Hunting was still single monster targeting but players were relying more on their magic abilities with the introduction of new spells. Mages were the real winners of the update as their extra spells allowed them to level much faster at the lower levels which got them to the point where they really exploded in power. Fortunately for players their power was limited by the amount of money they had to level as it was expensive and leveling up magic level could be as well. It was said that behind every high-level mage was a high-level knight or paladin and this was very true.
The demand for higher magic level is also why the Broadcast spell was increasingly becoming unmanageable as players used the spell to mana train. Players were spammed to such a huge degree that the expanding player base just couldn't function with so many messages flying around. Most disliked the spam, but I enjoyed a lot of it which could be funny such as some joke contests or interesting drama of the games notorieties angrily arguing with each other by Broadcast. The Broadcast was a useful tool of a small community which brought everyone into the same sphere of community even if you didn't personally know everyone. Unknown players like myself gossiped with other players about the latest occurrences by Broadcast and other developments. These were a great source of news which further got disseminated by posts on WoT, making sure that even though you may have missed the original broadcast, you would still be kept up to date on what was going on.
After the successful merge of the main fansites into the powerhouse of WoT, players were spending an ungodly amount of time posting there. It was common for players to struggle with keeping up with all the new posts and topics there. The screenshot forum was also incredibly popular and served as a great way to see what others were doing while you trained or chatted in town. CIPs launch of their own forum was popular but not to the degree of WoTs popularity as nearly everything was permissible on WoT.
On WoT, even the game's most well-known players would often also be some of the most involved in the community. You would post right alongside your heroes who would also share stories or comment on current events. Players were passionate about the game and topics on the direction of the game were hotly discussed here in deep and well-thought-out posts arguing a position or another. Even though Tibia had now become a phenomenon, and even though new servers were starting to come online, WoT brought the split community back together as a single huge group of players as part of the same community.
Despite how close the community was, divisions along ethnic lines were beginning to deepen as the game's popularity flashed in one country or another bringing large groups of like players at once. This change had begun in Beta 5 but only increased as the game's majority German speaking population was slowly supplanted by other groups. For the first time Germans were no longer the most popular group of players, with Swedish, Polish, Brazilian, and North America players making up increasingly larger chucks of Tibia's demographics. In today's game we see an overwhelming amount of Brazilian players, but during Tibia's early years of growth there were other huge blocks of players who would suddenly become the largest recognizable group before Tibia would take off in another country and that group would be largest.
Though real life prejudice seeped into the game, many players tried hard to keep it out. Tibia may have had a gravestone announcing the resting place of the RPG community, but the Edron update breathed fresh life back into the movement. Players where finally able to have homes of their own again and they used it to start families with other places, creating entire guilds which were more of a large family then the traditional guard guilds. One of the most famous was the Du'Vark Family which spanned dozens of members, each with a specific in game family relationship. They would come to defend their fellow family members and generally were very close with each other, roleplaying their positions within the group.
Some others used the new shop houses to start their own shops, selling items directly out of them. The Mercenaries is one of the more famous instances of these, opening a shop by the Temple in Thais. This provided a safe place for players to trade without the possibility of being thieved which was popular. Other players did the same though waiting in a shop proved to be an unproductive use of time as you couldn't train or even mana gain. This should have been a great answer to the rampant thievery, but the Safe Trade system was not very far away so the shop would never take off as a viable alternative to depot trades.
Players were still very keen on their community events though these steered away from the quest style to the more desired football tournaments. Teams from each participating guild would still put forth their football team for a chance at some very good prizes presented by CIP. Players no longer needed to use the Bear corpse after the introduction of the Soccer Ball so matches were much more aesthetically pleasing for observers.
Satori would also put on a new tournament in the style of medieval times which would determine the finest warrior in Tibia they claimed. 32 contenders would fight each other through five rounds in a knockout style system. The tournament was popular to watch, and players were excited to join.
