Why did you start playing? Why did you stay?

Sidonia

I originally read about Achaea (in 2000-01 or something) in a PC gaming magazine that had one page devoted to MUDs and I thought the scope of it sounded cool. I rolled up a Hashani Paladin and got ridiculed out of the game within 30 minutes. Over the next 3-4 years I made a character every 3-6 months or so but never got past level 22 because of the lack of a map in game and not knowing about the giant layout map on the website.

In 2005 I finally stuck around, my first main character was a Shallamese serpent. I bit my friend with oleander and he reported me to the city so I suicide;agree'd and made a Shaman (because I thought curse bleed looked BADASS). Since then I go through stages of quitting for a year and playing for a year, but I always end up coming back.

I originally stayed for friends and socialising and stuff, then I turned antisocial and started to learn combat and have never looked back.

Azi

I started playing in late '99, I think. I don't know. I was seven or eight years old, using Telnet on a computer running Windows 98. I remember it well because I got in trouble for failing to complete my 4th grade mid-year book report on the Lord of the Rings. I had spent all my 'study time' on the computer trying to figure out why I was being kicked out of my guild for attacking another monk in the guild, even though he was my friend in real life. I don't remember if it was him who brought me into Achaea or vice-versa. I know we met on a role-playing website called Rondak's Portal and then discovered that we lived only a couple blocks away from each other. I cannot remember if the guild was called the Kharon or the Ashura; it was definitely one of the two. My friend quit shortly after that (I think he was upset at losing his rank in the Guild- we both got in trouble for dueling) and has only returned a couple times to chat up 'girls' in the forestal community. My original character was purged over time due to inactivity, or maybe when the game was updated to the newer code. I have tried to make a new character a couple of times since then -- probably between 2000-2002 -- but every attempt has ended in failure. I could not find a class I liked or the role-play that I was really looking for and I never was interested in combat. So I suicided or let the characters decay.

After ten or so years of pretty much avoiding the game, I have returned to discover that it is still here and going strong. I can hardly believe it. So I have created this character named Azi Dahaka and joined Ashtan, the only city I remember liking. It seems to be pretty much the same but with some new additions. In fact, the whole game has new additions. I feel slightly overwhelmed. There is a lot that I remember and a lot that I cannot recall very well, like certain commands for things or the names of players I remember liking. I decided to join the Ashura and Ashtan because it feels most familiar to me. I look forward to making some new friends (and enemies!) and learning about this new game.

Hataru

So in 8th grade I wad dating this super midgety guy (seriously I was taller than him and I was 4'11") and a lot of our friends played this game and they were like YOU LIKE HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY AND JAPANESE STUFF YOU SHOULD PLAY. Yeah I still don't really get why my middle school love of Anime had anything to do with Achaea, but I went with it.

Anyway I joined Hashan/Shamans made an embarrassment out of myself in about 20 minutes and then went to Cyrene/Arcanists because I was hyper, annoying, clingy, and 13 and could not be held to be responsible about anything.

Anyway I made some pretty good friends (RIP Kalika, Matty, and Emynui) who no longer play and also some good friends who I still consider friends (Medivh, Hermione, Flametongue) in various ways and then I dated this guy for a year who played too because I found out him and my new bestie only lived like 35 minutes away which was awesome. Eventually was like f'ck Cyrene because people were dicks and I was 14 and got unofficially banned from promotion and then went Shaman/Hashani again and stayed there for years. Honestly if it wasn't for the Shamans I would have never kept playing Achaea - as bitter as Hataru is ICly about how she left and how the remnants of the house super spiraled after guild-days and just crashed and burned it was really what made the game a long term thing for me.

Skip a few years ahead in the future I quit playing because Blood Crusades and Lusternia came out. Quit both Lusty and Achaea for WoW, quit WoW. Didn't have a computer I could game on for years and then got sick my freshman year of college and after a year of not knowing what was wrong and being tired of being reclusive Achaea drew me in again.

I'd already gone Mhaldorian/Magi (thanks to lots of original-Cowbell peer pressure) a bit before I left (first Icon Wars played a big part in me crash-and-burning and leaving for Lusty and WoW, even if I got my first and only PK kill before coming back this time on @Jhui back when dragon was insane and it was like the proudest moment of my life to get a cheap cata kill, plus I got like 17% off that shit or something it was ridiculous, anyway...) so coming back felt really natural because I could play Hataru the way I'd sort of always expect her to develop after leaving Hashan which was just no holds bars, very old school, bitter person with a short attention span for people who don't listen, don't bother to read files, and don't respect the rules. I got to write again, I got to finally have fun with combat and raiding and all that stuff instead of being some level 70 shaman who died in 2 hits while trying to smudge totems.

