My introduction before the jump there was possibly a little misleading if you’re used to games industry lingo -- when most gamers think “real-time strategy” they tend to think of games like Command and Conquer and Age of Empires. However, Ikariam is a lot more leisurely paced, but can also be (perhaps surprisingly!) more stressful!

You see, Ikariam is a “real time” title in that after you’ve founded your city (in my case, Arx Prosperitas, which I hope means “Prosperous Fortress”, but I’m not particularly good at Latin) you simply set your townsfolk to some tasks -- usually researching discoveries, working at the island’s saw mill for materials, and constructing new buildings.

And then you wait in real time.

This is a genuinely surprising thing when you first begin to play Ikariam! The first time I began building something -- an academy, to make research possible -- being told I had to wait 15 minutes for it to be completed was a shock!

However, it’s fairly quick to get into the groove with the game, but what it does mean is that you’ll (certainly in the beginning stages) be leaving the browser window running for a long time while you perform other, non-game related tasks (catching up on e-mail, work, etc.) while you wait to be able to build your next structure, as you can’t stack building orders.

Once you’ve built your town up to at least a basic level -- with an academy, barracks, trading post and port -- you can start to take part in the larger game. A little earlier I mentioned “your island’s” saw mill, and in fact you share your island with up to 16 other players/towns, and all use the same resources. Each island has one saw mill and one luxury to mine (either sulphur, marble, grapes or crystal) and though there is no limit to the amount that can be mined, players are advised to work together and contribute building materials to the improvement of each resource to allow them to mine as much as possible -- especially as players can attack other players on the same island if they feel they’re not pulling their weight.

But the majority of the play is formed through trading and battling with the inhabitants of other islands. A great deal of the game is based on trading across the free market using cargo ships, but if you’re of a more warlike persuasion you can also choose to pillage other cities with your units too.

All of this takes time, of course! It can take several hours for cargo ships to reach their destination (it isn’t instant!) and even time for them to load goods, so Ikariam is a game that requires a lot of patience -- and trust, because the situation on your island, or with your trading partners, can easily change in a few hours while you’re away.

Due to the game’s heavy requirements on patience, it actually takes a very long time to get into the position where you are going to feel like you’re able to compete/interact with other players across the world (rather than just with the inhabitants on your own island) but once you are ready there is plenty of potential for taking part in the game’s social aspects, such as alliances, trade agreements and more.

Yet the question remains – is this a game that benefits from being massively multiplayer? Is the resulting community interesting from a social worlds stand point? I’ll take a look in the upcoming conclusion.