Post by sirinnu on Dec 1, 2009 22:05:36 GMT -5
A few Observations from an Orc
NOTE:
What lies below is all based on my own views. I do not pretend to hold THE truth; it’s all only based on my personnel observations and what I have witnessed myself - merely ONE truth about this small (yet huge) game.
Not long ago, I did some intensive research about DC1 (early in 2009), especially about the various clans this game has seen in the last 12 years....
I am sure I haven’t find even half of them, but it was really interesting for the Dragon Court (DC) fan that I am to browse through those old clans forums.
Surprisingly, many are still semi-active!!!!
The game itself has never changed much since its start 12 years ago . . . a very simple java game, even when it was first released. Yet, through the many clans that have arisen since the game’s creation, thousands of players have been enjoying Dragon Court over the years!
To talk about Dragon Court and its clans, I wanted to be as comprehensive as I could while still keeping it summarized, so to be easily understood. Therefore, I have created 3 categories or eras to represent this part of DC History:
The Golden Age (from 1997-2001)
When DC first started in 1997, it was a thrilling FREE game for many people (thousandS of players). It was a very unique concept for a free game, back when the web was starting to become a more common tool to more people. Fred Haslam (and his right arm, Lawrence) promoted it very well back then (I found DC myself in 1997 by typing “Free Online RPG” into a search engine, and DC was the first option on the list). So many people quickly joined this new fun free game.
Many clans were created very early. Even Mr. Haslam knew this game’s heart was not the applet itself, but rather in the communities – the CLANS, where the players can create from this small world. He allowed us – THE PLAYERS – to shape this simple and funny world as we wanted. Roleplaying (RP) was even more appreciated than the game itself in this period!!! DC was mainly about RP. The best online RPERs on the entire web today learned what they know in the old Dragon Court Towne Square (TS) and in the RPing sections of the DC forums!
Here are a few Clans from that period:
- Clan Deadly
- Gnoggs
- Domination
- Seek & Destroy
- Titan*
- Frost Knights*
- Torm Guardians*
- Evil Uprising
- Damage inc
- New Dawn
- Thors Hammer
- ShadowRaven
(This list could be much more longer!)
Many of these clans are still semi- active. They represent the first generation of DC players. They enjoyed the game itself (and its trading aspects) years ago, now still sticking together mostly as small groups of friends. Only very few members from these old clans are still known DC players by us today. Of course, some of their members are also active, sometimes posting on their old respective fortresses/forums, but they rarely use the main DC boards, so they don’t recruit from the new people joining the game today. Yet, some of them still visit each other; ambassadors and alliances from the past still exist today, even if they’re not as visible as they once were.
Those people all remember and miss how fun it was back in the days on the TS, the RPing, how alive everything looked, so alive it was. Chivalry, tournaments, weddings between players, epic RPing sessions everyday. Very few of these players are still DC-active today, and many more only visit the Salamander Tavern or the TS once in a while, frustrated to see what DC RPing is today. Many of those old clans had to move to others games to survive, so they don’t log their DC characters anymore. Thus, we don’t see them active in DC, yet pockets of active players can still be found in a few of these clans today.
The Middle Age (2001-2006)
[the slow decline]
During 2000-01, DC trading was at its peak, up to a bit after the tiq game update in 2002!
RPing was still popular, but the trading post started to get really ugly; massively used, trading was valued and bad people were common. Rampant hacked mandrakes were everywhere and other hacked junk. When the tiqs were created, more hacked items came in (hacked tiqs) and mods were unable to agree together on the best policies to adopt and how to police all the new mess.
Mr. Haslam tried a few needed game updates/modifications to help but instead, they scared many people away from the game. Rust, mandrakes, cookies – even the update creating the tiqs and increasing all foe stats and gear stats scared away many players, yet it had to be done to clean up and sweep away all the mess the hackers had made in the game.
Though, many great clans were born in this period, many with their own ways to police and prevent hackers, some were still more focused on RPing than on trading. Again, many clans in this period were able to hit the top 24 clan listings. Yet, with the slow decline of the TP, the RPing aspect of DC started to decline too.
