growing. Early on there were as little as 5k players playing the game
with hundreds of new players joining almost daily. The races were wildly
out of balance. Dwarves had 7 generals. Faeries were beyond horrible.
There was an early bug that allowed millions of soliders and aid to be
given to another province. One of the earliest betas had to be restarted
because there were people over 100k NW when the rest of the top 10
was at 18k :) The military had a readiness rating and it cost money to
send out troops. Most of the betas were very short until.....
were many obvious multis in this age. Recluce, Soap, Land, and WAR
DOGS among others made dozens of accounts naming them with
similar names. SNAP was at the apex of it's power during this age.
SNAP is/was a vile alliance / group of multis that would force kingdoms
to vote them in as regent and rename the kingdom things like "Snap sux
donkeys". They terrorized kingdoms before the institution of diminished
returns because a province could be killed with 12 or 13 hits. If the first
SNAP province got through, then the 2nd would send enough and, then
then third, etc. Whole kingdoms were decimated by SNAP and SNAP
had provinces in the top 50 on their islands as well as in the top 50
kingdoms in the world. Arising to fight them were several alliances,
including the Rogue Alliance (which I ran :) formed by a large group of
players from another game called the Rogue Market
http://www.roguemarket.com. After a largely successful campaign to
destroy another SNAP wannabe called WAR DOGS (another player
with dozens of accounts he used to attack with) several, small, informal
alliances set their sights on SNAP around mid-game. They contacted
SNAP kingdoms and offered to help over throw SNAP, attacked the
biggest SNAP provinces and generally made bloody war on SNAP. By
the end of the game, SNAP was decimated and nearly destroyed.
Utopia's most well known player at this time is Anti. He has 7 highly
ranked orc accounts. The debate rages on whether this is cheating or
not because Anti created the accounts before multiple accounts were
prohibited (although he did use them after they were banned). He is
considered the ultimate authority on the game. Utopia's #1 player is
Morphy's Ghost. The Top 50 is dominated by Dwarves and Orcs early
on....there is a short respite before the game begins with...
thousand acres before the game was started. This age was notable
because the top player was "The White Knight". He grew unbelievably
fast and had several "family members" who played from his computer
and also seemed to be very good players. All this will become more
relevant later on...
an Orc province called the Slathering Horde that was Top 50 in the
world and I finished around 463-0 (you got a win for every successful
attack in those days.) Most players were offense heavy, defense was
light (100k points of D was considered extremely high), and few people
understood the potential of thieves and wizards. The game was much
faster paced than it is now and there were probably more wars in this
age than any other. However, there were a couple of serious bugs early
on that effected gameplay. The zero offense bug made people fail who
attacked someone with no defense (landfarms at the beginning of the
game). There was also an attack bug that allowed people with very
minimal offenses to penetrate provinces with huge amounts of defense
(for example a friend of mine with 8k points of D got land grabbed by
someone who sent 450 points of offense). Fortunately, these bugs were
soon corrected.
Sauron's Pets was sending out messages to other top Orc provinces
asking them to join his "Secret Orc" alliance. Mosaic (which later
became Magma started in this age). A friend of mine named Sigmeund
Freud of the Primal Horde started Mosaic when he got heavily into the
role playing and political side of the game. He asked his kingdom to
attack island 13 kingdoms (because they were unlucky island 13) and
decimate them, often forcing them to add Mosaic to their names or be
destroyed. Mosaic added converts and began a massive propaganda
campaign to hide who started Mosaic and to further the goals of the
alliance. Ironically the founder of Mosaic's kingdom (4:7) was also the
starting point of Utopia's first world war (which ironically enough was
completely unrelated to the start of Mosaic.) AUK was another
powerhouse alliance in this age. They claimed over 625 members and
were at the apex of their power. The alliance that caused the largest
sensation in this age however was Feuer. Founded by Anti, Feuer (The
German word for fire) was founded to be a new type of alliance.
