Dark Ages is an online role-playing game by Nexon, inc., also known for their real-time strategy MMPOG, "Shattered Galaxy". Founded in early 1999, it (allegedly) draws its inspiration from various H.P. Lovecraft works. I say allegedly, since I have not actually read any H.P. Lovecraft. It is not set in any particular period, and is only named "Dark Ages" due to the fact that the original administrator just happened to have darkages.com registered. The overtone is a midieval world, with cities in Celtic, Greek, and French styles. Gaelic is considered the "ancient tongue," and is used to title all priest and wizard spells.
An underlying theme for the game is the idea of a user-run community -- The game features political and religious structures for players to join and administer. The political system is of particular note, since it takes on almost all of the rule enforcement tasks normally left to the owner. This system, while widely criticized by many players as being corrupt and abused, works surprisingly well considering that it brings dozens of community administrators for absolutely no cost.
Consistantly billed as being a "serious RPG," Dark Ages starts off with a tutorial informing you that you can and will be shunned and/or forcibly removed from the community if you break character. While Dark Ages indeed has the stiffest role-play community I've ever seen in an MMPOG, one will only see 4% or so of the players engaging in any serious form of roleplaying.
Perhaps the most intriguing element of Dark Ages, however, is it's moderate size. With about 700-1,000 individual players, Dark Ages hits what I feel is the "sweet spot" in terms of community size: A world large enough to have an endless supply of new faces, but small enough so you get to know dozens of old faces, too.
Dark Ages is built to encourage a strong social life amongst its players. A new player will immediately notice that you literally cannot get started without the assistance of others; To choose a character class, one must be initiated by an experienced character of that class. Once guided, one cannot gain many levels fighting alone. Other pursuits in the game, such as politics or religion, involve social contact by their very nature.
Unfortunately, while interacting with people is an integral part of Dark Ages, not all of the people are fun to interact with. This will rapidly become apparent to players of female characters, who will be innundated by marriage proposals, sexual harassment, and general unregulated teenage boyhood.
The in-game political and religious systems provide seemingly endless potential for thought, exploration, and development. While it can be frustrating that 96% of the players do not make any effort to role-play, one can quickly identify and connect with fellow role-players, particularly in these systems. The simple unpredictibility of the social element can keep one entertained for months.
Dark Ages is not particularly extraordinary in any individual fashion. The graphics are extremely basic, working on a 256-color palette. The music (if you choose to download and enable it) is very nice, the first six-hundred times. The message boards more often than not center around usenet-style flame wars, rather than any interesting content.
But, somehow, despite the lackluster nature of all these things, they all somehow add up to the single most addictive game I've ever played. Perhaps it is the intrigue of the in-game political system, or the chance one has to become famous amongst the players, but the game has a certain appeal to it that I cannot resist.