Clanlord the strategy game

04/04-2001

It continually amazes me, how that simple interface of bump into something to hit it, give so many options. And how fun it can be playing with 40 + icons on the same screen. I´m thinking the Dred Passage raids here, or any other raid for that matter. Made up by a pool of players that enjoys this aspect of Clanlord. The DP raid list has around 100 subscribers. Yes, it´s closed - you need to be invited to join. And your character´s number of ranks has less to do with you being invited or not, than the knowledge that you - the player enjoy and value this aspect of Clanlord as well. And are good at it.

Warcraft II was simply never as fun as this. But it is actually a kind of strategy game we are playing then, a sort of Myth - only that you have the role as one of the grunts and other players controls the other grunts. The battles can be as thought out and planned as those you made when you played Warcraft. The difference is there is no save-game option, no pause-option, and your decisions and actions have an impact not only on icons on a screen, but on other players time as well.

Many players couldn´t care less about this aspect of the game. That´s cool. But if you want to be a part in a raid, you have to play that game. James and I have had many arguments over this. He do not understand, and couldn´t care less. He is not playing CL that way. And I usually stop arguing with him when I can almost see his face turn red, even if we play from the complete opposite parts of the globe. Silence can be SO loaded you know... even coming from small icons...and I don´t want to be the little thing he starts to hit..

I guess you need to be a gamer at heart to understand and value this aspect of Clanlord. Perhaps. Or maybe it´s just one of the things you like or don´t like, wherever you are coming from gaming-wise. I happen to enjoy it immensly. Even if it can be annoying as hell moving your icon through Orga Outback together with 40 other icons, have someone fall off a snell, fighting everything that moves, trying to tag an Orga Wrath when one hit can take that character to mangled or beyond.. etc. This is where the "rules" comes in, or code of conduct if you will. The thing that makes James see red and Vagile terrified of forgetting anything...

In the DP raids we have agreed on some things, like how to run through Outback. It includes running 2 or 3 snells at a time, not fighting through the "running" snells, also after the next direction is yelled - you are supposed to just run there and not stop to fight that red that spawned. Reasons for this is of course to cut down on the time it takes to get where we are going. The whole group do not move before everyone is accounted for, so if you slack behind - you are taking up 39 players time, and wasting time we would rather have spent in DP. If your character falls, we are bound to get to it.

And the Tactic for getting through DP has been discussed, we have learned through failed attempts, and come up with something that suits us. It´s not a very complicated plan with lots of steps in it, but it does involve some kind of commitment to understand what your role is. When you are part of a raid like this, that takes some time to plan for - you, the player - are expected to show some respect for other players time. Since not all players are equally smart when it comes to these things, we have outlined what and what not to do. I wish Kojiro´s basical "Don´t be a jackass" would be enough, but experience has showed me it´s not. Simply because not all understand what and what not is considered being a jackass. Not because they are idiots, but because in this aspect of CL, they have 10 thumbs.

I sometimes fire up Warcraft II and have a go at it, but it´s nowhere near as fun as an Orga camp raid can be.