Developing Guild Friendly Games

[waylander]

Developing Guild Friendly Games

Building and Maintaining A Successful Guild

I don't know how many of you know about or visit Guildcafe.com, but its becoming a pretty decent site for the player guild community. I know Ashen Temper, along with some reps from Mythic, Arena  Net, and Auran Studios are signed up over there, and they seem fairly active.

I'll tell you all why I like the site though. I like it because its a site for gaming guilds with discussion that is relevant to gaming guilds. Guilds can submit news, and the popular items are flagged for the whole community to see and discuss. They are also doing feature articles, and they are doing some pretty good guild profiles. One of the guild profiles they've done recently is from The Syndicate (I remember always hearing about them getting PWN'd but oh well). Also they do quote and discuss things that are talked about on F13, and other similar type sites.

Games are for fun, and to me guilds are the backbone of MMO gaming. Its nice for them to actually have a real site to go to now because the traditional fansites (Stratics, Warcry, Vault, Coldfront) really don't focus on guilds, their opinions, or their issues. 

I wanted to bring attention to this important site, and also mention that there's some good opportunities for crosstalk between this community and that one.

[tazelbain]

I'd be cool to have a MMOG where all advancement was tied to the guild.  You could could have character advancement but the characters would be tied to the guild.  That way people in loose guilds like us wouldn't have to worry about if they have a character of the correct class or level.  You can always log on be assured that you could play with the people you want to play with.

[waylander]

I'd be cool to have a MMOG where all advance was tied to the guild.  You could could have character advancement but the characters would be tied to the guild.  That way people in loose guilds like us wouldn't have to worry about if they have a character of the correct class or level.  You can always log on be assured that you could play with the people you want to play with.

Yeah maybe have the guild earn exp or some sort of credits that could be used towards new rerolls, new members, or existing members.

A lot of guilds on guildcafe, and other sites, are having issues when it comes to new recruitment and loyalty these days.  WoW is a classic example of regular e-drama that gives people a negative perception on guilds.

[Slayerik]

The problem is, what reward do you get for staying with a guild? Maybe add in stuff where if you guild reaches a certain age, then you get a guild hall. If your stay in the same guild for X amount of time you get 10% more gold off monster drops (or SOMETHING). WoW definetely promotes the "screw over whoever you can to progress" attitude.

Actually, now that I think about it more...fuck it. Douchebags will be douchebags. I think EvE did it right with 'Employment History' ... That alone deters some shit.

[waylander]

One of the suggestions mentioned in the article was a time modifier to be used for any combination of exp, loot drop percentage, rare drop enhancements, etc.  Obviously the modifier shouldn't be overpowering, but maybe an extra 5-10% at the top of the scale if a someone has been a member for a year.

Like it or not loot issues and the other barriers to play I mentioned are gutting guilds. If people want to play solo that's fine, but there should be some benefits to having a guild and a way to earn things that can be reinvested in the guild membership to help other members. That's what guilds inside and outside a game used to be about, but modern mechanics don't really provide that.

[Arrrgh]

I hope they're more secure than guild portal.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=86698217&sid=1

[waylander]

I hope they're more secure than guild portal.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=86698217&sid=1

Ouch! But hey, lots of people fall victim to keyloggers these days.

[qedetc]

The problem is, what reward do you get for staying with a guild? Maybe add in stuff where if you guild reaches a certain age, then you get a guild hall. If your stay in the same guild for X amount of time you get 10% more gold off monster drops (or SOMETHING). WoW definetely promotes the "screw over whoever you can to progress" attitude.

i realize you've fucked it, but why should the game ever reward someone for loyalty to a guild?  why shouldn't the guild alone decide its own incentives (or punishments)?

[Slayerik]

The problem is, what reward do you get for staying with a guild? Maybe add in stuff where if you guild reaches a certain age, then you get a guild hall. If your stay in the same guild for X amount of time you get 10% more gold off monster drops (or SOMETHING). WoW definetely promotes the "screw over whoever you can to progress" attitude.

i realize you've fucked it, but why should the game ever reward someone for loyalty to a guild?  why shouldn't the guild alone decide its own incentives (or punishments)?

I think I actually do agree with what you are saying. All I know is within the last 10 years, nothing compares to the amount of guildhopping WoW has produced. Maybe its due to the large , possibly immature playerbase...the purple fever...etc...but I remember a time when guild hopping just wasn't heard of. Either way, I think something like Eve has is a pretty good idea...guild history viewable by all.

