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A Guild - What's In It For You
The Escapist has a piece looking at the rationale behind joining a Guild, and what it takes to enjoy the experience. Guilds are a core component of most Massively Multiplayer Online Games, but they're also one of the hardest to get right. From the article: "If guild members don't get what they need from their group, whether that need is companionship or gear, they are going to leave it. The guilds that thrive are not the ones that recruit hundreds of members with no common interests - in this case, finding members might be easy, but keeping them would be impossible. Similarly, if players refuse to accept the costs of a guild such as sharing loot or defending castles, the guild will have a harder time functioning as an efficient unit. The guilds with higher rewards and lower costs are the ones that will last."
seriously, how is this any different to street gangs or any other social group?
Unpretentious Sydney reviews by unqualified Sydney reviewers
Gads...this entire article reads like the conversation you are forced to have with the sweaty fat nerd at the con...you know the one...the one who insists on telling you all about his character, all the while constantly violating your personal space and assaulting you with his nasty aroma of Stridex, B.O., and Dorito breath.
(Hint: If this hasn't happened to you, odds are you're the one the rest of us are talking about.)
One more thing...what is up with the picture on the last page of the article? Are those two characters in a romantic embrace???
Far more information than I needed, thanks.
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
I'm a officer in one of the larger outfits in Planetside. I've played about 6 or 7 different MMO's in the past, but only got involved in guilds in 2 games. I tried creating one in SWG during the first months of its release but it just failed miserably. I was in one in Earth & Beyond that worked nicely. I think it's safe to say that guilds definitely are an excellent way to get yourself addicted to a game. If you're just soloing through the world, it's definitely more of an uphill battle than if you have people who you are competing against when leveling and trading and such.
The best part of my E&B guild was that there were people who actually helped you level up. In Planetside, we coordinate our attacks and stick together when in combat. PS is unique in that you can definitely level without killing everything in sight. As a result, our players stick with our outfit because it's hard to find other outfits that do what we do consistently with excellent results. We often have people who show up for seven day trials that subscribe just so they can prolong their play with us. I think both of my experiences have shown the two good reasons why guilds should exist.
Okay, so I probably shouldnt even plug em seeing as I dont play the game anymore, but hey, when you're primo number one on the server and have officers whose guides are regarded as some of the finest in the game community, you gotta throw out the props.
/. you!! ;-)
www.pacifistguild.org
Check em out if you play WoW, their Onyxia and Ragnaros "bibles" are top notch.
And to keep on topic. The officers here are some of the best people (and players) I've ever encountered in a MMO. They listen, they make changes, and ultimately they dont do whats best for them (even though they could and we'd probably let em) they do whats best for the guild as a whole. Great bunch of guys, definately the best on WoW's Kel Thuzad realm.
Good luck in BWL gang, hope I didnt
- level 60 hunter
former "joker" of pacifist
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
Screw it. I give in.
/. editor EVAR!!!!!
Zonk!!! THANK YOU for linking to the Escapist! Without this I would never have known that such an awesome article would have been available to read. You are the best
FTA:"Guilds are the backbones of MMOGs, but even more importantly, players are the backbones of guilds. "
Duh. Individuals are the backbone of any organization that exists for mutual gain. What guilds truly offer is a framework of trust and relationships for online characters.
In an online world where negative repercussions for acting like a jerk are few and far between, guilds provide a way to encourage cooperative play, which depends on trust.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
I came to the MMOG world as an adult, starting with EQ for the Mac. A lot of the guilds seemed pretty immature and I was reluctant to join one, but as it happened I became friends with someone who brought me into a great guild. When I look back at the gaming experience, the guild was an integral part of my enjoyment.
I think an adult trying out WoW, for example, would be even more reluctant to join a guild because, at least in the beginning, there were so many pseudo-guilds that turned out to be ego-driven. The PvP element in WoW makes that worse, I think.
The basic reason that a guild can be a fundamental part of the MMOG experience is that it gives you an opportunity to spend most of your gaming time with people who take a similar approach to the game that you do, assuming you find the right guild.
I don't really have the years of MMORPG experience that many others do, so this may come off as naive. In any case, this is my perspective, tastes, and so on. WoW is my first MMORPG, and I signed a guild charter Dec 2nd, and was one of the officers.
The guild started small, recruitment was poor, but levels 1-55 experience do not demand large numbers. There was some small competition evident at first. I was the first to hit 60, with a druid, of all classes. At 60, though, I started to notice that there was a lack of people. I was friends with everyone, the discussion was good, but there was something missing.
We had picked up more members along the way, but not enough high levels to create a 40-man raid, or even a 20-man. The members started going off on their own, doing things with other guilds, and not assisting the other members with pertinent things. The leadership of the guild seemed to stop caring, and the efforts of one officer were not enough to get things done. The other members of the guild have to cooperate, and that was not happening. I realized that if I wanted to do more than just those last lvl 55-60 instances, that I'd need a change of scenery.
As I left, about 13 other people went with me. The old guild deflated, and might not survive. The new guild has a similar mindset to how our old guild started... close knit, friendly, joking, and helpful. We also are big enough to field a full raid, and the leadership is strong. There is some friendly competition as well.
