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TUG hopes to make guilds more meaningful by not having them
Guilds are pretty much ubiquitous in MMOs -- they serve as a way to bind players together into a group. But the team behind TUG thinks that all too often guilds come about mostly so you can have a name and a chat channel all to yourself. Which is why the latest design post about the game explains that the designers want to remove that sense of artificially created communities. To strengthen that sense of forming player groups, guilds have to go. As the post explains, too often guilds become things formed for the purpose of having a guild, placing an artificial limitation on what groups players belong to. Instead, the goal is to get players to form societies and groups organically, creating more freedom by removing arbitrary restrictions. It's an idea with a lot of promise, and as the game's Kickstarter continues you can decide if that promise is something you feel like supporting.
The Guild Counsel: Taking the reins and dealing with discipline
It's hard enough for any guild leader to enforce rules and take on problem players. But it's even harder for guild leaders who have stepped up to take over for one who has retired. Comparisons are made between how the old leader did things and how the new one is handling it, and some members might challenge a new leader's authority in order to "test" him. This week's column is a reply to one Massively reader, who wrote, My main commander has retired from the game, and I am struggling filling his role. Our biggest issue is dealing with discipline, either in Teamspeak or in following commands. I read your column on managing mistakes, but I am still finding it hard without being the bad guy. I know it's part of who I am; I am not an aggressive or "Bad Cop" guy. Is there a way I can develop discipline without having to totally change my personality and relationship with the guild? This is a great topic because it's a situation that many new leaders find themselves in almost immediately after taking on the role. In this week's Guild Counsel, let's look at some ways to deal with the challenge.
The Guild Counsel: Why broken economies hurt guilds
I have to admit, I read the recent article by Ramin Shokrizade on the pre-endgame economy of Guild Wars 2 and shrugged. He made a lot of great points, but the problems with GW2's economy are really not that unique. One of the biggest dilemmas is the fact that dropped items, like weapons and armor, really don't have any value prior to the endgame. As in many MMOs, the broker or auction house is flooded with pre-endgame armor and weapons and there's just no demand for it. There are several design flaws that play a role in why dropped items, and virtual economies in general, feel stagnant. Let's look at a few common problems in MMOs today and see why broken economies actually hurt guilds as well.
The Guild Counsel: Guild leadership isn't a job
Guild leadership is challenging, but as I've written before, sometimes guild leaders shoulder the burden of extraneous responsibilities and make the role harder than it should be. You'll often hear players referring to the leadership role as a job, meaning that it's work rather than fun. But while running a guild can be tricky at times, it shouldn't be a job, and there are some important differences between the two that are helpful reminders for guild leaders. In this week's Guild Counsel, let's look why the role of guild leader should remain distinctly separate from that of an employer.
The Guild Counsel: Finding a guild with off-peak playtimes
One of the things that always makes me grumpy about MMOs is the number of game-imposed barriers to players doing things together. Levels, gear, skill points, group and raid caps, and prerequisites are just a handful of common game designs that make it hard to be social. MMOs are getting a little better at removing those hurdles, but one they can't address is the reality of conflicting playtimes. Everyone has real life responsibilities, and that means we sometimes can't be online when our friends are. For some players, this is a constant challenge because their work, school, or family responsibilities allow them to log in only during off-peak playtimes. Last week, Massively reader Barachiel1976 brought up this very topic, and it's actually surprisingly common. So in this week's Guild Counsel, let's look at a few options for players who want to be part of a guild but can't play during peak playtimes.
Community Blog Topic: What makes the perfect guild?
Most of us have been in more than one guild. With guilds falling apart over drama or absent guildies or whatever, we haven't been able to stay with the same guild we were in when we first started playing. It can't all be blamed on the guild; sometimes our tastes change or we move on to greener pastures. Once you've been in a really good guild, it's hard to let go even when things go sour. This is a topic that comes up in Drama Mamas so often, we've written a guide as to how and when to leave your guild. A bad guild can be detrimental to your enjoyment of WoW, just as a great guild enhances your gameplay experience. But what defines the perfect guild? I think there are three factors: Posted guild rules Whether they are in the in-game guild info or posted on a separate website, clear and easily accessible guidelines for guildie behavior are a must. So much drama can be avoided when everyone is clear about how to behave both in and out of guild.