To sign up you would have to send 10 platinum pieces to the designated depot, making sure to include your name on the parcel. It was a first come first serve basis so anyone applying after the 32 contestants would end up on a waiting list to fill in if the main players couldn't make it. A participant would hand over their own equipment to a Gamemaster who would watch over it and in its place they would receive a random equipment set to use for the event. To recognize who was leading the tournament the organizers wore Green Shoes, Guardians Black Shoes, and head organizers Blue Shoes though I am unsure if the color rule was enforced against those observing.
Each player had to stay within the parceled off tournament area and couldn't move any of the boundaries. They would have to show respect to tournament staff, organizers, and fellow opponents, and obeys organizers. The rules of the fight were to attack the other player until lightly or heavily wounded, or if both parties agreed, to the death. Participants could only use the supplies provided for the fight and druids and sorcerers were only allowed to use one spontaneous spell per fight like Strikes, Mana Shield, or Ultimate Healing. Summon Creature, Poison Storm and Ultimate Explosion were forbidden. None of the players were allowed to pick up any thrown items from the crowds but could toss the items away from the arena if desired. Anyone breaking the rules would be disqualified and those who cheated would be killed upon discovery.
Those players who got lucky and received a weapon of their main skill did well and players like Vivi Oruntia who had high skills in all categories did exceptionally well as every package was good for him. The first year was such a success that Satori put on other events and even more tournaments for a couple of years. Unfortunately, conflict was increasingly in Tibia and the 2002 tournament led to a serious altercation with a player which resulted in Tibia's real first war, the Hokuten War. I won't be covering the war in this section as it deserves its own piece, but it would not be the last time the old guilds of Tibia would be challenged.
Change was coming to Tibia whether players wanted it or not and one such change was the ability for players to travel instantly to other towns once they had a premium account. Peaceful places like Carlin and Ab'dendriel would see troublemakers arrive by the boatload, no longer constrained by the long slow walk. As these places descended into the same chaos as Thais, the island of Edron became a refuge as Tibia's strongest places spent more time in this new area and could respond much faster to PKing. Fortunately, Kazordoon and Fibula remained peaceful places as it took a considerable amount of time to walk there.
Though Kazordoon was still relatively safe thanks to the efforts of the Imperial Response Troops, led by Hammerfall, the peace was slowly eroding as players grew to resent player-imposed rules. This was really the point that the defense of specific areas by guilds started to wane and the influence from old and respected guilds fell away. At the height of the guard style guilds, each city was defended by specific guilds which enforced rules on any who traveled there. Kazordoon of course had the IRT which delt harshly with PKs and thieves and was mostly made up by other roleplaying dwarves from other guilds. In fibula the Mercenaries controlled the island, charging players to use the underground dungeon there. The Elven City Council still reigned in Abby, though these duties were slowly transferring to the new Satori guild which took up residence there, enforcing the laws set out all the way back during the Greenwood Parcel City days. Those who traveled as far as Carlin would be subject to the TRP for a brief time, though that would only last a week and AoC (known later as MoB) would defend the city from troublemakers shortly after that. Over in Cormaya the newly formed Followers of the White Dragon (FWD) would claim ownership over the whole island, going as far as to impose speed limits there. Even some dungeons were claimed by players like Neihoff who controlled Mintwallen and would kill any player who hunted there without permission (payment was said to be 10k a month to hunt there, which was very high). It seems that all of Tibia was to be claimed by some group or had rules not set up by CIP.
These conflicts were increasingly aggravating players to the point where some went out of their way to creative conflict with these other guilds. Though most of the controlling guilds had the highest-level players in the game, some of the scrappier players began to band together in a way that no one expected. These players would form the Hokuten guild and unite their PvP skills which had been wasted on PKing into something unseen in Tibia, a global war. Though Tibia's first war was much earlier and limited to a conflict between two guilds, this war would last much longer and be much more brutal.
This was the first real show of what a sprawling conflict looked like, and it was something to be seen. Most fights until this point had been lopsided guerrilla attacks or traps with lopsided reprisals, but the Hokuten war was much different, as huge groups of players would come together and fight in a large close group. The servers were not prepared for this much activity and magic flying around, so the server suffered severe lag spikes during these battles, affecting everyone who was online. It was not uncommon that players would get kicked or be forced to train during this time. Many liked to jump on low level junk chars and watch the battle unfold, which added to the lag.
