Clan Lord: Huh?

My shareware plan ended up evolving into a whole “games I played when I only had a Mac into Middle School.” So I begin with Peter’s first MMORPG. To the uninitiated, MMORPG stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. These games involve a persistent world. This is in contrast to how most view games, as having a beginning that moves through a set of levels to reach an end. Persistent worlds in MMORPG’s are changed by all of the players interacting with them. This is done either by defeating enemies, finishing tasks, or creating communities. Some MMORPG’s let players even add and build objects in the world. MMORPG’s also tend to work by playing in collaboration with many other (real) people at once, as opposed with most games which work on a competitive basis. That is not to say there is no competition in MMORPG’s. Players will tend to form large communities (terminology varies based on the game) and which point the communities compete. Some small group competition exists but most like to focus more on the larger picture.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I play World of Warcraft now along with the millions of others with me. Although Everquest, released in 1999, was the first MMORPG that seemed to grab a wide audience outside those who played it, WoW has become a behemoth. With no end in sight, the WoW population continues to grow 5 years after its release. WoW might end up being my last MMO, but it sure wasn’t my first.

That honor goes to Clan Lord. I played this game starting in elementary school and seeping a bit into my 6th grade years. That said, I’m willing to bet that maybe 2-3 of my close friends reading this even know what the hell I’m talking about. I would be lucky for other readers to recognize the game. This isn’t because it was bad, but its scope was very small. Made by Delta Tao (www.deltatao.com), Clanlord was a simple online role playing game exclusively made for Macs. Other games Delta Tao was known for were a solitaire game, a space colonizing game which is overshadowed in every way by either of the first two Master of Orion games, and a platformer series called Dark Castle.

The Logo

This will be the first game I don’t completely drool over here. I think what kept me playing the game were the two friends I played with, Eric and Devin. This game provided me the first opportunity to interact in a way I enjoy playing games with my friends from long-distance. This is what makes Clan Lord such an important game of my past. My friends and I never got into MUD’s (Multi-User Dungeons) so this was my first step into online gaming, and I have loved it ever since. I would say I have this game to thank ultimately for all the relationships I have build through online gaming. So thank you to Joe Williams and everyone who made Clan Lord happen.

And another thanks to Joe for getting me out of trouble. You see, Clan Lord taught me a valuable lesson very early in life as it is the first, and only, place I have been the victim of an internet password stealing scam. I was a dumb 4th grader [I believe, memory is fuzzy] playing innocently one day when I was approached by a character in the game. He informed me of an error in my account and I needed to re-log with a new password so things could be fixed. This man even gave me the right password to use, how nice of him! So I log out, change my password, and… shit. I immediately realized my mistake and tried to fix it but was too late. Being the suburbs-raised white kid that I am, I cried my ass off for a while. My parents were smart enough at the time to send Joe Williams an email explaining my plight [yes that’s right, Delta Tao is so small that the owner is also customer service]. Within the day I was playing again. Thanks again, Joe, lesson learned.

Clan Lord is a very simple game. It hosts the ability to play as seven different races ranging from human to dwarf to walking kitty to Admiral Ackbar. The races are a bit different: dwarfs are hardier than elves, humans define average, Admiral Ackbars are great healers for a few examples. When I played there were two classes that actually worked and a third that just kind of existed at the time. The two basic classes are warriors and healers. Warriors damaged enemies by walking into them. Healers healed people by walking into them. Complicated does not describe this game whatsoever. You build your character by killing or healing a bunch to develop training points, and spending those points on different aspects of how you play. Warriors for example could focus on doing damage, receiving less damage, increasing ability to hit, and decreasing ability to be hit in a basic sense. Healers focused on healing intensity and how long they could heal. Both could focus on health pools. Mystics only existed in a beta form while I played. I believe nowadays they act as a sort of magic class that doesn’t involve healing.

This is what combat generally looked like (from Delta Tao's site)

This led to lots of repetitive play associated with MMORPG’s. This is where the team play came in. Obviously you could get more done with more players. You could especially get more done by combining classes, sending warriors in front with healers ready to prevent deaths. Group play became important. Clan Lord, appropriately, used player-made Clans to help facilitate this. The Clans formed the basis of the communities that existed within the game. To this day I still remember I was a proud member of Neko no Kessha, a clan which still exists to this day in the game.

One last thing, Delta Tao’s involvement with the game has always been strong. A fond memory of playing the game was from one particular Halloween. It started with a small zombie invasion. The problem was though, any player killed by a zombie became one themselves. This snowballed, quickly, as people died and started to lost control of their avatars. You watched as you cut down your friends with nothing you could do about it. The players had a lot of fun with it. And yes, WoW did this, but Clan Lord did it first successfully without pissing off most of its player base.

While digging up pictures, I learned that Clan Lord is not only still running but also dropped its monthly fee about a year ago. If you own a Mac and at the very least like to support small game companies, definitely check this out!

Next up, I’m thinking the Exile series.