A game

Everyone is making an entry about the New Year.  I choose not to.

So instead I’ll talk about a game I discovered called Aventia.  It’s an online multiplayer strategy game, and best of all, it’s free.  But there are a million of those.  The reason this one has caught my attention is because of how it is set up.  It’s a strategy game in a persistent world, meaning that when you leave your computer, the game still goes on without you.  This may sound awful, until you realize that the game is pretty slow-paced.  It only updates and carries out your orders once every hour.  This is the equivalent of one day in the game, and it takes a few days for many orders to be completed.  So the result is that you have a strategy game that seems like it feels more natural and realistic.  Rather than having to make split-second decisions about the path you want to take with your nation, you have the time to consider your options and carefully guide your nation to victory.

So there’s the typical gathering resources and using those resources to build up an army, then using that army to attack other lands, but you have the added element of your orders not being carried out immediately.  As it would happen in real life, your orders take time to start happening.  So you don’t have to sit at your computer constantly to build up your character.  You can spend a little bit of time every now and then setting up a chain of orders, then let it happen as you continue with your real life.  While you’re waiting for your list of orders to complete, you have the option of actually playing the role of your character.  Instead of just conquering your opponents and moving on to the next game, you are encouraged to write a backstory for your character and to communicate with your fellow players to develop a storyline for the world you are in.  Of course if roleplaying isn’t your thing, there’s a version of the game where you are not expected to roleplay.

It’s a very interesting concept and it sounds like it has great potential.  I just created a character tonight, however, so I haven’t had much time to experience it, but as I said, it sounds like it has great potential if you’re into this kind of game.  The only negative thing it seems is that it isn’t very graphically oriented, but if you can get beyond the need for everything to have 3d, ultra-realistic graphics, then it seems like it could be a fun game.  That’s all for today.  If your interest is piqued about Aventia, go to http://www.jaldus.com/aventia