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''Tibia'' is a multiplayer online role-playing game ( MMORPG) released in 1997, developed and published by
CipSoft CipSoft GmbH is a German video game developer based in Regensburg. Founded in 2001, it is the developer of ''Tibia''. As of January 2023, the company employs 95 people. History CipSoft was founded on 8 June 2001 by Guido Lübke, Stephan Payer ...
. It is one of the earliest and longest-running MMORPGs, with its popularity peaking in 2007. It is a free game to download and play. However, players may pay to upgrade to a premium account, granting substantial in-game benefits. ''Tibia'' is a two-dimensional tile-based game set in a
fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...
world with
pixel art Pixel art () is a form of digital art drawn with graphical software where images are built using pixels as the only building block. It is widely associated with the low-resolution graphics from 8-bit and 16-bit era computers and arcade video g ...
graphics and a
top-down perspective A variety of computer graphic techniques have been used to display video game content throughout the history of video games. The predominance of individual techniques have evolved over time, primarily due to hardware advances and restrictions ...
.


Gameplay

''Tibia'' is a two-dimensional tile-based MMORPG with
text-based In computing, text-based user interfaces (TUI) (alternately terminal user interfaces, to reflect a dependence upon the properties of computer terminals and not just text), is a retronym describing a type of user interface (UI) common as an ear ...
elements. It is set in an
open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001 * ''Open'' ( ...
fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...
world that uses
pixel art Pixel art () is a form of digital art drawn with graphical software where images are built using pixels as the only building block. It is widely associated with the low-resolution graphics from 8-bit and 16-bit era computers and arcade video g ...
graphics, an
oblique projection Oblique projection is a simple type of technical drawing of graphical projection used for producing two-dimensional (2D) images of three-dimensional (3D) objects. The objects are not in perspective and so do not correspond to any view of an ...
, and a
top-down perspective A variety of computer graphic techniques have been used to display video game content throughout the history of video games. The predominance of individual techniques have evolved over time, primarily due to hardware advances and restrictions ...
. The core gameplay involves killing monsters to receive loot and to gain
experience Experience refers to conscious events in general, more specifically to perceptions, or to the practical knowledge and familiarity that is produced by these conscious processes. Understood as a conscious event in the widest sense, experience involv ...
to raise in levels. Early in the game, players choose between one of four unique vocations, each of which uses different spells and abilities. Players may complete
quests A quest is a journey toward a specific mission or a goal. The word serves as a plot device in mythology and fiction: a difficult journey towards a goal, often symbolic or allegorical. Tales of quests figure prominently in the folklore of ev ...
to receive rewards, kill bosses to obtain rare items, fight other players, form guilds, buy and decorate houses or guildhalls, or spend time on idle activities like fishing, training skills, or
role-playing Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing a ...
with other players. Interaction with Tibia's
NPCs A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster ...
is text-based, requiring the player to type keywords like "hi" and "trade" to interact with them, similar to many earlier text-based adventure games. Many of Tibia's quests and activities require a team of players, and players can speak to each other using the client's chat interface. To play Tibia, players must create an account on the Tibia website, and then create a character. During character creation, players must choose between 68 different servers (called worlds) that vary by location, PvP type, and various other factors. They must download the game client, and once their character is created, they may log into the game. When first logging in, new players will find themselves on a tutorial island called Dawnport. There, they can test the controls, test out the game's four vocations, and begin exploring and killing monsters. Upon reaching level 8, players are directed back to the town to choose their permanent vocation that will last for the rest of the game. The four vocations are knight, paladin, druid, and sorcerer. Knights specialize in
melee A melee ( or , French: mêlée ) or pell-mell is disorganized hand-to-hand combat in battles fought at abnormally close range with little central control once it starts. In military aviation, a melee has been defined as " air battle in which ...
, paladins in distance fighting, sorcerers in offensive
magic Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...
, and druids in healing magic. Once players choose their vocation, they will be permitted to take a ship to the mainland, where the rest of the game takes place. Once on the mainland, depending on the server's PvP type, players may be permitted to attack each other. Tibia is an open world game that encourages exploration and discovery. Very little instruction is given once the player has reached the mainland, and the game is distinguished by its harsh penalty upon dying. Players progress in the game by upgrading their equipment, increasing their level, and completing quests to access restricted locations. Each level requires the player to accumulate more experience than the previous level, but unlike many other MMORPGs, Tibia does not have a
level cap An experience point (often abbreviated as exp or XP) is a unit of measurement used in some tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's life experience and progression through the game. Experien ...
, so players are permitted to gain levels without limits.