Though the fall of the guard guilds would not occur until the Last Action Heroes and Darkside conflicts against the Alliance, players saw that you could successfully fight against the large old guilds and conflicts with them increased in the community. The playerbase was expanding at a rapid pace and few new players appreciated the old community or needed the protections they offered. The game was developing away from its harsh early steps of fragile characters and was moving towards a cacophony of guilds who were willing to fight their members and band with other guilds to do the same. No longer would only a couple of guilds hold the dark community at bay and players were increasingly moving away from PKKing in favor of defending only their own members. The black and white conflicts of the past were now shades of grey as players wanted to enact their own justice individually, as personal revenge.
The Christmas Peace of 2000 which lasted from Christmas Eve to January 1st would be the last such peace after players disliked even having a limited and short period where punishing players or PKing was forbidden. There was not a PZ in all of Tibia like 1999's Christmas, but attacking a player directly was removed from the game so you couldn't target them in the battle window or with HMMs. Anyone who circumvented the peace, with area spells and creative solutions, would face banishment. This temporary change also came with a permanent change of no longer being able to push players into magic fields or down holes, which was a very welcome change. PKs would have to become more creative to trick their target down trap holes or force them to walk on dangerous magic fields like the huge Ebomb.
CIP would increasingly focus on developing the game during this last phase of Beta so players were mostly left to themselves to come up with their own entertainment. Despite this slow shift CIP did create some events, though they mostly resembled live testing of new monsters rather than any specific goal.
In PoH a Warlock attack occurred, though I don't know much about this attack as it happened while I was asleep, but CIP wanted to test the new Warlock before it was added to the game and spawned many of them near the temple. This was not the first time they were seen in game, having shown up as summons to the great Ferumbras, but this was the first time they would behave as a monster. Many players were killed by these dangerous monsters which could turn completely invisible and were immensely powerful, but the high leveled knight Bubble respond to the call for help and slayed many of these monsters' solo. Other players tried to assist but most ended up as casualties, and those who underestimated their power wound up trapped in the temple, requiring help themselves. If they dropped any unique loot, no rumor has survived to say.
There are surviving pictures of other events that more resemble the raids we have today. Carlin for instance was attacked by the new Necromancer, giving players a first look at these new creatures.
In Edron, before the Vampire was introduced, CIP decided to put on a special raid to test them out. A broadcast was issued announcing the raid in Edron and players fled to the island to try their hand at the new monster. This special anonymous broadcast could be cast by gods and I think GMs by using the #C command.
Unfortunately, these new creatures had a broken ability which drained HP which if it drained you to exactly zero HP you would die as normal but respawn on your body with 1 HP. I responded to this raid eager to try the new monster but did not pay enough attention in my enthusiasm and died to this attack. I spawned on top of my body and as the other monsters where not yet all dead I died again. As you can imagine I was angry at the first death and shocked by the second. I logged in a 3rd time and the same happened before I logged into another char and waited until the monsters were gone. I had lost most of my equipment and several levels in my death and was unsure if my character was bugged or not, so I emailed Guido and explained what happened.
It took two days for their investigation but at its conclusion I was not reset but was given the rare Vampire Shield of which only three existed. This would normally be good, but everyone knew that these new creatures would likely be added the next update and would likely drop this shield. I had a difficult time trying to sell it to recover my losses, but Solmyrr was kind and traded me around 130k of stuff which allowed me to cover my losses.
Beta 6 was really the peak of exploration of the game which offered a massive number of new areas to explore. Players packed parcels and tools to try to explore ever single inch of the map, looking for secrets with the pick or trying to climb areas which might be traversable even by accident. As few players spoiled quests, everything could lead to a potential secret where players hoped to uncover the unknown which might richly reward them. Rares had no longer been dupable as of the end of Beta 5 so obtaining these massive benefit creating items was the top of everyone's list and players who had many rares like Lightbringer, were idolized by other would-be hopefuls. Well known collectors would go out of their way, and at great personal risk, to show off these treasures in the depot which they could lose at any time if something happened.
