Some human beings cannot help themselves. They have an impossible to suppress sense of adventure and enjoy trying things which are entirely alien to their ever-limited scope of ever-expanding interests. For the longest time, I loved tabletop role-playing immensely. It pretty much defined my childhood with how much of my time and passion it consumed. Of course, being a girl in a male-centric game setting wasn't always easy but I played well with others and tolerated their treatment of a newcomer or a seemingly naive female well over the years because tabletop role-play was a personal and social activity and players and dungeon masters alike valued their reputations in tightly knit social circles.

Bearing this in mind, I eagerly set out to try my luck with the online role-playing community. For once, all of my role-playing circles were becoming rather inactive due to various individuals having a lot going on in their lives at once. For the first time in my life, I had to dive into the dangerously anonymous and troll ridden environment known as The Internet. New Worlds Ateraan, they called it. Seemed like a wonderful idea at the time! A somewhat generous list of races to play. Decent enough guild choices despite there not being many to choose from. A promise of role play being wonderful, active, and very much in character. I would invest many hours of my time into enriching myself with knowledge of the game mechanics, lore, and story of this world. And many more hours were sunk into creating a genuinely unique character to explore it. I pride myself in putting much thought into my characters, you see, for I do not right stories or participate in role play as anything even close to resembling an amateur. I do this for a decent living already but want to have some fun with it from time to time.

But one Ateraan player with a little seniority over me in this specific setting couldn't help but throw some vaguely out of character shade my way using her in character dialogue to call me a stupid, ignorant newbie and contrive some sort of harassing dramatic role-play with me when I refused to lick her boots. In a tabletop environment, this usually ends rather quickly with a dungeon master fading it out for what it is and giving the encounter a redo or even kicking a toxic member out of the aprty for a while if it continues to come up as an issue. This facilitates keeping a clean role-play environment free of OOC stupidity negatively affecting an IC world. It also facilitates reducing a delay in story progression over this becoming a recurring argument between players.

Almost supernaturally, the way Norman -a staff member of New Worlds Ateraan- handled this, a not too uncommon instance of bullying a newbie bleeding into in character dialogue, was by investigating an immediate false claim by the harassing perpetrator herself and her friends that I was breaking another entirely unrelated rule. This suspiciously escalated the problem to Norman himself and sidelined my own claim entirely even when I was found innocent.

Amusingly, even the most objective of evidence was not used to resolve my issue with the player of the character named Shadeau and I was eager to debate my disagreement with Norman. Norman was eager and willing to participate in this debate rather than close it, himself. And since he could not convince me to agree with him, he banned me from using all out of characters channels on New Worlds Ateraan. There not being a rule that I have to agree with him, he had abused his power to shut me up rather than use his power properly by telling me to drop it. In fact, if he had wished me to drop it, he had plenty of opportunities to tell me to do so. I could have then done so. And if I had continued then, I would have only then been guilty of breaking the rules of New Worlds Ateraan and had earned myself any sort of punishment. He then could have explained his community's sideways rules to me using the proper English that was missing in all of the help files combined.

Rather than take this lying down like so many girl gamers, I gladly shared the issue with a few willing Guides. Eagerly, Norman imprisoned me within a private the gaming environment so I was unable to speak with anyone else at all in order to shut me up entirely because his good oldbie friends were kissing his boots and disagreeing with me to be on his best side despite quickly piling objective facts adding up to his disfavor. I got to spend some time imprisoned for deigning to disagree with the Gods of New Worlds Ateraan, a place I am sure is full to the rafters with individuals who have role played far less than myself and probably wouldn't last five minutes in a meeting with publishers who have me on a first name basis and exchange birthday cards with me.

First impressions of Ateraan? There is not enforced role-play as advertised, but Enforced Role-Play Lite�. If someone bleeds OOC bullying of you being a newbie into IC dialogue as a form of contrived nipping social competition in the bud like this is middle school, you will be forced to break the game's own rules and role-play being harassed unfairly IC as the bullying is then compounded into unfair IC gossip and lies and it becomes outright bullying in a game that pretends to be newcomer friendly.

Penultimately, the staff members of the game are barely aware of the concept of role-play. Ultimately, they are incapable of maintaining a safe and friendly role-playing environment as a result of that. And finally nailing the coffin firmly shut, their own pride matters more than their own rules being clearly written and politely enforced.

As a sidebar, the conveniently made up unwritten rule that OOC harassment issues should be handled IC used as the excuse to bully me about rather than teach me said rule as a newcomer from literally dozens of other communities that would never ever do things that way doesn't really help me trust these people to be anything but extremely shady. If they were wise, they would have been a lot nicer to me and tricked some donation money out of me before revealing the truth that they hate new people learning how to play their game and want them to suffer miserably their vaguely excused wrongdoings for hours.

If you are a good human being and play Ateraan, I pray that you find a better-led community soon with similarly promising world building. But for the rest... Well, you made your bed and you can lie in it for all I care. Especially those of you who blindly defend unwritten, vague, or just made up rules and punishments. Perhaps I will consider reviewing this MUD specifically in my own community while I tear apart the socially incompatible mess that is the typical MUD in my experiences so far. Perhaps I will not. It depends on how angry I still am by the time I compile my information into my own content.

Roleplay isn't an MMO. You don't just get to bully people for being new. And you don't just get to pass poorly written garbage as rules. And you don't just get to repeatedly silence someone for pointing out that bullying needs to be resolved OOC for role-play to be fun. That's like yelling at newbies that they're wrong while simultaneously giggling you're sticking up for someone you've literally known five seconds longer and like more than your community growing, surviving and improving. That's, in fact, a perfect tutorial on how to get a stale, dying community with nothing but hesitantly returning people who probably are only returning because they sank a lot of time, money, and creative juice into your game.

This unfortunate incident aside, I really could use some tips on which MUDs are actually playable and have staff members that do not make excuses, ask loaded questions, or even outright spin topics to be right when, fundamentally in the sense of role-playing itself, they are so painfully wrong every moment they touch their keyboards. I want my content when I review the MUD community as a whole to have at least a shred of hope in it. I'll make money whether I rip on MUDs in general or not, so it benefits only yourselves and the potential curiosity of my own readers enriching your own communities to prove that MUD can be safe, fair, and fun.

Many reviews constantly bash on Andrew, the lead designer. I can't judge them. I have played a lot of muds and I am aware staff can be like that. /Because they are human/. They are not perfect. So let's review everything we have seen spoken negatively about the game.

Andrew Is Doing Illegal Sh**

All issues about Andrew being a normal human cough*who made and makes mistakes*cough are irrelevant. Thus lets focus on the real juicy matter at hand. His donation system. So think about this: do you truly believe NWA has not been reported for all these -illegal- stuff Andrew seemingly does? Because the implication is he uses donations and as a thank you gift progressively reward you until a max point. And that pretty much everything he has done is illegal at the /Federal/ level, including his website which 'stole' copyright images. Ouch. But what's this? The man is still there with not a single issue about him breaking the law. That pretty much discards the so called 'immoral system' he uses. Because just the stolen copyright things that are still on the website, should have been taken down. Nope. Still there. This leads to the only one known /FACT/: Andrew has never broken a law concerning his mud.

