How many people here remember when text-based kingdom management games like utopia, dystopia, dominion, etc were the big thin, before so many online video games flooded the market?
I started playing utopia in their 3rd or 4th round, when it was still on the eesite domain. I played for about 8 rounds, and usually had 2~4 accts per round (not to cheat with, but because I wanted to play as different races without having to wait months before I could).
After a while, some other games made their presence known. Dystopia was a clear attempt to play on utopia's audience. Dominion was higher quality than most of the others & had a more unique character than many, I wound up playing dominion for several round, with several accts per round too. In the late 90s/early 2ks, I spent a ridiculous ammount of time on such games.
For those who are unfamiliar: Text/browser-based kingdom management games are games which are mostly or completely text based & played in your browser. You set up an acct, then build structures, explore for land, train soldiers, attack for land and/or resources, and cast magic spells. (Most such games are medieval/D&D themed. There are a lot of scifi themed ones, and a few more modern day ones. Most of these also have something comparable to magic spells though.)
You would then log in periodically (usually a couple times a day, but at least once every 2~3 days. The longer you go without logging in, the more likely that you'll be victimized by other players) and build more structures/train more/attack more/etc.
Some games are "tick based", which means that your kingdom produces it's resources once ever hour (sometimes half-hours or 15 minute periods, depending on the game). Other games are turn based (which means that you gain turns periodically, and your kingdom produces it's resources when you actually use those turns). The net result is the same in both cases though.
In some games each player is completely independant of all others, but in many the players are organized into larger groups (such as 10 "kingdoms" on an "island" or 12 "realms" in a "kingdom", etc). In these games, players are encouraged to work together with their groups, have group forums, can elect group leaders, etc. Some such games make it impossible to attack others in your group, while others leave it as possible but penalize you for it.
I originally got into these games when I was using webtv. I had seen an ad for some interactive fiction style game in a gaming mag (I think the game's name was odyssey) and wanted to play it. When I looked for it online though, I found that it was a commercial game (the ad mentioned several games & that there was free content, but didn't specify anything.) Disappointed, I tried searching for other text adventure games, trying to find something free, that search led me to "utopia". While it wasn't exactly what I had in mind, I quickly fell in love with the format & was virtually addicted to it for a time. Playing so many accts at once though (often even playing multiple accts on multiple different games, all at the same time) caused me to burn out on the whole thing.
I started playing utopia in their 3rd or 4th round, when it was still on the eesite domain. I played for about 8 rounds, and usually had 2~4 accts per round (not to cheat with, but because I wanted to play as different races without having to wait months before I could).
After a while, some other games made their presence known. Dystopia was a clear attempt to play on utopia's audience. Dominion was higher quality than most of the others & had a more unique character than many, I wound up playing dominion for several round, with several accts per round too. In the late 90s/early 2ks, I spent a ridiculous ammount of time on such games.
For those who are unfamiliar: Text/browser-based kingdom management games are games which are mostly or completely text based & played in your browser. You set up an acct, then build structures, explore for land, train soldiers, attack for land and/or resources, and cast magic spells. (Most such games are medieval/D&D themed. There are a lot of scifi themed ones, and a few more modern day ones. Most of these also have something comparable to magic spells though.)
You would then log in periodically (usually a couple times a day, but at least once every 2~3 days. The longer you go without logging in, the more likely that you'll be victimized by other players) and build more structures/train more/attack more/etc.
Some games are "tick based", which means that your kingdom produces it's resources once ever hour (sometimes half-hours or 15 minute periods, depending on the game). Other games are turn based (which means that you gain turns periodically, and your kingdom produces it's resources when you actually use those turns). The net result is the same in both cases though.
In some games each player is completely independant of all others, but in many the players are organized into larger groups (such as 10 "kingdoms" on an "island" or 12 "realms" in a "kingdom", etc). In these games, players are encouraged to work together with their groups, have group forums, can elect group leaders, etc. Some such games make it impossible to attack others in your group, while others leave it as possible but penalize you for it.
I originally got into these games when I was using webtv. I had seen an ad for some interactive fiction style game in a gaming mag (I think the game's name was odyssey) and wanted to play it. When I looked for it online though, I found that it was a commercial game (the ad mentioned several games & that there was free content, but didn't specify anything.) Disappointed, I tried searching for other text adventure games, trying to find something free, that search led me to "utopia". While it wasn't exactly what I had in mind, I quickly fell in love with the format & was virtually addicted to it for a time. Playing so many accts at once though (often even playing multiple accts on multiple different games, all at the same time) caused me to burn out on the whole thing.
No
mlauzon
148 Posts
13 years ago
I only played MUDs on & off since '95, and then stopped sometime in the early 2Ks, also I used to run a MUD, don't remember what it was called now.
I remember that I used to play Injustice.Net for the longest time.. It was so much fun! Did anyone play that?
Also does anyone remember playing text based MMO's via cell phones? I mean I know that was much later but I'm just curious..
Also does anyone remember playing text based MMO's via cell phones? I mean I know that was much later but I'm just curious..
That was a little before my time/too young but I find it fascinating
I used to make text based games for the TI-83 Calculator in math class lol
I used to make text based games for the TI-83 Calculator in math class lol
It looks like that injustice game is still around but changed itself to honoured society. The description reminds me of another game, neopolis or neotropolis or something. In that one everyone played as 20s era gangsters and you would buy up lots and then build businesses on them. Since you were gangsters, you could also sabotage the businesses of other players by starting fires, planting stink bombs, or even planting real bombs. If you had a lot of money stockpiled you could buy occupied lands with insane ammounts of cash. Alternatively you could bomb their buildings until they were just rubble, then buy the lot for cheap. Anyone who's ever played this game will fondly (or not so fondly) remember the hot dog carts.
There were also similar games that were RPG instead of management. You would typically go wandering around dungeons or forests and do all the typical RPG stuff. One of my favs was goblin pit. One of the fun things about that game was their setup had poor protection. There was no checking of what was sent vs what was recieved. When you sold items you could make a local copy of the HTML page, alter it so that the item was worth billions of dollars, then hit the submit button & get oodles of cash.
There were also similar games that were RPG instead of management. You would typically go wandering around dungeons or forests and do all the typical RPG stuff. One of my favs was goblin pit. One of the fun things about that game was their setup had poor protection. There was no checking of what was sent vs what was recieved. When you sold items you could make a local copy of the HTML page, alter it so that the item was worth billions of dollars, then hit the submit button & get oodles of cash.