Greg Costikyan has a review of a new kind of massive multiplayer game: A Tale in the Desert. Pushes the envelope of MMG design, free for the first month and it has an official Linux client? Ooh...

First, there is no combat in ATitD. None. Not PvP, and not PvE either. Okay, fine. So what do you do instead?

You grow flax...

Dull, right?

Well no, not really; for one thing, flax is beautiful, nice purple flowers. And the process--plant, water, watch the beds like a hawk because you have only a few seconds after weeds sprout to weed the beds, or the plants go to seed, harvest--happens relatively quickly, and is at least as interesting as attacking a gnoll, then sitting back for twenty seconds while the chat line tells you how much damage you do and take, then clicking on the treasure to pick it up. In other words: When you come down to it, MMG combat is pretty dull, too, because you don't really do much other than decide what to attack, when to flee, and occasionally what spell or special combat skill to use. There's at least as much interactivity, and at least as much interesting 3D animation, in growing flax as in fighting an MMG battle. The fundamental secret of game design isn't "violence sells," whatever the critics of games might think; it's "give players interesting stuff to do."

Another review, from MassiveMultiplayer.org.

And from the official game FAQ:

The ancient Egyptians wrote about Seven Disciplines of Man: Leadership, Thought, The Human Body, Architecture, Worship, Conflict, and Art. They believed that if a man could achieve perfection in all seven, he'd live forever.

A Tale in the Desert centers around the tests, which measure your skill in the seven disciplines. They don't measure your character's abilities --- they measure your abilities. That's a big difference. For example, to advance in leadership, you'll actually need to be able to convince people to do things. To advance in conflict, you'll need real tactical and strategic ability. To advance in art, you'll need artistic talent.

All of the tests share one thing in common: your goal is to affect your fellow players. In conflict, you must defeat them. In architecture, you must outbuild them. In worship, you must coordinate them. No matter the discipline, passing a test revolves around other players.