guild-perks
Latest
Warlords of Draenor: Guild leveling and guild perk changes
Players on the Warlords of Draenor beta have noticed something a little different about guild perks in the new expansion -- a large portion of them have simply been removed entirely, including both the Fast Track and Cash Flow perks. While some assumed this was likely a bug, it turns out this is part of change that has been planned for guild leveling. Namely, guild leveling is being by and large removed from the game. Or, if you want to think of it in a slightly different fashion, all guilds will automatically be what level 25 once was. Why the changes? Watcher hit the forums to explain, and to point out that the perks people normally associate with guilds aren't really going away entirely. Some of them, like Ride Like the Wind or Honorable Mention will just be rolled into the game as default behavior, rather than offered as a perk of any kind. So yes, while the perk is getting removed, we won't really see a change -- flight paths will simply go 25% faster by default. The Cash Flow perk, however, is being flat out removed, and Watcher had some really good points as to why this is being changed.
Officers' Quarters: Officers of Draenor
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. BlizzCon 2013 gave us a glimpse into WoW's future. As officers, it's never too early to plan and adjust for the evolution of the game. Let's take a look at the some of the issues that could affect your guild next year. No new perks It appears that guilds will remain capped at level 25, which also means no new perks. In the systems panel, Blizzard said that they don't see the point of piling on perks. They said, "The system accomplished what we wanted it to accomplish." That's good news, in a way, for smaller guilds or people who plan to start new guilds in the future. For those of us who hoped for more, it's a bit disappointing.
Is your guild bank going dry?
I raid with an extremely generous 25-man raiding guild that is chugging along quite nicely through the Siege of Orgrimmar. They are kind enough to provide not only guild repairs, but potions, flasks, and feasts -- now noodle carts -- as well. The guild is pretty good about keeping everything managed, and raiders do a pretty good job about keeping the guild bank filled with materials for all the stuff that the guild supplies on a typical guild run. But we've had a problem recently that picked up in patch 5.4. Someone mentioned that the guild bank wasn't making quite as much gold as it used to, and player repairs are bleeding the guild bank of gold almost faster than it can be put in. This seemed odd to me at the time, but I re-doubled my efforts to continue sticking herbs, gems, and whatever other useful items I came across into the guild bank, figuring it would all balance itself out. It turns out, however, that we aren't alone with our weird little problem.
Officers' Quarters: Brainstorming future perks
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. A few weeks from now, BlizzCon will reveal all about the next WoW expansion and the evolution of the game. Guild perks aren't really at the top of anyone's list of BlizzCon announcements, but they are nonetheless a big feature of guilds now. On that front, Mists took away more than it gave us. I'm hopeful that patch 6.0 will be more generous. Here are some much-needed perks that Blizzard could provide. Bait and Switch: While fishing, you have a 30% chance to catch extra fish. Fishing has received lots of support in Mists, but the act of fishing is still deadly dull. Apologies to the last two people who enjoy it, but it is -- by a long shot -- the one thing in WoW I can't bring myself to do. The profession desperately needs an overhaul. Blizzard mentioned back in 2009 that such an overhaul was in the works, but it has yet to see the light of day. Given that fish are often ingredients in feasts, noodle carts, etc., they are a commodity that guilds need. They are also the commodity that most guild members don't want to farm. A bonus to cut down on the time it takes to farm said fish would be very welcome.
The Daily Grind: Why do you avoid MMO guilds?
I've been thinking a lot about guilds lately, inspired as I am by Karen Bryan's columns on the subject, and I have to say to all the unguilded people out there -- I don't know how in the world you do it. In this era of bloated perk systems that reward massive guilds for accruing warm bodies and collective achievements, I feel crippled enough in a small guild. I can't even imagine how those of you who shun the politics of guilding get by in MMOs that clearly don't care to incentivize your style of play, and I've found myself longing for the days when the perks of being in a big guild stopped at duh more friends and raids and didn't continue on to free gold, feedback summits, and special quests. So let's poll the Massively community: If you avoid guilds, what's your rationale? What reason is so compelling that you would willingly pass up the free stuff games shower upon favored groups of players? And how do you survive in MMORPGs? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Breakfast Topic: Why join a guild?