Setting

''Tibia'' is set in a diverse world of many continents, with thematic influences drawn from many fantasy genres. In its early years, ''Tibia'' took place in a medieval Tolkien-esque setting, but as years passed and new areas and content were added, inspiration was drawn from a wide range of fantasy, mythological, and historical influences. Tibia has seventeen major cities filled with hundreds of
NPCs A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster ...
, each with unique dialogue and responses to keywords provided by the player. NPCs can buy and sell items, give quests, provide information and hints, and tell stories. The world also contains many books and libraries that contain information, quest hints, tales, and history about the world of Tibia. Tibia contains many
allusions Allusion is a figure of speech, in which an object or circumstance from unrelated context is referred to covertly or indirectly. It is left to the audience to make the direct connection. Where the connection is directly and explicitly stated (as ...
to the outside world, including pop culture references, allusions to video games and books, mythological references, and more. The demonym of a ''Tibia'' player is called a ''Tibian''.


Combat

Tibia has hundreds of weapons and armors used for fighting and protection from attacks.
Melee A melee ( or , French: mêlée ) or pell-mell is disorganized hand-to-hand combat in battles fought at abnormally close range with little central control once it starts. In military aviation, a melee has been defined as " air battle in which ...
fighting is the specialty of knights, who may choose to advance their sword, axe, or club skills, and who may also wear a large variety of armors and shields. Melee attacks only hit monsters on squares adjacent to the attacker. Ranged fighting is the specialty of paladins, who attack using an assortment of bows,
crossbows A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an elastic launching device consisting of a bow-like assembly called a ''prod'', mounted horizontally on a main frame called a ''tiller'', which is hand-held in a similar fashion to the stock of a long fire ...
, and throwing stars. Ranged attacks can hit monsters from many squares away, and different weapons have different attack ranges. All four vocations can use
magic Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...
to some degree. Sorcerers and druids have a wide variety of magic
spells Spell(s) or The Spell(s) may refer to: Processes * Spell (paranormal), an incantation * Spell (ritual), a magical ritual * Spelling, the writing of words Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Spell'' (1977 film), an American ...
available to them, while paladins and knights have a limited variety. Tibia's magic system is text-based. There are two types of magic: instant magic and rune magic. Instant magic uses spells that, once cast, will consume mana in order to produce the desired effect. Each spell uses spell words and consumes some of the character's mana points to use. Some spells are offensive and deal damage to creatures, some heal the player, and others serve other purposes. To cast a spell, a player can type the words of the spell into the text channel. Typing "exura gran" casts the Greater Healing spell. Tibia's client developed over the years to make spells easier and quicker to cast using hotkeys. Players may assign each spell to a hotkey, and press the hotkey when they wish to cast it.
Rune Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...
magic is magic cast by using an item called a rune. Runes are magic spells stored in small stones. To create runes, a player casts a spell while holding a blank rune in their inventory. Casting the spell "adori mas flam" consumes 530 mana and turns one blank rune into four "Great Fireball" runes, which may be stored in the player's inventory and then used later. Players may buy both blank runes and spell runes from vendor NPCs, along with mana and health potions to restore hit points and mana.


