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The Soapbox: Using MMOs to relax and unwind
Every now and then, everyone needs to take a break from the hustle and bustle of everyday life to relax and unwind. The outside world can be loud, and the stresses of work and home life can add up quickly, so it helps to be able to switch off for a while. Some of us find relaxation in sitting down in front of the TV, others in zoning out to their favourite music, and an increasing number of people now wind down with computer games. I've personally found MMOs to be incredibly effective refuges from stress and anxiety, but until now I've never really thought about why that might be. Any game can provide a few hours of escape from the daily grind, but there's something special about MMOs that seems to make them more comforting places to be. Certainly MMOs are manufactured to give a sense of solid progress as you play, a fairness that the unpredictability of real life often can't deliver, but there has to be more to it. Do the music and ambient sounds in EverQuest II's virtual forests and glens produce the same reaction as walking through a real life wood? Likewise, does EVE Online trick us into slowing down, and is spending time in a virtual world just more appealing than slogging along in the real one? In this opinion piece, I look at some of the most relaxing areas and activities I've found in MMOs and try to figure out what makes them tick.
The Guild Counsel: Should guests get an equal shot at raid loot?
In last week's Guild Counsel, we looked at how to rebuild a guild, and one suggestion I made was to use PUG groups and even raids as a way of advertising your guild and screening for new members at the same time. However, that does bring up a tricky situation when it comes to loot. On one hand, it's better to keep loot within the guild; after all, the better geared your raid is, the easier it will be to tackle raid content and progression. On the other, it's not really fair to bring non-members along and then not give them a fair shot at the loot. So what should a raid leader do? Let's explore this problem in this week's Guild Counsel.
The Guild Counsel: Making rebuilding less painful
One of the toughest times in a guild's life is when a guild has to face the prospect of rebuilding. Every guild has some extent of attrition, but there are times when roster numbers dip so low that it puts the future of the guild in jeopardy. For a guild leader, it might be tempting to just close up shop and move on, but there are some things that make the tough task of rebuilding more manageable. Let's look at a few options in this week's Guild Counsel.
The Guild Counsel: How many guild officers do you need?
One piece of advice you often see in guild advice write-ups is that you should delegate tasks to officers, not try to handle everything on your own. It makes sense because running a guild requires many layers of leadership, and it's impossible for one person to successfully handle everything. But at what point do you start to reach critical mass -- when you have too many people involved in the guild's management? There's no magic number, but there are a few things to consider when sharing the duties. Let's look at some key factors in this week's Guild Counsel.
The Guild Counsel: Guild-friendly features for which to be thankful
If you're reading this, it's probably well into Thanksgiving Day, which makes me wonder why you are reading this -- it's Thanksgiving Day! Perhaps you're playing catch-up while you finish up that slice of pumpkin pie. Or maybe you're back home, raiding the fridge for a late night turkey snack and a quick MMO update. Whatever your reason, there are many things that we can be thankful for when it comes to our MMOs. We've come a long way when it comes to guild-friendly features, and it's worth taking a look at in this week's Guild Counsel.
The Guild Counsel: Can guilds and lone wolves coexist?
There are some things in life that naturally go together. Peanut butter and chocolate, peas and carrots, peaches and cream, the Captain and Tennille. But two groups that tend to not mix are guilds and shy players. I was inspired to write this column after seeing the comments in last week's column by reader McGuffin, who pointed out that not everyone wants to socialize in guild chat and share stories about life outside the game. He's right, but it raises the question of why such a someone would want to join a guild, since guilds are usually thought of as a social network of sorts. Many MMOs now have looking-for-group tools (and some even have raid finders), so in theory, there would be no need to join a guild at all if you aren't into the social side of it. But there actually are good reasons for guilds and shy players to team up, and in this week's Guild Counsel, we'll look at a few or those plus some ways for both groups to co-exist happily.
The Guild Counsel: How to make a happy guild
Right now, half of you are unhappy. As I'm writing this, the polls for President and local elections are still closing, but based on the early reports, it's as tight a race as ever. We might know who will lead the country by the time this column goes to print, but it isn't looking like a landslide. Whatever the call, it's certain that about half of the population here in the U.S. will be unhappy with the results. If you're a guild leader, you will undoubtedly run into unhappy members (although hopefully it's not half of the roster!). And while the country might be polarized for the foreseeable future, it is possible to keep and maintain a happy guild atmosphere. Let's look at a few ways in today's Guild Counsel.
