Now I’m scared to try.
I stumbled across this free on-line game, Utopia and I’m a bit conflicted. The manual is a million pages long and I have never, ever played a role-playing game even though I’ve always wanted to. I’ve had opportunities to play in role-playing games before but always backed out because it all seem so intimidating.
Has anyone played this game? Should I? What should I know if I do?
I played this game years ago. Surprised to see that it’s still around. It was fun, though complicated. I found their other game, Earth, much easier to learn.
Certainly good for a few wasted minutes a day. And you’ve got nothing to lose. Go for it and have fun. But it’s not really an RPG. More of a really big strategy game.
Wow…I’ve never actually talked to anyone who wasn’t already playing Utopia that was interested in playing Utopia. It’s pretty big in Europe, not as popular here, but still quite a few Americans.
None of my EQ/WoW/EQ2 friends play it though…which is perfectly cool, I adore my Utopia KDmates, known some of them almost as long as I’ve been playing.
I’ve been playing it for…oh geez, got to be close to 6 years now, and was Monarch of my KD (Kingdom) for about 4 1/2 of them.
It’s incredibly addicting (IMO), but only if you’re into “that sort of game” as it were.
It’s actually not a role-playing game. It’s a text-based, team-based, online war strategy game.
It’s a game of numbers and (hopefully) teamwork, but don’t be intimidated by that, there’s the Utopia Angel, which is a game calculator/intelligence formatter found at http://utopiatemple.com
There’s a bit of a learning curve, but you can pick up a good handle of the basics in one Age. The game restarts every 3ish months (each period of restart is a new Age), there’s 3 different servers. One is considered more of a “beginners” server- World of Legends server), the “Battlefields” server is considered where the more experienced players play, or more casual players play, and the “Genesis” server, which is the experimental server, where they sometimes change the rulesets to play with different factors.
On account creation, you pick a race and a personality. You can play in the style of Attacker, Thief, Mage, or some combination thereof. Some races are better suited to attacking, or to t/m (thief/mage) work.
When you log into your province for the first time, you’ll have been randomed into a Kingdom (KD in game terminology). A Kingdom is up to 24 other players who will be your teammates for that Age. If you decide you dislike your Kingdom, you can choose to defect at least a couple times during an Age, for some penalty, to try and land in a better one.
I highly suggest reading the guide before creating your account, especially the race/personality page. It’s easy to adjust a bad province build, but if you pick a race/pers you don’t like, you have two choices: to delete your Province, and if you like your KD mates, you’ll lose them, or you can suck it up for the rest of the Age and choose to stay with your KD the next Age.
Attackers are generally considered easier for a new player to get the hang of, though I don’t necessarily agree with that. I do think a t/m province requires more maintenance than an attacker’s province, at least out of war (OOW).
What specifically did you have questions about? It’d probably be more helpful to you, if you read the guide and ask specific questions, because it’s alot of info upfront. It does get easier, I swear.
I’m not that good at math at all, and I’m pretty damn good at this game, if I do say so myself. 
(Well, my KD made Top 50 World Honor Charts on Battlefields last age anyways grin)
I can’t answer for this particular game, but I do recommend you give one of the many on-line RPGs a try if you’ve always had an interest. Many of them offer a free trial period (though you probably have to use a credit card for most of them; just be sure to note the cancel date before you get charged for the game or the monthly subscription fee).
I’ve reviewed a few MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online roleplaying game), but the first one I’ve ever paid for was The Saga of Ryzom (newly released, but their free trial period doesn’t start until next week). Most gamers in these types of games are friendly and helpful, and if you went into one and said you were completely new to the genre, you’ll likely find someone willing to lend you a hand for a while.
Cerri, you make it sound a little like Age of Mythology but with words. The last text-based anything I played was years ago.
I read and read and decided to give it a try. No room on server-- try again later.
Anybody got another free on-line thingy where people are nice to newbies who don’t know anything?
How is it? The only review of it I’ve read absolutely panned it.
Well, I’m super-excited about the open beta of World of Warcraft, scheduled to begin any freakin’ time now. (Back in early October, they told us they’d be giving us more information “in the coming days”; since then, they’ve explained that weeks are made up of days 
). It was the first MMORPG I’d ever tried when they did the stress test a couple months ago, and I found it very easy to get into.
Of course, it’ll only be free for a couple weeks, but it may be worth a try anyways.
Daniel
I gave it 4/5 stars. I’ve loved it, and I even got my husband into it with a friend code. I’ve played it almost every day for the past month, and he’s played the entire week he’s been subscribed. Keep in mind that I’ve never played any of the big name titles (UO, EQ, DAoC, etc), only smaller ones like Shadowbane and a few that no longer even exist. So what I enjoy about it may be different from those familiar with the genre.
Was it Gamespot’s review you read? Desslock made a few errors in his review regarding gameplay, though I think his overall score accurately reflected his opinion of the game.
I’ve been playing it since Alpha, and I think it’s well worth a try, personally. I’d recommend it for both powergamers and casual gamers of MMOs.
I’m also in the EQ2 beta and already pre-ordered it, so I’m enjoying that one quite a lot too. Which, to be honest, kind of surprises me.
I swore I’d never play another SOE game after 5 years as an EQ Mage, but shrug I’m having fun in beta so far, so I figure, it’s only 15 bucks a month.
And another 15 a month for WoW.
Er…and another 15 for Mr.Cerri, since he’s playing WoW for sure, 30 if I can manage to talk him into EQ2 (he’s still holding to swearing off SOE chuckle).
Hm. Oh well. We cancelled our cable months ago (and don’t miss it a bit!), so it’s good entertainment value for us…course we do spend another 20 bucks a month on Netflix, but that’s like…a necessity. grin
But I digress. Both my EQ2 chars are only lvl 14 (only been in beta 3 weeks, have a lvl 14 Teir’dal enchanter, citizen of Freeport, and a lvl 14 Qeynosian High Elf Shaman), but I like what I see so far. I do think powergamers will enjoy EQ2 more than WoW, at least until WoW’s endgame is unveiled. No one outside of internal testing, and beta focus groups (mostly uberguilders) has really seen much of that.
That bit was in replay to Left Hand of Dorkness. DeadlyAccurate snuck in before I could post.
It very similar to the AoE/AoM type games but in a text based format. It’s real-time strat…which can be really interesting (and fun!), considering how international this game is.
Don’t be afraid to start on the Battlefields server, it’s not as bad I might have made it sound. I started on the BF server way back in the day, and landed in one of the best KDs I’ve ever seen. Granted I’m biased.
I think it’s better to start with the more experienced players, personally, because you’re more likely to land in a Kingdom that is willing to take the time to help and teach a newcomer to the game, a Kingdom that’s more serious about the game.
A good Kingdom is everything in this game, no one gets to the top alone.
That’s the one! I’m not really a MMORPG fan, so only a game that’s just spectacular has any chance of getting me to sign up. But I appreciate the alternate perspective.
Daniel