It looks like A Tale in the Desert III is coming out with a regular newsletter written by a new staff, Steve Wade. I must say that it's an interesting newsletter as well as a little peek at what's coming in Alvin the Tale Maker. That particular game is where those who were in Tale 2 were waiting anxiously for whatever news was available. Click on "Read More" for the rest of the newsletter :

Citizens of Egypt,

I am happy to report that A Tale in the Desert III has been going every
bit as well as I had hoped. One thing I've never been happy with is the
frequency of newsletters. So, I'd like to introduce Steve Wade, who
recently started with eGenesis. I'll have a few words of my own, toward the
bottom of each newsletter as well...

-----------------------------
eGenesis Newsletter 6/23/2006
-----------------------------

New Staff
Happenings in Egypt
eGenesis Player Meet
Tale Thus Far
Alvin Maker Update #1

Please visit the forums and let us know what you think about the
newsletter. http://www.atitd.net/forum

Read more »

Silly me. Forgot to put up this notice.

A Tale In The Desert : Tale 3 is now official open.

Game download is at http://www.atitd.com .

New game "telling", or re-telling where the website graphics has changed. As well as great trailers made by player Soldparadise.

And there's already a live and running T3-beta wiki. Looks like the regions have changed but the map hasn't.

And yes, I'm still lurking.

Here's a link to the recently concluded Amnesty Event. It's posted online on the forums.

Some of the information were definitely interesting to see how the game work. Like how on earth to get vegetable seeds to multiple. You wouldn't believe the amount of trouble people went trying to test this out and also how irritating it can be when someone doesn't return the seeds back to you.

There's also other information too, and I'm glad to see that Cardinaltarod got a positive mention. The community in Egypt can be very harsh and grudges do run very high ingame. So, let's leave it at that.

One thing's for sure, I don't think you can see this sort of event at any other type of MMORPG. Can you imagine Lead Developers actually coming out and say "I plan this event to stir people up?"

Yeah yeah, I'm not subscribing but just one of those curious seekers on what is happening towards the end. Yes, there will be odd bits and pieces posted up. Why do it? Why not?

Another email from Teppy. It looks like the last day will be going down in flames, metaphorically. Although he has asked that people have an open mind about what had happened, it's going to be extremely difficult for a lot of people. Oh well. Such is the contrary nature of humans.

Citizens of Egypt,

Well, I'm writing the final newsletter of A Tale in the Desert II, and what a great Tale it's been. New players first think that A Tale in the Desert is about building "stuff" - that they have stumbled upon the ultimate crafting game. And I always suggest that yes - there's a ton of
stuff to build, but what the game is really about is building a society.
And not just building a society, but doing so in the face of really hard
challenges set forth by The Stranger. Tests designed in many cases to make
building that society as hard as possible.

Look at what we've accomplished in our second Tale: As I write this,
monuments to The Human Body, to Architecture, and to Worship have been
completed. In creating these monuments, we have created challenges for our
descendants.

Future Disciples of The Human Body will adorn their bodies with the
fruits of the Test of the Oyster Catcher.

Future Priests will celebrate with each other over the Test of Leavened
Bread.

Future Architects will have to secure their place in the afterlife with
the Test of Ka.

Look at how this society has has built itself in other ways -
Organizations like The Goods arose to promote trade in Egypt, the Safari
Hunting Association helped track Egypt's wildlife, and The Village show
countless new arrivals our way of life. (And I realize that I'm leaving out dozens or organizations that are just as much the heart and soul of Egypt.)

We've elected Demi-Pharaohs, and seen the position grow from one of mere
theoretical power, to one of action. (Some would say that previous to a few months ago, the Demi-Pharaoh's power had never really been used.)

And all this will soon be a history book. Gharib, The Stranger, will die
on:

Sunday, May 21, 2006 at 2:00PM EDT (GMT-0400)

And with him, the chance to build monuments will end. The inscriptions on
those monuments built and consecrated at the time of his death will
challenge our descendants in A Tale in the Desert III, launching:

Saturday, May 27, 2006 at 12:00 Noon EDT (GMT-0400)

But I'm getting ahead of myself. There is one tradition that has been a
part of A Tale in the Desert since before our first Telling: "Amnesty."