World of Warcraft's top 20 guild names
Based on their database of 230,000 guilds, GuildOx has come up with the top 20 most popular guild names. Interestingly there are no guild names that really run away with the list -- the most popular guild name only appears 62 times. One would have thought that there would have been names that'd appear hundreds of times, but according to the data that's not the case. Also noteworthy is that none of the top names are offensive or jokes. This speaks well of the community at large. Here's GuildOx's results: 20. Prime -- 48 19. Requiem -- 49 18. Eclipse -- 50 17. Genesis -- 50 16. Exodus -- 50 15. Asylum -- 51 14. Defiance -- 51 13. Invictus -- 52 12. Relentless -- 52 11. Insidious -- 52 The rest of the list after the break!
The Guild Counsel: Looking at loneliness in guild leadership
Last week at SOE Live, one of the most interesting player panels was the one on guild leadership. As I mentioned in last week's write up, the advice given was helpful, but what was really valuable was just the opportunity for guild leaders to meet face to face and openly discuss a variety of issues. The panel lasted for an hour, and yet it felt like it went by in just a few minutes. The speakers had to roam from their slide presentation several times to answer questions, which isn't surprising because for many there, it was probably the first time they could actually do that. Running a guild is unusually lonely. If you look at other roles that involve leadership skills, like coaching, running a business, or teaching a class, there are lots of resources and opportunities to meet with peers and share advice. For guild leaders, there are a few places to seek counsel, but given the number of games, and the massive number of guilds overall (and when I use guild, I'm using it as a catchall for online communities like clans, corps, etc.), there just aren't many outlets that share tips on guild management. In this week's Guild Counsel, we'll look at some reasons why guild leaders live such an isolated life, and take a look at a few ways to help break down the walls.
The Guild Counsel: What I learned at the SOE Live player panels
It was easy to overlook, but hidden among the mountains of new announcements and game panels at this year's SOE Live were several panels that were organized and run by the players themselves. Players were asked to submit ideas for panels across a wide spectrum of game topics. They came up with some terrific ideas, and Linda "The Brasse" Carlson, SOE's Global Director of Community Relations, used every tool at her disposal to fit in as many as possible in the lineup. Thanks to my time-turner necklace, I was able to catch several of these player panels in addition to the regular game panels, and I've summed them up below. There were some great moments from each of these panels, and if you missed them, you'll want to check out the highlights below!
The Guild Counsel: Damion Schubert remembers Meridian 59 at GDC
Last week was the final GDC Online, as the yearly convention moves out to Los Angeles next year under the new name GDC Next. Coincidentally, developers gave several postmortem talks about some of the classic MMOs of years ago. Among those was Meridian 59, and BioWare's Damion Schubert took us back in time to look at what it was like as the game prepped for launch and the first few years. What stands out are the incredible stories that came from player interaction and guild rivalries. Whether you're long-time fan or someone who wasn't even born yet when those early games emerged, this trip through the time machine is definitely worth a look!
The Guild Counsel: The ethics of gaming
As I head to GDC Online for its final hurrah in Austin, I can't help but think about the many panels each year that talk about things like monetization, marketing, and mechanics, and I wonder whether the industry somehow veered off course. Because the developers are speaking to one another, you usually get a much more candid look at what goes on behind the curtain, and lately it reminds me of Jurassic Park. There's a scene in the film where Ian Malcom questions the rationale behind cloning extinct species of dinosaurs and then building a theme park to make a fortune. As he points out, you spent so much time figuring out whether you could that you didn't stop to think whether you should. In other words, the ethical questions of Jurassic Park weren't addressed until the last boat left the dock and Newman had corrupted the system and was hopelessly lost in the jungle with a shaving cream can of dino DNA. When it comes to MMOs, there are ethical questions that the industry needs to consider, and some of them are questions that MMO guilds also need to address. In this week's Guild Counsel, we'll look at the ethics of gaming in MMOs, before there's a Jurassic Park catastrophe.