Now between Hat and the only other alt I've had to ever stick I've really enjoyed the game for so many different reasons than I had before. I stuck around this time (going on over 2 years back now after a... 4ish? year hiatus) because the game kinda aged in the way I did. At 13-17 it was awesome to just joke around and RP and write stuff but now at almost 24 its great to have a game where I can really get into the different intricacies of things at a whole different level than I was able to before whether it be how much more awesome hunting is now (even if my connections sucks and I die a lot), the fact that everyone can raid, or the fact that I have so many more opportunities to write and so administrative type stuff.

Sarapis

I started playing in 1995 when I was still calling it 'Ascension". There were no guilds, creatures or even time at that point, so there wasn't much to do, but I was intrigued by the negative space in the design. 

What's kept me along is mainly griefing my fellow developers. I love to delete random items in people's inventories and shops, generating bug reports that drive the other devs crazy looking for the cause. Also, gleam. Total addict. *twitch*

Xenomorph

Daaad, tell us your Occultist Novice story! The for the record one, which made deciding houses an easy choice

Azor

"Ascension" would've been a pretty good name, perhaps easier to market than "Achaea." Just saying. :P

Korben

It was 2003 and there was an ad for another MUD on a webcomic I used to read. I looked into that, arrived at TMS or Mudconnector (can't remember which), read about  bunch of MUDs and chose Achaea.

Why did I stay ? I didn't, I left. But there's a lot of interesting new stuff now so I'm back to have a look.

Verily

A friend of mine mentioned about nine months back that he was playing around with Achaea, and it sparked slight memories in me of having spent an hour or two exploring the game 11 or 12 years back when I was a young and horrible child.

I decided to give it a go with him, but he lasted all of a week before growing bored. I, however, wound up absolutely hooked. Desk job with a fair amount of downtime + living in the middle of nowhere = dire need for engaging pasttimes. This filled that gap wonderfully. Divine wars/interaction, plenty of engaging characters to roleplay with, an enjoyable and complex combat system that I've still only barely scratched the surface of (I know it'll be waiting for me and not going anywhere) - it's enough that I moved to a dual-monitor setup so that I could be on Achaea more frequently. In retrospect, it sounds quite silly, but there are no regrets!

The major thing keeping me about are the people involved with the game, both as players and behind the scenes. There's just so much potential for interaction, and (so far, at least!) it never gets old.

Ellodin

once upon a time not long ago when people wore pajamas and lived life slow, where laws were stern and justice stood, and people were behaving like they ought to, good, there was a little boy who was misled by the mud connector and this is what it said: this here mud is rated pretty high, so come on down, won't you give it a try?  he'd played some muds, reading came with ease, but he couldn't stop alting it's like he had a disease, he made another and another and a sister and a brother, tried to...okay enough of that

edit: in retrospect it might have been topmudsites or something.  i'd played muds for a few years before, though, like ancient anguish and discworld.

Krypton

Halos said:

he's hacking the network safeguards so he can watch porn

Why we got away with playing Achaea during class: People just think we're doing our programming homework.

Halos said:

I encouraged him to join, but he balked and decided to go dancing instead. He's gone now. Non-Achaeans. <_<

Apparently, only the Gods of Midkemia are capable of balancing text games with dancing in the clubs.

Strata

Eld said:

Sultani said:

I got hooked on some BBS RPG games after logging in to play Doom with high school friends. (Yep, getting old) I found the telnet muds a bit more immersive and played several over the years including Achaea around 2000. ...

I don't think LORD really counts as an RPG....

As a retired warez courier, I can't tell you how many times it infuriated me to spend all night waiting for a ring-tone only to find out it was because a bunch of 'tards were playing LORD. ... Now we Achaea, go figure.

Strata

@Zahan introduced me to Achaea back in 2001 or so. I played for about 1 year before leaving. When I decided to start playing again, I couldn't bring my old character back (lost password)

Rom

I started playing after a friend and I saw Achaea featured on The Screen Savers (thanks Delphinus). We played for a while, but we were young and he quit after a decent period of time. I stuck around and eventually got swept into the incredible combat, and got frustrated with my inability to even trans a skill (too much class hopping, few OOC credits, never bashed). Eventually returned as Rom since I had some disposable income and stayed for the combat, but I have taken a break or two.

Cobra

Dear Everyone,

   What an interesting topic!  My story really starts when "Shaitan" killed an entire city in Avalon, and scared the living hell out of the mage that was supposed to help me.  I think he was...riding a donkey and what was it...a Balrog for Shaitan?  Oh man, I switched over to the Necromancers as soon as I could and seeked out this Shaitan.  

