The Realm Online
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| The Realm Online | |
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| Developer(s) | Sierra On-Line (previous), Codemasters (previous), Norseman Games (current) |
| Publisher(s) | Sierra On-Line (previous) |
| Release date(s) | December 31, 1996 |
| Genre(s) | MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | N/A |
| Platform(s) | Windows |
| Media | Download |
| System requirements | Pentium 166, 100MB hard disk, Internet access, 32MB RAM, Windows 95, 16-bit color |
| Input | Keyboard, Mouse |
The Realm Online, originally known as simply The Realm, will never be significantly updated ever again and was one of the first MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) for public release (the public 'Beta' was out 5 months before Meridian 59's commercial release). It was launched on December 31, 1996 for Windows personal computers and continues to operate as of 2007. It was designed in the tradition of graphical MUDs, before the popular usage of the terms "massively multiplayer" and "MMORPG".
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[edit] History
The Realm was originally designed and released by Sierra On-Line in 1996, near what has been said by many fans to be the end of their original glory days (the years prior to the 1997 departure of founders Ken and Roberta Williams). Until he left, Ken Williams was the executive producer of the game, which was still indicated in the credits of a 1998 CD-ROM version of the game. Over the next few years Sierra and Codemasters continued to develop the game extensively before, in 1999, Codemasters took over all operations. In July of 2003, the game was purchased by its current owner and operator, Norseman Games.
It is considered by many to be the longest-running MMORPG in history, as Meridian 59 has not been running continuously since its original release date. Others argue that The Realm is not a true MMORPG at all, and is more of a Graphical MUD.
When it was still owned by Sierra Online, Stephen Nichols - The Realm's lead programmer at the time - banned a number of players who criticized him and his work on the main "Gossip" chat channel.
[edit] Gameplay
Methods of social interaction include chat channels, "room" chats (limited to the players shown on a screen), private messages, and an in-game mail service.
The combat system of The Realm is turn-based with a fast timeout to keep action to allow the best benefits of realtime combat and thought out strategy. The same system allows player to engage in player versus player combat.
All of the characters in The Realm play on a single server, though a test server exists where new features are added to the game before going live (in rare cases).
The game's quest system is not as heavily stressed as other MMORPGs, rather, the stress is on roleplaying and community-generated events.
[edit] Races, Classes, and Attributes
Each race and class combination begins with a predetermined arrangement of attributes, with eight points free for the player to distribute. Initial skills are determined by the class.
The Realm's primary attributes are:
- Strength: Determines the damage dealt with some melee weapons, and the carrying capacity of the character.
- Dexterity: Determines the speed in combat of the character, his or her dodge rate, and damage on throwing weapons.
- Endurance: Determines the character's maximum hit points.
- Intelligence: Determines the character's spell damage modifier.
The races that exist on The Realm are:
- Humans: The quintessential "balanced" race.
- Elves: Intelligent but weak.
- Giants: Strong but dumb.
ORC: Recently added, more of a balance race.
Classes are not rigid, and a member of one class can learn the skills of any other class (though they will be less proficient at those skills):
- Adventurer: Can use weapons and magic equally, but will never become exceptional in either.
- Warrior: Best at the various weapon skills.
- Wizard: Best at the five schools of magic.
- Thief: Employs skills such as pick pocketing and lock picking.
While characters pick a starting alignment (good, neutral or evil), each character is ranked in alignment automatically as a result of in-game actions, from Beatific (ultimately good) to Demonic (ultimately evil). NPCs are rated in a similar way, with good creatures tending to attack evil players, and vice versa. A player changes his or her alignment by killing monsters of the opposite alignment.
[edit] Storyline
The storyline aspect of The Realm remains in ongoing development. It consists of multiple characters operated by in-game staff members that further ongoing plots and story arcs, and strongly encourages players to role-play. Unlike most MMORPGS that develop large parts of the storyline in annual expansions, The Realm's storyline is constantly being developed.