Donation System

This is the system Andrew has to make money for himself. Gasp! What a crime! He asks for donations to make money to pay house mortgage or rent. Utilities. Food. Gas. Phone bill. Server bills. Staff. Etc. So he offers a choice to the gamers: Money vs Time. So if you are in a rush? Sure! Throw $1000 and there you go! Instant powerful character! Hey just like in WoW or Guild Wars 2 with there cash item that gives you +XX levels ahead of the competition. But you seem to forget that no matter how much money you spend that other guy can and will kick your ass even in a same skills fight. Yes the player with no perks has to play more carefully but these people have time under their belt. So don't whine about dropping $1000 and not being a special snowflake. Either way there are lot of Triple AAA titles that does this same exact thing.

It Has Low Quality RP

I would facepalm here by now. So I'll use another popular text game Cyberphere Sindome, a great game, go play. Anyway in this text rpg, just like New Worlds, their emotes rely heavily on socials and says most of the time with more wordy emotes and poses when required. And guess what? They are one of the top text games out there. Bonus points for offering a very sweet perk for just $200!

Staff Play Powerful Characters

Seriously? We are actually going to whine, complain or rant about that one? It is not a secret that in many text rpg's Staff are the most powerful PC's. Uh... kiddo they better be. Staff has the right to slap you if you are messing with their work. These text rpg games mean a lot to the staff. And is no surprise they will use the full range of their powers to pimp slap you. I'm not even quite sure why this is an issue. Makers of their games, no matter the medium, will always do this. It's like staff 101 and shouldn't be a surprised by now. As even in Destiny 2 this has been done.

The MUD Is Stagnant

Well okay man. Aside from triple AAA juggernauts in MMO like WoW, Guild Wars 2, Final Fantasy 14... can you mention text rpg's that do that? The closest thing would be MuSH based Arx. But guess what? Those changes are off screen. Yes they do happen and affect the lore. But the main playing area is just the city of Arx and a few rooms. Anything else is made by a player DM. Many games that are triple AAA don't have this if they are even remotely online because they are not single player games. So if real juggernauts can't do this all the time? Why would this text game be different?

It Is Extremely Grindy

You really want to go there... Okay buddy. Feel free to mention any game based on RPG mechanics that -does not- have a grind in them. I'll wait. In the meantime know that as long as people have fun, they'll gladly do it. See Donation System if you want to shave the grind off. But the game is set to at least, minimum, two years or more for a character. Barring small instances where permadeath happens. So again I compare it to Sindome, Legends of the Jedi or Arx where people are able to not instantly be permed in a fight. And were it saved for the last story of a plot arc or if the person is a troll or such well... those always get killed quick in any game that protects it from such players.

Ateraan Is Not Perfect

There is not a single game that is perfect. They are all flawed in some way. But people do play his game. And despite all the criticism, it's still alive. Even when I divide 121 players by 2.5 for an estimate, I still get 40-50 players. Bonus if you knew that Arx allows two players at the same time.

Idling So That Time Passed By

I agree a bit on this one. And I'm certainly trying to see if a who active can be used to find role-play. I also advised that idlers don't be in the public area. But moreover that idlers can be identified so one knows what ro send to their mind. It also lets people see the psychic channels, channels that are IC and work much like Sindome. And yes I played a lot of Sindome as you may have noticed. Anyhow there is nothing wrong with idling and leaving the game up. I do believe the experience caps you get per Borg should be somehow based to character level. But either if there were zero changes I can deal with it because its a minimum two year plan (IF you survive that long :P). And so has a lot of long time non donating players.

Conclusion

In the end there is always two sides to a coin. You don't need to believe me. Don't be a robot or a puppet, find out about things your self. If the game ain't for you, delete character and nope it.

I've come and gone from this game time and time again. I could sit here and give a review about all of the terrible things that I've witnessed or experienced first hand but I don't believe I would have enough characters (even with 10,000) to write it all down.

Simply enough I would never recommend this game to anyone.

Not to roleplayers, not to casual Mudders, not to hardcore pvpers. Not to anyone who doesn't have either an addiction to playing with incredibly unstable social circles that will and have targeted not only their players oocly but the players families as well.

With the recent reboot the game allows the players a hint of anonymity that they need. Though that has been short lived as well with the active cliques who speak in discord/Skype and actively target others for things as simple as gender, grammar, age, sexuality etc.

Mechanically the game is stale, I would say it is pay to win but you really can't win in a game where you could easily lose hundred of dollars worth of materials ic because of staff interference, bugs, other players who aren't happy with you that evening.

No staff won't replace your things.

They have strict rules against things such as Rape. I would love to sing praises in their honor for this. If it was enforced. It is alive and well in game as it always has and often goes into blackmailing ooc. Staff has been notified repeatedly about this and often it takes the loudest (and most financially invested) players to get then to react.

Want to join that cool guild? Have sex with my character.

No? Log off or I will spam you with sexual emotes that you haven't consented to. Block me? Jokes on you now I can pk you. Teehee.

This truly is just the tip of the iceburg.

The mechanics are shallow, the world is small and lacks immersion, most things that are in the game don't work. Staff is abusive and sadly the players are easily ten times worse than any power hungry zealot administration.

This game is for the sick, a cycle of abuse between players who feel they need to 'get then before they get me.'

I gave it another try and was sincerely sad when I saw the same cliques breaking the same rules and bullying the same lower level players.

If you're still wondering, I would never recommend this to anyone unless you are bored and needing a story on how ridiculous some people can be on the internet. If you're looking for entertainment in the mental instability of other human beings behind a screen, New worlds ateraan is the best game for you.

Godspeed

This is a game I have had a love hate relationship with for many of years. When it’s good it’s amazing when it’s bad it always left a bad taste in my mouth. But recently the game underwent a reboot and it seems to of cleared the stale air that had been plaguing it for ages and seems to be driving more roleplay over grinding which honestly it needed and the staff team seems focused on committing more of a player focused narrative which I always felt this was a needed thing for a game of this size.

With the playerbase taking the changes in stride it’s hard to not give a serious recommendation to at least check out the reboot I know I plan on giving it a long stay to keep seeing the improvements to which the head GM is delivering on in spades. I came into this thinking this would be horrible and I would be writing a fairly negative review but I’ve been convinced otherwise by the quality of content put in by the staff and the other roleplayers in the game.

Keep it up Cook and crew! Former player of Kaine

Ateraan is a love/hate MUD/TORG. You love it. You hate it. Sometimes both at the exact same time. Years later, after four years here (roughly), I'm still here. My fair share of complaints have been heard by a lot of staff members. Many know me and how vocal I can be OOCly when there isn't something I like. Many times staff has helped me out and remained understanding when they really didn't have a reason. It's for these reasons that I'm still around, despite taking a few breaks here and there.

As I said before:It's a love/hate relationship, but that's why I think that I enjoy it. No game is fun if you win all the time. Especially if you lose all the time. Many people will point out the negatives, but seldom do you hear the positives. There's many adages about this sort of behavior, too.

In the end, love it or hate it, I still play. The combat is fluid and grand. The players can be fun and unique. The roleplay can be different if you make it that way, and there's usually an open-end that allows creativity to some pretty vast extents.

There are some downs however, and some 'ehs' that could go either way. Some of the downs I would say are... things can get pretty stagnant. Sometimes an INPC has to be involved to get world roleplay moving. Usually the INPCs can halt that roleplay if it changes things a little too much. This, I fear, is a complaint of many.

