It only half-heartedly put the effort into making development tools for game creation after a decade of existence. One of the main reasons gaming never really took off on the platform is that Apple was trying to downplay the image of the Macintosh as a “toy” and thus discouraged game development. Only with the advent of iOS did Apple even get a foothold in the gaming industry. (That’s not to say all PC users follow the flock, but many don’t care and just use what everyone else does for simplicity.) It wasn’t until a European company formed by players licensed Clan Lord and developed a Windows client for the game. The typical Mac user tended to be a creative person, and thought along different lines than the “herd mentality” of the typical PC user. “Real gamers” bought PCs with Windows, and Mac Gamers were often treated with disdain by most PC gamers and mainstream game publications. The Mac was a very different platform in 1996–1998 (CL’s formative beta period), with a different type of average demographic. And the difference in the environment it came out of and exists in has both its strengths and weaknesses.Ĭlan Lord’s player base was initially RPG fans, mac enthusiasts and casual gamers. So, what does this game so clearly lacking offer, and why are people still playing after over 10 years? Clan Lord has a radically different concept and approach to games than pretty much every other RPG online or offline out there. If a person is not too concerned about rapid advancement while off-line and doesn’t carry more than the maximum of allowed objects, there is almost no reason to even have coins or care about obtaining them after one gets their basic equipment needs met, aside from the 5 coin boat fare to leave the island and chain repairs. In addition to this lack of combat mechanic complexity, there is also a very simple items system, and thus not much of an economy. Unlike 3D games, a 2D system allows this because there is no “ASDF+turn key” navigation needed in a 3D space, In a 2D space your mouse does quite nicely. The gameplay is simplistic for fighters and for the first few levels of “healer-dom.” One simply runs into what one wants to try to kill or start healing. Since then development efforts have gone into expanding the world and adding features on occasion. The reason is that this game is on its second decade of existence having come out of beta after about a year of testing in 1998. Clan Lord is a veritable Methuselah among online role-playing games, the graphics-2D hand drawn sprites-are crude compared to todays 32-bit texture laden 3D graphics.
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