The plotline revolves around six gods, three kingdoms, and other background characters. The gods, which are divided into three alliances, include:
The Light
- Enid: Goddess of Peace and Nature
- Mabon: God of Magic and Knowledge
The Dark
- Duach: God of Greed and Vengeance
- Finvarra: God of War and the Forge
The Balance
- Despothes: King of the Gods, and God of Balance
- Elphame: Goddess of Justice and the Afterlife
The Kingdoms, which follow the aspects of the three god alliances, are Solara (Light), Valhalla (Balance), and Tenebria (Dark). Players are often encouraged to join a Kingdom and help it grow and prosper. Where the gods have prophets and chosen beings known as Gifts, the Kingdoms have a variety of characters that "administer" the Kingdom.
The primary antagonist, known at The Shrouded One, has sent multiple invasions from beyond the Mistwall (the edge of the game world) that surrounds the Realm. These invasions can take the form of staff interaction or, more likely, the addition of new creatures to the game environment. The most recent of these invasions destroyed multiple towns in-game, which have since been rebuilt.
[edit] Technical Problems
As is to be expected in a game of this age, there are several problems in the game. Several known item glitches exist, as well as some unimplemented items that can be found in the game that do not function. The most notorious technical problem is the memory manager, which uses an outdated system of handles to keep track of items. When too many handles are used in an individual room because of an excess of items, the character will be kicked out of the game (and may even crash upon re-entry to said room until Customer Service can straighten it out). This issue is not likely to be fixed in the near future, as Norseman Games has stated that replacing the system would be too expensive. They have recommended trying to keep the number of items you carry to a minimum, and in the case of player-owned housing to try not to leave too many of your possessions in a single room, a solution which works and which most of the players in the game have adapted.
[edit] Bugs, Exploits, and Glitches
In 1998 a player named "OneUglySOB" of the guild "The Black Mercs" discovered a glitch in the teleport and summon system. By being summoned by a party member at the moment he was being teleported to the target player's house, he was able to appear inside the player's house rather than in the front yard.
He used this glitch to gain access to Lead Programmer Stephen Nichols' online house (a holy grail of Realm hackers) and left his calling card- a teal baldric with his ICQ UIN engraved on it.
Within a day, OneUglySOB was contact via ICQ by Stephen, who demanded to know how he had gotten inside his house. He promised a lifetime subscription to The Realm and a level 100 character if Ugly would explain the exploit. When OneUglySOB explained how the glitch worked, he was immediately banned from the game.
In late 1999, MECHFilop (also known as Filop and co-leader of the guild ScAnDaLoUs) figured out how to kill players that were not willing to PvP by summoning them into PvP areas and being jumped by fellow guildmembers. This exploit was termed as "Join-Jumping". Using this exploit, Filop (with PvP combat always turned on) was able to join groups of up to 5 other players and summon them to a PvP area where he was jumped and subsequently his entire oblivious team was forced into combat and either killed or exited the game via Alt-f4 (also known as plugging).
In consequence general harassment and "smack talk" to other players, GM's, and even Stephen verbally over the phone. Filop, his co-leader of ScAnDaLoUs, Muresan, and the majority of the other guildmembers were banned from the game.
Another glitch of the times was the ability to "neg level" your character, meaning you ran two accounts, taking one character and killing it off into the negative levels until the experience matched that of the primary character (eg Calvart has 10000 exp positive, GreenSmoke has -10000 exp) then you could join the two characters in a group and fight as if you were level one, getting massive amounts of experience from even the lowest level mobs, making leveling to 1000 possible in a very short time if you had already prepared the characters.
[edit] Community
The Realm has a very small but very dedicated userbase, with approximately 32 players in the game during peak hours. The simplicity of the graphics and relatively easy-to-learn gameplay mechanics when compared to more modern games, as well as a decided lack of widespread advertising, keeps the small player community close-knit. In its prime there were approximately 25,000 subscribers. [1]