PvP

Players in Tibia are allowed to attack and kill other players. The rules governing PvP vary depending on the player's server type. Some servers, called Optional-PvP, don't allow
player killing Player versus player (PvP) is a type of multiplayer interactive conflict within a game between human players. This is often compared to player versus environment (PvE), in which the game itself controls its players' opponents. The terms are mo ...
except under certain circumstances, while other server types, such as Hardcore PvP, encourage such fighting. In Tibia's early years, players could kill any number of players without limits, and players who died lost a portion of their experience and dropped their backpacks and equipment. For this reason, Tibia earned a reputation for being a punishing, unforgiving game. Over the years, PvP rules were adjusted and modified, and a complex system is known as the "skull system" was implemented on Open-PvP servers to limit player killing. Many items and resources in Tibia are limited, and many intense large-scale wars have been fought in Tibia to decide who gets them.


Houses and guildhalls

Players are allowed to purchase houses and guildhalls in Tibia's major cities. The houses sit in the view of those walking by, and players often decorate their houses in various ways. Some players display their rarest items, and others decorate their houses with roleplaying items such as tables and chairs.


History and development

''Tibias development began in 1995 as a hobby project of
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
students Guido Lübke, Stephan Payer, Ulrich Schlott and Stephan Vogler under the name CIP Productions. The first server went online in January 1997, and its growing popularity led to the creation of CipSoft GmbH in June 2001. Premium accounts were introduced the same year, which allowed players to pay a monthly fee to gain additional in-game benefits. In the years that followed, more features were introduced, including map expansions, new outfits, new game mechanics including a "skull system" for PvP, and additional game worlds. The number of players online reached its peak at 64,028 players on January 2, 2007, with CipSoft reporting over 250,000 active players. According to a 2009 poll conducted by CipSoft, players came from a very wide range of countries, the largest numbers living in
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
(26.56%) and
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
(24.38%). Other countries included
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, Sweden, the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
,
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...
,
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
,
Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
,
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, and
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
CipSoft Poll
''Tibia'' has remained online up to the present, with developers releasing major content updates every six months. There are currently 68 game servers online, of which 24 in Europe, 25 in North America, and 19 in South America. Before game updates test servers are run to find and repair bugs and glitches within the update. These servers are first available for testing to players that hold official positions such as Tutors, Fansite representatives and Senators. Test servers are sometimes opened to the general Tibian public. The major updates usually involve the creation of new cities, hunting areas, spells, weapons, etc. Updates may also include graphic redesign, gameplay changes, and anti-cheating measures. In addition to the major updates, as needed, minor updates are done throughout the year to fix bugs and other minor problems.


Phasing out of Game Masters (GMs)

In late 2010, CipSoft decided to phase-out the "Game Master" system which had been used since launch. The Game Masters, commonly known as "GMs" to the community were well compensated for their time with a rare item of their choice. CipSoft implemented a new report statement function to the game client that players could use themselves, and the official course of action is for customer support to deal with all game queries. These representatives can be noted on the game's forum boards as Community Managers, or "CM" for short.


Level 999

In 2005, a ''Tibia'' update added a door that requires a player to reach level 999 before it opens. The level 999 door remained a mystery until August 2016 when a player named Kharsek, the first player to reach level 999, entered the room. Kharsek, however, chose to keep their discoveries behind the door a secret, and the general public had to wait another ten months to learn the answer to the mystery of what lay behind the door. In June 2017, a player named Dev onica broadcast a live stream via their Twitch (service), Twitch account, where they entered the level 999 door at level 1,001; they were transported to a tropical island with a variety of NPCs and no additional content of note.


