Sharing of information

23/03-2001

Since Clanlord is an online roleplaying game dealing with the globe´s different timezones, there are no way your character can experience it all. You can´t be all places at the same time, even if you do play 24/7. Players have from the start of CL chosen to share their experiences with others in other timezones. There are a number of reasons for this, it enchances the gaming experience, it creates consistency, it makes interactions between characters more interesting when they happen - not only for the small group that experienced something the first time, it creates motivated players if they let it, and it´s this sharing that has created the player community. Puddleby has a common history that is known to players throughout the world, and timezones are not a problem most of the time. That has made the game a Small Village which is in my opinion Clanlords greatest achievement and what makes it unique.

And, this has also fostered a certain way of telling a story in CL. I don´t know what came first, the egg or the hen here, but I see that this sharing is necessary just to be able to follow major stories and quests.

This means that players logging on from Japan, can get to know what happened during the european timeshift. Players asked for Koppi, players have also asked for Gossipus, to have ways to do this sharing ingame. And, this view is I think held by the majority of players, or else Clanlord wouldn´t be like this. But sometimes this fails...

What happened during the Crystal Quest , was that many players held keyparts of the puzzle, but since they didn´t talk to eachother - the puzzle remained unsolved. If they had continued to do so, the only way this puzzle could have been solved was if the same group of people went through the whole thing and managed to connect it all. And when I say same group of people, I mean the same people at all times, with no exceptions and none in the library. How often does that happen?

A reason to share anything on a detailed level is, that if you don´t you may stall the whole story. One player has found out something, another player has found out something else. No one else may even know about it, or if they do know -they don´t know it with the added reference the first player does. And thus, things may be overlooked. Think of the parts these two hold as two things that fits together, that leads to something else. If they never share, it will stop right there.

What you hold may also be a key to understand parts of a story, not only a quest. Votenkath once said on Noth that the Noth is made of a master and a slave. This little tidbit fell through the holes, it didn´t get shared, it wasn´t referred to in posts and when other players talked about what he said, it´s not even in Baba´s diary - and yet it is a key to understand a lot of the Qual/Votenkath/Separ thread. You may come in and understand it from another angle, but to many it would have been easier if they had heard this.

Reading Jazz´journal, my eyes are drawn to a pic made on Tenebrion´s island. I haven´t been there since we "travelled the planes". It´s not much, and some will probably not notice - but to me it´s very interesting, with the current knowledge I have of this quest. It´s a change in an icon. Told you, it´s not much. The interesting thing is that it´s a change in an icon in a place that is also interesting. Might not lead to anything or get us further, but it´s an element. What it adds is simply a sign saying "Look here". And I will. I would have seen it had I gone down there myself, but without a drive - it might have taken quite some time. We play at different times, see different things - experience different events and happenings, talk to different people and has various ways of playing. If we don´t pool together what we experience, if we are tightlipped about everything, there is no chance in hell we are going to ever open the mirrors for example. And as it happens, your piece of useless tidbit might be very interesting to another player with another useless tidbit.

This is why I call WWE community quests. A story or a quest is made of many elements, for example a, b, c, d, and e. If you miss b and e, you will not get it. So, as a comment to my own rant on Secrets, I find it vital to share any world-wide type of events or info.

The glue that keeps the community together is the sharing of stories, tales, challenges and adventures. Without it we might all as well play in a void. In Ultima Online and Everquest this is the way you play. Together with friends, small groups of people - going off to adventures, getting items, trading etc. The whole world is not as open as the world in Clanlord is. The simple fact that I get to know what others have been through when I log on, makes the world a consistent place - a forwarding moving story. The story of Puddleby and its inhabitants. That is what
makes Clanlord unique to me. And, my guess - to many others as well. If we stop sharing, we undermine that.

08/05/01

There is a player that sometimes post in the NG, stating " No one will never, ever have any right to know what I know" or something. And, he is right, sort of, kinda - still , there is simply no other statements in CL that ticks me off more. Nothing. I feel the reporter-foot stamping the ground frenetically, while I mutter behind closed teeth - "R e a l l y..." Relax. I am not really a reporter in real life, just partly. No tomatoes please. My head becomes as red as James when we discuss the Opsec, and I do think I am close in hitting little things. Reason why I get so agitated is in the above I have written. It´s a gut-feeling too. And the same gut-feeling that says: Pox on PMF for not telling about Katpus, the Catapult and the Orga Stronghold.!Phoeey and all that.