Vendetta now available on Windows 8, RT
Have you upgraded to Windows 8 yet? Do you use Windows on a tablet? If so, Guild Software wants you to know that its long-running Vendetta Online sci-fi MMO is ready and willing. The indie outfit recently released the game to the Windows store, and as you'd know if you read one of Massively's multiple Vendetta impressions pieces, the game syncs seamlessly across PCs, Macs, Linux systems, and tablets, now including devices that run Windows RT. "Thanks to the scalability of our in-house NAOS Engine with native DirectX 11 support, we're able to deliver our desktop-grade MMO experience even on lightweight Windows RT tablets," explains Guild CEO John Bergman. Vendetta mixes combat, mining, trading, and exploration, and a free trial is available via the game's official website. [Source: Guild press release]
The Guild Counsel: What to do when the old guild leader returns
So often, a guild's success revolves around a good guild leader. In fact, we've talked before about how a guild tend to take on the personality of the person who's running it and that when a great leader leaves, there's a risk that the entire guild will break up afterward. But what if a guild leader leaves and then returns to see that his guild is doing fine or that it's even better than when he left it? Apart from the obvious "awkward" moment, let's consider a few potential issues in this scenario, from the perspective of both the returning guild leader and the guild as a whole. Power struggle or cause for celebration? This week's Guild Counsel will tackle the subject!
The Guild Counsel: Dealing with returning members at the dawn of a new expansion
The launch of an expansion is always an exciting time. There's new content to explore, new features to check out, and for guilds, a sudden influx of new and returning players. Some of those fresh faces were once on your roster, and it's not that surprising that they're suddenly showing up on your doorstep again, ready and willing to get back into things. On the surface, the sudden roster boost might seem like a welcome scenario, especially for raiding guilds. But in reality, it can turn into a disruption that has the potential to add drama and headaches for the guild leader. In this week's Guild Counsel, we'll look at a few things to be mindful of when you're faced with a sudden influx of returning members.
The Guild Counsel: Can guilds save the economy?
Wait! Before you hit that comment button about the absurdity of the title above, hear me out! A few weeks ago, I stumbled on a video that touched on this very topic, and I felt it was a perfect discussion point for this column. The video is actually titled How World of Warcraft could save your Business and the Economy, and it's a commentary by John Seely Brown that's part of a series called Big Think. What Seely Brown argues is that he'd prefer to hire an expert World of Warcraft player over someone who graduated from Harvard with an MBA, and he goes on to explain why businesses can learn from the way top players and guilds function in game. It might sound crazy, but it's worth considering, and in this week's Guild Counsel, we'll look at the topic both from Brown's WoW point of view and from a broader view of MMOs in general.
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!
Players in DUST 514 and EVE Online can join the same corporations
Integrating EVE Online with CCP Games' upcoming DUST 514 must present many challenges, one of which is how to handle the issue of corporations (guilds). In a new blog post, CCP confirms that players of either game can join the same corporations, whether they are newly established or deep-rooted EVE entities. DUST 514 corps will therefore be structured and function much the same as the corps in EVE Online, with the founding member becoming CEO. DUST 514 players will not be able to access all levels of management for multi-game corps, however. CCP is providing similar corporation creation tools for DUST 514, including logo design, structured roles, and corporation battles. Players of both games will then be easily able to communicate to each other through corp chat.
The Guild Counsel: Dealing with the Backseat Driver
Lots of MMOs these days have handy tutorials, pop-up tip windows, and highlighted marks to show you where to go and what to stab. Unfortunately, there are no advice windows that show up when you have to make a tough decision as a guild leader (although that would be a great addon!). Instead, leaders have to rely on past experience and a little bit of gut instinct and then hope for the best. Of course, if you're faced with two paths, and you choose path A, you can pretty much guarantee that someone will voice his support for path B, and that can lead to no end of headaches and potential drama. Let's take a look this week at identifying and handling the "Backseat Driver."
Enjin offers guild recruitment system
Guild hosting service Enjin has added a new tool to its ever-increasing arsenal: guild recruitment. The site's new global game recruitment system allows organized groups to post their "players wanted" ads for searching souls to discover. The recruitment list is sortable by category and includes an MMO-dedicated section. Using the system, guilds can post a lengthy introduction letter to convey its purpose and history, where it's located, how many games it's a part of, and what voice communication (if any) it uses. At the time of this writing, Guild Wars 2 has the most recruitment ads, followed by World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic. [Source: Enjin press release]