At the same time... I do understand why it is the way it is. People can simply be... cruel! They want their buddies to win and their group. The INPCs have to make the mud fair to everyone, so it isn't justice to say that this is completely wrong of staff to do. In essences... It's sort of needed.

Another complaint is new areas. It's been a while. Much has been promised on that and... we're still (mostly) waiting. Some things have been added, but it's slow. Is this a big negative? Not really. There's a lot of places to explore and you can usually find something to do. They will come (probably) in time. It doesn't really affect gameplay anyways. It's more a gripe for some older players that have seen the vast expanses of the current in-game world that is 'visible'.

Another fuss is higher-level powers. This is sort of an understandable thing to note and Andrew DOES fix them. Let me stress this: HE DOES FIX THEM. It may take a week, or a month, but they do get fixed. All my powers thus far, save for the recently acquired ones... have been fixed and made operational. This is also an understandable reason. There is only one coder (to my knowledge.) That being Andrew. Between dealing with complaints, making new areas, and people getting into the higher levels slowly, it takes time to go down the 'to do list'.

Let's be honest, you're probably not going to prioritize something that affects one person compared to something that is affecting multiple. Priorities.

The game has its ups and downs. I certainly still play despite it all. If you positively want an experience that is very life-like, then this is the mud for you. If you want a mud that rewards you with a huge power-gap if you actually spend the time and effort? This is the mud for you.

If you're wanting a mud that bends to your demands all the time? You might want to keep looking, but I mean... good luck with that!

New Worlds Ateraan is the one MUD/TORG that I have come back to over and over again.

Roleplay is enforced but understand it is not like a MUSH. People do not generally do paragraph long emotes. They do not do an emote for every breath they take, but they do roleplay. People create their character and stay in tune with who that character is throughout the game.

I have read a lot of the reviews, especially those regarding staff, and I would like to say this: Staff has built and created this game. It is fair, in my opinion, that they also be allowed to play it. They deal, constantly, with the playerbase and try to find solutions as fair as they can between everyone involved in conflict situations. If someone is found to be cheating, staff will often take care of it and if that cheating has affected IC, there will be an IC solution. This is something that I think people need to keep in mind as they will not know everything that is going on. However, staff is fair, they treat all the players fairly and as for their characters, their characters treat all other characters appropriately with how the roleplay demands.

Now that that is out of the way, I would like to say that Ateraan (New Worlds) is an enjoyable game where you can roleplay intensely or, if you want a break, you can go fish on your boat in the sea. There is a lot of different scenarios within the game that allow for almost everyone to find a roleplay they enjoy, everything from religious, to militaristic, to feuds. From the ease-in-to-it roleplay of the North Kingdom to the unforgiving roleplay of the south.

I highly recommend everyone to check out New Worlds Ateraan. There is a wonderful system to help you get started and if you want to just simply have a great time roleplaying while playing the mechanics of an actual MUD, this is a great place for you.

I tried NewWorlds a while ago, for a day or two. It wasn't a good fit for me. I found the roleplay to be minimal and of newbie-quality. Perhaps that has changed by now, but the level grinding put a sour taste in my mouth. I just enjoy RPIs better.

It may very well be the perfect MUD for others. I admire the staff's dedication and enthusiasm for the game. I frequently see roleplay events announcements on the forums, bursting with zest. The owners of New Worlds really believe in this game, and that is to be admired.

People need to understand the biggest problem with this game: Andrew the 'Cook.'

He is the most arbitrary administrator I have ever seen in any game. He is moody and bi-polar, and you'll never know when he's going to lash out.

The game claims to be free to play. This is simply false. There is a donation system in place which makes advancement past a certain point very difficult if you're unwilling to shell out literally thousands of dollars for perks.

If you do decide to be a high donator, then you'll get away with anything.

If you don't, you'll be a target of his and he will bully you out of the game.

He allows his (Very few) friends to cheat cheat cheat, and then will take decent players who actually contribute to the game, and target them as cheaters, then ruin his own horribly coded powers for entire guilds.

Unless you're really hoping to develop Stockholm Syndrome, steer well clear of this game.

I must say that I've played many MUD's, MUSH's, MOO's and TORG's and just about everything the net has to offer but none have captivated me more than New Worlds Ateraan. If text only roleplaying games are your thing then I encourage you to come and give New Worlds Ateraan a try.

The qualities that stood out for me were how newbie and blind friendly it was. They have an excellent tutorial and guide system that rallies around the new player to make them feel really welcomed from the get go. (This was a huge plus for me because how many times have you started a new game and you just wander around aimlessly trying to understand how to start out or what to do next.) It's players helping players and I liked that.

There are many different races, guilds, clans and religions to choose from so there is something for every player to become a part of. The game is designed for creativity and you, the player, have so many choices to individualize your character.

In addition to that, you can own and design your own homes complete with functional beds, swimming pools and so much more! They also have ships in many different styles and you can sail the seas exploring islands or harpoon whales or go fishing. You can join sea caravans or go out to fight pirates.

They have coloseums and arenas to show off your fighting prowess or if fightings not your thing then head over to the amphitheater and put on a play or watch one of the many other player driven performances.

The crafting is excellent from designing clothes, perfumes, lotions, foods, weapons, armours and so much more. You can even own and describe your own pet.

Granted I've only scratched the surface of this game but theres something for everyone here. If you just want to hunt to gain experience and coins or roleplay within a guild, clan or religion, I can guarantee that anyone who enjoys fantasy TORG's will find something for themselves here.

Avoid this poor excuse for a mud. Staff is fickle and attempts to 'balance' out sides by metagaming and breaking their own rules, or empowering other players to do the same. If you are in a position and have worked to 'get on top', expect to be targeted by staff's own characters, like Serenth, Jysove, Warg, Etc.

They are incapable of upholding their own rules, as well as adhering to them.

There are many reviews listed on this site - many are helpful, some are just rants. In hopes of this falling into 'helpful', but also being honest, I am going to segment my review to address basics, roleplay, issues, and the like. Hopefully, you will find this helpful.

Some information about my experience to start with. I am not a gamer - I don't borg or level grind. I came to this for the roleplay aspect of it, and it was my first game of its kind. Previously, I was a member of a very intensive roleplaying community in forums. I have played the game off and on for several years. Moving on.

Basics: The game is very new-player user friendly, compared to others I have tried. It has a lot of help files, a nice tutorial, and even an in game system in the north for new arrivals. This is likely one of the greatest aspects of the game. The mechanics are easy to understand and use, and the race selection and history is pretty easy to grasp and friendly to dive into. The world is not as large as one might expect of a MUD this old, but it has plenty to occupy you with for awhile, though some aspects are clearly incomplete (something the staff often hint at being expanded, though thus far I have not seen such). It is very blind-player friendly as well, which I thought was quite a bonus (Though I am not a blind player).

Roleplay: For a roleplay-enforced MUD, the roleplay is very lax, unfortunately. Especially in the north. I have played predominantly in the south (Darmahk) and can state that it is a little better, but not by much. Over time, from when I first started until now, I have witnessed a dramatic decline in roleplay, from its prevalence to its integrity. While a few gems remain in this game, by and large, if you are looking for a serious roleplay experience, look elsewhere. Most now playing are obsessed with level grinding, since this is the only respected consistently way of gaining respect, and those who do roleplay, primarily only focus on smut roleplay. You generally never see them around unless they are trying to pick up your character. THAT SAID. You also get what you put in. If you make a conscious effort to roleplay with people, and I mean more than just standard smily emotes and basic pleasantries, you may stumble upon those rare gems. Or you may not - its all about luck and how determined you are. I will state that I have never had trouble finding people who enjoy my roleplay enough to stick around my characters, but I have a particularly engaging style. But, you will still have to deal with the copious players who have no roileplay integrity, who do not competently play a character, and who do often act irrationally. Play at your own risk, in this regard.