Amnesty is when it's ok to tell any secret. And I have some secrets of my
own to tell, including a Tale 1 secret that just didn't seem right to
reveal as Tale 2 started. You'll SEE why. Amnesty begins the moment of
Gharib's death, and to attend, I ask everyone to informally agree to one
thing: If you want to attend, promise that you will not take what was done
as gameplay, personally. You might find out that a friend had a 2nd
character that griefed your camp. You may find out that who you thought was a friend was actually an Agent of The Stranger, instructed by me. We've had hurt feelings at previous amnestys. You've been warned.

Amnesty may last well into the night - I'll stick around and chat for
many hours. The server will be up for a couple more days to give everyone a chance to drink their finest wines, smoke their rarest herbs, launch that secret cache of fireworks, and say their goodbyes. We'll shut down
Wednesday at Noon EDT (GMT-0400), and then bring the Tale 3 servers up
three days later. Paid accounts will transfer from ATITD 2 to ATITD 3,
reserving your character name, and preserving your Legacy Title. I'll
credit everyone for the intervening downtime.

I raise a glass of Followers of Anubis '04 to everyone, this generation
and next.

Forever on the Nile,
Pharaoh (Teppy)

Standard Stuff:

Download for Windows, Linux and Macintosh:
http://www.atitd.com
Official IRC chat channel:
irc.sorcery.net port 6667 channel #ATITD
Mailing list removal and curious privacy policy:
http://www.atitd.com/subscribe

Citizens of Egypt,

Thanks to all those that participated in the first Beta of A Tale in the
Desert III. I'd like to give my thoughts and observations on the beta, and
then announce our final, 3-week Beta. BTW, I want to get into some detailed
ATITD 3 game design stuff with this newsletter, so if you just want to find
out when Beta 2 starts, skip down to the bottom.
Technically this first Beta went very well. There were no server crashes.
Some of the new content had bugs, but I was able to fix all the significant
ones within minutes-to-hours of their being reported.
Progress in the beta was not as fast as I had estimated. The server was
open for almost 6 days exactly, and in that time, the highest level
attained was level 6. If I had been asked beforehand how far I thought we
would progress in 6 days, I'd have figured the top players would have hit
Level 10. Here are the first 15 ways to gain levels, as configured for Beta
1:

Level 0: Citizenship
Level 1: Principles of Architecture, Principles of the Human Body
Principles of Leadership
Level 2: Principles of Worship, Principles of Art and Music,
Principles of Thought
Level 3: Principles of the Obelisk, Principles of the Demi-Pharaoh
Level 4: Principles of Harmony, Principles of the Acrobat,
Level 5: Principles of the Vigil, Principles of the Prophet
Level 6: Principles of Khefrey's Children, Principles of the Pathmaker

The column at the left is the level required to attempt each Principle.
Passing any Principle increases your level by one. Principles are always
fixed-goals, and are intended to be something that a veteran ATITD player
would find pretty easy.
So if my math is right, the players that did reach Level 6 had 9 choices
on how to reach Level 7. That seems like about the right "bushiness", so
why the (from my perspective at least) slow progress? I think the answer
lies in the Level 2 Principles: Worship requires several kinds of items
that Egypt can not create right away, including Camel Milk and Grilled
Fish, and Thought does also. So even though you've gained a post-Citizen
level, you don't *really* have a lot more choices of what to do next at
Level 2. Perhaps compacting the above schedule just slightly around Level 2
would relieve this bottleneck, which would have the side effect of making a
number of early skills much faster to get. I'm going to try this for Beta 2.
The final item from the Beta that I want to discuss is the Events system.
We ran two events, both of which I was able to code during the beta. The
first was a "dig" event with some interesting scoring features. The second
was a Tug tournament in the Wepwawet Spirit Arena. Technically both worked
well, but I thought that each needed to provide more information after the
event on how Egypt did, as a whole. For instance, as a player I would have
liked to know who won the Tug tournament, what rank they reached, how many
participated in total, that sort of thing. As developer I could retrieve
that information, but really it needs to be accessible to the Events team
that will run many such things during live. So, that's something I'll work
on in Beta 2.
Which brings me to the announcement. A Tale in the Desert III, Beta 2
will begin:

Friday, May 5, at 12:00 Noon EST (GMT-0500)

I expect the Beta to last for about 3 weeks, and I'm going to set a goal.
Let's see how many of us can reach Level 7. It's an individual goal, but
it's also an Egypt-wide goal because the Principles and Technologies needed
to *easily* let others reach Level 7 must be unlocked as a community. Keep
in mind that nobody in Beta 1 would have attained this. Does anyone have a
prediction for Beta 2 on how many will?