Some clans representatives of this period:
- Sky Rider
- Navigator Dragons
- Demon Knights*
- Demon Guardians*
- Gryffindor*
- Bloodfin*
- White Fire*
- Silver Knights*
- Saskatchewan
- Sick-Of-It-All (SOIA)*
- Knights Of The Dragon
- Apocalypse
- Crimson Dragons
- Dark Knights
When Azteca showed up in 2005, things were already very different . . .
The whole community was already smaller, so new clans were smaller too. Older players started to move into various others games more popular then DC, or to focus on Real Life (RL) interests ; players growing up, getting jobs, kids, etc. Still, many newcomers to the game continued to try DC and find a home. However, many people lost interest in DC, its RPing and trading , finding those aspects in other games or getting too RL busy.
Fred Haslam and almost the whole community lost hope at this time. The overall mood was low, not a very welcoming environment for newcomers. The game was less advertised and the game-mood (from players and creator) was less interested. We should have all stayed really enthusiastic, to continue to compete with the many appealing new games, to naturally convince people that DC was really worth a try despite its apparent simplicity, out-of date graphics and game play. We should have continued to focus on RPing more, worked harder to keep trading clean (free from hacked items and scammers, etc.), had better communication between players and mods, and between mods and Fred Hasslam. All these things might have helped keep the DC community during this time more positive and energetic about a still-great game.
Yet many players continued to enjoy DC throughout this period. There were many fun and friendly competitions between clans. DG, BF, KOTD, SOIA and BF were all great clans with many enthusiastic players who all reached the top 5 clans at some point.
The New Generation (2006–Today)
(a new hope)
There are way less RPers today.
Even the TP was really boring for some months around 2006-07.
Yet, the current batch of players has shown that this game is still alive and kicking, starting many new opportunities and initiatives!
Fred Haslam has been almost entirely absent in this period (not seen at all since sometime in 2008), yet we could almost say that the game can now sustain itself, only from its members! We are still ready to welcome many more DCers!
I have not much to say on that period, since it is not yet over...
While last year only 3-4 clans were posting on the Clan Hall, , today we are around 15 () clans still recruiting, and trying by various means to keep that great unique game alive and kicking, so all the new comers can enjoy it as the oldest players enjoyed it in the past! New clan alliances, combined with older ones, continue to make Dragon Court an Active and Dynamic game.
A few clans created in this period:
- Wizards & Warriors*
- Everyday Heroes
- Dragon Stalker Clan
- Origins of Evolution
- The Victors*
- Killa Krew*
- Shinra Corp.*
- C.r.y.s.t.a.l. Clan
- The Unitedz (The Alliance)
Overall, there are about 15 clans still DC–active today! (Active clans today are noted by * marks in all sections) Most of these clans should definitely use the Clan Hall and others main DC forum boards more! We should all promote more RPing, since that was a great part of DC once. Still, many old DCers might come back if they could find an active community of RPers around, and then they could help us improve our own RP skills!! We definitely need to build more bridges across the various DC generations; old RPers are hiding in their old fortresses, but they could come back if RPing was more active in the current DC world. Already, the wealthiest players from the Middle Age are slowly coming back since the trading post become cleaner and more active.
So get others DC boards active too!
EVEN if Mr Haslam is not available much nowadays, some mods are still around and there are still many of us to carry on the DC spirit! JOIN us, whether you are an old DCer or new to this game!
Join a clan, start new ones, use the game to quest, make friends, finds items to trades, get some questing goals, be an elf, a human paladin, an Orc or a Giant. Choose a role and role play it when you trade, or when you are on your clan forum, or when you visit the DC chats still available to us (Traders Chat and Town Square)!!!
DC has a lot of stories already (an overall deep story and several sides stories created by all the various clans), but it’s such an awesome world that we can always develop more stories or set up new events in this fantastic world! Yes! It is a simple game with simple graphics, but it is wonderful like it is, as it allows us to shape this world HOW WE WANT IT. Use your imagination!
GET INVOLVED!!!