Story: This MUD, unfortunately, does not have a very evolving story. There are many things implemented into the game already, but as far as story development goes, this game lacks it. The big events they do have are often not fully original and don't occur often enough. A roleplay event by this games standard is the Warlord attacking your city, killing your weak, and causing everyone to get grumpy for losing skills. If you like that kind of thing, more power to you, but from experience, it really just pisses people off and makes the borgers more borgy.

Issues: So, a lot of reviews focus on staff issues. I will offer what I can on this subject. Staff, by and large, do try in this game. I honestly believe that they care, even if just a little. THAT SAID, they can be jerks, especially with their characters. But in my experience, while everyone points a finger at Andrew's character, I have had minimal issues with him. Having played mostly females, he has never sexually harassed any of them, and was even polite to my character after she declined his advances. Does the harassment happen? Based on the number of claims, most likely, but I still believe we can be mature and work through such a situation like adults. And if you aren't an adult, don't play this game. I have had more issues with other staff characters being dictators in the south and living solely to cause people trouble. It often ruins roleplay, but I know this is unlikely to change. As for how they handle situations, I have had the good and the bad. I think, like most people, they get good moments of judgement and bad moments, and have good and bad days. When you agree to play a game, you agree to play by the creator's rules, so whether you think they are fair or not doesn't matter. You really just have to deal or leave.

Donations: This has its own section, because I feel you should know how this effects the game. While originally introduced simply as a way to support staff, with no benefits aside from roleplay, the donation system gives certain players vast advantages, not only in items for their character, but also in favoritism. Rules have been forcefully bent to suit players who donate copious amounts of money to the game, and this is unlikely to change any time soon. I wouldn't want to offend my bag of money either. But it causes a lot of conflict in the game, and you should be warned that it does make a difference - often a big one.

Overall: Know what you want out of a game. I see very little point in sugar coating the issues of this game, and there are plenty of them. Lots of excellent players have quit this game because of what it is slowly becoming. But, the game is easy to play. It can have its really fun, ridiculous moments. It does have some awesome players. For all that is wrong with it, I still play it. But don't go into this ignorant. I am not going to say whether you should or should not join this game, because either way, I would be hypocritical. But you should know what to expect, simply so you are not disappointed if it doesn't meet your standards. If you are looking for a light roleplay environment in which you can grind a character up to high levels that take ridiculous amounts of actual time achieving, this game is perfect for you. If that isn't what you want, think about what it offers before you try it out.

I hope this helps!

I have a love/hate relationship with this game. Some of the biggest problems, to echo many of the reviews, come from staff.

The other problems with this game are it's OOCness. It's supposed to be a strict IC only, RP only MUD. However, players are OOC =as hell= and never get punished for it. They use OOC information instantly, they form cliques on Skype and share information that their characters would ICly have no way of knowing. I've even seen evidence that someone was - in real time - using information from one Guild's chat as IC information for his other character.

Alts abuse the powers of their other characters. Thieves are the worst. If I could give Andrew one piece of advice, it'd be to nuke the Thief Guild from existence. Far from the best RPers on the game, as advertised, they are completely horrid at RP and are the most OOC people I've ever met in any RP mud, ever. And that says a lot. They use OOC info constantly, they use their info gained on their thieves cross-alt, and they settle grudges their non-Thief might have with their Thieves. It's atrocious gameplay, and I've never met a Thief that didn't abuse their position OOCly.

So, I've only been playing New Worlds for a month and I felt like I should weigh-in with my experiences thus far. I started out making my first character in the North, which is more newbie friendly and after a couple of weeks, I became a bit bored and made an alt in the South which is advertised as being harsher and not newbie friendly.

I'm going to start out with my biggest beef with this MUD so far. I've seen New Worlds advertise itself both as RPE and RPI, BUT... okay. I hate to be a RP snob (but I am a RP snob) and for the most part, the 'RP' I've seen on New Worlds has consisted mostly of:

Bob nods. Bob laughs. Bob smiles. Bob asks, 'How are you today?' I probably wouldn't have even stuck with the game this long if I hadn't latched onto another player on my northern character - a player who is, hands down, one of the best writers I've ever come across in my 15 years of RPing. I pretty much exclusively RP with him now as... once again, I hate to be a RP snob, but I haven't really met anyone else on the game who I feel is worth my time. I'm not big on idle chit-chat tavern RP. I don't want to sit there for an hour and endure a one-dimensional scene of just says and nods and smiles and laughs.

That said, after making my southern character, I have run into three more people who seem to put actual effort into emoting and RPing rather than just relying on built-in emotes and says. But they seem to be the exception rather than the rule.

So far as I've observed, people tend to break character often, making references to OOC movies and books, poking fun at flukes in the code (ex. 'I just crippled a snake's arm. I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW SNAKES HAD ARMS.'), and just otherwise being silly in an OOC way in their emotes (ex. Bob boggles at the concept of the fourth wall. <- Yes, that is a real emote I witnessed on this game.) At times it feels more like a chat room than a MUD where roleplay is supposed to be a key feature. At least it does in the North. My RP has been so limited in the South that it's difficult to say how the majority of players act down there. I imagine they're a good deal more serious, though, as the entire IC culture of the South is simply more serious!

That's not to say I haven't liked my experience there so far. There are things to enjoy! For example, I love that, in the North, new players can receive an IC tour of the city which is given by another player. I hate automated tours in games, so that was a fun and new experience. You have to RP through the process of joining a guild rather than just automatically starting out the game in a guild, and in my experience, that made for a bit of fun RP (if a bit one-sided at times). Sailing about is fun and there are various islands out in the ocean that you can explore. And the playerbase is large, though the game's mechanics encourage idling (several things being set on timers which only progress by being logged in to the game), so even though there's usually about 130 people shown as being online, they're not actually all there actively playing.

If you're looking for a casual game to dump your time into, then New Worlds is probably the game for you. And you should check it out! It's nice and fun and light. If you're looking for a serious RP experience with intriguing plots, however, then I'd say you should probably keep looking. Once again, I'm not looking to hate on the RP community of New Worlds as there are a few gems buried throughout the world, but, overall, it's definitely not the sort of RP environment you would imagine when you hear the phrases RPE or RPI.

I've been playing at New Worlds Ateraan for about 3 months and it has been quite fun, except for the last invasion that I died to this orc warrior. It's a dangerous game but that's what makes it exciting and to be honest it is only as dangerous as you make it to be.

Things I like: The social game, interaction with other players and there are a lot of them! I love the fact that there are two places to start that are very different. I love the ocean and ships. I like that there are guilds like merchants (I'm a merchant) that allow you to do a lot of things besides just adventure. I love the staff who helped me a lot when I started. The creation and tutorial system on this game is better than any I've played and I've played a lot! I like the big events here, like invasions (even though I died on the last one. Did I mention that?).

Things I don't like: I'd like to see more religions. There are three: good bad and neutral (I think). I wish merchants could use more weapons, though I understand why they don't.

