Game 1 – July 8 1998
2 Trading Sessions / 6 Minimum Goods Before Trading / Weaker Computer AI /N – Allow More Than 2 Calamities / N – Allow Purchase From Any Stock / N – Draw 2 Goods Per City / Y – Real Goods in Trade are Known
2nd Place – Score 3685 Points

Game 2 – March 31 2001
2 Trading Sessions / 6 Minimum Goods Before Trading / Weaker Computer AI /N – Allow More Than 2 Calamities / N – Allow Purchase From Any Stock / N – Draw 2 Goods Per City / N – Real Goods in Trade are Known
3rd Place – Score 3183 Points

Game 3 – April 12 2001
3 Trading Sessions / 4 Minimum Goods Before Trading / Weaker Computer AI / N – Allow More Than 2 Calamities / N – Allow Purchase From Any Stock / N – Draw 2 Goods Per City /N – Real Goods in Trade are Known
1st Place – Score 3777 Points

Advanced Civilization Save File

Advanced Civilization on Abandonia

Disclaimer: I am busy and don’t game as much as I wish. So you will find that my Game Saves are for old games. Also, I am a completionist (aka a touch of OCD) so I like to play games to the end as far as I can which means I am very slow to finish games.

Yet where was the games I was playing? I expected to see the land of Illuria (the original Warlords game I was playing) inside the case. Of course, I intellectually knew that the game existed as ones and zeros on the hard drive, but it made me do a double-take.

Everything we do on computers and consoles are those ones and zeros being quickly arranged in elaborate patterns. It is simply a series of electrical current that we are seeing on the screen – just like right now. It is truly amazing.

I think that this amazement helped the Matrix movies give the impact they did. They portrayed the question of What is Reality? My experience was like an introduction to the Buddhist concept of Sunyata or Emptiness. When everything is not what we think it is, then why become upset when a game is lost or prideful when a game is won?

I believe that computer games (in fact, games in all of their forms) offer us an opportunity to feel a command of mastery, a locus of control, and an imaginative re-visioning of ourselves not available in other mediums. The gaming medium possesses the same mythological steps of hero development that has been studied by Joseph Campbell and is found in all of our mystical and mythical traditions.

So what exactly is ‘The Mahaduta’?

Its a title that I adopted to reflect my gaming persona. Just like the olden days of Dungeons & Dragons where I would adopt a fantasy sounding name to pretend to be an epic hero, The Mahaduta, is just a continuance of that proud and geeky tradition.

So why is this ‘A Return’?

Well, I adopted The Mahaduta name when I started up my glorious introduction to Guild Wars where I dreamed up an inspiring message of spreading the Shambhala message to other gamers. It fit both in terms of personal inspiration and also in terms of fantasy feel.

The Satvajita was a small Guild that never grew to greater than ten members and never accomplished much. There continues to be searches for the Satvajita website (which are redirected here), allot of them pertaining to the Shambhala City image. I have included it in this post for your enjoyment.

Shambhala, the Enlightened Kingdom

Over time I became less interested in Guild Wars. The MMOs are so time intensive and GW had become too much of a grindfest to be enjoyable. The Guild and my characters are in hiatus.

I thought then that the Satvajita could be a launching point for a web Forum to talk about gaming and philosophy. The Forum lasted even shorter than the Guild. At least the Guild was visited by real people instead of bots…

The short-lived Satvajita Forum

The Forum was taken down about two months ago so now we are here, a blog to discuss what I consider to be an interesting top – the human spirit in gaming. The posts will be infrequent but hopefully insightful and worth reading.

Thanks for visiting,

The Mahaduta