I found Clok completely by happenstance when someone submitted it as a candidate for MUD of the month on Reddit's /r/MUD. The theme pitch was interesting to me, so I figured I would pop in and see how it was implemented. I have never been so surprised by the playability, range, and execution of a MUD in ten or more years of browsing them. This place is incredible. I have learned that it was created as a 'learn to code' project by one of the owners, and all I can say is 'wow.' If you are a fan of crafting, exploration, elements of survival, and all the endless, meticulously written details that make MUDding as fascinating a game genre as it is, Clok will be right up your alley. I'm floored daily by the little things I keep finding to play with, make, explore, and even wear. Buying a haircomb from a shop won't just add a dry line to your equipment, it gives you a unique hairstyle featuring the item. How cool is that? The guilds are extremely interesting, as are their setups. Save for a couple hush-hush organizations, you can join and participate in them without waiting for somebody else to come and do it for you. I made a Mummer, for example, and I've earned one advancement already. How, you might ask? By literally traveling the world and wilds in search of inns, taverns, and other places where people gather to weave stories together via the 'storytelling' system, where you take five different themes out of several and turn them into a tale. The crowds in one place will like themes other places don't, requiring you to know and measure your audience for the biggest rewards. This has been a seriously awesome experience. Their BBS forum updates on in-game channels, their Discord server is linked with the in-game question and chat channel, and their helpfiles are pulled directly from their wiki. I cannot overstate how modern this game's set-up is. The command style is instinctive to anyone who has dabbled in LPMUDs. You have to be literal with things - no 'put item container', but 'put item in container' and such. This doesn't bother me. I think people coming from ROM-style games will probably experience some annoyance, but it's a pretty minor adaptation to make. The Staff are insanely quick about getting back to you when you're struggling or encounter a bug, there are consistent code updates and quality of life changes going in almost weekly, and the community, while modest in size, has been welcoming and helpful to me. I'm not a big fan of a huge, impersonal playerbase, so for me Clok is just about perfect. The roleplay is enforced, though styles and expectations tend to vary. There is a 'verbs' system that is effectively socials, though they can be used in some interesting ways that exceed the standard social set-up. I'm a pretty dedicated emoter, however, and I've found no shortage people... Read More

A friend originally told me about CLOK, and the exciting things that could be done within the confines of the game. She mentioned that there was a heavy emphasis on crafting, exploration, survival and affiliations. Each of these things sounded interesting enough to me that I tried, and for a time, enjoyed the game. Unfortunately, skills are very grindy and have been acknowledged as such by the playerbase. Exploration is a hit or miss scenario, with some towns overwhelmed by hostile creatures that will pin your character with arrows, control them with magic, or simply kill them in two to three hits. Death isn't permanent, but theft from corpses isn't uncommon and you're often stuck waiting for someone to drag your corpse to a guild capable of resurrecting you. While the players are exceedingly helpful, there are a number of pitfalls that this game suffers from. A lot of guilds within the game are 'secret'; this doesn't mean that you're entirely unaware of them on an OOC level, though this is sometimes the case, but rather that you have to earn your way in through roleplay. Originally, I was very excited by this concept and was eager to show that I wanted to be a part of one of the darker organizations in the game. But again, there are problems with this type of thought when it comes to game design. CLOK is a small game. Personally, I never saw more than 15 people online at once, though the staff often went invisible, so it's possible that there were more than the number of people connected at once. This is important, but I'll get back to it in a moment. Since the guilds can be of dark or evil alignment/mentality, and they're often outlawed - Shadgard, one of the starting areas, has a poster listing all known people affiliated with the dark/evil alignment town - you're stuck floundering. How do you show that you wish to be a part of these groups? Speaking to someone on the ESP network, which is essentially a game wide IC chat, isn't a good way to go about this, yet it's the easiest way to reach out to people when they're out grinding their skills in the world. Mail is sent via NPCs, so it's possible that the NPCs could out you as wanting to be one of the more sinister types. Another option would be to simply meet the PCs that live in the evil town. Again, this is a problem because they're evil, and you need a special invitation into the town, or the guards will attack you on sight. GM intervention could potentially save you from this vicious cycle, but we'll say that you don't garner their attention, as the typical player doesn't receive their help. The other method to joining a guild, which is a life long decision that your PC makes and can never switch, is to get the approval of other players. As I mentioned, could... Read More

To be honest I wasn't expecting much when I came across Clok. After months of looking for something new to play there didn't seem to be any MUDs about to hold my interest for long. And after reading Clok was still in Alpha I really wasn't expecting it to turn out so great. But something about it from the very beginnning caught my attention. It seemed to have something other MUD's lack, a good staff base and players willing to help each other, along with amazingly fun RP. I love the fact you can shape your character into whatever you want them to be, and you don't have to be a fighter or know combat at all to advance in certain guilds. The map to say it is in Alpha is fairly large, with cities, and various other places of interest to hang out/RP/buy clothes/and stuff /make riln(money) etc... Another thing I like about this MUD is the little story lines the GM's run along side the main one, they work hard to make the game fun for us players and actually listen to what the players want and suggest. A few of my own ideas have been implemented and I've seen other peoples too. Which makes this MUD one of a kind in my eyes. Anyways, I hope we can get some new RPers to come join in the fun that is Clok! I am sure you will feel as warm and welcomed as I did! Hope to see you in game! Player of Evelyn.

When I joined CLOK I was well aware that the game itself was in alpha so I wasn't expecting a lot. I was happily surprised when I found a world full of great characters, roleplay and most importantly an ongoing story that draws even new characters in. You can take sides, you can be neutral. You can make riln (money) or you can spend it all on training, trade, houses, horses and many other things. The developers of this game take the time to discuss the many changes that get made daily and they love to hear the players ideas. This is part of what keeps me around. I've seen many player ideas become reality and it makes us feel like we're helping to shape the world. I hope that some people who love a good story will read this review and come to join us on CLOK. We would love to have more dedicated roleplayers to come and spend some time in our developing world. Thanks!