I love this game and you will too if you play for a bit. If you are new, the coolest thing is to do the tour. My tour guide was really good and it is done by other players.

Maybe I will even tour you!

First of all, I don't want to make this review the only factor in your decision on whether you play this MUD or not. I have been playing New Worlds off and on. I made two characters other than this one. But I stopped playing because I lost sense of my character's concepts. But I'm back now, and I'm in love with this game, and there isn't anything else like it, so I'm here. It has good things and bad things about it, like any other computer program. So I'll start off with the good.

First, there is plenty of roleplay available. Most of mine has been in the tavern or game area below it, but I also had a good session of RP in the training grounds. I'm stating this to show that immigrants, the game's term for newbies, can find lots of roleplay. It may not always be big either, just helping an immigrant get some new clothes and stuff, but it's great and the community is welcoming. Secondly, you don't hav to hack and slash to level up. Gardening, along with just meeting new people and using the intro command with the people you meet, are good ways to get XP too. Another thing I like is that when a player dies, it's announced to the whole MUD, and I did get some help recovering my stuff after I died. Yet another way to get RP, even if it is just a simple discussion that doesn't last long. Also, the game is really friendly toward blind players, so if you are one, like me, just read the help file on registering and follow the directions in it.

As I said, there are flaws. The leveling system is time-consuming. But if you have a good mixture of determination and having the good sense to stop before you get too fed up, it's quite enjoyable. When you're tired of hunting or gardening, you can head to the tavern and maybe make a few friends there, and get back to earning XP when you're ready, no rush. Another flaw is that everything you're wearing and wielding gets removed when you log off, which leads to some embarrassing situations if you're one of those newbies who is used to only having your clothes taken off if you die or something, but it does lead to some decent roleplay. You might even meet a merchant who can get you a nice outfit. Another flaw I find in the game is there isn't enough of a story that makes the game stand out in the crowd of other medieval games. It's kind of good, since I don't have to learn lore while I'm trying to get settled in and whatnot, but I still wish there was more to work with when it comes to the storyline. But over all, if you're into a roleplay-enforced MUD with a huge playerbase, check New Worlds out!

Before I start the regular part of the review, I feel the need to kind of warn people about why I quit playing. The largest problems come from the staff. The game's administrator Andrew has an extremely bad case of narcissism, and an attitude that is juvenile and petty and chauvinistic. His friends and fellow staff members basically run the whole show on their Player toons from behind the scenes, even manipulating events on staff-controlled NPCs to better their Player toons, and in doing so ruin what would be fun roleplay for everyone else. Worse, the administrator plays a godhacked overpowered character named Serenth that is basically a creeper/stalker who sexually harasses the women in a way that doesn't feel like roleplay and bullies the men who don't kiss his ass constantly and he never suffers the normal consequences everyone else does for his actions. Trust me, I know from personal experience how uncomfortable he can make a female player feel. The administrator is more interested in playing for some kind of wish fulfillment and not for the betterment of the game. He is also very heavy with cronyism, as those in his inner circle are the ones put into the supposedly elite roleplay Guild which he personally oversees, a Thief Guild that has some of the absolute worst Roleplayers I've ever seen but persist anyway because of donations or friendship status. If Andrew had any sense he would get rid of all the staff Player toons, but as stated earlier they play for wish fulfillment and nothing else. Players are encouraged to donate ridiculous sums of money, up to a thousand dollars, in order to get certain benefits or goalposts not available through normal means. I'm not sure what codebase New Worlds Ateraan uses, but I don't think that is good practice under any license. Okay, with all that sad stuff said.../takes a breath/ On to the normal review. It is a Roleplay enforced game with a a lot of standard fare sword & sorcery motifs. Players range from humans, elves, dwarves, etc. There is a good city and a wicked city to choose from. There is a god of light and a god of dark and a god of balance, covering the standard D&D alignments in the form of faiths you can devote to. Leveling progresses at a snail's pace, and this can be a good thing or a bad thing dependent on your outlook. The map is relatively small for an older MUD. Roleplay is always on, and there are some really talented roleplayers, but status is still given to the grinders and the high leveled people over the great roleplayers.

I have decided to finally write a review of New Worlds: Ateraaan.

I have played since 2010, and have been fairly active for most of that time. I have played characters in the North (Gahlen) and south (Darmahk.) Both locations have some excellent roleplay going on.

To those who say that the staff strictly controls things, I would respond that they only do so to the extent of keeping people playing within the rules. I think that, in a few of these instances and not to single any one person out, people get angry when they don't get their way on something. The fact of the matter is that not everybody decides to roleplay like you do, and doesn't have to accept your roleplay as the 'proper' way to get into that guild.

I enjoy the religious roleplay, and the conflicts between North and South. Invasions are typically very exciting as well. There are tons of areas to explore, lots of lore to be found if you'll just look.

What I love the most is the interaction with my guildmates / faithmates. I am stil hooked after four years, and love the game more and more each day.

If you go into NewWorlds with an open mind, and understanding that you won't get your way all the time, then I have yet to find such an exciting way to spend my time.

Now I have not played New Worlds Ateraan long, and yes, I have not played many MUDS. In fact this is my first MUD and what I think to be the one I am going to stick with. I have read every 'review' of NWA here, and while very very few I 'agree' with, most are what I think to be people who are just mad about something happening in game, and they just are trying to vent their hate as they did something wrong, or lost something. So I hope to write this and hopefully shed a true light on the matter. So here we go!

Starting: The tutorial, is absolute wonderful, you pick a name and race, and then are placed into the small room. They hand hold you slightly here, so you can get used to how a MUD works. Typing 'say' to talk, or 'attack (thing)' to attack. Even teaching how to ask NPCs for quests and such, and the NPCs in the Tutorial have a small storyline. In one of the first rooms, it teaches you how to chat in one of the many channels in game, such as 'OOC' or the Question' channel. So I typed in the 'Tutorial' channel, and something I did not expect at almost midnight, someone messaged me back and welcomed me. Sadly my name was a little bit common, and they asked if I could change it slightly. They even gave me a very nice alternative that I like and so I remade the char, and went on. Just a minor problem, that I understand. We all must be creative with our names. If you are playing a lykan, do not name yourself bob. All in all, the Tutorial is a wonderful and nice experience to anyone who has not played a MUD before. If you have already played MUDs or NWA, you can skip the Tutorial, so don't worry.

Char Creation: After you finish the tutorial or skip it, you then pick your starting location. Either Gahlen, the good city, the best place to start for new players. Or the southern city of Darmahk, which is home to slaves, and a lot worse. You pick your Background, sadly there are only six, but they all have a special starting power or bonus. The backgrounds are from a roaming gypsy to a merchant. Also you make your description, which is of course what people see when they 'look' at you. You can even change it in game later by visiting a merchant for a makeover. You of course can be very imaginative with your own description. There are of course then general races, such as humans, dwarves, elves, and such. Though they also have some others, like centaurs, nymphs, and some Anubis like creatures. All in all, the char creation was nice, nothing overpowering and nothing to small. For me, just perfect.