There are lots of reasons to join a guild: it makes it easy to find groups and raids, you have guaranteed company while you're playing, and most importantly, guild perks. In case you've been living under a rock, guild perks give you great bonuses for guild membership based on your guild's level. Perks can boost the amount of experience, reputation, and honor you gain, make your hearthstone cooldown shorter, and even make flight paths go faster. So, really, the question seems to be why not join a guild? The question's been asked on Reddit and it got me wondering why my own alt of choice (for the moment) is currently unguilded. It couldn't take much more than a polite request to jump on the guild bandwagon and get my hands on those yummy, yummy perks. It would stop the regular requests I get to join guilds (even if you've turned off guild requests, you do frequently get whispers) and it's not as though I'm in a demanding guild at the moment. And yet when I don't feel like doing much (or dealing with others), I hop on to my alt to solo for a while. And what about you, fellow players? Are you guilded or unguilded?
Seven things every newbie needs to know
While plenty of old hats might say the WoW newbie experience is easy mode now, I'd call it streamlined: rolling a new character or leveling an existing one has never been more straightforward. Gone are the days when you had to pull up Wowhead (or download an addon) to figure out every other quest, the days when you kill dozens of monsters for a single quest drop, the days when you had to run through high level zones to collect flight paths. If you don't remember having to run from across the Wetlands to pick up the Menethil Harbor flight path -- dying more than once along the way -- count yourself lucky, because those corpse runs were decidedly un-fun. However, even in this golden age of newbiedom, there are some aspects of the game that just aren't explained very well. So, whether you're brand new to the game or, like me, returning after an absence, here are a few things every newbie needs to know.
The Daily Grind: How would you balance a guild perk system?
If there's one frustration I have with gaming guilds in all the time I've led one, it's the expectation that they be huge. MMOs talk big about wanting a diverse playerbase and supporting a wide variety of players and guilds, but that's like saying you can wear any color as long as it's black. The reality is that small guilds are at a severe disadvantage in most MMO guild achievement systems because guilds are rewarded more for having warm bodies than for any particular skill or success Guild Wars 2, for example, performs random attendance checks and doles out points based on guild activity. The more people you load into your guild, the more points you farm and perks and consumables you can buy. This creates a "rich get richer" scenario for guilds that are already "winning," and eventually, no one will join guilds that aren't maxed out and providing a steady stream of perks to help them "win" even more (as seen in World of Warcraft). Why not go with Lord of the Rings Online's system, which bestows guild perks according to a guild's age rather than its recruiting binges? Should games keep rewarding guilds strictly for their size, or is there a better way? How would you design and balance an MMO guild achievement system? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Daily Grind: Should games bother innovating guild systems?
In-game support for MMO guilds has come a long way in the last 15 years. Ultima Online launched without guilds at all, let alone chat, so we tacked our guild abbreviations onto our character names. EverQuest's early months required guild leaders to petition GMs to form guilds. In fact, it wasn't until Asheron's Call that an MMO tried to break away from the "unofficial online shooter clan" mold and provide something different: a monarchy system that encouraged players to form official but dynamic allegiances, which provided an in-game benefit to patrons and vassals alike. But the genre didn't iterate on Asheron's Call's invention, instead preferring to bolster in-game guilds with perks like guild vaults and achievements -- cool stuff, but layered over a static, military style of guild structure with generic ranks. Most MMOs don't allow you to join multiple groups, either (Guild Wars 2 being a notable exception). So today I'm wondering whether you think there's room for innovation in MMO guild mechanics. Should studios design unique and flexible guild systems, or should they just get out of the way and let players decide how to organize themselves like we had to Back In The Day? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Have Group, Will Travel replaced with faster flight paths, flask "Chug-A-Lug" perk removed
We knew from the press tour last week that the current level 21 guild perk Have Group, Will Travel was going away. Looks like we now know what it's getting replaced with: Ride Like the Wind: Take it for what you will; I'm sure the reaction is going to be pretty strong. Blizzard has said that it wants people to get out into the world more and not have WoW just be a game where you sit in a city waiting for things to happen. This will certainly do that in terms of raiding. The flask perk has also been removed, according to the list at Wowhead. It could appear as a perk in a later guild level (if that happens), but as it stands now, Chug-A-Lug isn't in the beta. It's been replaced with ... wait for it ... increased health from bandages with The Doctor is In. Of course, this is the beta, so it all could change. Time will tell if this sticks or not. [Thanks to Cutaia for the tip and our friends at Wowhead for the awesome datamining!]
Is it time for daily guild XP limits to be removed?
