There’s a major event going on in Achaea that is probably coming to a conclusion as I write this. I sit here, invisibly, in a room with Ugrach, the Lord of the Undead, being ‘possessed’ by Achaea’s producer, and roleplaying with some major players in the current Big Event, and helping to decide the fate of a major storyline.

I love this stuff. I look at who else is with us, and I see a few invisible Gods (who can’t see me), and a whole raft of players (who can’t see the Gods or me). I don’t claim that our games are better games than World of Warcraft or Everquest or whatnot. I don’t really believe in objectively better or worse content. It’s all a matter of opinion. But I tell you what: Those big guys can never, ever do what we and all sorts of other indie games do. They simply cannot, by their nature, provide the intense kind of roleplaying experience that text games can do. The combination of the freedom that text gives developers and the freedom that a relatively small userbase text guarantees is extraordinarily liberating and it is amazing to watch our players take these intricate storylines and run with them. Sorry to cheerlead, but as much as I admire the Blizzards of the world, I think there’s also something very cool about small indie communities, dedicated to preserving an intimate experience.