Sony releases a PlanetSide 2 app for iOS
Sony has released PlanetSide 2 Mobile Uplink (free, universal), an iOS app that connects with the popular online game PlanetSide 2. The MMO has you traipsing around another world, trying to claim facilities and land for one of three factions. Now, PlanetSide 2 Mobile Uplink will help you track those factions, your progress in the game and even lets you connect up with friends. You can track your own online status, as well as your kills and all of the "cert points" you've earned (the game uses a certification system to unlock vehicles and weapons). And you can see a full map of the game in the app, so even when you're not near your computer, you can log in and see who's winning what. The app also hooks into your guild's voice chat channel, so you can chat live with friends as you play. It seems like a very impressive second-screen app for the game, so if you're a PlanetSide 2 player, this one's a no-brainer. You can download the PlanetSide 2 Mobile Uplink now.
The Guild Counsel: Jumping from casual to endgame
It's a classic scenario that's all too common: A guild builds up a solid roster, with enthusiastic members, and decides to make the leap from casual to hardcore. But that leap can sometimes become a free-fall spiral and a potential guild-breaker. How does a guild shift gears and go from easygoing to endgame? Let's look at a few ways to make it work and avoid the growing pains in the process.
The Guild Counsel: Managing mistakes
Despite what some folks say, running a multi-party event (raiding, PvPing, dynamic events) is hard. There are the logistical issues of trying to coordinate many players who are scattered all around the world and rely on only voice chat and typed text to communicate. There's the need to instantly react to changes during the course of battle, and the larger the party, the slower the reaction time. And there are even nuances in how individuals approach various situations, which has a ripple effect on the others. Tank Bob might prefer to pull a boss to a different spot than Tank Susie. Or Sniper Sally might be used to peeling away and taking up a position in a tree while Captain Pete prefers to charge in as one force. Suffice it to say, there are plenty of mistakes that happen any time large numbers of players get together, and it's often difficult to sort out which ones warrant a player's removal from the force and which ones don't. Let's take a look at how to handle mistakes in this week's Guild Counsel.
PAX East 2013: SOE's Linda Carlson on the state of the community
How many times have you found yourself asking, "Why won't the devs just listen?!" For any loyal MMO fan, it can be extremely frustrating to see feedback seemingly get ignored, and sometimes it feels as if there's a huge wall separating the fans from the developers. Linda Carlson, SOE's Director of Global Community Relations, spoke with Massively at this year's PAX East to talk about SOE's efforts to break down that wall and improve the relationship between players and developers into something that's more collaborative, rather than contentious. Whether you're the most loyal SOE fan or someone who's vowed never to play another SOE game, you might be surprised at what she has to say.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's March update
It's patch day! Today marks the arrival of the long-awaited World vs. World patch for Guild Wars 2. There are, of course, many other things being bundled into this month's big update, but WvW might be stealing the show a bit. Of course, WvW updates probably mean hideously long waiting times as folks hop in to check out the new shinies, so how about you go ahead and queue up for whichever Battleground you prefer, and we'll talk about the details of this patch while you wait.
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?
The Daily Grind: Do you use in-game guild-finding tools?
Massively's sister site WoW Insider recently ran a poll asking its readers about the use of World of Warcraft's looking-for-guild tools. Approximately 56.9% of the respondents said they'd never used the tool, but a whopping 17.5% said they had. That 17.5% seems a staggering number to me, but then, I know my experience is abnormal; I've been in basically the same guild with the same core group of people for my entire MMO career. I just can't imagine treating a guild the same way I'd treat a group or a raid -- opening up a looking-for-guild panel and ticking all the right boxes until the tool found me a guild that at least on paper met my specifications. It just seems artificial and ephemeral to me. But clearly, it's been of value to almost a fifth of WoW Insider's readership, and since finding a good guild these days is apparently a pain in the rear, I'm calling that a good thing. So now I'd like to pose the same question to the broader MMO community. Have you guys ever used a looking-for-guild tool in any of the MMOs you play? If not, do you stick to traditional methods like ads on forums or chatting up people you meet in person? And if so, has the guild-finder ever led you to a permanent home? 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 Guild Counsel: The suggestion box gone wrong
"Does anyone have any suggestions?" If there's one question that a guild leader should never ask, it's that one. Don't get me wrong; I believe feedback is an essential part of running a successful guild. But there's a right and a wrong way to solicit it, and having the equivalent of a "suggestion box" is not the best way to get the feedback you need. In today's Guild Counsel, let's look at how the concept of a suggestion box (or holding open-ended discussions for player feedback) can make guild leadership difficult. And we'll look at some ways to get the suggestions you need to keep things running smoothly in guild.
