Imperian has indeed opened--4/4 or 4/5/2003. It is not a carbon copy of Achaea, though has many elements to be sure. I have played it and I think I can give it a fully honest assessment in terms of where it is to date. Since my impetus to write this review comes from the errors in a previous review comparing Achaean and Imperian, some of what I have to say is a comparison of the merits of the two games rather than the merits of Imperian itself. Though there will be some of that as well. On the negative side--it is very rough. Many help files, location descriptions, quests, items and CCCs are from Achaea and either don't work or are out of place in the Imperian world since they are not part of the mythos or background of the game. However, from experience with Achaea, I fully expect that these things will be fixed and the positives outweigh the jarring experience of seeing the Achaean god of war's name mentioned in a room description. On the positive side--much of the "familiar" geography of Achaea has been changed both in name and in layout, though there are room names that I am sure will probably remain common to both. The historic background shows alot of promise for future events--there are three moons which have different effects on the world, including having mutated life on the planet resulting in the current slate of races (which are also fairly interesting since there only a few "stock" races). One thing I like with any game is good storytelling and this situation shows potential. The skillsets, while familiar seem to be improved to a point where I envy the Imperian guild that corresponds to the one my character in Achaea plays. There are some totally new guilds as well and they appear to be very nicely put together conceptually. I am told the one I am playing now is the original creation of the head admin and my hats off to him. I enjoy it immensely after this first week and probably will continue to do so even after the "powering down" tweaks which are inevitable with any new guild. All in all, I think the Imperian guilds, at least at first blush are an improvement on Achaea, much the same way Achaea improved on what its predecessors had done. Achaea borrowed and improved upon things other games had done and now the corporation seems to be improving on themselves with Imperian. The other benefit of Imperian over Achaea is a much looser playerkilling policy, at least at the outset. My hope is that the idiots who whined obsessively and necessitated the restrictions found in Achaea don't come over to Imperian or if they do, the administration will allow them to be discomforted enough to run back to Achaea. Restrictive rules that capitulate(sp?) to whiners to keep them are as much a deterrent to some folks as all out carnage is. in...
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