a whole have little tolerance for toxic players, abusers and trolls, and they're usually dealt with swiftly and severely, and the rest of you are bloody brilliant.
So yeah. I know the second that my edit time is up I'll think of a good word for the second one. And I just can't seem to right now. But that's my top three.
Friends
Coding things.
-
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important
Oh and definitely the coding
love some coding
Also gotta say coding. I've learned a lot.
You can't justify Jhui foo
I love that when a Mhaldorian calls another Mhaldorian's beliefs "heretical", there's real meat to that - there's a very discernable orthodoxy and it isn't just handed down from on high (though that's how much of it started), but, realistically, determined by the consensus of the community.
I love seeing the history behind all the orgs and how it's shaped them, and knowing that that history isn't just pre-written fiction, but the actual result of players driving generation after generation of org narratives.
I love the material culture - both for the way it drives home the player-cultivated org cultures and how it showcases the often very surprising creative writing skills of the playerbase.
I love the unlikely, player-driven stories that appear from time to time - like Flair and Babel, or Melodie's fall, or the development of the Anointed.
I love the larger-than-life characters with real character like Amunet.
I love the sense that the feared combatants have reason to be known and feared and it's not just that they've been grinding for longer than anyone else, but because they have substantial knowledge and skill that sets them far apart from most players in lethality.
I love how many stories I could tell to people who have never played the game and still have them marvel at what a great story it all makes. (I even have a friend who has never played Achaea, but purposefully listens in when my Achaea friends and I talk about the game because he enjoys hearing about all of it so much.)
I guess in general I enjoy the stories and cultures the game produces. Being a participant in them is fine and dandy, but I'm personally pretty content just to observe a lot of them. I enjoy that it feels like there is always more to learn about the world and the people in it, and that the world is changing and developing fast enough that that will likely never change.
I enjoy the coding too.
Text games like Achaea allow me to live in a world that uses the power of the mind to form images. It allows me to explore several outlets that would probably be difficult to explore in real life. For example, building a house exactly to the picture in your mind has a lot of restrictive factors in real life. Location, materials available, the cost and the associated effort you need to put in your job to make that money and see it happen. I could never be a tailor in real life, nor can I be a jeweller in real life. Those are tradeskills that take a long time to master and at least I can appreciate the ability and effort to create and produce things in Achaea.
I also work in a science-related field in real life, and my dreams when I was young was to be a writer and work in an arts-related field (even journalism would do) when I grew up. It's not as easy to do so where I am, so I find my fix in being able to preserve my skills and simultaneously indulge in writing and creativity in Achaea through philosophy works, designing, event organizing and so on and so forth.
Community
While there are always a fraction of toxicity in any online communities, I have made more true friends from Achaea (or IRE wide, for that matter) than any other MMORPG game I play. There's something to be said about understanding and knowing a person behind the character by virtue of how they guide and play their character, especially if you've been interacting with them for a long time. You know that you share the same interests and that you can talk to them with ease about some things IRL without fear of insulting. I've made firm friendships with a few (ex: @Jurixe and @Aepas) that I can feel comfortable traveling overseas to find and meet them!
Immersion
Achaea is like reading a book that I can never stop reading. The characters keep developing. Dramatic world events happen and I get to be involved in shaping how things become, or to witness an end or a beginning to something. I get to make my own story too, and explore what becomes of the choices I make.
Lady Pandora/Lady Selene/Orders: My other families! Ever since my character met Lady Pandora, She has been so kind and welcoming, and very understanding. Though Lady Selene is now gone, She was the first sense of purpose my character had, and the first place I ever felt like she belonged. Never found purpose in being part of a House or a city, but being in the Order has always left me with a sense of purpose. I'm glad to have met the people I have in both Orders, and in knowing them, learning from them, and growing with them they've helped shape my character in many ways.
Collecting: I have a thing for collecting rare and interesting items or pets/mounts which also drives me to keep at other interests of mine that help this goal along. By exploring and knowing my way around sometimes it gives me more of a background on something I may come across. By continuing to hunt, which I love for many reasons, it gives me the funds to keep on with this hobby of mine. It's also an interest I get to work on with one of my best friends who also enjoys the same hobby. Through discovering new and old items I get to learn about Achaea and its history from a different perspective that goes beyond just listening to stories or reading books. I've also met a lot of people through trading, buying, and selling. It's always fun to see what interesting and neat things other people have and to learn about those, or see if they know something about an item I have that I may not have known. It's just a fun aspect of Achaea that not a huge part of Achaea really participates in, and I'm always finding new things (or things that are new to me) so it never gets old or boring.
