It's another link-post!
Atriarch Is Almost Ready For Alpha Testing
It may not be immediately apparent why I even mention this; what seems to be just another MMORPG In Development, but the curious thing about this one is that it's been In Development for at least five years, and doesn't seem to have folded, or gotten any nearer completion.
It's big thing is Alien Ecosystem. It has no Elfs or Goblins, indeed, no player race that is recognisably 'Human', instead going off on one with a variety of truly alien species. Likewise, the world, cities and dungeons are all xeno-biological, and just plain wierd. I approve. It's about time we started seeing a bit of full-on otherworldliness in our virtual escapism, and indeed, Saga of Ryzom has already taken some of these themes to create something 'a bit different', although nowhere nearly as 'out there' as Atriach promises to be. The only problem is that Atriach has been promising this since the hey-day of Anarchy Online, let alone Saga of Ryzom. The oldest archieved news I could find on their website is dated May 8th, 1999! There's 'Cautious' and then there's 'Geological'.
Basically, Atriarch is no longer relevant in the world of online gaming, and hasn't been for quite a while, but I like it. Back in the day, I remember being quite excited about it, but nowadays I have no intention of ever playing it, don't follow the website (beyond it popping up on Stratics, as here), don't really know what the details of gameplay are, and am not really a fan. But just seeing that it's still there, and still going is like a cheery ray of sunshine in the otherwise gloomy, bleak landscape of nakedly commercial elf-fests that pass for my hobby.
It's just nice to see people can still care enough to maintain a project like that when many other games have folded up and sunk without trace at far more viable and complete stages than these folks have ever reached.
And who knows...with that much care and attention to detail, maybe a truly outstanding game will come out of the end of it...