Earth: 2025 is a Web-based MMOG operated by Swirve.com, Inc. It claims to be the first of its genre and has since inspired countless other similar games. Furthermore, it claims to be the original webgame;[1][2] it has been noted to be at least the first webgame game to achieve a mass audience.[3] In 2002 and 2003, Earth: 2025, along with Swirve's Utopia, won the People's Voice Webby Award. [4] The game's creator, Mehul Patel, has also been named a Featured Publisher by Right Media.[5] Players must build countries from scratch, and are ranked according to the networth of their countries. They are encouraged to form alliances with other countries, and clans with other players. There are currently five game variants: Primary, Alliance, Tournament, Limited, and the new Earth Council.
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History of Swirve.com and Earth: 2025
The first round of Earth: 2025 was held in October, 1996 and was developed by Solaria Games. Solaria Games also began offering non-game services such as e-cards and message boards in 1997. With these non-game related services, it broadened the scope of Solaria and rebranded itself Solaria Interactive. Following the rebranding came a new MMOG called Utopia. Solaria Interactive experienced increased popularity due to the birth of Utopia. With the two anchor MMOG games of Earth: 2025 and Utopia gaining new players, Solaria Interactive renamed itself Echelon Entertainment in January, 1999. Though the company continues to add new services and features to its site, Earth: 2025 and Utopia still maintain the highest interest from users. In May of 2000, Echelon Entertainment became Swirve.com, Inc., which still operates to this day. Beyond website make-overs, little has changed in the structure of the services Swirve.com since then.[6]
Gameplay of Earth: 2025
Introduction
Earth: 2025 is a turn-based game in which players build a country from scratch. Countries are ranked according to their net worth, which is a combination of values assigned to population, resources, military, technology, land, and buildings. Countries begin with 100 acres (0.4 km²) of empty land, and a small sum of money and bushels of food, as well 100 troops and some civilians. Every country begins as a Monarchy, but can change governments at any time through a revolution. As mentioned earlier, players in Earth: 2025 can play either as individuals or as part of a clan. As an individual, the only way to win the game is to create the country with the highest networth and earn a higher rank. However, clans are ranked in several ways. They can win through either the highest average networth, the highest total networth, or through having the most members. Clans may also organize wars against each other.
Turns
Players are awarded turns at regular time intervals, which vary with servers. Turns are also awarded for not logging into the country for 12 or 18 hours. The former gives three bonus turns, the latter six. These turns are used to carry out the majority of actions that a country can perform. Each turn displays revenue/expense, food harvests/losses, oil production, military production, and population gain/loss. Since turns cannot be acquired through any method other than waiting, they are regarded as the most valuable resource. Turns can also be stored- these are not immediately usable, but instead, they are doled out one at a time in addition to the turns a country normally would earn. A Country may store up to roughly 75% of its maximum turns
Servers
There are five servers in Earth: 2025: Primary, Alliance, Tournament, Earth Council, and Limited. Each server has its own community, politics, and message board. In July, 2006, the Free For All Server was taken down, and the Earth Council server is being tested to replace it. This table outlines the main differences between servers:
| Primary | Alliance | Tournament | Limited | Earth Council | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minutes per turn | 30 | 30 | 25 | 30 | 20 |
| Max turns (stored) | 80 (80) | 80 (80) | 126 (100) | 90 (90) | 120 (120) |
| Clans supported? | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Other rules | -Cheap GDI | -None | -Free and compulsory GDI -Ladder format |
-Requires silver status -No GDI -Low market commissions -No humanitarian restrictions -Higher combat gains |
(In development) |
| Message board | Strategy Room | Alliance Talk | Strategy Room | Limited Server Talk | User-Managed Earth Talk |
| Defining characteristics | -Slower paced server -Better for newbies |
-Clan politics -Team strategy -Large scale warfare |
-Skilled play -Difficult to succeed individually |
-Fewer players -More aggressive play -Clan Politics |
-User Moderated -Clan Politics |
Building a nation
Since land is required to generate a country's revenue, or means of revenue, it is extremely important. Empty acres can be gained through exploration, or through a land grab- using a Standard or Planned Strike to steal land from another player. Land grabs usually bring buildings with them as well. There are eight different governments to choose from. By default, each nation starts as a monarchy. Revolutions transitioning from any government other than a monarchy to another will destroy up to 14% of a country's infrastructure. Each government, with the exception of the monarchy, has defined benefits and drawbacks. Excluding the monarchy, there are currently seven governments to choose from: fascist, tyranny, dictatorship, communism, theocracy, republic, and democracy. Players can expend turns and money to build on empty land. The number of structures that can be built per turn depends on how many construction sites a country has. There are seven other buildings: enterprise zones, residences, industrial complexes, military bases, research labs, farms, and oil rigs. Each of these buildings helps to make a nation either through increasing efficiency or providing a means of revenue. Technology is important for protecting a country and making it more efficient- it can reduce the cost of goods, improve military strength, and raise the efficiency of industry,commerce. and agriculture. There are eight types of technologies to research: military, medical, business, residential, agricultural, military strategy, warfare, weapons, industrial, spy effectiveness, and SDI.
Military
Militaries allow players to invade other countries and provides defense against enemies. There are five military units: spies, troops, jets, turrets, and tanks. Turrets are entirely defensive, while jets are entirely offensive. The other three can be used in either defensive or offensive roles. Nations can also develop three kinds of missiles through warfare technology: nuclear missiles, chemical warheads, and cruise missiles. Attacks in Earth: 2025 are based on diminishing returns- more attacks will gradually yield smaller results. Eventually, a minimum return will result. If an attack results in a return below the minimum, then the defending country has been destroyed. In addition, the returns from an initial strike are based on a comparison of two countries; a country with lots of land will take very little from a country with little land, and vice versa. With all things being equal, the initial standard strike by one country should earn a yield of about 7% of the other country's resources, with the exception of Tyrannies, which have an attack bonus. Non-spy military units have a readiness percentage. As a country's readiness falls, the chances of its attacks succeeding go down, while the chances of its defenses being breached rise. Each attack results in a lower readiness percentage. The only way to raise it is to use turns without using non-spy military. Spy units on the other hand have a limited 50 turns of operations per day. You may only have a maximum of 1 missile per 200 acres (0.8 km²), minimum of 10 missiles. However if you ever manage to go over that limit through dropping land in any way(shown in the country screenshot), no more missiles will be produced until more land is obtained. Attacks with the sole intent of capturing land are called land grabs, and are integral to the game.
Resource limitations
No country may have more than 2 billion (2,000,000,000 = 2*10^9) of any resource due to game mechanics (see long integer); anything in the game that exceeds 2 billion will not be added. This has led to players stockpiling goods as a form of in-game market liquidity.
Notes
- ^ "Featured Publisher #2: Mehul Patel, President of Swirve.com. Retrieved on 2006-08-08.
- ^ Swirve.com. Retrieved on 2006-08-08.
- ^ OMGN game review Last accessed 2007-01-21
- ^ Webby Award Archives. Retrieved on 2006-08-08.
- ^ Featured Publisher #2: Mehul Patel, President of Swirve.com.
- ^ About Swirve.com. Retrieved on 2006-08-08.
External links
The links below are neither affiliated with nor maintained by Swirve.com, Inc.
- For an in-depth view of Earth:2025, visit EartherWiki.