I had attended a couple of raids with the server's premier raiding guild, just to see if that fit for me. They operate with extreme efficiency, and make Molten Core look like Candyland. It was scary in a way, because what I thought was supposed to be hard was made to look trivial. The other thing that I noticed about that guild was the emphasis on items. The members really didn't seem to mesh with each other well, they worked together to the common goal of doing MC and BWL, and getting phat lewt, but I could tell that there was tension. That guild was less of a family/friend environment, and more of a machine.
The personalities in a guild have to mesh first, I think. If there is a strong core of members that enjoy each others' company, then the guild will last. However, if there are enough bad apples, sometimes it only takes one in the wrong position, the guild will not survive.
You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.
When I played WoW, I had a guild of my own. With about 30 members at its peak, it was fairly small compared to the 100+ member guilds out there. We had the opportunity to merge with some other guilds, but declined.
Thing is, when a guild has more than 30 people or so, it becomes difficult to maintain a feeling of knowing everyone in the guild. Isn't that familiarity what a guild's about? I'd tried out a number of the larger guilds, but it always ended up feeling more like an organization than a family.
The downside to a small guild is that some people are looking for something larger, and when your numbers dwindle, you really feel it. A few left here, a few left there, and before we knew it we were down to a guild of 15. Problem there is that 4 people are on at a time, at tops. We eventually just merged into a larger guild and that was that.
For me, that killed the feeling of closeness and contributed to me leaving the game. And no, you can't have my stuff.
EQ and DikuMud varients have guilding mostly to organize killing MOBs in an efficient matter mostly because the game requires it regardless of the bonding between players.
Games like Ultima Online (pre-Trammel) and Shadow Bane have guilds as its street gangs and warring tribes would. It requires a bit more trust and has quite a bit more politics involved since a player can switch sides and often the group with the bigger number wins.
However sometimes guilds in PvP games are just the biggest organization that every flocks to for protection. I played on Shadow Bane for a bit and joined DHL (Death Head Legion) for a bit because I knew someone in the guild, but apparently they were just letting anyone join. This of course was great for seiges of towns with 100 players vs 30 player combats. Can't say I didn't enjoy it, but it did seem unfair to the people we were steam rolling over.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
I have to agree with a nother poster and say first of all, this article does read very much like a MMOG Geek trying to recount too many of his rather dull experiences. (Okay I've been guilty of that too on occasion) Sugar coated to make it look like an article about Guilds. Over all, the whole article really doesn't tell us much about guilds at all, other then really the flat obvious that yes, guilds can be nice and can be bad.
Had the author focused more on various traps guilds fall into, the cycles of them and more general reasons behind why they are formed, then perhaps their would be some decent realivent information here. At best the author interviewed a few players, asked them their opinions about guilds and wrote it up. It really doesn't say much of anything else really.
For those of us who play MMOG's, guilds/outfits/clans/Supergroups/whatever usually play a vital roll in maintain interest and replayability with an online MMOG. Often, what could be the make it or break it aspect for many players, they provide a common ground for a smaller circle of players within the global player base of a specific game server, a place to communicate and share a sort of mock kinship to unite them behind. This common ground often is the only real hook a player has to staying with the game, If that hook is lost, then they are dangleing endlessly on the edge of a knife from the developers point of view. They have little reason to stay on other then time invested and that alone won't retain them. Providing that social backbone for players to discuss and debate on all elements of the game provides a 'healthy' (I use the word loosely here) atmosphere for the player and thus maintains their interest and they in turn maintain their account.
Now, if the author developed more on that line of logic, their would be something to say about this article. Then again, I'm just expressing hypotheical views on simple online games. And I guess you could say I'm a bit biast about my own writing. Never the less, describing a few individuals experience in gaming really doesn't say much other then, what luck they've had, not what was the common elements, what could have worked instead when things when wrong and also what problems can occure in turn. Cute article but, really that publish worthy?
Sentack
The oldest continouosly operating guild, clan or whatever on a commerical game is probably The Damned Air Group from Air Warrior/Aces High which are WW2 combat flight simulators. 17 years!
ARRGGHH my eyess!! um, resize your browser window to be short and wide. Note how you can't to see all the text even with scrolling? How and why did they do this? Peopel resize their browse windows! Don't break the web.
I created a guild in WoW named "Incomitatus". I'm the only member. I do it for personal amusement.
I play a game called Kingdom of loathing and there are many reasons in this game to join a clan, such benefits are mainly geared to lower levels/newbies but as a clan gets higher or has a more elite player list can get amazing..
For lower levels the benefits are
1. Extra turns per day (as the game is Adv based)
2. Free Meat (the currencu of the game... seriously)
3. Access to the clan channel where questions and stuff can be discussed freely
4. the Clan stash.. a dumping ground for all sorts of food/drink and items in the game. Access to the stash is controlled (badley some might say) via the power of Karma, each item has a karma value, so to gget stuff out, you first have to put stuff in (or donate meat directly to the clan)
There are probably about 10-15 clans that are considered pretty elite, one that are invite only, or do great deeds and philanthropic interaction with the game, i myself are in Otori (www.otori.org)
The social interaction with in the clans can be amazing and its not uncommon for clans to merge of swap members for specific acts...
All in all being in a clan is almost a must...
Have Fun
Kingdom of Loathing (www.kingdomofloathing.com) Addicted is me
LEEROY JENKINS!!!!
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