A Tale in the Desert is an massively multiplayer online roleplaying game with an ancient Egyptian setting. It has two main differences to other games in this genre: Firstly it abandoned fighting completely. The main focus of the game lies in the community and the mutual forming of a society. Secondly it has a limited run time, every few years a new “tale” starts which resets the game and brings new features.
Since grinding monsters is out of the question, the main occupation is crafting and the completion of several tests which are divided into seven categories: Architecture, Art, Body, Conflict (later replaced with Harmony), Leadership, Thought and Worship. The tests itself are varied, e.g. logic puzzles for Thought, finding a certain number of mushrooms for Body or building houses for Architecture. Every category starts with an easy quest as tutorial and ends with special challenges where many players have to work together.
Another important part of the game is research and development which are conducted in schools and universities. Like the tests these improvements are divided into the seven categories, e.g. Chemistry in Thought or mining in Architecture. Like in reality before an invention is made “public” the development costs time and resources in it. Later everyone can learn the techniques in schools. Other things have to be developed/learned by the players themselves, e.g. the optimal production of certain goods.
Another special feature of the game is the legal system which is basically done by the players themselves. The process is basically that one player starts a petition and gathers signatures. If he got enough there is a voting. When the proposal passes this step the game gets reprogrammed to enforce the law.