Dedicated only to protecting it's members from other alliances and
multis. Things took a bad turn however when Anti's province was
attacked by Miltant Orgy (Sudden Death). Militant Orgy was added and
then dropped from a Feuer Death List. Soon thereafter, Bugoo,
Crimson Death and the rest of the island 1 alliance jumped in. Anti's
province was destroyed, The White Knight was deleted by Utopia, and
Feuer's other big name member Morphy's Ghost deleted his own
province. Soon after Anti's province was destroyed Feuer disengrated.
Anti and Mo (who also had his province destroyed) fought a famous
duel. Both built newbie provinces and fought 1 on 1. Anti Spanked Mo
mainly by using thievery (a forerunner of things to come in Utopia's
future).
island 2 under his control and then methodically destroy the other
islands 1 at a time. Apparently he began organzing this and actually got
a few kingdoms to join with him. Much to his dismay the rest of island 2
(as well as the rest of the world) took great offense at his plan and
launched a massive military strike at him. Soon thereafter he perished
and became basically a running joke on the Utopia forums.
war of the Utopian age was island 1 vs. island 7. Island 1 was the most
powerful island in the world by far. It was loaded with top players. This
island allied under the rulership of one Crimson Death, the regent of the
Iron Curtain (the #1 kingdom in the world). A kingdom on island 7 (4:7
which is where Mosaic began incidentally) was getting land grabbed by
a member of the Iron Curtain (Garroting Deep and/or King Amy).
Garroting Deep continually attacked an inactive member 4:7. A
member of 4:7 retailiated for the attacks with an attack of his own. The
Iron Curtain attacked the attacker from 7:4. A second attack from that
lone member on 7:4 was made on the Iron Curtain. The Iron Curtain's
response was to attempt to kill that province and eventually to kill 7:4
when they fought back. A war began and 4:7 quickly found themselves
outgunned. The Iron Curtain was easily triple their size. They called in
some of the members of Mosaic and Iron Curtain called in the rest of
the insanely powerful island 1 alliance. 4:7 was quickly decimated and
the island 1 alliance moved on to attack Tuylean Gaylen's kingdom. At
that point the #15 player in the world "The Slathering Horde" (me!)
jumped in the fray. I built a 250 shipyards to make sure that I could keep
attacking until I died (I expected to die) and starting hitting The Iron
Curtan twice a day until the conflict was concluded. A war spilled out
onto the Utopian forums where Crimson Death's policy of killing anyone
who hit his kingdom twice was vigorously debated. The war was
heating up fast. Another 1/2 dozen kingdoms agreed to join the war
against island 1 and Crimson Death agreed to make peace with every
kingdom except Tuylean Gaylean's. Another round of attacks brought
the land I took out of the Iron Curtain up1k (out of 3k) acres. Plus the
most devastating array of thief and magic attacks in the history of
Utopia was launched against Crimson Death (he had so many thief and
mage attacks against him that he couldn't open his news, It literally
crashed his browser every time he tried) convinced Crimson Death to
make peace at last. The war was generally considered to be a victory
for island 1 since they decimated 1 entire kingdom and crippled two
others although island 7 fought well and was very capable of continuing
the war.
unite islands 4 and 5 and decided to declare war on the second most
powerful island in the world, Island 2. They mounted an offensive but
island 2 quickly retaliated (w/ some help from there allies on island 1).
Islands 4 and 5 were hit with the most withering large scale attack in the
history of Utopia. Acoma was obliterated. Island 4 and 5 were beaten
into submission within a couple of days time and were very quick to try
for a truce with island 2.
topped the leaderboards early on with a staggering lead over all over
provinces. About Mid-game Silverhall and Realm of Death (there was
great debate on whether they were friends or multis) both dropped there
land and became became two of the first real moster thief provinces.
There actions would inspire large numbers of others in later ages. By
the end of the round, Dwarves no longer dominated the leaderboards.
However Dwarves were still neutered by Utopia even though they no
longer dominated the top 50 and Faeries remained untouched although
they were climbing rapidly up the ranks at the end of the game. Newbie
bashing is the hot issue on the forums and the term "Newbie Ghetto" is
first coined by Taurus. Large powerful Kingdoms take small newbie
kingdoms under their protection. For example the newbie kingdom
might be named "under the protection of xx:xx" The most famous of the
newbie protectors is Calliane. She and an unknown player called "Mr.
