I first started playing Medievia in 1996. It was a great game, and I really enjoyed the PK (Player Killing) quests. However, all the balance was taken out due to the greed of its owners. I hope this review will be helpful to anyone thinking about playing Medievia.

How much does Medievia cost to play? Well, you can play it for free. Most players, however, pay for equipment and items. Medievia allows a player to “donate” for items such as talismans ($75 each) that increase a players hitpoints and damage roll. There are quite a few “donation” items that one can buy. How much does a typical medievia player “donate?” I do not know of any hero (max level character) that does not have at least two talismans. Your typical Medievia hero has at least two talismans, an aura, a focus, and a pocket. That comes to $250. Every “donation” item besides talismans have a shelf life of one year. So in addition to the $250 start-up fee, the typical player spends at least $80 a year to play Medievia. If you do not have the basic donation items listed above, your character is at a severe disadvantage compared to other players.

New players are severely handicapped also. Bloodlines came out in 2000. Basically, this ruined any balance in pk, but it added much revenue to the owners of Medievia. Bloodlines allow for a player’s hero-character to have two kids. Once the kids reach hero (level 124) they can also have two kids. Once a character’s bloodline reaches 5 generations, he gets 2.0 times the normal regeneration of both HP and mana. This is a huge advantage. Basically, what bloodlines did was to have old, experienced players create a bunch of new ones. This means that true newbies have to compete with experienced players for experience points, zones, equipment, etc. Old players will own the PK zones over newbies, because they can just log on their hero character and kill the newbie over and over. Bloodlines greatly increased the number of characters in the game, but the number of players online at any given time has steadily decreased. Why would a new player want to play a MUD where it will take years to get the same regeneration rate as most players?

Medievia is in a downward spiral. If you are thinking about starting a character on Medievia, do yourself a favor, and DON'T do it.