player-organizations
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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.
EVE Online prepares the schedule for the next Council of Stellar Management
EVE Online's Council of Stellar Management is about to change seats once again. On April 4th, the current council's term will expire, meaning that it's time for a new council to be formed among the game's players. CCP Games is starting the process for election early, posting a full timetable of the upcoming election as well as the requirements for candidacy. Applications for candidacy will be open from February 8th through the 22nd, followed by nominations until the 29th, with the election proper running between March 7th and March 21st. Thinking about throwing your hat into the ring? Eligible players must be 21 years old or older by April 4th, able to travel to CCP's headquarters in Iceland, and have an EVE Online account older than 30 days. Anyone eligible will also be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement, since the Council of Stellar Management frequently receives information not yet available to the general playerbase. Even if you're not interested in running yourself, it's going to be interesting for EVE players to take part in the election once again.
The Daily Grind: How involved should guild applications be?
Call them linkshells, call them supergroups, call them fleets -- a guild by any other name is still a gathering of players in a loose hierarchy with shared goals. Back in the salad days of MMOs, getting into a guild was a fairly simple procedure, but now it's a rare guild that doesn't have some sort of application policy. It could be as simple as spending a little time as a provisional member, or it could be a relentless grilling of the applicant before they are allowed to start gazing at the wonder of the guild forums. On the one hand, an involved application process ensures you know who you're getting involved with, and it can help avoid drama further down the line. On the other hand it's just a guild, and even if you plan to take it into wars there's a point where the intensity gets silly. How involved do you think guild applications should be -- and do you come at the question from the side oof the applicant, or an officer in a guild reviewing applications?
The Daily Grind: How important is your guild?
They're called linkshells in Final Fantasy XI, fleets in Star Trek Online, kinships in Lord of the Rings Online, but the game could call them bagel and tea parties if it wanted to -- for most players, it's a guild, and no matter what, the core idea is the same. Only a handful of games don't have tools and support for player organizations, pooling resources and skills together so that everyone can get further than they could alone. At the best of times, a guild is a network of people you can call on at almost any time to help you with your goals, and the same holds true for your fellow members. At the worst of times, however, a guild is a mechanism for bringing more drama into your life than dating a paranoid schizophrenic. World of Warcraft's new Dungeon Finder has even prompted some questions in the game about how necessary guilds even are at this point. So how important is your guild to you? Are they your stalwart companions or just some folks? Would you leave the game without them, or do you think you'd probably end up playing more?
