When you think of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), what do you think of? Chances are the list will include, leveling, combat, camping, monsters. Well A Tale in the Desert has none of these things. A Tale in the Desert is a MMOG based in Ancient Egypt, the aim of which is to create the perfect Society. The story goes that the Pharaoh of Egypt calls a gathering of all the people in the land to congratulate them on being best and most powerful nation in the entire world; in short, they are the perfect society. A Stranger in the crowd speaks up and claims that the Pharaoh is all talk and that Egypt is no more perfect then any other nation. The Pharaoh says Egypt will prove they are perfect by creating a great monument which will require the people to become masters in The Seven Disciplines of Man.

The Seven Disciplines of Man are represented in game through tests and research which can be found at Schools and Universities around the land. The Disciplines are: Thought, Art & Music, Body, Architecture, Conflict, Worship and Leadership. At Schools, players can learn certain skills related to the School's Discipline. For example, at the School of Architecture you can lean the art of Carpentry, Pottery, Kiln Construction and other skills. At Universities you can donate your hard earned commodities to research and open up various aspects of the game, such as Automation or Pyramid Construction, and sign up for discipline-based tests.

Each Discipline has an initiation test as well as seven standard tests. By passing all of these, you become a master of that Discipline. Tests vary dramatically between different Universities. For example, at the University of Architecture you can sign up for the Test of the Obelisk, which involves building an Obelisk taller then anyone else in the region. Obviously at first this is easy but as the game goes on this test becomes harder and harder. At the University of Art & Music, one of the tests is the Test of Pyrotechnics; this involves creating a firework display. Then at regular events players from around Egypt can compete by showing off their Firework Display, the best one, as voted by the viewers, passes the test.

The most controversial test that has been seen so far is the Test of the DemiPharaoh at the University of Leadership. A player who has passed the test has the power to exile one character from Egypt permanently, i.e. delete another player's character (note, not their account). Obviously this is a massive responsibility. To become the DemiPharaoh once a month competing players are split off into groups of seven who must decide between themselves who will pass through to the next round; this is done by each player voting for someone in the group. If the group is tied no one goes onto the next round, so simply voting for yourself isn't necessarily going to work. This voting by rounds continues until there are seven or less players left and then an Egypt wide vote is initiated, where every player in the land can cast their vote for the player of choice.

A large proportion of the game is spent working your way up the tech tree in the game, either by making the buildings and techs which are available or contributing to research at Universities to open new ones up. This can at times become a bit monotonous but the reward of physically having something in the game world especially if you're the first to get one in your region makes the effort worthwhile. The size of the tech tree is amazing, looking at the list of commodities found so far on the tech tree at a fan site like ATITD.net or ATITD.info gives a rough idea how big this game is.

As you progress along the massive tech tree, buildings and commodities become more and more expensive to make. Due to this, it is beneficial to join one of the numerous guilds in A Tale in the Desert, and most are more then happy to have another pair of helping hands join them. When you start though, it's all very overwhelming by the amount of options available. This is helped by the test of mentorship in which you have to mentor seven people through various basic tasks to help them get started.

The in-game support seems excellent so far with most users reporting that GMs respond to calls within a couple of minutes. There have been a few reports of off-hour support not being as good, but no serious complaints. The developers are also very active in the official IRC channel and the official forums. Failing that, Andrew "Pharaoh" Tepper, president of eGenesis, has publicly given out his cell phone number telling people to call it anytime 24/7 if they have a major problem. Right or wrong, this level of commitment to a game from the developers is, as far as this reviewer is aware, totally unprecedented and very much appreciated by the player base.

With a problem-free launch, a Windows and a Linux client, an extremely strong community, an amazingly open and upfront development team, the ability to update the game without having to restart the server, and, most of all, a truly unique game in this day of clones and sequels, A Tale in the Desert is a breath of fresh air. Granted it's not a game that would appeal to everyone, but it is a game that everyone should at least download the free client and play through their free trial (30 days or 24hrs, whichever comes first) to get a taste of originality. A Tale in the Desert deserves to be a big hit, and although it is unlikely it will ever reach the subscriber base of the big MMOG's on the market, it should certainly be a contender.

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