Aelyria
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Aelyria | |
|---|---|
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| URL | http://www.aelyria.com/ |
| Type of site | Role Playing Game |
| Registration | Free, Required |
| Available language(s) | English |
| Owner | Play by Post LLC |
| Created by | Juan Gonzalez |
| Launched | May 1996 |
| Current status | Active |
Aelyria (formerly Alleria) is a website that bills itself as "the world's oldest and largest play-by-post role-playing game" and is a community hub for writers, artists, musicians, enthusiasts and gamers engaged in a single massively multiplayer collaborative storytelling game. Founded on June 2, 1989 over the United States online service, Prodigy, Aelyria's current online database (according to its site) features 1.3 million posts since 2002 and counts 70,000 registered users, of which 30,000 are routinely active as of May 2008.[1]
Aelyria is generally accepted in the online play-by-post role-playing community as being "the original", or first, site of its kind, and it claims to have "spawn[ed] countless imitator sites" because it "pioneered the play by post platform."[2]. According to the global niche directory, RPG Gateway, there are nearly 1,000 "Play by Post" games listed on its index[3] and Aelyria is routinely voted as its top site in the Top 100 Rankings.[4]
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[edit] Role Playing Game
In Aelyria, players assume the roles of heroes and villains by posting stories about their characters over online message forums and bulletin boards. Each forum represents a geographical location in a fantasy world and each player posts action in the third-person past perspective, while a volunteer moderator posts a response to help narrate the story. According to its users, both the original game world and ongoing epic storyline have been continuously developed since Aelyria's inception in the Summer of 1989.[5] The Aelyria medieval fantasy world is influenced by fairy tales, folklore, mythology, and ancient history, but can be considered as belonging to the high fantasy genre of fiction given its Dungeons & Dragons-like mixture of magic, adventure, and intrigue.
[edit] Cultural Background
Play-by-post role-playing games are a cult phenomenon with a niche following. Though people have always engaged in games of make believe, Aelyria claims it was the first to do so on an electronic message board on a massive scale. Tracing its origins to various bulletin boards on Prodigy in 1989, Aelyria experimented with a Usenet newsgroup in 1993 and eventually put up an informational website in 1995. In 1996, the web site was redesigned and launched using its previous name, Alleria, at Alleria.org and later Alleria.com.[6]
[edit] Publicity
In 1997, Aelyria received global publicity with two major developments:
- In Summer 1997, Aelyria was featured among other "cool sites" on MSNBC's then-popular cable television Internet culture show, The Site.
- In the October 1997 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine, Aelyria was mentioned in an off-topic segment entitled "Editor's Web Picks".[7]
[edit] Legal Status
Aelyria is a commercial web site owned and operated by Play by Post LLC, a Delaware Limited Liability Company. It files annual reports with the State of Delaware. Play by Post LLC currently has a design studio in South Boston, Massachusetts, a corporate office in Boston, Massachusetts, and operating headquarters in Delaware. It presently employs less than ten people.[8]
[edit] Trademark
The name Aelyria is trademarked with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.[9]
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Traffic statistics from http://www.aelyria.com/forums
- ^ Aelyria - FAQ: Overview
- ^ Internet_Play at Effie's Great Wyrm
- ^ Effie's Great Wyrm: Top 100 Rated
- ^ Aelyria - FAQ: Overview
- ^ "About Aelyria", http://www.aelyria.com/forums/players/74846-about-aelyria.html. Last Accessed May 18, 2008.
- ^ "Editor's Web Picks", Electronic Gaming Monthly. October 1997 Issue.
- ^ Play by Post LLC 2006 Annual Report, filed September 2007.
- ^ USPTO Serial No. 77258735.