I realize you've fucked it, but shift key is the win.

[Lantyssa]

There could be a system where the guild can pool resources and automatically gain defined bonus.  Depending upon the pooled resources, and time restrictions, there could be a guild designated bonus such as a dividend (interest), or the purchase of a guild trainer (xp bonus), etc.  Make some sort of buy-in on top of the loyalty which grant custom rewards or options.

[bhodi]

Hey, how about being able to be in more than one guild at a time. That'd be nice.

[Arnold]

The problem is, what reward do you get for staying with a guild?

Plenty, in a PvP world.  Also, in that situation, ego comes into play as well, to keep things in check.  I've seen it pletny of times; guilds that over-recruit splinter off.  The better fighters have too much pride to be lumped in with the zergers, and will break off to form smaller, more elite, guilds.

Eventually, brothers, friends, friend's brothers, etc... are let into the now "elite" guild, and the whole process starts all over.

[eldaec]

Hey, how about being able to be in more than one guild at a time. That'd be nice.

QFT.

People ignore this, but it would be enormously useful.

Some games it is happening through the back door using a global chat channel system. But this would work wonders for making guides inclusive rather than inherently exclusive.

[gravdiggr]

Hey, how about being able to be in more than one guild at a time. That'd be nice.

FFXI had this with linkshell pearls you could equip/unequip whenever you wanted.

[waylander]

There could be a system where the guild can pool resources and automatically gain defined bonus.  Depending upon the pooled resources, and time restrictions, there could be a guild designated bonus such as a dividend (interest), or the purchase of a guild trainer (xp bonus), etc.  Make some sort of buy-in on top of the loyalty which grant custom rewards or options.

Yeah that would be nice. Someone was telling me that Vanguard had built in something like guild exp. Anyone know what Vanguard offers for guilds since its one of the newer games on the block?

[shiznitz]

There could be a system where the guild can pool resources and automatically gain defined bonus.  Depending upon the pooled resources, and time restrictions, there could be a guild designated bonus such as a dividend (interest), or the purchase of a guild trainer (xp bonus), etc.  Make some sort of buy-in on top of the loyalty which grant custom rewards or options.

Yeah that would be nice. Someone was telling me that Vanguard had built in something like guild exp. Anyone know what Vanguard offers for guilds since its one of the newer games on the block?

Nothing special. A member of a guild can designate his own house as the guild house. What this achieves is unclear.

I really like EQ2 guild levelling system, actually. There were lots of times where the whole guild would show up for "writ night" to try and bang through to the next level. My guilds never required anyone to do writs, but there was a lot of positive reinforcement for those that did.

[waylander]

Here is what I like about what I heard Vanguard did.

Features
- All experience you earn is split amongst the members of the fellowship, even members who are offline.

Here is where I want to pull my hair out and gnash my teeth.

Limitations
- You must be within five levels of every member of the fellowship in order to join.
- Members who are offline do not receive their experience until they log on. (Be careful when using the system to level up rarely-played characters, as their skills will fall behind, thus they will be very weak for their levels!)

This type of thought continues to run off people within guilds because your casual members end up being left behind. There shouldn't be a level requirement, and there should be some sort of buddy system like CoV had where lower level members have an ability to contribute.

This is the sort of stuff that causes internal problems within guilds because you want to help your casual or part time gamers, but the game mechanics shoot you in the foot more often than not.

[shiznitz]

Fellowships were removed prior to launch so Vanguard had a good idea but failed to implement it correctly and had to pull it

[bhodi]

FFXI had this with linkshell pearls you could equip/unequip whenever you wanted.

It was an absoloutely TERRIBLE idea so I don't even bother to include it. One of the reasons to have multiple 'guilds' is so that you can play or chat with a certain group when they are around and with the rest when they aren't. I'd personally use it for a main 'guild' and real life friends (who probably aren't 'hardcore' enough to get in the guild.) Linkshells force you to swap around and ultimately pick a 'main' one, since you'd have to do the linkshell swap to even talk to them. It's a huge pain in the ass.

Suppose you'd want to be in a crafting guild as well. I can think of tons of reasons why CONCURRENCY would be helpful and useful. Make them separate chat rooms/tabs/whatever. Choose which one you'd like to display under your name. Done.

[tazelbain]

Since modern MMOG are about canned-content, a feature that allows people to skip past the canned-content is self-defeating.