Hunting was still something you only did once you saved up enough runes, so it wasn't uncommon to see players on their mages talking to NPCs or exploring less dangerous areas while making runes. Doing so made the wait between backpacks of runes much more bearable and helped lesson the cost of hunting. Despite how much questing occurred during this time, hardly anything of note was discovered. If there were any secrets, they remained unknown. The fact that players were unsuccessful didn't seem to discourage anyone from trying and rumors about all kinds of secrets were traded in private player circles and on the boards. Many claimed to have uncovered something others hadn't, but every single one guarded their knowledge and refused to share. The great spoiling by Wiki would not come for a few more years.
Not all the exploration was to find secrets, players like myself used the down time to scout of new places to train, looking for out of the way spots which we could semi-AFK train while doing other tasks like studying for school. Most of Tibia's players by this point seemed to still be students though the average age was slowly trending down as the ease of having internet and the popularity of the game spread through the grapevine at school. Tibia very rarely advertised itself and those who did find the game found it due to word of mouth from their peers or discovered it through chat groups on the internet. During this time the game began to explode in popularity and this overcrowding was felt by every player who suffered by lag or was unable to find free hunting spots or supplies. Though Nova and Premia had been added, tripling the server count, the game was still extremely crowded, especially on Antica which was by far the most popular as it offered both history and the lure of rares which were unique to the world.
Despite the overcrowding players were still gaining levels, even if it was a slow process. The bulk of Tibia's players were stuck below level 40 which is where the grind of the game really began. Some players were far ahead of the pack approaching the much-desired triple digit, 100. Arieswar blew past other high-level players, and in only a little more than a year he broke the game's exp counter, producing the famous advance screenshot on December 9th, 2000, advancing from level 76 to 130 instantly. His level was reset by CIP a couple days later and the exp for characters was fixed to accommodate higher levels.
Though Arieswar had been about a dozen levels ahead of everyone else in mid-2001, several deaths and discouragement allowed several other players to try and claim the title of first to 100. The real contenders appeared to be Dagor Dragontooth, Kadgar, Tekvorian, and Jiriki no'e Sa'onserei by the end of 2001. Around March the following year the list would look radically different with Arieswar losing two levels while Wurzel was within two levels of taking first place. Bubble would take third place and was completely unknown, not even appearing in the previous list. Kadgar was pushed to fourth, and Weyoun took fifth place. By the time Bubble took level 100 a month later, Wurzel was level 95 in second place, Pepelu 6 levels away at level 89, Indy at level 86, and Arieswar pushed down to fifth place also at level 86. Areiswar has spoken about the events leading to level 100 and remarked that he regrated not pushing himself to get the level after trying so hard.
I recall the event vividly as the community was actively following the progression of the high scores over the months leading to Bubbles level 100 and there was a great deal of speculation as to who it would be. I doubt very many players would believe it would be the unknown player Bubble, but her ability to power level was beyond any previous players ability. This naturally bread player theories that she was shared with her GM husband Nietzsche as no one could believe any one person could level this much. I recall myself looking at the change of highscores and realizing for the first time that Tibia was a changed game, no longer the relaxed, fun lazy adventure, but a real competitive game. Arieswar and other high-level players had been an active part of the community, but Bubble seemed to completely avoid interaction with everyone. The reality that someone outside of the close community could achieve so much frightened players, forcing them to consider that perhaps the game was now different. Players had talked about the dying community for years, perhaps even the eventual end of the game. Events like this was just one more tangible piece of evidence to support their claims. Change does not always mean an end, but it does mark a turning point and the faster progression of levels only meant one thing: that the age of RPG and exploration had come to an end and a competitive environment would now take its place.
For mainly explorer types like myself, watching the event unfold, it was a blow to the illusion that we could compete in the new Tibian world. After several personal setbacks I quit leveling, abandoned my dream of getting rares, and would have walked away from the game entirely if it was not for the launch of Premia which promised a fresh start and the fair chance of being one of those well-known players. Though I wouldn't know it then, this decision would change me in ways I couldn't dream and would propel me into notoriety.
