Icon Asheron's Call Icon

by Dale Farris, President, Golden Triangle PC Club
January 2001

 Game Overview

Microsoft's Asheron’s Call is an online-only, role playing game (RPG) that immerses players in an original fantasy world where they must choose to compete or cooperate with thousands of other players. Players can create characters that are truly unique with extensive combinations of visual appearance, attributes, and skill sets. A detailed and extensive system of allegiance facilitates a dimension of social game play seldom experienced in a computer game.

The online nature of this game provides the ability to create an evolving and dynamic adventure inside a persistent universe. The game will never be "solved," because there will always be more areas to explore and more quests to complete.

The world is the land of Dereth, filled with a rich and colorful past. The history of Dereth extends to all of its inhabitants, and to survive and prosper, you must know the strength and weaknesses of your enemies. The bestiary is vast, and new monsters are constantly being drawn to Dereth through portals from other worlds, and other creatures from Empyrean legend are also found deep below the earth.

The arcane lore of Dereth comprises more than 1600 spells for you to learn and master, and each spell requires a unique sequence of words, gestures, and magical items.

Game Features

Unique character creation - Players can create characters that are visually unique, utilizing three heritage groups and hundreds of facial features and clothing options. There are millions of visual combinations. In addition, there are six character attributes and more than 30 skills from which players can customize initial performance levels.

Innovative player interaction - The Asheron’s Call allegiance system facilitates a social dimension of game play seldom experienced in a computer game. The more allies a player acquires, the greater their influence becomes. The system encourages experienced players to work with newer players, and enhances social interaction.

Dynamic fantasy world - Asheron’s Call is a 24 mile square island (nearly 1/2 the size of Rhode Island) with all types of terrain, including mountain glaciers, desert wastelands, and subterranean dungeons. Unique server technology creates a seamless gaming world that can handle thousands of simultaneous players.

Evolving story line - Asheron’s Call provides an engaging back-story equivalent to 4,000 years of game history for players to discover. Online game administrators actively work to advance the overall story line based on the decisions and actions of the Asheron’s Call community.

Standard Features

Character creation system - choose from over 16 million visual combinations to create characters that have unique heritage groups, facial features, and clothing options

Magic system - provides hundreds of spells that can be learned and discovered

Powerful graphic engine - delivers compelling 3D graphics with our without a 3D accelerator

Original back story - role-playing experience full of action, drama, and mystery, with unique and dangerous monsters and larger-than-life characters

Expansive game world - vast 24 square mile environment providing miles of mountain glaciers, desert wastelands, swamps, and subterranean dungeons to explore

Allegiance system - encourages experienced players to work with novice players and enhances social interaction, increase your fame and power by actively recruiting new players

Some Game Concerns

While this very brief overview conveys but the merest of the rich, dynamic nature of this fascinating game, nevertheless there are some key points here that need further discussion. Notice that this is an ONLINE-ONLY game. This means you can ONLY play this game while connected to Microsoft's game servers set up to specifically support the game and its many interesting worlds.

Also, notice you will be playing with/against "thousands" of other gamers who are playing the game at the same time as you. Remember also that you will likely NEVER end this game, as it is one of the most enriched role-playing games (RPG) now on the market.

All of this is important for folks interested in the game, and it is easy to miss these key points if you limit your buying decision to only that which is explained on the box that contains the shrink wrapped CD ROM. In the world of computer games, this new venture into online gaming is probably going to continue to grow, as this offers gamers near unlimited game excitement and diversity. However, this also presents many additional technical challenges to making the game playing experience successful.

 Basic Functions

Be sure you understand the basics of how this game functions. Notice the minimum system configuration requirements listed below, and then go from there with your system. Obviously, the most significant issue with this online-only game is the speed of the Internet connection.

While I suspect there are many satisfied Asheron's Call players connecting from standard, dial-up modem speeds, I also suspect there are countless others, limited to dial-up, that are also very frustrated with their experience, as they are likely dealing with slow game play, disconnects, and frequent hangups. In the case of this particular game, this is where high speed, broadband connections will very likely contribute to a more successful experience.

In addition to the standard issues of how computer games usually always demand all system resources, in this game, you will not only have to be sure you have all other files shut down, but you will then need to be sure your Internet connection is first secured, before you begin to play this online-only game. For those that may be new to computer games, this degree of system requirements and control of a system might seem an unusual demand. However, with computer games, this is just the way it is, while Asheron's Call will most certainly challenge minimally configured machines.

Also be sure you understand the need to set up additional Microsoft Game Zone files and a game account, with a user name and password, in order to play this game.

Once you succeed in completing all the many technical steps with this game, playing the game can indeed be quite fascinating, but equally frustrating. This all boils down to how much free time you have to play a game that has no end and that can significantly press the edge of your computer hardware capability. In addition, you will just have to decide for yourself how many months you wish to continue paying the monthly $9.95 fee to be able to play the game. I suspect there are many, many gamers well into their second year of time with this game, but I wonder exactly who is really paying these monthly fees.

 Targeted Customers

With Asheron's Call, Microsoft clearly is focusing on the highly unique interests of the many times quirky group of customers referred to as "hard-core gamers." While I fancy myself as a computer gamer, I also know when the time comes to close up shop, and go to work. I do have another life, beyond computer games, and when I do have the minimal time to devote to having fun playing computer games, I prefer to be able to start and finish a game. In my case, with computer games, I perceive getting "my money's worth" out of the cost of the game when I can get through it and finish it.

