Rather than focusing on the negatives about Achaea (which admittedly are a lot, but no game is perfect ) tell me some of the good things that Achaea brought into your life! Whether it helped you improve your vocabulary, develop leadership skills, or just meet a ton of new friends, there has to be a reason we're all still playing this game!

For me, I consider my English pretty good but playing in Achaea helped me be able to be even more descriptive in writing, and to be mindful of British spelling..*shakefist Crafting Guild* I also learnt a lot of new words! It was fun to go through HELP EXPRESSIVENESS and look up the meanings of all the words I didn't know, like 'ugsomely' and 'sesquipedalianly'. (Though for some of those, I have no idea how they come off as expressions.)

Having been in IC leadership positions, I also have learnt to be a little more outspoken, a little more stubborn when it comes to making decisions, recognizing that I have a say in things too. It's been a pretty harsh lesson to learn that your friends can just as easily come from behind and stab you in the back, but overall it's been an interesting learning experience, and since most of this is human nature it's very applicable to real life too.

New friends are also definitely a wonderful result of playing Achaea. There have been the odd bad nuts here and there, but by and large the people that I've befriended have been wonderful, and I never would have gotten to know them without Achaea!

Share your thoughts!

Mostly improved English. However, it also ruined me in that regard because I get the strangest looks whenever people see how I spell things. I also feel like it's helped with writing dialogue, not that I make use of that skill particularly often.

Mostly I've just gotten a lot of fun out of it. It's a nice way to spend time and it can be especially nice for times when money is tight and real life isn't quite so enjoyable.

Edit: Also being able to roleplay a character completely different from my own personality is very rewarding.

My typing speed definitely improved since I played this game. Especially when I didn't know what triggers were.

Since i've started playing Achaea i've learned that sleep is best thing ever

The most important way that Achaea has helped me, is that if it hadn't been for Achaea, I would've never met my lovely girlfriend.

It has also improved my English, particularly written English, obviously. I doubt I would be typing this fast if it hadn't been for Achaea, and I would -probably- not been doing programming at University level had I not learned and gotten an interest in zscript all these years ago.

Umm, nevermind. I'll try and be constructive here. Achaea is a great place for me to relax and interact with nice people.

Poor Cobain

As for the topic, I suppose Achaea is a good Mavis Beacon alternative.

Oh yeah..too often I've tumbled exhausted into bed late because of some event, or even just staying up to discuss stuff with people. Then I've woken up early and hopped on for the same reasons!

Sleep is a precious commodity these days. But since this is supposed to be a positive thread..yeah, I appreciate sleeping a lot more.

Achaea has prepared me for a lucrative career in organizing and directing military juntas, should such a position open up.

Agreed.

Achaea: Arranging Relationships Between Reclusive Nerds since 1997

It's improved my typing speed and vocabulary, like a lot of people have said. It's made me a lot less shy. And yes, I also met my boyfriend through Achaea.

Achaea also contributed to me not being such a whiny emo teenager several years ago.

Same here! (Boyfriend) (And also many other amazing people who I'm proud to call my friends)



Who are you calling reclusive nerds?

But yes, like most of the rest Achaea has improved my English skills (particularly written), I've become less shy (from sitting in front of the computer, believe it or not! ) and more sure of myself, and I'm sure it's helped me greatly in many other areas too! And besides, it's just great fun... mostly

I like Herenicus, he's funny

Me, like others it's helped my typing speed, but also to hone my touch typing abilities. We were taught in high school, but until Achaea, I would have to keep watch of the keyboard most of the time. Also, as was mentioned earlier the whole descriptiveness thing it's helped me with as well.

It's helped my constant depression on being unemployed.

Agreed too. Said boyfriend is actually coming all the way to visit me from Australia..in two days!

I hope it goes well for both of you!

