How would you describe Achaea?

Sarapis

Just curious, as we've always struggled with this. If you had to sum up Achaea to someone who plays games but doesn't know anything about text MUDs or Achaea, how would you do it in one or two sentences?

We're working towards getting ourselves in a position to start actively advertising Achaea again and describing it in a way that doesn't sound like every other MMO/MUD out there is a key issue.

For instance, for a game-that-isn't-achaea: "A player conflict-driven magma world focused on the interstellar conflict between rainbow-farting unicorns and giant space kraken."

Thoughts?

Synbios

"Achaea - the M.U.D. your M.U.D. could smell like."

(Sorry, still thinking of a more appropriate description in the meantime.)

Jiraishin

It's entirely text, so it's like playing in a fantasy novel.

Synbios

"An interactive fantasy novel" would describe most fantasy-themed MUDs though.

Anaidiana

'Life's like a movie, write your own ending' (Kermit the Frog)

A game where you can truly Choose your own Adventure!

Trey

Sarapis said:

For instance, for a game-that-isn't-achaea: "A player conflict-driven magma world focused on the interstellar conflict between rainbow-farting unicorns and giant space kraken."

Thoughts?

That isn't Achaea? What the f- game have I been playing for the last 12 years?

Daslin

A game in which you can SERIOUSLY make a difference, impacting how everyone plays it. EVER.

(Look at half of the "heroes" in the realms)

Tahquil

Honestly I alwats describe it to non-mud players as "WoW but without the graphics and a political system".

Mannimar

I describe it as real life where only the imaginative or blind people can see. Plus watch me pull off this rated M move where I rip out his heart. But, but, but then I can... yeah I'm talking to a God, shush I need to pay attention.

(people only ask me what I'm playing when I'm either fighting or in a big roleplay situation...)

Alyssea

I do the same as @Tahquil, and then go on to explain how much better it is than WoW.

Aerek

A dynamic player-governed world with a unique fantasy setting that encourages player interaction and creativity.

A fusion of competitive, nuanced combat and deep roleplay, where the players' actions shape the world and the possibilities are endless.

A world where men are men, women are women, and fire-breathing, half-human-half-lizard hybrids from Krenindala are fire-breathing, half-human-half-lizard hybrids from Krenindala.

Jonathin

I pretty much just do this:

Without the things in his head and force them to watch me play until they play. 

Works every time.

Peak

I just tell my friends that wouldn't understand it that "I'm playing my nerd game." or "text game" or "Yes, I am hacking right now."

Oceana

A living book where each player writes his own story.

Iocun

A rather complex fantasy RPG in text.

Not quite sure as to the question in the OP though. The first paragraph asks for how I would describe Achaea, while the second asks more for how I would advertise Achaea. Those are quite different things, IMHO. (I.e. when I'm simply describing Achaea to someone who never played MUDs, I won't really point out all the unique aspects of Achaea. That it's a RPG and that there are no graphics are probably more relevant information in such a situation than pointing out all its features. Things that make good "slogans" are often rather bad descriptions.)

Sohl

When my friends ask what I'm playing, I tell them it's an MMO RPG without the limitations of graphics.

Jurixe

I tell my friends that it's like playing a character in an ever-changing story, and everyone else is just another character in this huge story world.

I'm lucky if any of my friends read > 5 books a year though, so I'm not entirely certain this works. Even my own brother, who roleplays on Minecraft of all things and even writes lore for it, refuses to try Achaea because 'I don't have a good enough imagination without pictures'. It makes me sad.

Delphinus

Elevator pitches, okay. "It's a high-fantasy adventure game where players lead the main factions, play a direct role in events, and carve their names into the lore."

Achaea excels in a few ways -- Aerek summed them up well -- but these are the most unique bullet points.

Sylvance

"Achaea is a gorgeous fusion of the senses, of the type usually only accessible on mescaline.  Some players taste through their ears.  Some characters see by touching their tattoos.  And, most beautifully of all, your citymates can hear the difference between homophones:

[vo]

CYRENIAN 1:  Their has bin an invasion this weak.

CYRENIAN 2:  You mean there has been an invasion this week?

CYRENIAN 1:  Same difference.

CYRENIAN 2:  True. You know you're shit.

