CLOK Survey

[Jirato]

I created a "brief" (Okay, it's kind of long) survey for CLOK. This will help give us some insight and shape our development goals over the next few months. I'd greatly appreciate it if you would take it if you have ever played CLOK, even if you're not currently playing.

http://goo.gl/forms/u4jptcepa9

[Jirato]

So in response to a PM I recently received, I just to clarify, CLOK is NEVER going to be "pay-to-play" or "pay-to-win". We are never going to have a subscription fee, and we are never going to exchange in-game goods, skill points, or other mechanical benefits for in-game money. In fact, I feel so strongly about this I went ahead and put it up on "The Never Page". I will gladly pay out of pocket to support CLOK as long as there are players playing it.

I'd also hope that none of you think that is what Patreon is about, because it's not. You're merely donating to the game. The perks are completely optional, and don't involve the creation of new items or anything that adds any sort of mechanical benefit, they are purely cosmetic alterations. Even then though, you are NOT paying for the perks on Patreon, you are donating to the server and getting the perks as an aside.

The only reason why the survey asked if you've ever paid a subscription fee for a mud or exchanged money for goods or services, is because as I was listing the "Which MUDs have you played before?" I realized that quite a few of them offer stuff like that, and, well, I was just curious. I guess I should have been more responsible as a survey creator and stuck to questions only relevant to my information gathering goal. I am a VERY curious person. Sorry!

[Vertebrate]

I like the survey. I wish I had more time for Clok both so that I could play more and provide better feedback. I wish there was a say that casual gamers could get a leg up, perhaps the way GSIV did it-- where players get a weekly or monthly bonus to learning that diminishes after a few hours of gameplay. This made it so that the irregulars could keep up with their regular friends but there was no punishment to the regulars since they got the same bonus.

I like the idea of taking more rolls and skill numbers out of the game, but think it would have to be done very well and would be very tricky. I can see making the skills and abilities secret, because secret mechanics might cut down some of the grinding. But if anyone leaks the mechanics to the public then it's all for nothing. My thought would then be to make a random element to the mechanics, and I don't mean having one random roll in there, but making the mechanics themselves random, so for example swordsman 1 might have his mechanics weighted heavily by his melee skill, another might have his heavily weighted by his strength, another might have his weighted by the quality of his sword, etc. And perhaps the weighting could shift and change randomly, so that the fighter with the fine sword suddenly finds that he is "off his game" for the day and has to rely more on his mobility in a fight. As an athlete or a sports watcher we all know that athletes have hot streaks, cold streaks, mental games/morale slumps, and a range of skills that contribute to their over game-- each of which must be developed to make them a well-rounded player. For example Michael Jordan was a great offensive player but was criticized early for not being a team player. He then set about to become better in assisting, which he did and led the league. He was then criticized for not being good on defense, so he set out to become better on defense, which he did and led the league in steals.

Regarding strategic resource management games from Rias and Jirato, I wish these things could simply be added to Clok. For example I have dreamed about a better economy in Clok. I used to play a silly web based text game called E Drug Trader, which is nothing more than "buy low sell high" market trading. The market was based on real economic principles, and had random market events generated such as gang wars and police busts and legislation that affected the price of drugs. You could even purchase guns and go to war against other drug traders. Creating a parallel game like this that ties in to Clok would be neat. You could not only get your market drivers from the other game to affect Clok, but you could put little hooks and tie-ins into the other game that entices them to join Clok and RP with the other "economic agents." Imagine Farmville in a Clok setting, and there is a little button in Farmville that says "go to market" which leads you to a roll up a character in Clok, whereby you can actually take your goods to market and sell them in town or to other players. Imagine you're playing Clok and you can create a farm, kinda like a player-run mine. Then you can manage your crops by pulling up the website or Facebook page "Farmville" or "Clokville" or whatever you want to call it. Then imagine both data sources feed into the same shared economy for each game. Crafting could be done this way and taken out of the MUD. Even some guilds could be run this way, since some guilds revolve around some kind of product or service.

There could be a strategic real time (RTS) game added just like "Clokville," whereby cities and regions can change hands (politically) or invasions can be staged. Meanwhile, players in Clok on the client get their marching orders or have to gather resources or conduct guild tasks that flow from the RTS game game decisions. Perhaps the RTS element can only be accessed by accomplished MUDers and Clokvillers.

This would incorporate into Clok the exploration and RTS elements mentioned in the survey. Survival elements would be easy enough to add in to Clok. Grinding could be limited with the randomized and secret mechanics I mentioned and resource gathering/trading/crafting could be emphasized in the ways I've outlined.

It is my belief that this kind of game would be profitable and unique and be more than just another MUD. Why start a new game when so much work has been done already?

[Rias]

Why start a new game when so much work has been done already?

If I ever made another text-based MUD-like game, it'd be far less involved, with very few NPCs or factions to manage from the GM side, and have a fairly simple sandbox/players-run-the-show premise in a relatively small geographic area. Not that I wouldn't jump in and get involved from the GM side occasionally, but the whole point would be to have a simple game where factions, events, building, invasions, takeovers, and so forth are primarily run by the players, rather than myself. Then I can just work on presenting the world and mechanics while the players decide what they do with it, and I no longer have to worry about running all those NPCs and factions that CLOK is so full of.

So, it'd be a completely different beast from what CLOK is. Not really doable in CLOK; just to start, we'd have to nuke all the towns and hamlets and other NPC-filled outposts. I don't think that'd go over very well.

Plus, there's something to be said for fresh new starts, clean slates, and trying something different without tearing down and dramatically changing what already exists.

[Sneaky]

Go Go Go, I'd love something like that. Sort of like empire mud, but a lot less weird and complicated and with RP!

[Lysse]

Go Go Go, I'd love something like that. Sort of like empire mud, but a lot less weird and complicated and with RP!

Also, hopefully in SPAAAACE.

(And something Starcraft or WH:40k themed would be pretty hella, if you're comfortable using other people's IPs)

[Rias]

You'll likely see some attempts at story-writing from me before you see another (playable) game made by me.

[Jirato]

Just a heads up, I'll be closing the survey some time this Wednesday. So if you haven't taken it yet, please do.

Thanks to all the people who have already taken it. I'll get a list together of people who opted for the free RPA and passing them out after the survey closes Wednesday.

[ydia]

what exactly is an RPA?

[jilliana]

Roleplay award. It's an opportunity to get double the skill gains for a set amount of points. They don't expire and they can definitely stack up. Really handy when you're doing roleplay and want to do some dull skill grinding.