The Clan Van

I recently read some suggestions for making Clan Lord a better game.

All of the suggestions were great – that is to say that, point for point, I did not dispute the validity of the issue, nor did I disagree that certain changes would make Clan Lord a better game.  A question that was never raised nor addressed was "who is going to do all of that work?"

Imagine that Clan Lord is a convertible car.  Or a VW bus.  Or any vehicle that is fun to drive on a summertime weekend.  Simple maintenance chores for this vehicle are always easiest and fastest to apply: a quick vacuum of the rugs, a quick wipe of the dashboard with some Armor All, a splash of windshield wiper fluid for the windows – all of this takes mere minutes to resolve.  Clan Lord has chores that fall into this category, such as updating a misaligned image or correcting a spelling error within an NPC's text.  These are quick-and-easy fixes.

Some vehicle chores require a little more time and planning, such as arranging for an oil change or changing spark plugs.  Clan Lord has a long list of such tasks.  Sometimes the vehicle gets a flat tire; Clan Lord has those problems too.

When players request modern features for a game that is over eleven years old (like scalable images), then I'm left to wonder if the time required for such an undertaking is greater than the returned benefit.  Is the value of the reward worth the effort of the repair?  Returning to the vehicle analogy: if the eleven year old car needs a complete overhaul of the engine, what do we do?  Do we make the repairs in hope of extending the life of the vehicle by a couple of more years?  Do we apply a couple of cheaper (and easier) maintenance jobs to the vehicle and ride the car for as long as it will run?  Do we discuss junking the old car and replace it with an entirely different make and model?

We've gotten a lot of mileage from the Clan Van.  She may not have all of the features of the modern models, but she still puts the wind through my hair.