On the Nile,
Pharaoh (Teppy)

O_O Beta is coming out! For those who want to try the game out, it's downloadable at http://www.atitd.com . Also, note that ATITD is one of the few MMO games that have a Linux and MAC version.

Citizens of Egypt,

I'm really excited to finally be able to announce the Beta Test for A
Tale in the Desert III:

Friday, 4/28/2006, 12:00 Noon EST (GMT-0500)

A Tale in the Desert I had a frantic pace early on. Most technologies
were fully player-unlockable, and so it was a race to open as many per
region as possible, and a race to learn as many skills as possible, and to
build everything. Not surprisingly, burnout was the overwhelming reason for
people leaving the game.
A Tale in the Desert II attempted to enforce a more moderate pace. Though
some people felt they couldn't keep up, just as many left due to wanting to
play faster.
I don't think it's possible for a Tale to be slow and fast at the same
time, and I think the faster pace was more fun. So, the plan for ATITD 3 is
fast paced. I'll give plenty of "Pace Yourself" warnings, but the game
won't try to enforce it.
The notion of player-unlockable content has even been expanded: At
release we should have 28 Tests (plus the 7 Initiations) unlockable. We'll
have somewhat fewer than that at the start of Beta. To unlock a Test, visit
the appropriate University, and (for instance) "Petition for the Test of
the Acrobat." You will be told:

"The Test of the Acrobat must be petitioned by one
with Dexterity of at least Seven, even fleetingly."

So this means that as soon as Cooking has been unlocked, and enough
recipes are known to create a meal with +7 Dexterity, The Test of the
Acrobat can be unlocked. The person who actually does the unlocking is
recognized in the System channel.
I'm planning to do two beta sessions - the first will last for about a
week, and is primarily for experienced/existing ATITD players. It will be
an "open" beta in the sense that no special keys are needed to enter, and
the goal is to get the right feel for that first critical week. Expect lots
of developer-chats and quick changes to difficulty levels.
The second Beta will last for about three weeks, and we're partnering
with FilePlanet for that one. I expect that Beta to have a somewhat more
refined/mature feel to it. I'll send another newsletter next week with
details on how to join.
A Tale in the Desert II will continue without interruption throughout
both Betas.
Ok, next item is the preorder system. Three different packages this time,
with some options. All of these come with a T-Shirt by default:

3-Month: In-game goodies include choice of a Sheep, a Medium Stone,
or a Compound Trim Upgrade. Also access to the 12 legacy
avatars normally reserved for Tale 1/2 players, a Specimen
Case for preserving unique cut gems, a Flight-of-the-Phoenix
fireworks assortment (28 shells), and a miniature assortment
in Beta. $49.95

6-Month: All of the above (Sheep, Stone AND Trim upgrade), an
additional Specimen Case, an additional "Fury of Isis"
fireworks assortment, and some extra fireworks during Beta.
$89.95

12-Month: All of the 6-Month package, plus something that only a more
intimate game like ATITD can offer: One of the ATITD team will
visit your camp and help decorate it with favorite species of
flora, terrain customization, and decorative items. Not in a
way that gives a gameplay advantage (no forests of wood),
but just as a way of saying thank you. For those ordering
this package, I have a few extra gifts, including a rare
"Octec's Glory" ancient fireworks package, a Founder's Chat
Bubble, and an additional pair of specimen cases. Since we're
a small team, this one is naturally limited. $169.95

Also, the folks at Heavy Melody Music have put together a CD of all the
music they composed for ATITD, packaged with screenshots of the game, in a
jewel case. The CD even includes one unreleased track. Add this to any of
the above packages for $6.95.
Well, time for me to get back to code. I'm really happy with how A Tale
in the Desert III is turning out, and I look forward to these next few
weeks, and then to launch. Can't wait to see everyone there.

Dawn in the Desert,
Pharaoh (Teppy)

Download for Windows, Linux and Macintosh:
http://www.atitd.com
Official IRC chat channel:
irc.sorcery.net port 6667 channel #ATITD

~I'm too sexy for my love too sexy for my love~

-I'm too Sexy, Right Said Fred

Doing a Bjork alrite.

BTW, it's a contest to see who has the funniest captions. More information here so click! And check out the other funnies too!