Darkfall Rank and Permission Changes

Darkfall has made some waves within its pond by announcing some changes to guild ranks.  Basically, ranks you would normally assign to players are gone.  Think of those ranks like the ranks you would hand out in most MMO’s: Recruit, Member, Veteran, Officer, Leader — although the names are different in Darkfall.

Instead of ranks handling permissions — like a captain having bank access and the ability to invite people — players can now be assigned permissions individually.  Bob might have ABCD, and Chuck might have ABD.  All permissions are highly customized on a per-person basis.  I like that system, and I think everyone else does too.

What’s causing the issue is that the old rank titles (Captain, Supreme General, etc.) are now like an in-guild ladder.  Within each guild, members will compete against each other to see who can earn the most kills during an active siege.  The more kills you get, the higher your rank title.  Remember, ranks/titles have nothing to do with permissions, but are entirely cosmetic/showoff.   I think people are putting way too much emphasis and worry on a random person in the guild holding prestige over a try-hard who doesn’t perform as well.  It really doesn’t matter.

I can agree and sympathize with those who feel like the ability to assign a name to certain member groups was a nice guild tool — but we got along without them just fine for years.  I can also agree with anyone feeling uneasy about kills being the only metric for earning those titles.  There are plenty of ways to contribute other than getting a kill, so why should only those people get neat titles?  And yes, knowing someone’s rank within their guild just by clicking on them was nice, but there are very few MMO’s out there that tell you someone’s guild rank anyway.  Now you’ll have to make do with a title that shows how many kills they’ve achieved — that’s what Darkfall’s about anyway, right?  (Yes, my tongue was in my cheek for that one.)

For those of you fretting over rank being associated with kills, it’s time to lose to idea of titles being associate with rank.  Come up with your own ranks and post them on your forums.

Now I’m off to read up on what clan points are all about.  I hear you need them to declare a siege or something.