Anon" wage a long verbal war over the ethics of newbie bashing on the
Utopia forums. Because of all the newbie bashing, diminishing returns
is instituted next round. Quantum (Malachi) finishes the game as the #1
player amd United Britania (Hydra) is the first place kingdom.
The average player discovers defense for the first time and finding land
grabs becomes tough. The early rounds of the game were most notable
for horrible server lag that at times made it difficult to get in the game.
Two of Utopia's most famous Web Pages are founded in this Age
(Anti's and mine).
alliance. At the start of the age they were probably the most well known
alliance as well. They get into a war with the Iron Curtain and Crimson
Death. This time Crimson Death is no longer on island 1 and no longer
has a powerful alliance backing him up. Crimson Death dies but
Sauron's Pets (the leader of BA) follows soon afterwards. Warlord
forms Gemini and recruits player on the forums. Mosaic changes there
ways and their name and becomes Magma. Auk splits up and slowly
but steadily loses power. The CQ (named after ICQ) rises to power. A
group of top players who originally formed in order to protect
themselves from alliances and multis gains steam. A number of well
known players including Calliane (Callista), Kanga, Ghazadum's
Domain, Savannah, and Larroke were prominent members. CQ started
tagging there kingdoms and soon was as large as AUK in their heyday.
Soon ugly rumors surfaced. CQ had a large number of top players and
top kingdoms and rumors of gang bangs and CQ attacking other
players simply to elevate the rank of other CQ members began to
become prominent. Numerous CQ members alternately denied these
rumors were true or arrogantly challenged the Utopian populace to do
something about it on the Utopian forums. CQ was generally
considered invincible because of there large number of powerful
members. CQ's downfall began with one lone "anon" province. Every
day a province called "anon" would go to the Utopian forums and copy
and paste the houses he burned of CQ members. He struck
indiscrimanantly arsoning anyone in CQ and then posting the results in
the Utopian forums. A great debate sprang up on the ethics of CQ and
many others starting following "anon's" lead. Soon military attacks
followed. By the end of the round CQ was in full fledged retreat. People
were saying that they quit CQ and that "CQ was dead". Soon thereafter,
CQ was heard from no more.
spent the last 3 days of the game in a war with the games #1 kingdom
(Hydra). Basically a player from The Drunken Monkey Clan who many
people on both kingdoms now believe to be a multi and /or friend of
Savannah (from the #2 kingdom the Porsta Rogues) managed to start
the war by attacking Hydra while claiming to the Drunken Monkey Clan
that his attacks were in retalition for thieving attacks by Hydra on him
(which wasn't true). In the end a bloody war was fought but it made little
difference in the standing (The Drunken Monkey Clan dropped from #2
to #3 while throwing some attacks Porsta Rogues way just to make
sure they didn't make #1 in the world).
fought a war. Quantum who was a member of Swift Justice, organized a
gang bang on a member of United Provinces coincidentally right after
United Provinces passed them in the rankings (moving up from #5to
#4). Quantum found a member of United Provinces who was relatively
large but had light defense. He passed that information out to numerous
people on his ICQ list and encouraged them to attack. They did, the
province was hit several times and Swift Justice moved back up to the
#4 slot. United Provinces got word of this and was outraged. A war
began. At first both sides called in allies but then agreed to ask their
allies not to participate. The war raged for a few days and Swift Justice
surrendered. United Provinces moved back into the #4 position, this
time for the rest of the round.
occurred this round. Larroke had a friend named Dolsi killed by what he
and most other players considered a group of obvious multis (a person
/ group that had warred with an alliance called Clan Plaid who came
from Myth 2 in the previous round). This group of multis included two top
50 provinces and had around 12 total provinces that worked in concert.
The multi (who was rumored to be the White Knight) had thief
specialists, Magic specialists, and lots of military accounts. They would
all attack in unison with devastating effect. Larroke who had an ICQ list
which he said was over 400 members in size and also got some help
from an alliance called TGA after the multis killed there leader Prevailor.
