My personal notes, online game are fun and sometimes could end on addiction. I myself was an addict too. Spent half an hour to few more hours a day, socializing with fellow team mates in the forum, talking about the game and the strategy. Waking up in the middle of the night and other time wasting behavior. Beside a commitment to be active in the game. I think everybody should also make a target and limit how many hours a day to spend on online gaming.

I quit playing Utopia at the right moment, it was when i am going to work on my thesis which need all of my attention at that moment.

Everybody got and have to had their own priority in life, it could be their family, their work, their blog , their hobbies, playing game, etc. For me there is many things in real live more important than just a game, my priority is God, family and work.

When something not so important start taking your precious things in live, that no so important thing might worth to live without, before it become one of your precious things and you can’t live without.

What you have just read is just my personal opinion, no offense or whatsoever related to anybody or any company meant.

Eight years ago, when i was still in college and online game still few, I was a fans of Utopia online web-based game. I knew the game from some of friends who already played the game for few rounds. I played the game for 8 rounds, 2-3 of the game was a consecuetive round play (each round run for 3-4months).

Utopia, what’s the game like?

The game made by Mehul Patel from swirve.com. Nobody play utopia without knowing his name, he is the creator and admin of the game.

The game set in medieval background. Inspired by Tolkien’s fantasy world, where many creatures like Orc, Dwarves and Elves lives. You are given a province to manage, it is located in a kingdom consist of 25 other provinces as your team mate. Mainly the game is about building your province to be the best in Utopian world. Biggest in land size, the most powerfull in the matter of networth and army.

To be the biggest there are several ways, you can do in un-attractive way, explore for more land and the attractive way, of course by attacking somebody and grab their land.

Every province has a right to choice the monarch who will decide some important decision, ex : war, peace, etc. Ultimatelly monarch can summon a dragon to wreak havoc on other’s kingdom!! The dragon itself doesn’t come cheap, provinces have to gather hefty sum of money to pay for the dragon. That is why everybody has to contribute and play as a team.

Some people even took the game seriously, further by creating an Alliance, Pact, and some other things that could make the game not just a decent game anymore, it goes beyond click, build and attack.

It also involves diplomacy, teamwork, emotion, pride, etc.

Registering the game

When registering for the game, you’re given a choice to pick your race and personalities. Personalities will help you to further develop a strength of your race or possibly counter a weakness.

There are 6 distinct races to choice. There were Orc, Elves, Human, Fairy, Avian and Dwarves but now i saw they had it tuned. Orc, Elves, Human, Dwarve, Gnomes and Dark Elves. Those two last races wasn’t on the option when i played Utopia, i don’t have a clue when did it added.

Every race comes with their own unique speciality, ability and disability. I suggest you to read the full guides first before start to play and doing anything with your province, especially if you are playing right from the start of the age, because every step you do in the first of the game will give a great impact for the rest of your play.

After registering you will be positioned in a random Kingdom. And below is the check list you might do right after login.

I got it from here, you can also get more tutorial from the website.

When you log in, there are a couple important things to do:
1. Read the Monarch’s message
2. Check if you have NEW MESSAGES or RECENT NEWS
3. Check last month and the paper to see what’s going on in the kingdom (attacks made, wars declared)
4. Check your kingdom to see who is online (especially if you don’t have ICQ)
5. Check the forums, and read all new messages and threads – reply when you have something to say, send aid if it is requested and you can, contribute to kingdom issues
6. Check your council to see the stats of your province and act accordingly.
7. Only when you have done that all, spend your money (buildings, military, thieves, sciences) and your runes (for spells)

The Strategy

Your strategy is up to you, but if you want to jump start and understand better of utopia and taking the right path since day one you play, you could check Utopia Temple for strategy and everything you need to know about utopia.

I recommend you to download utopia temple Crystal Ball right away, it is a great tools to help you calculate how many building of which type you should build and it even helps when you want to attack someone, it will give an optimal calculation how much army you should send to conquer your enemy.

The calculator is awesome, it is easy to use and you just need to copy and paste your related web page to automatically generate report and calculate everything you need. There also forum where people can discuss and share their strategy to be used or modified by everyone. This site defineatly recommended to noob’s and even veteran players.

Reset and tuned every round to make it even fun

FYI, the admin fine tune the game almost every round, including adding and removing a race, plus and minus the races ability, adding a building and many more to make the game fun. I think this also one of the factors that made the game addictive for many people including me.

You won’t easily feel bored bacause you face something new every round the game reseted. Oh, have i mention, the game reseted every round ends as scheduled. So everyone has to start from zero and strive again to be number one. You have an option to chose every time round ends, whether to stay with your current team mate or start over again with new team member. Most people chooses to stay, because it is impossible to be in a kingdom you wanted to be.

The game has a great system, and they got a lot of dedicated players who has been playing for years and still playing till now. The Alliance Ranking website is the proof. Those big alliance are undoubtly consist of experienced player who had played many rounds before.

Commitment

Commitment for a game? Yes you will need commitment to be success and destroyed in the game. I belive many other online game like utopia will also need commitment to survive. Games like utopia need you to online and check your country minimum once a day, i used tp check twice-four times a day.

I remember, i even woke up in the middle of the night curiously check my nation whether i got any attack or just to set up an attack after having my army back from another attack. You might think it is crazy, lol. To think back again, yes i can say it is crazy things to do, but many people did what i did that time and i think, some still do what i did.

Commitment also needed for you to maintain relationship with other player in your kingdom in other word, be active in the forum is a must.

So, if you kinda like the game and wanna try to make your name, try register here, it’s totally free and promise great fun, friends and -warning- some addictive experience!!