Is your guild level 25? Surprise, most guilds are -- or at least most guilds that have been up and running since the first days of Cataclysm are. The higher-end guilds or guilds with plenty of members pushed the leveling cap every week and managed to hit level 25 in a fairly short amount of time. Others with plenty of members followed soon after. In fact, as long as your guildmates were running dungeons on a daily basis and maybe indulging in some PvP or raiding, it was pretty easy to hit that daily cap. However, there are plenty of guilds out there that were established later in the expansion, guilds with fewer members. And those members may be awfully tired of running the same heroics over and over by this point. At the beginning of the expansion, running those instances was all well and good -- they were new, interesting, and perhaps most importantly, they contained gear upgrades for just about anyone. However, we're at the end of the expansion. Most people have seen the heroics far too many times to count, not everyone is raiding, and there's a lot less activity from players in general. It's typical for that end-of-expansion lull to occur. But when you're trying to get a guild to level 25, it's awfully hard to do when there's a daily XP limit in place. Is it perhaps time to remove the daily cap and let guilds level as they will?
Officers' Quarters: A tempting offer
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available from No Starch Press. It's not easy being anything less than a max-level guild in this era of perks. Most guilds can't wait to hit that final level and have access to all the bonuses that players of long-established communities have enjoyed for the past year. This week, one guild leader has an opportunity to skip the guild leveling process -- practically by pushing a button. Should he take it? Hi Scott, I messaged you awhile back in regards to guild realm transferring (this was before the service was implemented). We've done well overall and our progression has been fantastic overall, making us relatively competitive in Heroic Raiding. Currently, I have an interesting option available to my guild. One of our officers has access to a level 25 guild, while we are only in the mid teens (we are a small, tight-knit group). He has offered, rather graciously, for us to move over to that guild and change the name of both of our guilds, so we could keep our guild name.
Officers' Quarters: 6 tips for new guilds in the era of perks
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available from No Starch Press. Two types of guilds in WoW are having the most difficulty right now: 25-man raiding guilds and new guilds of every sort. For officers, competing against established, max-level guilds can be incredibly daunting. Success in this game is never a sure thing. However, you can take steps to help your guild to survive and grow. 1. Establish your credentials. You are the face of this new enterprise. Asking players to give up all their shiny perks is a big deal these days -- bigger, honestly, than I ever thought it would be. Luring people away from that into your brand new organization all hinges on their confidence in you and the other officers. They can't just assume you have a plan and the background to pull it off. They have to know. You wouldn't buy a car designed by a guy who never learned how to drive. Likewise, players aren't going to join your guild if it's clear to them that you don't have the appropriate level of experience.
The Daily Grind: Which MMO supports guilds the best?
In my opinion, guilds are the backbone of the social component of MMOs. Without them, games might as well be flopping on the ground, unable to move and in severe pain. Ever since MMOs first came on the scene -- and even before -- players have naturally gravitated to guilds as part of their gaming experience. At Massively, we love guilds so much we dedicate a weekly column to exploring their intricacies. Unfortunately, not all MMOs treat guilds the same; some receive a huge amount of support from the dev team, while others are given a skeleton framework and told to buzz off. Not every game has guild housing, guild ranks, in-game calendars, shared storage, perks, and other means of structure and support. If one were to consider all of the features that help guilds form, grow, and function, what MMO would top the list? Which game treats its guilds as members of royalty instead as sewer-digging peasants? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
EVE Evolved: Corporate benefits and new players
In a recent article, I explored the effect that power players have on EVE Online's subscription retention. In particular, I suggested that CCP has stopped developing features with EVE's power players in mind and that this could be the cause of a worrying downward trend in new player retention. It's the responsibility of corp leaders and organisers to give players a place in EVE, to provide them with something to do and to instill them with the ambition to continue playing in the long term. I believe that CCP has let those organisers and leaders down by failing to provide the updated tools necessary to give players a purposeful place in the universe or give them a good start to the game. A similar issue I've touched on before is the importance of corporate goals in EVE. I've always been amazed at the willingness of EVE players to donate their time and effort to achieve a collective goal rather than a personal one. People are far more likely to join a corporate mining op, for example, if the proceeds will be donated to the corp funds or the minerals will be used in a corp production scheme. Similarly, I've found players to be much more enthusiastic about a mission night or wormhole op if the intent is to fund the production of a corp capital ship or the purchase of starbase fuel. With CCP's summer focus aimed at helping new players get into good corporations, this week's opinion-filled EVE Evolved examines some of the developments necessary to make that goal possible.
Drama Mamas: Are guild perks worth putting up with a bad guild leader?