Starting off: In Gahlen, you start out as an Immigrant, and you can request a tour of the city from another player. I found this to be a wonderful way to start RP right off the bat, and even learn where things are. Of course you can deny the tour if you like, but it is perfect if you are new like I was. In NWA, Immigrants are like your novice class. You must get exp and 'crowns', the in game currency, by doing things such as; gardening, fishing, trading, or just hunting. For Immigrants, the Training Ground is by far helpful. Its can provide a slight challenge, and if you do die, you can just ask for some starting things from an NPC to get right back in the fight. After you rest up a little, of course, since you did just get knocked out by that fighter. After quite a bit of figuring things out and training, you level up to level 9 and you must write a history for your char. Just write a small essay for some background on your char. You can look up others histories as well, to get a feel of what you can do. After you finally write your history, met some people, powered your skilled, and got to level 10, you can now join a guild. This is basically your class. You have got your Fighters, Mages, Clerics, Druids, Rogues, and Merchants. The Merchant is in my opinion, downright wonderful. Having another player making you things, or you yourself making things for others. It just gives you a feel like, your not just going to an NPC, and typing 'buy (this, that, and the other)' all day as you do things. Darmahk starting is a lot different, as you start out as a slave. I did not play Darmahk at all, so I do not know much about it there. Though the basics are still the same, but people are a lot more rude, as that is how the society is there.

General Gameplay: The general game is basically this, train and get crown. Sadly that is what a lot of it is. Though the general population of the game, which is sizable of around 100+ at all times, will keep RP generally interesting depending on your type of char and how you RP yourself. Something that really helps, is the player driven events as well as the admin events. Some player driven events are caravans, that you can join as a bodyguard to get some crowns and also to get more beer and food for your local and others taverns. Other things are some type of sports, and even auctions. The admins also run events, such as something such as a rat infestation, to a full scale invasion, to the gods themselves fighting each other. during such things as invasions, immigrants of course are to be helped and rounded into the safe areas, such as the Immigrant guild, or the nearby church/temple, seeing as they can not fight well enough yet. The events are mostly frequent and are quite fun, as even the three faiths can get closer to their actual faith in the game

*insert rage comment about why I only said good things*: I spoke on what is good about the game, so people can enjoy what really goes on. Now if you will let me finish, I will speak on the bad things. The world is not that big. It is good and very sizable, but you are limited on quite a lot in terms of levels and you needing help on getting to places. Such as a low level going into a nearby forest to kill a fox, but a boar comes up and kills you. Though that helps you learn about things, so silver linings, right? Moving on, the MANY bugs. Well what did you expect? its going to have bugs. just like your attic, there are bugs in many games. While yes, not getting your gold from a bonus, or your bow and arrow did not award you EXP for that kill, does make you a tad bit mad, just send in a bug report. Its the same in any game. Now, while there 'is' a thieves guild and assassins guild, you can not play one as they are strictly picked by the admins. A def red flag, yes, as I wanted to play a thief myself, though they do this so everyone just does not go and kill everyone in sight. They watch players and if you RP well, they will offer you the position. Just work hard and you might can be one. The OOC...oh the OOC chat that goes on. I find it VERY distracting, though luckily you can turn it off, so only something minor. There are a couple of other things, such as NWA is VERY time extensive. By that I mean it takes a long time to level up once your guilded. some find this bad, some find it good.

Overall: I find NWA to be very good. While some days are slow, at a moments notice, things can go bad and a dragon might attack the town, and the next thing you know, your running around town defending it from orcs, or other things that can happen. If thats not your thing, go buy one of the many ships and go sailing. Fish, Crab of whale in the ocean. The RP is enforced and it does make it a good place. overall, its laid back, and not just 'kill all these, level up, kill all these, level up' hack n' slash types. You can even get exp and crowns from just RPing well. The freewill you have is quite astounding, not as in classes or races, but as in how you want to play.

Verdict: Give it a try, as its a nice time, and new players to NWA and even MUDs like myself, can come and join right in, without knowledge of MUDs. the extra things like housing and boats are nice, as well as much more. The amount of surprises is quite marvelous, if you have the patience to explore and wait. Good things come to those who wait.

Its a simple game of leveling on a fictional planet. Roleplaying is enforced and you have to schmooze your way into a guild with it. You get 7-8 skills to play with based on guild, race and background. There are 1-3 skills per level up to level 30. No max level, just ever increasing costs. Biases and profanity are permitted. Little to no noticeable expansion in the past five years. The roleplay was decent, but has deteriorated over the years. Much of the games fictional history and lore are left intentionally vague. Staff is reluctant to step in and solve RP disputes between players. Staff tends to bully characters or players who aim for change, and hide their culpability behind a rule about not asking on the behalf of others.

New Worlds Ateraan is one of my first addictions and, to be fair, it's not a bad game. In some respects.

First of all, while the world isn't terribly big, it's well done and intricate, with a good number of not-so-easy to find or figure out places and quests (though occasionally one has to spend some time syntax guessing). Very enjoyable. There's quite a lot of exploration to do.

Next, the lore has some potential. It's cliche in many ways - we have elves, dwarves and cat people, just like in almost-every-other-mud-you've-ever-played. We have a religion of light, darkness and a neutral one. We have two major city states, one civilized and the other more barbaric. Not brimming with originality, for sure. But once you get into it, it's not bad - it provides a solid base for some interesting roleplay.

Now, the sad thing is that this base isn't used as it could be. While there are players who admirably attempt to squeeze out a lot out of the faith tenets or whatever little lore we have for various places, races and so on - the staff seems to have no interest in running plots, explaining unexplained things, moving it all somewhere. The world is mostly static, with maybe a major event taking place twice a year or so.

Well, to be completely fair, events happen a little more often than that. But they are usually invasions, which basically mean spawning mobs inside a town for mindless entertainment. Oh, and those can be very random mobs that have you wonder - 'Why the hell would this and that person come all the way here and attack our city?' Don't hold your breath, no one's going to explain anything. Who needs plot and consistency, anyway?

This wouldn't be that terrible if there wasn't another issue. PvP is a part of this game, of course, and so players often try to stir some conflict themselves. Not surprising - conflict is the essence of interesting RP. But! Guess what happens when the quarrel gets a little bigger than some random players throwing insults around and going after each others' heads? Most likely, you're about to see an important staff-controlled NPC pop up, tell his guild/religion/city to stop and... That's that. No more conflict.

There are more ways in which the staff stifles player RP. Staffers are allowed to have PCs, even though - let's face it - just about every player knows who they are. Those 'staff PCs' can also do whatever they please. They freely PK players, take important positions that are meant to be player positions and whatnot. Of course, they are of higher level than almost any player. And so, if you happen to kill a PC who happens to be on good terms with a 'staff PC', you are quite likely to be slain by that staff PC with its unfairly higher level. Hell, I know of an incident where an imm's char took revenge on someone without even having the IC knowledge to back his reasons up.

In good RPE MUDs staff-controlled characters are NPCs meant to create RP opportunities, be parts of plotlines, make the world more interesting. In NWA, they are there to flaunt might and make people behind them feel better about themselves.

I feel like this review is getting too vile. Time to stop. Going back to the good points, NWA provides a good deal of entertainment - learning guild powers, adventuring, generally figuring things out is interesting. It's just that once you get past that, you figure out there's not much more to do and slowly learn of the less pleasant side of the game. A nice MUD to spend some time on, but not worthy of getting really into.

I've been playing this game for years. Probably far too many than are good for me, really. I've seen it grow, and I've seen an entirely new staff come on. For the modern gamer, this game would be great. It's full of kids, lolling out of character at everything they do in character, for the world to see. The staff doesn't have time to take care of its game, and only two of the five active staff, administrators included, do any coding.