  Not a nice fellow...One day, Shaitan was low on experience so, he came over to me, killed me...oh 7-8 times, repeatedly...(bringing me back to life each time). He thanked me then left...Anyways, he was promoted to god hood and was reborn as Lazarus.  Again, not a nice God.  Can't say that he was fair, loving or kind.  But perfectly roleplayed.  There would be deaths constantly...until I think @Sarapis made Sarapis...?

  Once Sarapis started creating Achaea. Lazarus and Shaitan became more of Achaean informants to me...how long did it take Matt?  6 months before you had a working world?  I think most of us just waited for Sarapis to create Achaea.  With his background as a player, knowing the in and outs of something like Avalon and making it better!  Woot!.  Cheers to you Sarapis!

  I have never made an "alt"...or committed suicide...470 years old and still kicking.  I should be one of the first to be 1000?  How long is that going to take another 20 years??  Arg!

  I took a good 300 years off.  I am married now, no kids, own a house, a business, work, live...and just recently was like...you know what.  I am going to play Achaea again.  I mean PLAY!  Really make a difference.  At least in my little world.  Make some new memories, new stories to tell... I am thrilled to see Achaea alive, doing well and growing and expanding.  In '97 it was, raw and you needed to really love it.  There would be no one on, and you would literally "had to" talk to Sarapis. (Sometimes He was the only one on!) Now...It's compared to a non-graphical world or warcraft?  Amazing, Great Job Matt!

  Anyway,  I am glad you all like to MUD was well, it's a great feeling that many don't know about, it's like talking to my dad about karma.  He is like "Huh"?

 

  Ok, why did I stay?  Well.  I was always jealous of Shaitan and his wickedness and carefree attitude of killing those around him.  I am not the best "gamer" I like games but I don't mind the ups and downs.  I can win I can lose.  I just like to have "fun".  However, Cobra is my - Shaitan.  I guess.  I miss the guy!  

  I will keep Cobra forever, my little gem hidden from the dude behind me at the gas station, my little fantasy tucked away from society, forever living as long as Achaea does.  

  Really I never knew it would be like this at all.  I thought Achaea would be a tiny little thing Matt swept under his rug of success...I mean really.  For me, this is nuts.  For a new player maybe they have more judgement.  For me, I helped write some of the stories.  I am here forever!  And that is something you all should think about.  Figure out how you are going to carve yourself into Achaea.  

  Well...See you in there!  Take care everyone, hope your all doing well.

Sincerely,

Cobra

Melodie

Lets see here.

During the early years, I was a fairly sheltered, shy, quiet girl. I wasn't allowed to have my own computer and access to the internet until I was 14, and from there, it was a whole new world. AOL was the big thing back then, and I logged in under that, except my log-in name had enough restrictions and website blocks to make an eight year old cry - I don't even think I could get to yahoo.com back then. So what do I do? My cousin (bless her heart) makes me an extra account on her AOL and I log into that, and join a Nintendo AOL chatroom, which was where I had my first roleplaying experiences.

One friend I had from that chatroom, James, was who introduced me to MUDs for the first time after a long discussion about ways to expand our overall roleplay. He brought me to the MUD he was playing at the time, which was a small, dinky place called Beyond the Veil, which was a diku derivative. We played there together a bit, and I made several friends. Eventually, though, the little place was getting closed down, and James once again introduced me to another place that was much bigger (but still tiny compared to Achaea), called World of Phoenix, which was a ROM codebase. I played there for two years or so, getting to know a lot of people, even after James eventually grew bored and left. I founded a guild (it's purpose was to run games and events for the whole of the MUD - guess where my original MoCA experience came from!), and actually played as an Immortal for about six months, despite their 18+ rule. It was a lot of fun and a great experience - the drama, though, was insane.

During my gameplay there, I was asked to help with building for another smaller MUD with a girlfriend of mine. On that little MUD, whose name I cannot recall, I met the a coder named Calin. You folks likely know him a bit better by the name of Glynn. We hit it off really well, and I brought him to WoP to play. The drama eventually got to both of us, though, and we decided to depart. Glynn suddenly recalled a MUD called Achaea, showed me the main website, and that was the beginning of the end! Seven years later, I'm still here (with a two year break at one point), Glynn and I live together in real life, and I can't seem to shake Achaea no matter how hard I try.

Why do I stay? The people and community. I have played so many other games on and off over the years, but no group of people can engage and keep me interested as Achaea can. I continually meet new people, have old friends I've known for years, and always have a blast. The interaction with people, both mortals and Gods, just absolutely inspires me in a way WoW and other such places just cannot reach.

