Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

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Disaster hits Asheron's Call

The latest world changing event in the massively multiplayer role-playing game "Asheron's Call" has seen the towns of Arwic and Tufa reduced to smouldering ashes, while Cragstone has also been damaged. The sky is lit up by flashes of lightning, the howls of wolves drift across the hills of Dereth, and all manner of new monsters have emerged to threaten the game's inhabitants. On the bright side, there is now a secure in-game trading system allowing players to exchange money and goods without fear of being ripped off or robbed while trading. In related news, one player is running a campaign to "buff the bunny". Apparently the designers of Asheron's Call included a tribute to the classic comedy film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" in the game, in the form of a lethal white rabbit. Now the rabbit is finding its match as players reach ever higher levels and more powerful monsters are introduced into the game, and so one player has taken it upon himself to campaign for the rabbit to be returned to its rightful place as the most deadly, bad tempered rodent you ever laid eyes on. It's a funny old world... Related Feature - The Dereth Diary