The blogger Adam MacDonald has decided, after a long time missing from the game, to give A Tale in The Desert another try . His blog entry is very interesting and contains also a short description of this niche MMORPG which is worth to read if you never played it.

From the article: "ATitD is unique in its game design because it emphasizes cooperation and individual accomplishment through community response. It's a deep crafting game. There is none of the customary DIKU-descendant fantasy combat themes or mechanisms. Players can compete in challenges and "tests" to earn new skills with which they can create free-form art pieces that other players can judge. This community feedback is unique I think in any MMO. There's examples of player-run governance with managing griefers and conflicts and even new feature suggestions. There was even for the second telling a card game-like test between players that was a good style of PvP. But fighting is not the central design."