Posted February 21, 2008 by The Gimcracker in Entertainmental

Ikariam

A week ago I deleted my oGame account in a fit of rage. At the time, my rank was hovering in the mid 600s and I was about to start trying for moon shots. With thousands of rocket launchers, hundreds of levels of mines, 9 planets, and the almighty ability to start building Deathstars on the horizon, I was hit by a pro in 2 waves and lost everything.

I feel a little ashamed of the private message I sent him, which I most definitely will not post here. Judging by his lack of response, he’s either too good to respond to such a low-down, dirty message, or he’s Chinese. In either case it doesn’t matter because I proceeded to click the delete account button. When you click the delete button, oGame gives you something like 7 days to undo your decision by clicking the UNdelete button, just in case you were delerious when you clicked it or someone hax0red your account.

I did not click the undelete button.

I realize the point of the game is to attack people, but they’re not supposed to attack ME! It actually was a little dirty because I hadn’t been attacking anyone, didn’t have a fleet or very many resources stored up at the time for him to loot, and he did it in the middle of the day. His boldness infuriated me. All I had to do was click the oGame tab on my browser anytime between 11:00am and 1:00pm that day and see that he was on his way to kill me, and I could’ve fleetsaved. But this, by chance, happened to be the ONE day I happened to not check my oGame, by chance, over lunch break at work, coincidentally, by chance. It also happened, by chance, to be the first time, somehow, that anyone has attacked me at all in months, happenchance, oddly enough. Put those two together and you get one helluva coincidence.

I don’t like when people who are already experts, and don’t need any luck, get extremely lucky. It causes baby puppies to fall off cliffs and oGame accounts to be deleted.

Now that oGame’s out of the picture, I’ve started a new browser-based MMO game by the same creators – LOL. It’s called Ikariam and graphically it’s far superior to oGame. It’s got the look and feel of Age of Empires, and the setting to go along with it – taking place in the ancient Mediterranean Sea.

It works similarly to oGame. You build, research, and deploy buildings, technologies, and ships, respectively, but instead of space ships, deuterium mines, and hyperspace technology it’s catapult ships, taverns, and seafaring technology. There are a lot of differences besides the beautiful interface and graphics, however. One of the main differences so far is having to choose a research specialization from the get go. I’m not sure how easy it will be to research all 4 branches, if it’s even possible, but I know it will take a long time. It took 1.25 hours to research the first level, which was Conservation, and the level I’m currently on – Wine Press – takes 22 hours.

There is also more of a co-op feel in the addition of donations. You can donate to sawmills, vineyards, even the gods, to increase the wealth of your local island – which helps out the 10 or so other people with towns nearby. I suspect the effects of this new element will be quite interesting. What happens if you’re the only cheap miser not donating for the greater good? A stern warning from the other towns? An errant catapult or a wayward battalion of swordsmen “accidentally” showing up on your doorstep? I’m not going to find out.

I’ve only been playing for a few days so I can’t tell you how good the game is, or what it’s even truly about. When I started a few days back, there were only 3 servers to choose from (that number’s up to 5 already), as opposed to oGame which has something like 33. The game has only been around since Valentine’s Day this year, so I’m probably pretty high up in the ranks already. You should get in the game now while it’s still brand new! It’s really easy to create your account and get started, and there is even a “first steps” guide right on the main page which is well-written and gets you up on your feet in no time.

Best of all, it’s free!

So, what’s to stop the same thing from happening to me in Ikariam that happened to me in oGame? Nothing – what’s the point of your question?

The Gimcracker

Hi, I'm a person who blogs on the Internet and does not have a Facebook or Twitter account. It's like I accepted all new technology up to and including blogging, but then I rejected anything that came along after that. I am Social Media Amish.