Shizotypal and Addicted to Urban Planning

I just thought the title sounded funny, if you must know. In reality I am procrastinating from writing control methods for the "book" module in Project WOTAN. I should be doing it, but I am having issues that, strangely, are not preventing relatively clear and lucid writing.

Also, I think I finally groked Xemerys, the web game billed as a "Hardcore Old-School Online Economic Strategy Game."

Xemerys is fairly hard-core in the sense that it holds no hands for the beginning player. More like slaps them down with a ruler like a frustrated nun. Which is why after having stuck with it now for nearly two weeks, I think I am finally understanding it.

The game is not difficult to learn - anyone familiar with strategy games and especially strategy PBBGs can get started with no trouble and it uses the familiar city-building and empire-managing tropes. But to really get into the flow of how the game works requires some tenacity and a lot of patience. I believe the game's "hard-core" label comes into play here.

Between the industries to produce 20 raw and refined goods, the (somewhat Ikariam-like) transportation system that you actually pay upkeep for while it is active, the multiple levels of Quality of Life that directly affects your ability to tax citizens, to the ability cast offensive and buffing effects on your own city and others, to ... well there are a lot and this isn't a laundry list - you get the picture.

The numerous game mechanics all work together in a sort of mad dance to generate the sort of complexity that I welcome in a web game. It is packaged with the rather unforgiving ratios and durations that stave off instant gratification. It even provides and example of the disassociated PVP that spices up web games without turning them into bullying-grounds.

When I say "disassociated PVP" I mean that players can hurt and hinder each other, but it occurs through an indirect mechanism. As an example, in Nile Online players can attack each others' monument sites but not each others' cities. The capture of a monument has a directly negative effect on the player, but it is not devastating by any means and is really more of a minor hindrance.

As a contrast, in a game like Travian players are expected to conduct PVP directly against each others' establishment and this is supported by an elaborate social heirarchy. In Travian, if you are alone and a new player, your settlement is invariably "farmed" to death. More advanced players and their alliances will conintually attack your settlement to get any resources you have accumulated and aren't protected. This makes advancing your settlement difficult at best; your only recourse is to join an alliance that is strong enough to defend you and, more importantly, is actually willing or motivated to do so.

Xemerys offers an interesting take on the former style of PVP in that it lets you spread offensive effects (hex spells) which cause percentage decreases in various aspects of a player city, be it production, pollution levels or the degree to which your citizens are happy about life, among others. "Propaganda," which is similar to spells but costs in-game money and lasts longer, provides a second means to carry out this activity.

I view these as being more indirect because, while in Xemerys you are only able to have one city and thus the actions are carried out directly on you, they ultimately only serve to reduce the rate at which you are able to be successful - not annihilate your ability to do practically anything in the game. Your city still has the wine or aphrodisiacs or what-have-you that you already produced and so there is no real incentive to habitually cast hexes on new (and therefore insignificant) players. And at the end of the day, Xemerys even provides spells and propaganda to lessen the effects of hexes cast by cantankerous fellow players.

Getting into the flow of the game can be rather difficult for many, though. So while I would recommend giving Xemerys a try, I also recommend to be ready to be patient and read the FAQ and Beginner's Guide. But mostly with the patience, which will be rewarded in the end.