Support and rules

The ''Tibian'' support system is made up of volunteer Tutors and paid Customer Support. Tutors are regular players who have no special or legal standing but can report in-game bugs as well as have access to a private chat channel and forums. Customer Support members are employees of CipSoft who handle cheating and bug reports. Retired gamemasters and long-term tutors may also, with prior invitation by CipSoft, choose to adopt the honorary title of Senator. The role of tutor encompasses a number of duties including answering questions from the in-game Help Channel and on the Help board on the forum, checking the private tutor board and in-game channels regularly, and reporting bugs. All players are now able to report inappropriate statements, names, and posts in-game or on the forums which were previously a power held by tutors and higher positions. Eligibility for the tutor position is determined if the player's account is registered, has been played for at least three months with one character having at least level 20, their criminal record contains no banishment entries, and has received 40 "Thank you!'s" in the last 90 days. "Thank you!'s" are garnered when players submit them via the in-game Help channel or on the forums Help board indicating a player's appreciation of someone's assistance. Players ''previously'' had to take an online multiple-choice test on the official website to become a tutor and after 3 months of active tutorship without a bad/false report would be automatically promoted to the position of senior tutor.


Rule violations

Conduct from players and premium accounts are expected to abide by rules rather similar to most such games, including prohibitions against sharing or selling account information, exploiting "obvious" errors or flaws which give unreasonable advantages to a player, posing as
CipSoft CipSoft GmbH is a German video game developer based in Regensburg. Founded in 2001, it is the developer of ''Tibia''. As of January 2023, the company employs 95 people. History CipSoft was founded on 8 June 2001 by Guido Lübke, Stephan Payer ...
employees, using any and all non-official programs such as “
bots The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former Bri ...
”, and offensive behaviors. In such events, CipSoft uses a system of a violation record and conduct levels that grade both the severity and frequency of violations, with the "conduct level" slowly relenting over time with no new violations. Once a violation is entered in the record it can be protested until 60 days have lapsed, allowing players to protest inappropriate charges or complain if the charges are not understood; the entry cannot be expunged from the record later than that time. If the conduct level reaches its highest state, whether through continued minor violations or few very severe ones, the account is threatened with banishment (from the game and forum) or deletion. If an account has been banished or scheduled for deletion,
CipSoft CipSoft GmbH is a German video game developer based in Regensburg. Founded in 2001, it is the developer of ''Tibia''. As of January 2023, the company employs 95 people. History CipSoft was founded on 8 June 2001 by Guido Lübke, Stephan Payer ...
promulgates that the only recourse is to either create a new character or appeal to Customer Support directly. On 30 January 2009, CipSoft announced that they banned 4,959 characters for using illegal software while playing. A quote from CipSoft at the ''Tibia'' website states,
These accounts have been identified by an automatic tool with ''complete'' accuracy, therefore any complaints about these punishments are in vain. They are final and complaints will be ignored. We will neither reveal our criteria for these punishments, nor will we hand out any proofs.
The article goes on to say that CipSoft is not finished and will continue to work hard to eliminate cheating from the game. Since then, CipSoft has used this automatic tool about once a month to delete tens of thousands of accounts. On 22 September 2010, CipSoft made fundamental changes to the player versus player fighting mechanism, in an effort to mitigate abuse. On 15 February 2017, CipSoft announced the implementation of the
anti-cheat Cheating in online games is the subversion of the rules or mechanics of online video games to gain an unfair advantage over other players, generally with the use of third-party software. What constitutes cheating is dependent on the game in ...
software
BattlEye BattlEye is a Proprietary software, proprietary anti-cheat software system which protects games and their players from hacking, cheating, and other forms of exploits while playing an online game. It was initially released as a third-party anti-che ...
. With the first game-worlds protected launching on 18 April 2017, with retroactive protection to other game-worlds over the course of a year.


See also

*
Tibia Micro Edition ''Tibia'' is a multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 1997, developed and published by CipSoft. It is one of the earliest and longest-running MMORPGs, with its popularity peaking in 2007. It is a free game to download and play ...


References


External links

*
CipSoft website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tibia (Computer Game) 1997 video games Active massively multiplayer online games Browser games Massively multiplayer online role-playing games Freeware games Free online games Linux games Graphical MUDs Proprietary software that uses Qt Video games developed in Germany Windows games Video games with oblique graphics Browser-based multiplayer online games