Larroke called in favors left and right and an extensive war was fought
both in Utopia and on the boards. It dragged on for almost a month with
multi accounts and other players fighting them both dying in the effort.
Eventually the forces on Larrokes side reached critical mass and along
with some well timed Deletions from Echelon, they managed to finish off
the multis..
people saying that they have to be downgraded (and they are
significantly downgraded for Utopia's third age). Kanga (Land of the
Lions) was the games #1 player by a lot and Hydra (United Britania)
finishes first yet again.
all the races seem to be fairly well balanced except for Avians. An early
bug allows one regent to send out 12 dragons all aimed at different BA
kingdoms. The dragons and the regent that sent them are deleted by
Echelon after a couple of days. Ironically, the kingdoms are grouped by
the amount of players that chose to stay in each kingdom. So most of
top kingdoms that had 24 or 25 players want to stay were grouped on
islands 22 and 23 much to the rest of the world's chagrin. Mad John
Finn's Wife (The Mercy Seat) of The Rogue Alliance (my old kingdom)
forms a NAP (non-agression pact) and unites (for the most part) the
two most powerful islands in Utopia's history.
an "offensive" alliance that makes no bones about it's willingness to
gang attack it's opponents. Once again the ugly rumors start that gemini
is crushing kingdoms and forcing them to join Gemini or die. Utopian
provinces rose up from all the globe (as well as another old alliance,
UDNO) to crush Gemini to earth. BA reaches the pinnacle of it's power
becoming the largest and most powerful alliance ever. Learning lessons
from the fall of CQ, BA becomes much less agressive than the last
round. However, thief provinces still rise up and burn down BA
provinces. The Anti-BA alliance arises to fight BA. Once again Crimson
Death and BA get into it and once again Crimson Death and Sauron's
Pets are destroyed.
released all of provinces troops and razed all their buildings if you went
to a certain Utopia website with your Utopian cookie still active (click
here to see an article on this). This hack got numerous players including
Larroke. Later in the round another web page URL was sent out that
read the username and password off of the cookie in a player's C drive
and gave a hacker access to the accounts. The hacker then went in and
changed the passwords and released the troops of several well known
players including Jambodia. Scripts also make there first appearance
to the general population. A script basically checks through the kingdom
pages looking for land fat targets or targets that have not logged on in a
few days (by comparing them over a few days time). A debate rages on
the Utopian forums about how ethical scripts are. The debate is ended
when Mehul declares in an interview on my web site that scripts will be
"cause for deletion next round".
down every alliance member he can find. He is almost universally
scorned and his accounts are deleted soon after the game begins by
Echelon. Calliane (used to Callista) becomes a thief province who
continuously burns down the homes of the top 10 players. Because of
diminishing returns and because the top provinces cannot hope to
match her thief ratio she and others like her make the Top 100 into a
joke. The entire top 100 becomes nothing more than as Calliane calls
them "a plaything for thieves". Top provinces actually stop taking on
land and give away huge amounts of aid in order to keep their rank
from increasing and possibly making themselves a better target for
arson. Kanga (Telanaroid) is burned out of first place. Soon thereafter
Twinklespring is burned for 82 million GC worth of homes. The debate
rages on the Utopian forums about the balance of the game and the
role of thief provinces. Meanwhile provinces all over Utopia are being
arsoned into oblivion. Archfiend declares on the Utopia forums that next
round he will form a thief guild that will stop anyone from reaching a
million GC NW the next round unless the rules are changed.
place. More websites than ever are founded as Utopia increases in
popularity. The round is notable for it's lack of war and for a general
malaise that seems to be settling over the Utopian populace. Horde
Devildog takes first place after his kingdom gives him millions in
aid (some provinces rise as much as 1 million points of NW on the final
day as whole provinces are liquidated and funneled into other top provinces
in order to boost their rank. This makes the Top 100 even more
meaningless than it was already with all the thievery. Kanga's kingdom
( Great Southern Land ) beats out The Drunken Monkey Clan as the first
placed kingdom in the world by 3 million GC. An announcement is made that
the kingdoms will be split up for Utopia's 4th age saddening many kingdoms
that had spent the last 3 ages together......