In keeping with the relationship trend, Achaea has taught me how to dump someone in such a horrific and unexpected manner that they do a complete 180 in terms of their personal principles and become a cop instead of a film director-- that is what happened to Kyriakos, if the two or three of you who remember him were wondering. It has also taught me that there are a lot of perverts on the internet, and that their text-based escapades with their e-ponies and e-siblings can be an inexhaustible source of entertainment.

More practically, Achaea has taught me to type with more speed. I went from about 70 WPM when I first began playing to 122 WPM the last time I was tested. Getting involved with IC politics and the Occultists also taught me quite a bit about patience and effective debate-- I was barely seventeen when I began playing, so I had quite a bit to learn in that respect. I can safely say that Achaea has, through novice aiding, raised my tolerance for naivete, which has made my occasional babysitting or tutoring jobs run much more smoothly. Overall, it has been a positive experience.

Prediction: This thread soon devolves into less positive but more entertaining stories of jilted Internet romance.

Achaea has taught me the power behind the Seven Truths and the Twin Lords of Evil.

All Hail Shaitan! All Hail Apollyon!

I hope so. Like most goths, I feed off of negative energy. It's where we draw our power.

I'm a bit more decisive because of Achaea. Being a leader in Cyrene's defense helped that a lot.

"Who's leading?"
*crickets*
"Form up at the gates. Follow me and put combat defs up." etc

Achaea has helped me remain perpetually broke due to buying credits, also it has helped to raise my phone bill by 100$ due to me texting people from up here. On a positive note, it's helped me uh hell if I know. I'm addicted

Actually, the Path of Equilibrium is an interesting idea. I like living life deliberately and thoughtfully rather than letting things just happen to me. The idea that every situation can be handled by applying the correct amount of your Ideals and things you admire in others fascinates me.

Also, it is interesting to observe the very human nature of everyone and their actions.

For those interested in psychology, Achaea is a very fun place to be.

I'm pretty sure my typing has become less accurate and speedy because of Achaea. Also, I think my English got worse.

Because of Achaea, I have become more racist. I now associate primarily with a terrorist, and have an asian captive in my basement.
I note these as positive things.

I started playing Achaea before I was 13, 10 or so to be more precise. (I'm almost 21 now)

When I started playing, I had no idea what I was doing, as many of you see with complete newbies nowadays. However, something about it had me hooked. It may have been that while I was still young, I saw the Infernals leave Ashtan, and Horatio inducted into the Warlocks. It was pretty cool to see everyone running around fighting inside the city, people barking out orders and whatnot. [Even though I had no idea what to do]

Achaea has helped my storytelling ability. It hasn't really helped my accuracy, or the speed with which I type. It has helped my ability to describe things, well still not perfect, it's much better than: 5 feet 6 inches tall. He has brown hair and brown eyes. He is 200 pounds. He likes long walks on the beaches and hates achaean twins.

Achaea has also given me a sheer hate for those twins who try to finish each other's sentences and whatnot. I guess that's a downside.

Achaea reunited me with my estranged father and helped become debt-free.

You mean you helped Achaea become debt-free, right?

Same thing.

Through the assistance of Achaea and IRE's "Help An Immortal" organization, I have single handedly financed at least three Gods' trips to Las Vegas. While this may not seem like much at first, or pale in comparison to to others' contributions, I've gained the warm, fuzzy feeling one can only enjoy when they know in their heart that they've done a good deed by aiding a Divine in reaching the three digit degree warmth of Nevada. Remember, our work is never finished, some Immortals have still yet to see The Blue Man Group, and others only once or twice. Hold true the spirit of giving, and remember, text money is worth the same, if not more than real life money.

Achaea, and the houses that have extensive writing requirements that I've made alts in, have increased my reading comprehension for fantasy genre short stories as well as my skill in composing fan fiction for the aforementioned literature. Remember that thread about, "Are you ashamed to tell your friends that you play Achaea?" Not as ashamed as I was when my friend wanted to check his email on my laptop and found a treatise on the Seven Truths, a play I wrote about a Maldaathi, Hashanite and a Jester for the CIJ, and a sermon on the tempations of Sin and the virtues of the Light.

