Before I start I should say : THIS IS MY OPINION AND SHOULD BE TAKEN WITH A GRAIN OF SALT.

In this guide I will focus on the diffrent aspects (positive and negatve ((mostly negative)) ) of the realism servers The Isle has to offer.This guide will show my experience with these servers going from the average player to an actual realism player and learning from my mistakes (hopefully preventing you wasting time on these servers).

Keep in mind I have been playing almost from the start of the game and playing through the beggining of realism servers, their peak(looking at you The.Isle.Realism), and eventually, their downfall.

Lets get on with the REVIEW.

Realism is basically picking your dino and role playing as it, by that I mean doing stuff a normal animal would do in modern times. Drinking, hunting, mating, joining a pack are all things you would do most of the time.

There are 2 modes of realism a server usually offers, they are as follows :
Realism
Soft (Semi) Realism

There are also some minor variations to these servers, but the diffrences are so minor or the servers are so few in numbers, that they dont really deserve to be listed at all.

Realism is a gamemode where you roleplay as a dino, sounds simple enough, right ? I mean, how hard can playing an animal be ? WRONG

These servers are the main attraction to the heavy rp audience. They usually have (or atleast had) a steady playerbase of 50-100 people. As time went by it slowly decayed and now the player numbers are somewhere between 15 at peak hours and 0... pretty much the rest of the time.

Why did they decay and die out you may ask ? The answer is simple : RULES

When joining any of the servers in the search bar that have REALISM in the title, you will be REQUIRED to join their discord. There is no exception to that, its literally in every realism server you join. If you dont use discord then too bad, you are forbidden from playing anything with realism.

Now, after you have made an account in discord and joined, you will be greeted with a welcome, followed by these words written by the GODS themselves (the admins of the server ofcourse).

WELCOME TO [insert random prehistoric name] REALISM, PLEASE READ THE RULES AND DINOSAUR PROFILES BEFORE PLAYING.
(this is also REQUIRED in every server, if you dont read the rules/profiles of each dinosaur and/or question why you should read them, you get banned switfly and mercilessly.)

I have seen servers with rougly 5-7 pages of rules/profiles, these rules cover (but are not limited to) who you have to avoid, what you have to hunt, what you can do at certain times, where you can go at certain times, who you can mate with, what color you have to use on your dino, and what dinos you can play.

THE VIDEO BELOW IS A SHOWCASE OF WHAT THE RULES/PROFILES LOOK
(also keep in mind in this server these are half the rules, the other half i didnt bother to record)

From here it will cover what happens AFTER you have read all the rules and have been accepted to join this "friendly" and "caring" community. (these words will be thrown out the window later)


CONGRATULATIONS! You have finally done the first step. Now its time to choose your dinosaur and start playing (not the right word to use but w/e).

So now you ask, what happens now? Well, its time to experience the realism in its full glory. You have 2 options now, a herbivore ( strict rules that dictate your gameplay) or a carnivore (even stricter rules that dictate your gameplay even more).

Herbivore : You will soon find out being a herbivore is way more forgiving as a beginner since most of the time will be spent sitting in a bush alt tabbed waiting for your dino to grow (from time to time you will actually realise you have to go into the game to eat and drink, then you go afk again).

Carnivore : You will also find out that carnivore is next to impossible for a new player, as you will still not have memorized all the rules, which means you cant hunt properly as even hitting the wrong dinosaur ONCE will result in a ban (depening on the server,but most of the time its an instant 24 ban). This will mean you will have to read the rules more than 1 time to fully understand what to do as a carnivore (what to hunt/when to hunt etc). This will quickly become annoying for a new player and they will switch to herbivore. So if youre a new player and want a carnivore , too bad you cant.

T-rex/Giga/Trike Now you may want to play one of these cool and interesting dinosaurs when you first join, only to find out they are locked because of population control, which also means (like most people in the server) you cant play them. Most of the times in servers there are raffles/giveaways of these dinos and a "randomly" selected person gets to be the next apex carnivore/herbivore. Now these giveaways are nothing short of scams and a waste of time for new players as most of the time the winners are not infact "randomly" selected, but they are friends or very close people to staff. There was 1 time I saw a random player get selected, but he was "afk" (or was an alt of an admin that wanted to look like it was not faked so people would stop complaining that its rigged).

You will soon find yourself reported for breaking (accidentally) a rule, as youre a new player its expected to do afew mistakes and staff should be forgiving right ? ONCE AGAIN WRONG

It doesnt matter if youre a new or old player, the punishment you get is the same. It doesnt matter if you legit just entered the server and accidentally attacked someone because you couldnt memorize 10 pages worth of dinosaur facts and a 2 year player that is supposed to actually know and understand everything in the server. You WILL get reported and eventually get your first strike (24 hour ban, after which most people stop/forget playing), if you stay after that ban and come again be sure your next mistake is a permanent ban.

The 3 parts above are the main reasons this mode is dying and rightfully so. It promotes nothing more than power/staff abusing, nepotism, unfair gameplay, strict dino profiles making the game boring and repetitive and annoyingly long rules that by the time you have finished reading them you will have a degree in paleontology and be ready to start a career instead of sitting on your pc playing this mode.

This gamemode follows the exact same format as the previous one, except ten times worse. The rules are less strict, but that comes at a cost.The staff on most of these servers are extremely rude and power abusing. Most of the times these servers also have donation links to help fund their poor asses. You are basically giving them money to abuse you. (Admins/Friends of Admins also get special dinos you cant get unless you pay ofcourse )

Random reports with no evidence occur on a daily basis, which results in alot of players getting banned, random killing sprees of admins are also not unheard of. (These mass killing sprees are often excused by the admins saying there is an event)

Basically youre playing a dinosaur version of Soviet Union during the great purge.

The answer is a clear and loud NO. Trust me on this one all of these servers have nothing to offer worthwhile, you are better off playing on official servers or with your friends in normal servers with no rules. Atleast there you can have some fun with the game. There is 0 realism in these servers , nor any roleplay.

If youre looking for some quick fun thou, you can talk to some of the new players like you and have a nice chat, but if you dont follow EXACTLY what the rules say you will both get banned extremely fast.

In conclusion, this gamemode just sucks right now and really isn't worth playing. Thanks for everyone who took the time to read all this, and if you have any questions, I will answer anyquestions in the comments section. If you agree, please share this guide with anyone who plays The Isle to help spread awareness.