Poll: Do you use the in-game Guild Finder?
Joining a guild has always been a core aspect of World of Warcraft. How to choose the right style of guild can be an especially large hurdle to overcome for new players, but it's something we learn along the way. Players currently have a few resources at their disposal, whether it be the Blizzard Guild Recruitment forums, GuildOx, WoWProgress, or other tools. But there's an oft-forgotten in-game tool that was released back in patch 4.1. What about the in-game Guild Finder? The options are a bit limited, and the listings depend on the effort put in by guild masters. Let's just say it's a neglected feature on a few fronts. I've used the Guild Finder before, when searching for a casual leveling guild on a new server. Outside of that, I stick to other tools when recruiting or looking for a new guild. What about you -- do you ever use the in-game Guild Finder? What's your preferred resource for guild recruitment and discovery? %Poll-81566%
The Guild Counsel: Signs that it's time for a break
We've all had moments of frustration in MMOs, but if you're part of a guild, that frustration can have a ripple effect that causes real tension. Class balance issues, game nerfs, slow content updates, and game bugs are just a few ways in which MMOs annoy us. Add to that the challenges of being in a guild with other players, and it's no wonder that some players reach their boiling point. Frustration is normal, but when does it reach a point that it's time to take a break? In this week's Guild Counsel, let's look at when it might be time for a player to consider taking a little hiatus from either the guild or the game.
Guild Wars 2 to focus on improving systems, aiding small guilds
Has Guild Wars 2 become overly complicated since its launch last year? This is the question that Forbes posed to ArenaNet Lead Designer Isaiah Cartwright, who admits that the team debates the question regularly. "Because we've been adding a lot of reward systems, we've seen an increase in the number of currencies out there," Cartwright explained. "But we're getting toward the tail end of the number of systems we feel that we can put in the game. We'll be really working on improving the current systems we have and making them more robust." Cartwright also addressed how the team is catering to guild content, saying that ArenaNet wants to give more of a boost to smaller guilds: "We know there was an initial influence cost that was very high that a lot of smaller guilds weren't able to get into it, so we're looking at ways that we can improve that, make smaller guilds more able to compete on the influence gathering area."
The Guild Counsel: Dealing with problem players
Whether she's an in-your-face, type A general or a laid-back denmother, no guild leader enjoys dealing with disruptive players. There's enough to manage as it is, and problem members can put the leader in a very difficult position. But if not handled correctly, that member can cause no end of problems in the guild and potentially even destroy it. It's easy to say, "kick 'em!" but that could backfire and cause even more drama. Dealing with problem players is complicated but not impossible. In today's Guild Counsel, let's look at a few things to consider.
The Guild Counsel: How to find the right guild for you
Each week, no matter what the topic of this column, there are always comments from players who have had a bad experience with a guild or who have sworn off guilds entirely. Unfortunately, there are quite a few guilds that are poorly managed, and they come with their share of drama, stress, and frustration. But for those that aren't currently in a guild, I'd like to use this week's column to (hopefully) convince you to rethink things and perhaps give it another try. In this week's Guild Counsel, Let's take a look at why unguilded players are in a great position to find a good match, and what things to look for in order to find that perfect guild.
Flameseeker Chronicles: The Gathering Storm preview
I know that nothing (nothing in the whole world, in the history of ever) sucks like waiting for the patch on patch day. There's the promise of wonderful things in the future, but they're just so tantalizingly out of reach. So what better way to pass the time waiting for Guild Wars 2's February patch than by talking about it? I got a bit of a sneak preview at the incoming content over the weekend, so let's take a look at the nitty-gritty of what awaits us in the The Gathering Storm.