This would be fine. But the world is not big, the game is not complete, as other reviews would seem to suggest. Two major guilds in a storyline that is completely nonexistent have yet to be implemented. They are, at best, in conception phase. Some guilds are completely lacking in any form of roleplay, even under staff leadership, it is highly doubtful they will be getting any form of guild roleplay rejuvenation anytime soon.

While some guilds are nothing more than borg centers for those who would want to be a rogue with a guild channel, other guilds are so out of control their leadership has no control over the goings-on in their guild. Considering these tend to be religious guilds, it makes their religious system look like a total and complete farce.

Through all the bad, there is SOME good to be found in newworlds. Some quests can be unique and entertaining, but only repeatable if you want to kill off your character, which has, at higher levels, extreme consequences.

The game accepts donations, in return for tokens, which can be used to either buy levels, or special items that vary from vanity objects to personalized weapons and armor. These are offered at a ridiculous price, as nothing worth even considering buying is under seventy dollars, and so the playerbase tends to donate just to earn their levels, a good way to rob the significance of those of us who took the time to do it the old fashioned way.

In all, nowadays, I would give Newworlds Ateraan one and a half stars, simply for the lack of guild support from staff and ooc bias staff shows in game.

To elaborate on that previous statement, if character A gets a little out of line out of character with staff, don't ever plan on trying to move up into a leadership role in your guild, as leaders are hand picked by staff and administrators, and no amount of positive roleplay will ever undo the negative ooc light that is now cast upon you by the administration.

As a long lasting player in NWA (for over two years) i feel obliged to write a honest and complete review of this game, as it is pretty unique and most interesting, but with a dark side.

Let's start with the good, the world is pretty large (not as much with size, as with hidden areas and secrets to discover) that is actually fun to explore. You do get a thrill and excitement when you traverse into unknown and look for any detail that may warn you about upcoming danger. Descriptions are well written, some of the word-triggers for quests/exploration are clunky at time (for example when you have to figure out the wording to climb up the tree and grab a pineapple, there is only one good answer and You must submit it exactly it was coded).

Player base is indeed overly inflated, but then it's not that bad as long as you are playing withing US time zone (the EU timezone is very empty and over the years it only got worse), so if you only can play during daytime/early evening CET, i strongly recommend looking for another mud. Guilds and religions are pretty well thought (from RP point of view), and they are interesting to discover as long as you keep it in character.

But this is where dark side of this mud kicks in. It is not coded well, and because of that most of the separation between OOC (out of character) and IC (in character) requires for players to be mature and not use the illegal information. While some people try their best to keep it IC at all times, it becomes hard when you are constantly bombarded with OOC information that can help you in your game a lot (like the fact that even though it is supposedly using intro system, you see a name of anyone doing any action, even if he didn't introduce to you).

Other problem is staff that not only is actively playing the game and keeps on denying it (even after they slip up and make it obvious to everyone) which is something they should be open about and let people make an informed decision whether they want to play in such environment. Personally, in my long history of muds, I've never found one where staff, which was playing the game, would not abuse their powers for selfish gain every now and then.

Staff also strictly controls two 'secret' guilds inside the game, that are by default given a leeway off the rules (meaning that they can break some of them), which results in creation of privileged players who are favored by staff (as I said, those 2 guilds are strictly controlled by administration, and people who join them are picked for OOC, not IC reasons as it states in help-files).

Another big issue with it is the stagnation of the world. Staff keeps strict control over any major RP (that would impact the world in any way) so while players may put a lot of effort toward something, they will never see it reflected in the world. As a result of that, people gave up on trying to breed some major RP within the game and vast majority of the time spent in game is either in hugely/cuddly tavern role-play, or during sprints across the world to collect gear, during which most participants don't even talk to each other, which is a very sad thing to partake with.

I don't recommend this mud to anyone as the only thing of unquestionable value in it is the exploration, while the rest is mediocre at best. What is worth a final note is that during my days on NWA, there was no real content added to it. There were no new locations added, only a small handful of powers coupled with one mini-game. Most of the bugs that were there when I started, are still there.

My time in New Worlds: Ateraan was very brief, I think it may have lasted an hour at the most.

I started the Tutorial and went through it, it was very basic but helpful. I then proceeded into the creating of an actual character.

I had already chosen my name and gender before starting the tutorial and went through it with little problems. I had just gotten started, when I was shortly contacted by what I am guessing is an Administrator of some kind telling me that my name is unacceptable because someone else had already used it in a previous version of the game. However, when choosing my name there was no way to check if it was something that was unacceptable. I was then recommended some lame alterations to my name as possible names and that I should retire and come back to start the whole process over again with a new name.

Not a good start to a game that has so many mixed reviews in my eyes, though what I was able to Navigate through seemed alright.

I've been thinking of writing this review for a long time and I'm finally getting to it. I've been playing for about a year and I'll try my best to show both the good and bad aspects of the game as fairly as I can.

As an introduction, the game has two areas where you could start in, the north and the south. The former is an easier version where you have people coddling you in every step. They have an extensive touring system where the regular players show newbies around the town. The latter is a harder verson without any of those but is more roleplay intensive in that you gotta figure out most things in character (IC). There is a wide selection of guilds one can join depending on their taste, some guilds are more killing oriented, others are more about writing and designing, there is a guild for those who just want to get on without it withough going through the hassles of an extensive interview/tasking rp. Again, the guilds in the north are more accomodating compared to the ones in the south.

Coming to the players, I feel that most are helpful (atleast on an ooc level). The staff get asked for help quite often and from what I've seen they help you out most of the time, they don't interfere in an ongoing event unless things take a turn for the worse.Then there are the 'guides' who are regular players with escalated privileges who reduce the staff work loads and help out others with minor problems. The game has quite a few blind players and they have some extra options available to them to make certain things easier.

The biggest thing about the game is the RP, people really takes it seriously. You have jobs (with the related occupational hazards), you have religion, you have marriages, you have a king, his subjects, different racial/guild behaviour.

Now coming to the dark side,the most important bit I'd like to address is with the leveling, if you're gonna be running around killing mobs for good gear or be able to participate in any group events that involve fighting you NEED to be at a decent level. Even otherwise, the fragility at a low level means you'll lose contacts/gear/resources etc that you put so much effort into obtaining. So a higher level is always a good thing BUT the game mechanics make it hard to get there, I believe it is there to encourage roleplaying, but the rewards for that are low and you sorta feel 'stuck' if you attempt to level up that way. Also, idling is heavily encouraged, a lot of things have timers that ONLY RUN when you're online so it favours those who can leave their computers on for a long while. There is a huge difference, if you log in just to play, what would reset in a day could take weeks.

Finally, the donations. While I agree that the mud needs money to run, some things are only available to those who donate. There is no way to transfer the said items in game. At a quick glance these items don't seem to really give a competitive advantage and I belived it for a while, but once you understand the mechanics you'll realize that it does make a difference, the perks aren't obvious at first.

This is a great MUD all around. If you're looking for great roleplay with an interesting and creative playerbase, great staff, and helpful people, this is where to go. There's always something to do, and there's a guild or role for everyone to fit into, ranging from the non-combat types like myself to the hardcore smash-them-up types. The one thing I will say is that if you can't communicate well with the players, you will not enjoy it. FRIENDS ARE HELPFUL WITH THIS MUD...otherwise it's quite boring tbh

New Worlds Ateraan is a mixed bag. There really are some parts that are exceptional, but there are other areas where the mud falls a bit short. As such it really is a love or hate kind of mud. I know that sounds cliche.