CYRENIAN 3:  Come on, that's Disrespectful.

CYRENIAN 2:  I said he knows his shit.

CYRENIAN 1:  No you didn't; you said 'You know you're shit'.

CYRENIAN 2:  Same difference.

[/vo]

This is a world where monks throw words like punches, a good song really can stop a fight in mid-flow, where adjectives are the most important ingredient in your cake recipe, and where you can live in a house made of bad prose.

Come to Achaea, a world weaved in words, and add your story to ours."

Jhaeli

Do you still have those old ads that you ran on nuklearpower.com? Not saying that they should be used anymore, but I know they got my attention way back in the day, so might be worth examining. Just a thought!

Mishgul

"I'm playing a text game." No one really asks for more of an explanation afterwards.

Salik

how I describe Achaea...

I tell them the truth.

I start off like Have you ever watched a movie that's been made out of a book such as The hitchhickers guide to the galaxy, They say yeah, I tell them did the movie miss out much of the story in the book and did you not enjoy the book more than the movie? Yeah Achaea is like that, you get to imagine everything in your head, if you got great Fantasy in your head you will love the game as you can picture a thing 1000 times and none can ever erase that picture you got like a movie does to a book.

In short. Do you like to Fantasies about things? If you do try Achaea all is in your head and everything you picture is correct as the game is made out of your fantasy,

Anatral

Life, exploration, combat, trade, diplomacy, war, crime, love, religion, politics, death and more. In Achaea your imagination is the one and only limit.

Nemutaur

I just saw the little flash animation advert at the top of Topmudsites, it made me laugh. Quite well drawn too, hope it works out.

Alyssea

It looks the same as every advertisement for graphics MMOs

Delphinus

That advertisement's been there since at least 2005, actually. It's the same one that used to show up at VG Cats and Ctrl+Alt+Del.

Nocht

Tahquil said:

Honestly I alwats describe it to non-mud players as "WoW but without the graphics and a political system".

Just described it to someone almost exactly the same way earlier today.

Sylvance

Nocht said:

Tahquil said:

Honestly I alwats describe it to non-mud players as "WoW but without the graphics and a political system".

Just described it to someone almost exactly the same way earlier today.

Okay, serious question, fuelled by my WoW virginity as much as anything else: What are the parallels between WoW and Achaea? Don't you spend the whole of WoW running around hitting things, with zero RP interaction other than the odd witty exchange of Chuck Norris jokes, and trash talking that the other faction can't even understand?

ETA: Yes, yes, I should know the answer to this already, or go find out by playing WoW myself. But I'm of the impression that the average WoWite was still bawling for milk from his momma's tits when I started playing MUDs.

Alyssea

I've only played WoW a couple times during a free trial, and yes, as far as I can tell there aren't really a lot of similarities. I use it as a comparison to Achaea only because most people have heard of it and are more likely to listen to me if I start off talking about WoW. 

Tahquil

Wow virgin as well, but it is the most well-known fantasy MMO that even those who don't play have a rough idea what's it about. It's a pretty solid reference point in that respect.

Xith

It's a text-based roleplaying game with the most complex and awesome combat system that ever lived. You literally cannot imagine what an Achaean fight is like, let alone the group combat.

It's an ever-changing world where the admins/coders are the gods and you can interact with them one on one. I once played rock-paper-scissors with the Chaos God. He won but it was still awesome.

It is awesome enough that in the 3 years since I discovered it, I have spent over $3000 on virtual goods and learning the game skills. And I've only truly tried about 5 or 6 of the 17 classes. There is no comparable experience for that money, if at all.

Then I go on to excitedly describe the unique locking/curing system and all the afflictions and stuff that are part of the ongoing learning experience. And after I've described the asthma-anorexia-slickness-impatience-paralysis, I start getting into the fitness/weariness and confusion and disrupted equilibrium.
And they say something like "Dude, do you have a life?" and I'm like "Yeah, several."

And I explain it has been growing and developing constantly since the late 90s and that no single player or even god knows everything about the game. It is a near fully customisable/personalisable in-character world with thousands of functions. And it is a mature roleplaying environment, so the average maturity level far exceeds WoW, Runescape, or comparable MMOs.