(thanks alot to Gawayn and Dragon_Stalker for their comments, and for helping me correct-fix grammars and vocabs mistakes)
NOTE:
What lies below is all based on my own views. I do not pretend to hold THE truth; it’s all only based on my personnel observations and what I have witnessed myself - merely ONE truth about this small (yet huge) game.
Not long ago, I did some intensive research about DC1 (early in 2009), especially about the various clans this game has seen in the last 12 years....
I am sure I haven’t find even half of them, but it was really interesting for the Dragon Court (DC) fan that I am to browse through those old clans forums.
Surprisingly, many are still semi-active!!!!
The game itself has never changed much since its start 12 years ago . . . a very simple java game, even when it was first released. Yet, through the many clans that have arisen since the game’s creation, thousands of players have been enjoying Dragon Court over the years!
To talk about Dragon Court and its clans, I wanted to be as comprehensive as I could while still keeping it summarized, so to be easily understood. Therefore, I have created 3 categories or eras to represent this part of DC History:
The Golden Age (from 1997-2001)
When DC first started in 1997, it was a thrilling FREE game for many people (thousandS of players). It was a very unique concept for a free game, back when the web was starting to become a more common tool to more people. Fred Haslam (and his right arm, Lawrence) promoted it very well back then (I found DC myself in 1997 by typing “Free Online RPG” into a search engine, and DC was the first option on the list). So many people quickly joined this new fun free game.
Many clans were created very early. Even Mr. Haslam knew this game’s heart was not the applet itself, but rather in the communities – the CLANS, where the players can create from this small world. He allowed us – THE PLAYERS – to shape this simple and funny world as we wanted. Roleplaying (RP) was even more appreciated than the game itself in this period!!! DC was mainly about RP. The best online RPERs on the entire web today learned what they know in the old Dragon Court Towne Square (TS) and in the RPing sections of the DC forums!
Here are a few Clans from that period:
- Clan Deadly
- Gnoggs
- Domination
- Seek & Destroy
- Titan*
- Frost Knights*
- Torm Guardians*
- Evil Uprising
- Damage inc
- New Dawn
- Thors Hammer
- ShadowRaven
(This list could be much more longer!)
Many of these clans are still semi- active. They represent the first generation of DC players. They enjoyed the game itself (and its trading aspects) years ago, now still sticking together mostly as small groups of friends. Only very few members from these old clans are still known DC players by us today. Of course, some of their members are also active, sometimes posting on their old respective fortresses/forums, but they rarely use the main DC boards, so they don’t recruit from the new people joining the game today. Yet, some of them still visit each other; ambassadors and alliances from the past still exist today, even if they’re not as visible as they once were.
Those people all remember and miss how fun it was back in the days on the TS, the RPing, how alive everything looked, so alive it was. Chivalry, tournaments, weddings between players, epic RPing sessions everyday. Very few of these players are still DC-active today, and many more only visit the Salamander Tavern or the TS once in a while, frustrated to see what DC RPing is today. Many of those old clans had to move to others games to survive, so they don’t log their DC characters anymore. Thus, we don’t see them active in DC, yet pockets of active players can still be found in a few of these clans today.
The Middle Age (2001-2006)
[the slow decline]
During 2000-01, DC trading was at its peak, up to a bit after the tiq game update in 2002!
RPing was still popular, but the trading post started to get really ugly; massively used, trading was valued and bad people were common. Rampant hacked mandrakes were everywhere and other hacked junk. When the tiqs were created, more hacked items came in (hacked tiqs) and mods were unable to agree together on the best policies to adopt and how to police all the new mess.
Mr. Haslam tried a few needed game updates/modifications to help but instead, they scared many people away from the game. Rust, mandrakes, cookies – even the update creating the tiqs and increasing all foe stats and gear stats scared away many players, yet it had to be done to clean up and sweep away all the mess the hackers had made in the game.
Though, many great clans were born in this period, many with their own ways to police and prevent hackers, some were still more focused on RPing than on trading. Again, many clans in this period were able to hit the top 24 clan listings. Yet, with the slow decline of the TP, the RPing aspect of DC started to decline too.
