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MMORPGDot has posted a review of the beta version of A Tale in the Desert III, the latest chapter in the cooperative multiplayer title. The game takes a non violent approach to the online multiplayer experience, asking players to aid one another in solving various puzzles. The puzzle solving eventually leads to the conclusion of a chapter with the creation of various monuments.

Players start out as peasants who must work to fulfill a prophecy that states that if people can perfect themselves, then they will become immortal. Tepper explained that while a person may not be able to live forever, a society could. Players work to create monuments to various disciplines. If a certain player focuses on a certain discipline over all others, then he/she may become the oracle of the discipline by completing all tests for a discipline. There are 49 tests in all in the game, 7 per discipline. The oracle will lead construction of the various tests and monuments to the discipline. The disciplines are: Architecture, Music, Thought, Body, Leadership, Worship and Harmony. Players who build monuments for each discipline are actually creating tests for the next tale in the series, so are playing a role in designing the game. As Tepper puts it, this is, essentially, the grand prize. In challenging the next generation, players are ensuring that the society will live forever.

In working to build these monuments, players endure social mini puzzles in the various disciplines. Each of the disciplines involves different types of puzzles that are judged in different ways. Architecture, for example, includes a challenge to build the tallest obelisk and Art & Music includes challenges to create fireworks and other in-game works of art. Each test within a discipline forces a player to demonstrate appropriate social qualities as follows: capitalism for architecture, impressing and beautifying for Art & Music, exploration for Body, bending others to your will for leadership, cooperation for worship and creating in-game puzzles for thought.

MMORPGDot: A Tale in the Desert III Review

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A Tale in the Desert (add to watch list)

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