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Another counterpoint to this is a world that exists despite almost no one playing it: Clanlord[1]. I started playing this game during its beta test when I was
by bazillion 11y ago
Another counterpoint to this is a world that exists despite almost no one playing it: Clanlord[1]. I started playing this game during its beta test when I was 16(I'm 32 now) where there were as many as 200 players on a single server. It predated every MMORPG you've ever heard of, unless you were into online games during their earliest days. I still log on there every now and then to "spend" my ranks (basically leveling up skills), and there are still afk clients consistently logged into the server which sit in the town center to heal folks. The coolest thing is the fact that its creator has posted patch notes[2] every 2 weeks for the last 16 years -- how incredible is that?
What's interesting about this game is how the creator of it solved a lot of very difficult technical challenges where there was no common solution at the time. There was always one computer running one persistent world, so he spent a lot of time working on scaling out the performance of that server to be able to handle a possible load of 200 concurrent connections, where the average game at the time could maybe handle 6-8.
Knowing what I know now about programming, I would love to be able to get under the hood of that game and play around with it.
[1] https://www.deltatao.com/clanlord/ https://www.deltatao.com/clanlord/
[2] https://www.deltatao.com/clanlord/news/new.html https://www.deltatao.com/clanlord/news/new.html
- elenorelange 11y agoGraphical MMOs that predate it are Habitat (1986), Neverwinter Nights (1991), Meridian 59 (1995), The Realm (1996), and Ultima Online (1997). In 1999 when Asheron's Call and EverQuest came out, games like this became obsolete. But there are still a few hundred players of Sierra's The Realm, which first came out in 1996. There are also many community emulators for Ultima Online. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwinter_Nights_(1991_video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwinter_Nights_(1991_video... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridian_59 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridian_59 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Realm_Online https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Realm_Online https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_Online https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_Online
- buserror 11y agoActually CL existed long before 1999 -- I know that very well. I don't have an exact date; the 'official' release date was 1998, but it was just a rubber stamp thing; it had been functioning in Beta mode for several years before that. The release date was just a question of resetting everyone's characters and starting again on a (must slower) experience path.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- stannol 11y agoNot to forget Tibia, which was released in January 1997, is still developed and run by the same company and has thousands of concurrent players at any time of the day.
- buserror 11y agoI was a GM on ClanLord for quite a while. I'm the one who designed a way for players to compose and play music together 'live', and all the 'Bard' stuff. In the days of slow modem connections, it was pretty cool. Some guys who started more or less as a Bard in ClanLord as a teen ended up making a living out of it eventually, as a real life composer! http://www.donaldsonworkshop.com/coriakin/ http://www.donaldsonworkshop.com/coriakin/
- lectrick 11y agoUnderrated Mac gaming gem from way back in the day! Thanks for the nostalgia!