Kanomi Plays: Tiny Empires 3000, Addictive Strategy Game

Kanomi Pikajuna Reviews Second Life's Most Promising Games

No, I'm not ignoring you, I'm playing Tiny Empires.

• Title: Tiny Empires 3000
• Released: March 11, 2009
• Genre: Massively multiplayer online multilevel marketing (MMOMLM :)
• Age Category: PG
• Summary: Wear a HUD. Do basic math. Click buttons. Repeat...
• Price: Free (trial) / L$999 (full)
• Estimated Play Time: Indefinite
• Where to Play: Tiny Empires 3000 Shop In-world (SLURL); Tiny Empires 3000 on XstreetSL
• Web Resources: TE 3000 blog; TE 3000 Player Wiki
• Developer: Ultralite Soleil

Some people say there's nothing to do in Second Life. To those people I say, "Get a Tiny Empires 3000 HUD, sign up as my subordinate, and begin contributing ships and income to my tiny space empire."

The game is about as undemanding as a game can be. It's played entirely through one HUD; that's it. No keyboard commands to memorize, no sim to go to, no board to rez. There's no looking for other players or waiting for a game to start.

The flip side of that is there's no action, no combat, and little in the way of in-depth strategy or roleplaying to be had, at least at the lower levels. In fact you don't really have to do much of anything at all. Check a few boxes, solve a few puzzles, and that's it.

Yet over time, the accumulated results of even minimal efforts will begin to push you up the ranks and increase your fleet. And that's where the addictiveness kicks in. It's like cigarettes -- not much of a kick at first, but over time you can get hooked.  Here's how:

When your HUD is active, a new turn will appear every few minutes or so, offering you some different options: buy or sell a ship, solve a puzzle, change allegiance, or vote on a measure. By default your options are set to "No", so if you are AFK or have the HUD minimized, you don't have to take a turn and you won't be penalized. So you can play the game risk-free while shopping for shoes or discussing Metanomics or all the other things you normally do. This subdued and slow pace meshes nicely with Second Life.

Every turn your ships earn a set amount of income; the more ships you have, the more income you make, but much of that is sent to your superior. And that's the key to the game, having others do the work for you.

This basic design borrows from multi-level marketing schemes, in that everyone has an upline (or "superior") to whom you pay a share of each turn's income. That's not exactly a Better Business model in real life, but in the context of an imaginary game world, it's fine. No real Lindens are changing hand, just in-game money called "credits."

It's true that you can annoy your friends to become your subordinates, and a lot of people cursed the original version of this game because of it, but in truth if your friends don't play the game that much they won't contribute to your Empire significantly. You're better off trying to bribe other active players to join your command structure when that option appears on one of your turns. So yes, you can play Tiny Empires congenially without obnoxiously recruiting off of your friends list.

For those of you that played the original Tiny Empires -- now a couple years old -- it's basically the same game. The fantasy milieu has transmuted into a sci-fi theme; gold has become credits; land has become ships; the HUD graphics look like a slick Aliens-themed Winamp skin. There are some differences too: puzzles, questions, and random encounters of course are all new, and the progression of ranks, the handling of followers is different.

If you've never tried Tiny Empires, it's worth a try. The basic HUD is free, and will let you run a fleet of up to 20 ships. Same thing if you tried the game long ago but want to give it another try, this new version is definitely the one to play, since the game has only been around a couple months and the top ranks are still fairly open. There are no new guilds yet, and the creator is continuing to add new content as the game continues to expand and grow.

Have you heard of the seven stages of grief? I think there are three stages to Tiny Empires: First is confusion, then boredom, and finally addiction. How far you get is up to you.

• Strengths: Low commitment; highly addictive; large fan base; meshes perfectly with Second Life
• Weaknesses: Not particularly challenging; can cause you to try and recruit friends or ignore loved ones
• Helpful Hints: You can't add anyone as a subordinate until you have five ships; the free trial tops out at 20 ships; read the Web Resources listed at the top of this review
• Rating: *** out of five

Kanomi Pikajuna is the author of Tiny Dancing, an online university offering courses in Metanomics.

Send review suggestions to kanomi.pikajuna[AT]gmail[DOT]com.

Previous Kanomi Plays reviews:
Khet
The Crack Den
En Garde
The Kaaos Effect

Thanks to Botgirl Questi for the 'Kanomi Plays' header graphic!

Comments

[Dawny daviau]

Yes a player here too. Even played the first TE.
Love it! We play with alot of friends and even have our won spaceship to play it in!

[Dale Innis]

Wild! Is the original TE-with-poofy-skirts version still around too?

[FFXI Accounts]

Tiny Empires 3000 sounds like a very interesting strategy game. This is quite comprehensive posting. I would like to try this one out.