I also have a big problem with the idea of having to pay an extra fee for each month I wish to play this game. I guess this puts me in the "old school," defined as considering the total, final cost of a computer game to be limited to the street retail price marked on the box.

If I'm going to think about paying a monthly subscription to use computer software, I tend to not think this is all that logical when having to pay a monthly fee to play a game. In the future, we all might end up paying monthly fees to use functional software, as the next version of Microsoft's Office suite (version 10), will for the first time, according to recent releases from Microsoft, be available on a subscription basis. This represents Microsoft's effort to enter the Application Service Provider realm, a future that is probably not that far off for all of us.

Install and Setup

As stated in the minimum system configuration requirements below, you will have to set up a lot of additional requirements, beyond what we are used to doing with most all applications today. The software on the CD ROM installs the files required for the program to run on a machine. Then, you must also have the required additional files from Microsoft's Game Zone, their online game area, and then you must set up your monthly subscription credit card account, and then you must connect to the Internet and find an open Microsoft server designed to specifically support this game.

While all this seems to have worked perfectly fine for countless thousands that seem to be having no problem playing this game online, in my case, after all these many steps were accomplished, I could never successfully connect to one of the Asheron's Call servers. Maybe this was just bad timing, as at the same time I was trying to get this game to run from a server, Microsoft had apparently once again been the unlucky target of another "denial-of-service" attack. This ties up servers, resulting in delays and disconnects from the other end.

Or, it may have just been a result of far too many folks trying to connect at the same time to play the game. Either way, what this means is that while this entire process may sound "cool," and for many players I suspect they are genuinely enjoying this endless, rich experience, this also adds still further complexity to an already complex process of making computer games work.

As many gamers know, installing and running computer games represents one of the most significant challenges to any computer hardware setup. With the advances in 3dfx games that have pumped up the rigorous hardware demands on graphics accelerator video boards and sound boards, in many cases, trying to get these state-of-the art games to actually play on a computer can fail dismally.

This is why many gamers have given up on computers to play their games, and have decided to only play electronic games on the specifically designed computer technology standardized in the console market, such as the PlayStation 2, or a Nintendo. While console games may lack the more fully developed experience that can be experienced on a computer, the most important feature of playing games on consoles is that unless the game CD is scratched or otherwise physically marred, a console game usually ALWAYS plays as it is supposed to.

So, folks interested in Asheron's Call will need to be very concerned about their computer hardware, and be sure to strive to install and play this on a high-end machine. If they have a broadband connection to the Internet, this will also greatly add to their success in actually being able to play the game.

Concerns Regarding Operations

Gamers with a lot of free time on their hands, financially able to pay the additional monthly fee of $9.95, running a high end computer system, and connecting to the Internet with a broadband connection, will likely find this fascinating game to be worth the total investment required to maximize their experience with the game. In my case, I would be satisfied with just being able to observe someone else fool around in the world of Dereth for a couple of hours. Then, I would be ready to move on to something else.

The endless nature of the game will also be important, and for those with endless time to explore this game without end, they will obviously be less frustrated than those who need to start and finish something, like me.

Obviously these quirky, personal preferences obviously do not relate to the seemingly thousands of gamers who are apparently thoroughly enjoying the rich experience that is possible with this game. I do see the vast potential to the very unique, fascinating realm of this game. I just have too many other things to do.

 Price

$34.95
Note: This is the price for the software in the box. To play this online-only game, you will also have to pay $9.95 per month, for each month you wish to play.

Minimum System Configuration Requirements

 Multimedia PC with a Pentium 166 MHz or higher processor
Windows 95, 98
DirectX 6.1 or higher
IE 3.02 or later browser, or Netscape 4.0 or later
32MB RAM
170MB free hard drive space
100MB additional free hard drive space for system swap file
4x CD ROM drive
Super VGA (16-bit color), 800 x 600 display
Super VGA video card (800 x 600) supporting 16-bit color
Microsoft Mouse, IntelliMouse, or other compatible pointing device
28.8 Kbps modem for Internet access (You pay for this separately.)
Sound card recommended, but not required
3d accelerators supported

This system configuration is the minimum required just to install the required program files. However, this is not the last phase of the process. In order to actually play this online-only game, you must also install required files from the Microsoft Game Zone, and then set up a monthly account with Microsoft that costs an additional $9.95 per month.

That's right. After you pay for the software that comes shrink-wrapped in a box, then you must also pay a monthly fee to play the game. That's right: an additional fee, each month you wish to play the game.

You go to the Microsoft Gaming Zone (www.zone.msn.com/asheronscall), set up your credit card account, and then you must download and install the required Game Zone files that do not come with the already purchased software. After all this, then you must connect to the Internet, open the Microsoft Gaming Zone, and then connect to one of the many servers Microsoft has set aside to support the apparently thousands of other gamers also playing this online only game.

You can also easily unsubscribe your credit card transaction, should you ever finish the game, or more likely, get tired of having to pay $9.95 per month to play a game that ought to be playable after you install it.

Contact

 Order Online at Microsoft Corporation

http://www.shop.microsoft.com

 You can also order from other retailers or online vendors.