In all srsness though, I think the best thing Achaea did for me was provide a game my crappy backup laptop could run after my Alienware's video card melted under it's own system heat. Goodbye Bioshock, Goodbye Farcry...Hello Sapience.

I can't imagine ever meeting a fellow Achaean IRL, let alone allow them into my bed. Apparently I wasn't playing the game correctly.

I'm uh, engaged to someone else who plays Achaea, does that count? Though we barely interacted in the game until after we were engaged.

Wait, that wasn't the topic? Oh. Well...

My typing speed has increased a little since I started playing M*U*S*H, which led not long after to Achaea.

I can't say how much, if any, of the positive or negative experiences I've had are due to Achaea. Other than leadership things like being a mod on the forums, being HoN of the Sylvans, and leading the Order of the Moon, I haven't really taken Achaea that seriously. Hell, it's a game.

Learning Lua has been nice. If I hadn't found MUSHclient, I don't know if I'd ever have taken an interest in it.

May have helped me figure out my major for college, looking in to programming of some sort after getting to play with Nexus stuff.

I'm going to start a MUD specifically designed to create couples. I'd sell twice the credits through shared incomes. Make artefacts that give you extra and more specific snuggle emotes. As you gain exp, your public chat channel rises so that your messages of "HELLLLOOO FIANCEEEEE" and "Oh wow well that's just you the best person ever ever eber!!!!!1" can reach a larger audience so every JUST KNOWS that you two are in a relationship. I'll call it "Realms of Monogamy" or "Desperately Seeking ArPee Babies".


Don't mind me, I just moved from a city of 3.6 million to a town of 2700. I'm 22 and just broke off an engagement. A major world city allows one as many girlfriends as he can juggle. This village reminds you where the stereotype of rednecks banging their cousins comes from.

Achaea helped me to understand man management, problem solving and "being a role model and leader".

People looked up to Sobby for some strange reason and man management, problem solving and committee interaction during my time as Regent / Seneschal also helped me experience those things in a situation that didn't -really- matter. I still look back to one incident with the Regents that made me look upon a work colleague issue in a different way to what I may have done.

Great Idea!!! We'll call it 'IReHarmony'.

The people. Text is a difficult medium and a lot of other sources have much on it but I do like the people I interact with. I've had some bad experiences OOCly dealing with people so my rule of thumb is if I've met you in person, I've had a lot of fun. This has two exceptions though and I'm not interested in more.

<3 working with ainly, watching gnaash destroy his liver, my texans


Texans, we're doing the meet again and again until they put us in the ground or ricky gets fired, whichever is first.

Well,



...who would have thought? I shall expect a full (but not graphic) report from him in November!

JW

Unlike others, Achaea didn't help me to type better, in fact it made my hands cramp and arch because it manifested the fact that I only type with three fingers and a thumb for the shift button.

In better off news, it gave me loveley words such as garrote, subterfuge, and... uh...Ophidian?

My favourite part is that I spell things the "English" way from time to time, and since I hate english class it was fun to contort words with more than one meaning to make a Dada-ist version of the english language to tick my teachers off.

Wtf is man management.

Also, I'm still having nightmares about meeting any of the Achaeans I've interacted with IRL.

Oh the many wonderful vocabularies!
I fear that without Achaea, I would -likely- not have been able to enrich my English Experience as fast - I doubt that I'd have developed the urge to look up something like "scimitar", for instance. Not that many scimitars in my RL, really.

Sounds like an invitation.

Because of Achaea I'm not afraid of death anymore...

Is it seriously that bad?

Achaea has helped my typing skills, introduced me to some really cool people, and helped me waste my time in a fun manner.

Bleak uses kai heal in his boxing matches irl.

Achaea has helped me get over my fear of licking people on sight

It also taught me that pouncing on people is an acceptable greeting, and brightens people's days

Do you not remember the people I hung out with? Would -you- want to meet Silas in real life?