I do still play some other games at times, including console games, but I always come back to Achaea and its community.

Harmonia

I found Achaea when I was doing research for a sociolinguistics seminar paper. Yes, yes! You were all my little test subjects for social network theory, language, and linguistic characteristics in online gaming. After 50 pages of research and documentation, you all helped me get an "A" on the paper. Thanks!

Averi

@Ellodin  you are my hero.  

the end.

Calleis

Boredom; raja monk

Sabiru

I was either 11 or 12, bored of primary school and was sort of playing an AL/AI game called Creatures (#3, I think) - I didn't have the patience to actually play the game, I just tried (usually failed) to tweak it in various ways and achieve visible results. I started reading the forums there and talking to people, and someone (Jeasaw) pasted a fight scene from the lore into our msn window.

I was pretty interested, so I rolled a Hashani Serpentlord named Blaze or something, eventually worked out how to move around/talk and went through the novice interview. I specifically remember someone casually dsling a rat, selling it and my thinking that it was awesome. I got bored and forgot his password, then rolled a mojushai monk a few months later who I stuck with for at least a year. For whatever reason (I think maybe the tanjinn were formed, and the people I enjoyed playing with in the mojushai stole a bunch of gold and went Mhaldor) my interests shifted and I started playing a Cyrenian Jester named Sabiru.

Not sure why I kept playing (and there were a few long periods where I didn't log in for ages), I think the reasons changed a lot over the years. The original cowbell crowd (Tagg, Gorlasintan, Nulaye, Dethea, Hayte, Malifuus, Rukimoro) was probably the first real reason, then Apollyon, then the Tanris/Mizik/Merador/Manifest/Dunn group, and now I think I play mostly because of the current Australasian group.

As soon as the people I log in to play with stop logging in, I lose all interest pretty fast.

Azi

@Cobra

Woah. Lazarus.

I am glad you came back, Cobra! Let's PLAY!!

Jhaeli

Definitely some interesting stories here, although mine really isn't one of them.

First encountered Achaea in summer 2002. Until that point, I'd been mostly roleplaying on forums (sort of like writing long stories together, still do it occasionally on Aelyria), but was a bit bored and was hunting for something new. I'd found a LOTR Telnet MUSH at one point, but (ironically) I found it too fast-paced and "clique-y". The idea of a text-game intrigued me though. On the same website I'd seen the LOTR MUSH, there was a listing for Achaea and my then-boyfriend and I each rolled a Cyrenian Runewarden. (I think Unwin was GM at the time and I remember Cirdan giving us our orientation. Hah.) Although the character didn't last out of novicehood, the bug had bit me and I ended up back a few months later with an Ashtani Occultist that lasted a bit longer. Finally, I made the first character that I ended up sticking with, @Kallisto, a Shallamese Sentaari. A few years later, just after autoclass was put it, I created @Jhaeli. She was meant to be an Ashtani Occultist, but thanks to my then-partner, I ended up in Cyrene instead and found myself back where I'd started all those years ago.

Over the dozen years that I've played, I've had numerous breaks, but I've pretty much resigned myself to a lifelong addiction. (The rest of you might as well do the same!) The only reason I don't play right now is because I had a baby in December and she deserves a mommy that actually pays attention to her.

Naisar

@Ellodin This idiot right here shanghaied a bunch of us into playing it.  Took me a couple characters to get started- I have the distinct memory of abandoning a character because I was devastated that the rapier proficiency had obliterated my 'huge' bank of lessons.  Then there was some dwarf priest whose grand strategy was touch web, touch hourglass on repeat into judgement.  Oh yeah, I suicided a Magi because I failed the novice interview.  They asked me to prioritize my loyalties, and I put Gods above the guild because I knew that Gods were actually admin and the IC/OOC line is basically nonexistent when you're new to MUDs and in middle school.

I stayed for the camaraderie and because combat was and still is blithering awesome.  There have been a lot of great memories over the years.  When Naisar was a young monk I'd team up with my Jester buddy and we'd go to the mouth of Manara.  I would mindlock people bashing, travel to them, mind command GIVE VIAL TO NAISAR, and then be instantly summoned away.  Repeat until they went deaf or my mindlock broke, or whatever.  Then we'd run off and hide in the wilderness from the absolutely zero people hunting us, giggling in that particularly obnoxious manner only young adolescents can.  There was the time we were raiding Shallam at a LAN party and the router died just as they charged us.  We ended up being saved by some random ass serpent with an icewall ring who somehow managed to delay their entire squad for several minutes.  Ultimate snakebro, whoever that was.  Then of course there have been all of the 'privateering' shenanigans I got up to on The Hokulea- to this day, I have no idea why we were so successful.  We weren't particularly good at it frankly, it's just that everyone else was worse.  No one ever got even half decent at ship combat for some reason.  