Some clans representatives of this period:
- Sky Rider
- Navigator Dragons
- Demon Knights*
- Demon Guardians*
- Gryffindor*
- Bloodfin*
- White Fire*
- Silver Knights*
- Saskatchewan
- Sick-Of-It-All (SOIA)*
- Knights Of The Dragon
- Apocalypse
- Crimson Dragons
- Dark Knights
When Azteca showed up in 2005, things were already very different . . .
The whole community was already smaller, so new clans were smaller too. Older players started to move into various others games more popular then DC, or to focus on Real Life (RL) interests ; players growing up, getting jobs, kids, etc. Still, many newcomers to the game continued to try DC and find a home. However, many people lost interest in DC, its RPing and trading , finding those aspects in other games or getting too RL busy.
Fred Haslam and almost the whole community lost hope at this time. The overall mood was low, not a very welcoming environment for newcomers. The game was less advertised and the game-mood (from players and creator) was less interested. We should have all stayed really enthusiastic, to continue to compete with the many appealing new games, to naturally convince people that DC was really worth a try despite its apparent simplicity, out-of date graphics and game play. We should have continued to focus on RPing more, worked harder to keep trading clean (free from hacked items and scammers, etc.), had better communication between players and mods, and between mods and Fred Hasslam. All these things might have helped keep the DC community during this time more positive and energetic about a still-great game.
Yet many players continued to enjoy DC throughout this period. There were many fun and friendly competitions between clans. DG, BF, KOTD, SOIA and BF were all great clans with many enthusiastic players who all reached the top 5 clans at some point.
The New Generation (2006–Today)
(a new hope)
There are way less RPers today.
Even the TP was really boring for some months around 2006-07.
Yet, the current batch of players has shown that this game is still alive and kicking, starting many new opportunities and initiatives!
Fred Haslam has been almost entirely absent in this period (not seen at all since sometime in 2008), yet we could almost say that the game can now sustain itself, only from its members! We are still ready to welcome many more DCers!
I have not much to say on that period, since it is not yet over...
While last year only 3-4 clans were posting on the Clan Hall, , today we are around 15 () clans still recruiting, and trying by various means to keep that great unique game alive and kicking, so all the new comers can enjoy it as the oldest players enjoyed it in the past! New clan alliances, combined with older ones, continue to make Dragon Court an Active and Dynamic game.
A few clans created in this period:
- Wizards & Warriors*
- Everyday Heroes
- Dragon Stalker Clan
- Origins of Evolution
- The Victors*
- Killa Krew*
- Shinra Corp.*
- C.r.y.s.t.a.l. Clan
- The Unitedz (The Alliance)
Overall, there are about 15 clans still DC–active today! (Active clans today are noted by * marks in all sections) Most of these clans should definitely use the Clan Hall and others main DC forum boards more! We should all promote more RPing, since that was a great part of DC once. Still, many old DCers might come back if they could find an active community of RPers around, and then they could help us improve our own RP skills!! We definitely need to build more bridges across the various DC generations; old RPers are hiding in their old fortresses, but they could come back if RPing was more active in the current DC world. Already, the wealthiest players from the Middle Age are slowly coming back since the trading post become cleaner and more active.
So get others DC boards active too!
EVEN if Mr Haslam is not available much nowadays, some mods are still around and there are still many of us to carry on the DC spirit! JOIN us, whether you are an old DCer or new to this game!
Join a clan, start new ones, use the game to quest, make friends, finds items to trades, get some questing goals, be an elf, a human paladin, an Orc or a Giant. Choose a role and role play it when you trade, or when you are on your clan forum, or when you visit the DC chats still available to us (Traders Chat and Town Square)!!!
DC has a lot of stories already (an overall deep story and several sides stories created by all the various clans), but it’s such an awesome world that we can always develop more stories or set up new events in this fantastic world! Yes! It is a simple game with simple graphics, but it is wonderful like it is, as it allows us to shape this world HOW WE WANT IT. Use your imagination!
GET INVOLVED!!!
(thanks alot to Gawayn and Dragon_Stalker for their comments, and for helping me correct-fix grammars and vocabs mistakes)