While we have the option and pressure to spend ludicrous amounts on Achaea, $25 a month for Elite is cheaper than a trip to the pub and gives me something to do all month. If not for Achaea, I'd buy a $60 game and be done with it in a week, and/or spend lots more nights in bars, which would probably translate into a citation or two. Long story short, Achaea prevents crime.
Playing GM -
I've played Achaea for a long time. In the beginning, I explored the world and all it had to offer, and had a great experience crafted for me by the players that had been around for a while. Now I've done a lot and seen a lot, the game has lost some of it's "magic" for me, so I enjoy crafting that good experience for the newer players still exploring it. I'm not sure I'd ever go Garden, I still enjoy "playing" too much for that, but I enjoy leadership and org-building because it's a middle ground between GM and player.
Combat -
I love combat, but mostly from an academic perspective. I'm competitive in that I work to be good at it, and I enjoy it as an avenue of roleplay and a casual pasttime, but I'm not the kind that would enjoy Mark or raiding for an extended period. I just like the art and the puzzle-solving aspect of it, theorycrafting optimal approaches, appreciating it when someone kills me with something particularly clever, figuring out how to overcome obstacles and other classes, tinkering with scripting, and so on. I'm like one of those talking-head sportscasters. I love the game, love analyzing it endlessly, but couldn't/wouldn't play it professionally.
Storytelling -
I'm not going to act like a great roleplayer, I have a character separate from my own personality that I roleplay with, but I don't do many elaborate roleplay scenarios with other players, and I often avoid big "RP events" because of the crowds and everyone falling over each other to have a moment in the spotlight. What I do enjoy is Achaea's storytelling on the macroscopic scale. The game's big world events, city vs city relations, individual rivalries, because all of these things are malleable and player driven, Achaea is a more "realistic" world than any other game I've found. Even situations that annoy me in the moment (lopsided raids, classless debates, dick-move ganks) often become stories I enjoy telling later, and can capture the imaginations of those who weren't there. (Or even who were there, with some suspension of disbelief!) Those kinds of stories are actually how a friend got me to try Achaea, and they're still a reason I stay.
While visual games certainly provide a graphical interface that is frequently pretty to look at, the sheer variety that Achaea holds for pretty much everything you do is what draws me in. Read a few books, walk around outside for a while and you can picture environments pretty well. Living near the Great Dismal Swamp provides awesome imagery for swamp areas in Achaea, which really look like swamps by the way!
Motivation:
I'm not slaved to some npc quest giver doing dailies to achieve xmillion rep so I can finally get that epic mount I want by grinding my face off of a raid 2000000 times at 6 hours a night (can you tell I left modern MMOs with a chip on my shoulder?) If I get something, it's because I went for it. Don't want to be a combatant? Don't, sit around designing clothes and food all day. It's your gameplay, not some other guy telling you how to play.
People/Consequences:
It's easy to go lulzgrief when you never see that person, or any person ever again since there's so many. If I trash talk someone, grief them, or even just give them a hard time they're going to be there when I log back in going "wtf man". What that means too is if you really hit it off with a group/few people, there's a huge draw in realizing they'll be there dragging you into the fun or vice versa. It's sometimes intense playing with the same ~25? people all the time, but it's great
I guess what makes Achaea so great to me is its depth -- in combat, history, politics, etc. -- its immersion -- text offers such great detail to everything -- and probably just straight habit.
Coding is fun too
Escapism:
To be frank, the first and foremost reason I play this game is because it allows me to be/pretend being someone else. It allows me (for the most part) to forget about things I want to forget about, or in some cases explore them/see them from a different angle. Not the perfect solution, but it still makes me feel better (usually). Depression's not a nice bitch.
Creativity outlet/Entertainment:
I don't do really much designing of clothes and jewellery and stuff like that, all things considered, but I immensely enjoy it when I actually take the time to do. I love researching about used terms, historical outfits and the like. I love looking at pictures of period or fantasy wear. I also love writing stories set in the universe, which necessarily needs me to be familiar with setting and places and such, which pushes me to explore and see the world through the eyes of my character.
Roleplaying:
Though I admit my character is not as different as me as perhaps she should be, her history and her circumstances are her own, and though perhaps I am not really that great of a roleplayer, there have been a great number of others who have definitely left a mark in her and changed her and made her different from who she was when I first started playing, and I really enjoy that, both the effect other characters and people can have on yours, on the chance of you in turn having an effect on the character of others.
And you won't understand the cause of your grief...
...But you'll always follow the voices beneath.