My time with Matsuhama's Order was probably the only time I was ever interested in RP, so I was pretty bummed when it got blown up.  There was some initiation ceremony I was being guided through by Ellodin and I was supposed to be reverently placing my hand on this shield, so naturally I entered 'touch shield.'  Bam, NO TOUCHIE MF-ERS.  I was almost crying with laughter over that one.

tl;dr  Good friends & combat

Hataru

I love how much admittance of breaking the ToS and playing at younger than 13 is going on in this thread.

From pretty decently known people too.

Ellodin

It wasn't a part of the ToS before.

Hataru

I remember it being pretty clearly stated when I joined at 13... 

Azi

When I first played, there wasn't much of a ToS. Later, it was suggested that players be at least 13 years of age.

It's mandatory now? I suppose I should have actually read that before I agreed...

Taraus

Dude I was dating at the time was into all sorts of RP (ranging from online to tabletop D&D), so I let him talk me into trying Achaea. We played around in it for a few weeks, until he told me it was dumb and not worth playing, so we bailed. A few months went by, I was bored one night, I wound up signing in and sat up playing all night. That was all it took, that single all-nighter, and I was hooked.

Dude and I wound up splitting up about six months later, and one of his reasons was "all you do is play that #$()Q#*()* game".

lolirony

Oh, I stay because 1) the people I've connected with and 2) Tart's fun as hell to play.

Hataru

Can we please not derail the thread because I got amusement out of something, lets keep it to stories of how we originally got into the game, why we've stuck around, and not a "wait is this a rule" or not.

I wanna hear more stories, I didn't mean to completely sidetrack the thread, sorry.

Ellodin

Taraus said:

lolirony

irony realms entertainment?

Jurixe

More stories because I'm falling asleep at work.

I'd played MUDs before when I was about 14, one called ThresholdRPG, which I think some of you might know. I had a ton of fun roleplaying with other people and greatly enjoyed my time there, but sadly at the time it required (I think) paid membership after about three real life months of playing. That simply wasn't an option for me at the time, so with much sadness I had to quit - and then spent the rest of my time playing Neopets or something.

Then I was about 16-17 and at my grandmother's house, which only had one computer with Internet capabilities at the time, bored out of my mind. My elder cousins were there, and one of them looked over and was like "Hey, you like writing/reading stories, don't you? Here try this game, maybe you might like it."

One of them was playing Aardwolf, the other was playing Achaea, and they were trying to decide which one I should start with. We logged onto Aardwolf first, because I think it was the top ranked one at the time, but they decided 'well Aardwolf can be a bit difficult for someone new to play' and so we logged on Achaea.

I was very excited because it reminded me a lot of what I'd loved about Threshold; the ability to roleplay a fantasy character in a fantasy world, making your own stories with other people. I finished the trial and made a mage with their guidance, joined Cyrene because they said it was a newbie-friendly place, and then it was time for lunch so they left but I was hooked, reading through about a hundred different scrolls. When it came time to pick a House, I just picked the Sentaari because they sounded like they had a cool name! - much to my cousin's dismay when he came back and was like 'well but that's a monk house...'

6 years on (actually, 7 this year I think, man) I'm still here because there has absolutely been no other game that has managed to engage my imagination and give me an outlet of creativity like Achaea. The more I play Achaea, the more single-player games just don't manage to get me as interested because there is so much you can do in Achaea. You can meet anyone you want to, get yourself involved in whatever level, play a part in some storyline of the 'weave' that makes up the world and even perhaps make your own - and there isn't much more attractive to a writer. 

I've actually tried to quit and play something else a few times now, but I always find myself coming back - and this is probably mostly because of the group of particularly fun, supportive, and amazing friends (first in Cyrene, but the group I have grown the closest to now is, naturally, primarily Mhaldorian) that I play with. A world may have depths and depths of history and lore and be amazingly well-designed, but it is ultimately the players who bring it to life, and I probably would not have lasted as long without them being around. They are the people I look forward to seeing every day.

I can't say how long I'll still be around in Achaea. My level of involvement will most likely start to taper off when my main character goals are complete (about three-quarters now) and when real life finally starts catching up. It might be worth noting that in my years of playing, I've never gone dormant for longer than 2 weeks, though, so a proper break is probably very much overdue. Achaean life isn't easy and can be more stressful than my day job at times, but right now I am having a lot of fun even despite that and plan to make the most of it while it lasts.