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. We've edited the following letter for language and length, but I think we've successfully preserved the passion and relevant details. Several days ago our guild pretty much fell apart. Our guild leader, as far as we could tell, had been getting into an online relationship with one of our guildies, which by itself was bad enough. Online relationships don't often lead to good results, and this one was near-scandalous; our leader was easily in his 40s and the girl in question always dodged any question regarding her age; but we've heard her speak, and we suspect she was probably underage. Back to the issue. He was starting to drift away from the guild more and more over the past few months. He never responded to anyone's inquiries, procrastinated from actually addressing any problems that cropped up, and never gave anyone officership, even from active members such as myself who wanted to help contribute more to the guild. Near the end, many of our regulars had quit he game due to his lackluster leadership (some of which were his personal friends) and the entire guild was being run by the only two officers he had left.
The home stretch: Trion posts RIFT's beta 7 patch notes
Today marks the beginning of the end: the final beta event for RIFT, which also happens to be the first open beta as well. To kick off this six-day event, Trion Worlds posted another set of lengthy patch notes as the team feverishly works to refine the product before its February 24th head start. From new emotes to UI improvements, there's a little something for everyone here. Probably the largest change overall is with the souls; a good deal of the game's 32 PvE souls received tune-ups and adjustments. Guild features were given a few passes as the team added a few new perks and replaced a number of guild banners. Trion also implemented in-game Twitter functionality, allowing players to tweet their in-game statuses and screenshots to the world. And for the always-vain Dwarves, well, it looks as though RIFT finally got that latest shipment of Botox: "Male Dwarves no longer look so... weathered. Current male Dwarf characters will probably appear to have lost a few years off their face somewhere." You can read the full patch notes on the official forums.
Officers' Quarters: Mailbox roundup 3 -- guild leadership
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available now from No Starch Press. Here at Officers' Quarters, I receive a number of emails every week that don't get featured in the column for various reasons (which I explained the first time I did a roundup). Once again, it's time to examine some of these shorter -- but no less interesting! -- topics. This roundup's theme is guild leaders. High rank, low numbers Dear Officers' Quarters, I'm a relatively new member to an active 10-man raiding guild. Our guild is slowly pushing through Cataclysm raid content, and we are taking a slow and steady approach to progression raiding. We've downed Omnotron Defense System and Magmaw both times during our first two weeks of Blackwing Descent raiding, but now that we're considering switching gears and trying some Bastion of Twilight, we're running in to a bit of a problem: very low DPS out of some core raiders. When we first began stepping into Cataclysm raiding, I assumed it was gear related and that, after time, our DPS would go up, making the fights much easier. However, with an almost identical core group tackling these encounters, some of the raiders' gear has improved tremendously, while I'm still seeing similar DPS on the meters. This problem is also compounded by the fact that one of the biggest culprits of low DPS is our guild leader.
Breakfast Topic: Is your guild looking forward to guild perks?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Cataclysm is focusing on many new things and changes to the old ways of doing things. With guild experience being on the forefront of these changes, it is no surprise that suddenly people are taking more notice of their social environment, as it may have an impact on the game once the grind for your own guild goes live. Having a group whose personnel and personality are on the same page as you might be nice if you're planning on receiving some of the benefits (like mounts, special patterns and bonuses to rezzing) immediately. Some people are very focused on guild perks and have assembled elite crafting and leveling forces or are maintaining the same strict raid teams they've had for a while. Others don't care as much. Blizzard has made it clear that all sorts of guilds can effectively benefit over time from the guild leveling system. Our guild is especially looking toward having enough people to be able to level up quickly, even if we won't have a bulk of our guild XP coming in from raiding achievements. This bodes well, as we've very quickly started taking on orphans from other servers, alts of people in other guilds and raid teams, and people rolling up new characters. Does your guild care about the XP system? Are you a close-knit, small guild that will be leveling up slowly, or are you a large raiding guild that things like mass-rezzing appeal to? Or is your guild looking forward to something else entirely?
Officers' Quarters: Leveling as a guild in Cataclysm, part 2
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available now from No Starch Press. Last week, a reader wrote in to ask about some dos and don'ts as a guild leader during the character leveling process of an expansion. Obviously, we're focusing on Cataclysm here, but many of these tips will be relevant for any expansion with a raised level cap. Part 1 provided four tips: Have a plan. Organize group activities. Don't rush anyone. Set a date for the endgame. This week I've got five more.
