About Orb

The clan was founded in the Summer of 2000, based on the simple premise that players could come together and just have fun time playing a game of Tribes. Tired of rude or too serious (sometimes both) clans, we agreed that the game Tribes is only a game, not a job. Orb was created by just 4 members, Lucid (at the time known as Raven), Cells (in rpgs as Ahmetal), Doom Train (also known as Tomb), and Vorax-1. Of these founding members, Lucid and Cells remain.

Clan Orb has since evolved into more of a selective gaming community. Our players span the globe, and have a presence in a variety of games. While our origins are in mod ‘Shifter’ for Tribes, there are quite a few games Orb members play in, in several different genres. Many Orb members have even met, changing the relationship from online clan mates to more of actual friends. In the forums we’re a relaxed (and more often then not, downright goofy) bunch of gamers.

Be sure to bear in mind as you read this, that a lot of this refers to various games with you may not be familiar with. This page tries to be general but oftentimes game specific references are made.

The  Orb philosophy is simple.

If you you’re looking to learn anything about Orb, the most important aspect of our clan is understanding our ideal, our philosophy. Orb is about enhancing the game experience shared with friends. We beleive that there is real life in one hand, and online life in the other. Our goal is to make online life a fun and rewarding experience without infringing on real life. We want enjoyable and sometimes outrageous game experiences to be the norm, so when we share our stories, others say “Only in orb would you see that!”. We also aim to make an impact on the gamers we come in contact with; We want to leave a server, regardless of the game, and have something say “Man, those Orb guys are a ton of fun to play with”. We want others to see us as respectful, funny, mature, and fun to be around. One of the core principles in what it is to be part of the Orb community is understanding the balance between maturity and fun. We want clan members to be proud of the tag, proud of the name, and feel like it represents their friends, their humor, and their way of online life regardless if their name is at the top or the bottom of the scoreboard.

So, what are the rules?

Orb does not have a point-by-point rule list. If you have been invited to Orb, you already have the natural traits which we’d be setting rules for, and therefore defining rules are mostly unnecessary.

What is so special about Orb?

Orb has lasted for over a decade with little turnover because we value the real-life character of people, not the online character. In fact, many of us have gone on to meet other Orb members offline. Many Orb members are in Orb with their friends and enjoy playing games within the same community. It’s as simple as that.

What does Orb or {-o-} mean?

Orb stands for Orville RedenBacher. We really like popcorn. Just kidding. When I was considering founding Orb, player names were filled with 3 letter acronyms, often meaning some, for lack of better words, lame things (e.x. x-=SPK=-x for Super Pro Killers). I wanted something that sounded cool, was short, and didn’t have some sort of ‘l33t’ meaning.  While I was trying to buck the trend of silly acronym guild names, I did want some sort of symbolic tag, I didn’t like the look of plain characters such as “orb.Lucid” (although I use this in games/systems that don’t allow special characters). So I came up with {-o-} at random. It looks a little cooler in the font used by Tribes. It eventually evolved into people calling us the Tie Fighter clan.