A quick side note is that NW is especially friendly to Blind players, more so than any other mud I've ever played. You'll love the mud for it's expansive player base, even off peak hours are well populated. Don't be fooled by the game listing of players online (Which usually reads 120-170 in my experience) though, because there are several systems in NW that encourage idling. This is one of the systems that you'll either love or hate. If you're a lap top user especially, you'll be frustrated by the fact that certain things can only be done after X number of hours online. These factors aren't minor either, how much you can hunt for experience and the majority of moneymaking devices are directly linked to how much time you spend online. Players with a broadband connection and a desktop probably won't be bothered at all though. I may have made this sound worse than it is, but the system has some definite upsides. Idle players can still be up to date on RP and events by just scrolling up, and it's convenient to be able to jump into a conversation fully up to date with the situation when you've only got five minutes to spare. So even if you expect many of the players to be idle and/or second characters, there are still a LOT of people to RP with.

NW does force people to stay in character, and you can customize your character a LOT. Fully customizable descriptions, clothes and history are all great aspects of NW. If all this overwhelms you, you can hire a merchant or trader to do your descriptions for you (many will do it no charge for first time players). The Admin has given general outlines of each playable race, background, and guild, but your character is more or less a blank slate. This is for the most part great, but it has contributed to the RP being a little out of control at times. The descriptions for races and guilds you'll find both on the site and in the game's library tend to be different from what you'll actually experience. Yet another thing you can love or hate. Some players enjoy that the guilds are fluid and changing, others hate that Mages are debating over where magic comes from and that the 'unscrupulous' traders guild is actually very strict on ethical business practices.

Another love/hate aspect is NW's simplicity. Personally I love it. There are some intricate bits in the code, but mostly you can learn all you need to know to play the mud in a matter of hours, and thanks to the very newbie friendly environment, you won't have to do so by reading page after page of help files. You won't find much complexity in the crafting or spell mechanics or really any of the day to day stuff. The complexity comes from player to player interaction. You can master the game mechanics in a matter of days, but the politics of the game is a matter of years. Don't let that intimidate you, you don't have to be involved with the various player run political and religious systems if you don't want to. With the massive world, plentiful quests, and hundreds of players, there's ALWAYS something else to do.

As a final note I should mention the game is for players 18 and older so generally the roleplay is mature (I said generally!)

I was rather disappointed with this game. The story line behind the game was weak.

Starting out in the game was rather confusing, advancement in the game is extremely slow. I did like the fact that they enforce strict role-playing, but expect to spend at least a week getting passed the “intro” stage of the, game. Once you become a serf, your options for advancement in the game are really restricted.

Expect to spend a lot of time jumping through hoops to get accepted to a Guild. Also, make sure to pay very close attention to the rules.

Doing anything that could even remotely be considered “against the rules” will be picked up very quickly by the admin. They seem to like to ensure that you will spend many years getting your character built up to something worth playing.

I have played many muds, hack and slash, roleplaying, goofy chatty muds. But when it came down to it, i really wanted something that could keep my attention more than a month. Most of the time i'd hit top level and piddle around trying to find something to do, someone to roleplay with, something more to explore, anything.

I played another pay for play mud for five years, but it didn't compare. When i came to New worlds, i was instantly impressed by the roleplay but what kept me there was their friendly point of view in the north.

Even today, four months later, i barely know a thing about the quest and the hidden things around and it isn't for my lack of trying either. They've made this little mud, much like a little world would be, full of exploring and wonder. I think it will be a long time before i leave. If you love roleplay, You will love it here.

New Worlds is an excellent mud for those who are looking for roleplay and may be new to such a game. There is not an excessive amount of coding you have to learn in order to roleplay or emote and in fact, the commands and abilities are really easy to catch on to. Being as New Worlds is a custom coded mud, it is not a Diku/Circle mud, you are not constantly spammed with colored prompt lines or with the constant need to eat and drink.

There are two lands that you can start in, the Kingdom which is great for new players as there are guides that will help with tours and questions, and then the Southland which is more difficult and more for the experienced player.

Three religions and a good number of guilds offer a lot of roleplay opportunity and become very engrossing. Politics, justice office, newspaper, devotions.. There are many things that one can do to keep occupied and there are even some restrictions put into place to keep people from borging constantly, encouraging roleplay.

I have to say from personal experience that the best guild I have seen, and a guild I've not seen on any other mud I have played, is the Merchant guild and their southland counterpart, the Trader guild. Unique to New Worlds, these two guilds offer one the ability to use their creativity and social skills to create items, to sell them and to gain levels and experience without ever killing a silly bunny.

Lastly, I would also like to point out that New Worlds is very friendly to blind mudders. The staff can set your character up to allow for a minimum of spam and we do have quite a large base of blind mudders.. and you would never know the difference. :)

New Worlds is my second foray into the world of LP Muds after my first had ended in boredom. I've since become a roleplayer and I've subsequently gone through several MUDs and evaluated their capacity for being able to foster a vibrant and ever changing environment that always keep players coming back for more.

There are some things that New Worlds do quite well. I like the variety of classes and the way that they're set up. At the time of this writing, there are the following classes: Warrior, Fighter, Rogue, Assassin, Mage, Shaman, Dark Cleric, Light Cleric, Druid, Trader, Thief, Retter, and Merchant. Each and every one has several unique abilities that allows a player's character to develop themselves in a believable and excellent way.

New Worlds also offers a variety of locales, there are two starting cities and several places to explore, and there is a working ship system that one would assume would give players the ability to search the ocean for hidden islands with all sorts of awesome goodies on them.

At its core, at least according to the staff, New Worlds is a roleplaying MUD. However, there are many things that hold it back in this regard. The staff often wants players to be the ones to generate roleplay, however, there are characters called INPCs who are in control of the cities that appear to be relied heavily upon when RP is generated by the players. This leads to issues such as a broken law system, should a law actually be broken, the players are unable to deal with this themselves and must wait for a staff member to be available to play a judge.

A large problem caused by this is that it's very difficult for players to organize their own events outside of beach parties and dances because of the lack of involvement of the staff with the in-game religions. There is a light religion, a neutral religion, and a dark religion. In most cases, these would be the source of great conflict, however, the gods don't actually -do- anything despite the threat in the help files. It's very difficult to cause any sort of religion conflict, because the only thing that determines whether or not anyone could win or lose is the levels of the followers, and if those followers lose, there's no actual divine retribution for failure because the god characters are simply non-existant.

Another gripe that I have with the game is a common one for most games. A great majority of the playerbase seems unable to take the setting seriously, including people elected to lead the many guilds that make up the game. An example of this is the current leader of the Mage's Guild, who ostensibly should be a paragon of good roleplay, but often spends his time cussing people out like an immature high schooler. This is not to say that all guild leaders are like this, but to me it feels like there should be a little more quality control when it comes to people who would be leading the game's roleplay.

Overall, the MUD is run well. The setting is well-developed and the staff does pay attention when there are bugs to be reported. The game does suffer from some bugs and if you're a roleplayer that enjoys hack and slash as well, you may find the gameplay to be rather slow. Other than the intense lack of detail of most to roleplay, the game is worth a play if you can find your niche, but I certainly hope that the possibility of staff members who devote their time to perhaps increasing roleplay in-game is considered.