The peerless text based adventure game, Avalon; the Legend Lives
One continuous world of history and character development since 1989
Avalon as the finest of text based adventure games
What makes a text based adventure game special? Well written text based adventures can evoke atmosphere and stimulate your imagination much more than graphics. A graphical game is directed much like a film - even the best directors present what their imagination tells them about a scene, not yours. Graphical games by their very nature tend also to be limited as far as plot and character options. Avalon and other text games can offer more freedom to express yourelf in a gameworld of unparalleled possibilities.
Why does Avalon stand out amongst other text based adventure games? First of all Avalon is online and a multiplayer game. It is a game world that advances in real time, whether you as a player are present or not. Avalon's unique and evocative text brings every moment of adventure alive. It has been been written by highly skilled writers. Adventurer gamers over the years have added their own lovingly crafted text and ideas to the descriptions, but all have remained consistent with the Avalon mythological adventure theme creating a game world without compare. It was also begun in 1989, meaning Avalon's history has been unfolding (written by its players!) for over twenty years. It even predates the internet!
Surely an online text based adventure can't better the best graphical online games? Oh yes they can, for do they not say the book is invariably better than the movie... no matter how many more millions are invested in the film? Text based games have more depth in all areas.Take communication. Even in graphical games that allow you to communicate with other players your speech is usually a limited amount of text based in a speech bubble. In a text adventure game that same communication between players blends with the whole; especially in a role playing adventure game where gifted players will craft their communicative text based on enhancing the role playing experience. Another example is facial expressions. In a graphical game very few are possible but in a text based game the descriptions are almost infinite, limited only by the player's imaginations. A lot can be conveyed by an expression at the right time and when it comes down to it these multiplayer role playing games are all about communication.
Is Avalon a multiplayer online RPG? Yes! That's part of what makes it so much fun. The earliest text based adventure games just followed a linear progression of puzzles to be solved, perhaps making up one overall quest. In games like Avalon you meet your friends (and enemies) within the game world and you adventure alongside each other either helping or hindering one another as the situation dictates. Avalon has very many levels of social interaction. It has cities and guilds, good and evil, swords and sorcery, heroes and demons; a history of its very own - create by players just like you.
All text based adventure games look the same! You might say every book looks the same, but some are undeniably better than others! Avalon aspires to be something more than the superficial. It aims to challenge the intelligent and imaginative personality. It was the first of this type of text based online multiplayer world and countless things pioneered in Avalon have gone on to become standards of the genre. Avalon is like literary fiction: complex and with almost infinite outcomes for your actions that some refer to it as an interactive novel but with characters played competitively by real people, its narrative woven of the interplay of their diverse words and deed.
Why am I still asking questions? Who knows? Why not click here right now to create a new character and start exploring Avalon for yourself? Just remember, though: Avalon is not about simple titillation, nor can its be distilled into a pretty screenshot or soundbite slogan. Give it a little time - explore and read and think. It's a whole new world out there...
If you would like more information before you enter Avalon choose from the menu options at the top of the screen where much can be gleaned about the land, though no amount of reading will about it will quite compare with the playing experience!
