Entry_004

My life has been taken over! I am a slave, a total slave...to this stupid damn game!!

Like I said in my last post, I wasn't all that keen on the game when Marc suggested it. It sounded cool and all but...heh. A game's a game. Well, here's me admitting, hands up, that I was w r o n g!!

I have never, EVER experienced such an AMAZING reality engine!! There are usually tiny little restrictions that completely shatter the illusion in games like this...but I've experienced NOTHING like that playing this game. The only tiny faults I can see are missing content. A couple of characters are duplicated at the moment and some of the others don't talk or interact. It is, after all, only in Beta testing...so not everything is 100% in place yet.

Here's a lowdown: Small upground community back in a time when plain black robes were in vogue. Everyone lives in fairly close proximity (both spatially, and emotionally) with their family and the rest of the village community. The general day to day life is very simple. The most technical profession is farming. All very quaint but there's really not much to do. This is where the gameplay comes in!

Turns out that, in this particular village, accusing thy neighbour of witchcraft is the only way to break the monotonous boredom. But wait! It gets better! There are some REAL witches out there, too!

As a player, you get to choose a number of different roles:

First off, the judge. If you choose this kind of character, you spend the majority of gameplay trying to get info about relationships in the community to figure out who are the real witches, who are the innocent victims and who are the jealous troublemakers! This is the least active of all the play types. Most of your time is spent in conversation rather than anything else. This is the best mode when playing alone.

Next, there are the witches! As a witch, you get to control computer characters to an extent to try and swing the verdict of the judge away from you. You can also turn invisible to spy on other people and fly for short periods of time. This is great for playing in teams as you can be in a coven of up to 3 witches to wreak maximum havoc! When in a coven, you can communicate "psychically" with all the other witches at all times. Needless to say, Marc and I have been enjoying this game type to no end!

There are a few more game types that will be implemented in the next few months. The specifics haven't been announced but I'm guessing it'll be villagers and police or something like that. I cannot WAIT!

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to wait. The current Beta has ended...and I'm faced with going cold turkey. I've never felt so low! Haha. Comes at a convenient time, though. I have another round of patriot exams to revise for! And they're my finals!! And I'll finally rank up to White!!! About time, too!

With my new rank, I'll get a promotion at work, too. Camilla has been briefing me on what's involved. Apparently, I'll have the opportunity to go out into the upworld on the scouting missions. I'll have to stay in the truck the whole time, but it should be really interesting to see how the intake program works from the point of view of the guys and girls that actually do all the vocational work!

I'm meeting up with Marc later on today. Apparently he has something important to tell me. I can't imagine what. We're going to Alf's again. We tried to go last week, but it was shut down! We just went back to his place instead. White rank housing is nice! Definitely a big upgrade from my current cosy place!

I like to have a study partner for my patriot exams so if anyone out there wants to volunteer, leave me a comment!

See you guys soon.

-Sophie