1. The Community. I really just love interacting with the people I interact with regularly, both OOC and IC, most of them Mhaldorian, some not.
2. Break from RL. Sometimes, it's nice to have one!
3. Combat mechanics. And yes, even coding. I've learned a lot about coding while playing the game, and the combat system has so much depth and strategy involved. Always a blast.
4. Roleplay - the storytelling element of it. Can sometimes be like reading a good book.
Friends! Friends everywhere. I've met so many great people here, some like family, and they're a big part of the reason I'm always around.
Possibility. There's so many ways players can affect the world and it's brilliant, I never know what's upcoming...but I want to find out. And maybe help make it happen.
art stream / twitter / ko-fi
2. Roleplay. Selira is different from me in many ways (though not as many as I might like), and being able to step into that mindspace is fum and fascinating for me. The story arcs and the things I would never do in real life are great.
3. The community. Y'all are a bunch of smart mofos. I bounced from MMO to MMO in my time away from Achaea and IRE really draws a particular class of people to it, and it's one I really enjoy being around.
4. Friends, as listed. I"ve made some very deep, lasting friendships that have drastically changed my life from this game.
5. The malleability of the game world. This was the biggest thing missing from other games I played - sure, you can roleplay in WoW, but you won't have a lasting effect. The things you do don't actually change the game. You just sit around in Silvermoon and try to be the prettiest elf, instead of getting out there and, say, blowing up a moon. Being able to see continuous effects and cultural responses to things I was involved with years ago is amazing, and really is unique to the MU* world.
6. The gods and the politics. I will never stop being amazed at how well this works. So much of the game is player-run or player-influenced, and even the administrators are players to some degree. It's a beautiful thing.
On topic!
The Community.
I'm still friends with people I met almost ten years ago here. And switching to a new character and new faction was just as welcoming. If it weren't for the people I interact with here, my long periods of not playing would have just ended with me not playing. Instead, the community pretty much always draws me back.
The Set-Up and Premise
I don't know how else to say it, but this is everything. It's the fantasy world, with six player run cities, houses and orders. It's the display, in game. If you've ever played another mud, then switched to one of the IRE games, you'll note the difference in how things are organized and how it all looks. I'm pretty particular to IRE now. Can't imagine going back. And Achaea, even after ten years, still has some of that magic to it. The fact that it's constantly being developed and improved helps draw me in.
Escapism
It's pretty nice to get home from a long day at work and jump into Achaea and go hunting or defend or help a novice or do anything rather than think about the day I had. I like hunting until I'm not thinking about anything at times. But also, the immersion of Achaea with its constantly evolving storyline is even more intense than reading a really amazing book. Looking back at events and being able to say, "I was a part of that," is pretty amazing.
The crown jewel of IRE is its amazing PvP system. That is one of the main things that captured my attention in Achaea in the first place. It just always felt completely beyond my grasp in Achaea. Achaea promised it, Imperian finally delivered it - and it is as amazing as I thought.
I still have mixed feelings about coding. I am glad I'm actually understanding some of it (finally) but the idiosyncrasies of syntax still royally piss me off - not to mention the assumption that anyone reading guides and instructions is immersed in coding. I truly think coders just can't help themselves here. They literally can't see what things look like to the non-coder and where the non-coder will completely miss the logic jump that is "obvious" to coder person. This is really clear to me in cases where you can see someone has taken painstaking effort to explain something in the most basic way possible, and then proceeds to skim over how all of the "parts" fit together (this is exactly where people like me get lost). I've met exactly one person who excels at these explanations and would love to force him to write tutorials...
Exploring and shopping for interesting items are always a pleasant way to pass the time, but eventually, you've had enough. It's an important part of the game, though, and an important part of grabbing newer players and giving older ones ways to pass the time. Every IRE game does these things really well.
Ships. I mean, SHIPS!
Kind and helpful people to interact with. These people exist in all of the games I've tried so far.
2. RP. It's pretty hilarious to play someone nearly the exact opposite of who I am. Writing a character and watching them develop is a lot of fun. Can also pretend I'm a lot more badass than I really am, or whatever.
3. Combat. I suck at it but it's still fun to try to improve at. Sort of like solving a puzzle.
Probably the biggest thing drawing me -away- from Achaea is the fact that my executive functioning issues make me do stupid stuff all the time (in and out of game). So that's fun.
quests - I love the challenge behind a good quest. I can get lost for hours thinking things through.
rp - I don't do this as much as I'd like. I've shied away from it a bit for reasons. However, it's definitely something I have enjoyed and probably would again should I decide to work my way back into it.