Time is creeping closer and closer to the end of the semester (a big part of why my blogging has been sparse lately) so I need to begin gathering more research/feedback for my Research paper on MMORPGs. This time I want to focus on Guilds and their role in a mmorpg as well as their effect on the social experience for the player. The last post I made asking for your feedback on Gold Sales was a fantastic success and I thank all who participated (and still wish to participate). The purpose of posting this on my blog is to gather real player and developer feedback regarding the topics, questions, and ideas that I propose. The comments left here can be anonymous if you choose. I will use this feedback to help shape various parts of my paper and anything written here should be done with the knowledge that it may or may not be used in my research paper.
Please feel free to answer all or only some of the questions. If you feel inclined to expand upon your answers to include more, then that is welcomed as well.
1. Have you been or are you now a member of a guild in a mmorpg?
2. If yes, why did you join that particular guild (or guilds)? If no, do you have any reason for avoiding one?
3. Have you ever lead a guild or been part of the leadership in a guild? Please explain what type of responsibilities you had to assume. How has this affected your gameplay experience for better or worse?
4. What type of guild attracts you the most and why? (see examples below)
- Hardcore Raiding
- Casual
- Family
- Roleplay
- Other
5. Do you feel that guilds are a/the central focus of your social MMORPG experience?
6. In your opinion, do developers place too much or too little emphasis on guilds when designing the content for their game?
7. Share a memorable experience you have had with a guild (If you have been a member of one).
Again, any other feedback or information you wish to offer up beyond what has been asked is greatly appreciated. Discussion amongst yourselves beyond answering the questions is also welcomed. I’m really interested in how great an impact guilds have had on the player in MMORPGs and I think that many of you will have some great insight to offer.
1. Yes I am
2. I joined this guild because it’s made up of friends and friends of friends from other games. I find the guild is what keeps me in an MMO and what really makes the game. I love the player interaction and having a group of people to socialize with while playing.
3. I’ve been an officer in most of the guilds I’ve been in sooner or later. Typically, it allows me to be more involved and I like that. Sometimes however, it can be to much responsibility and burns me out. That has to do with my personality though as I tend to sign up for more responsibilities until I burn myself out.
4. Other – I prefer a friendly ‘family’ environment, but at the same time I hate playing with people that are to casual. When I’m playing a game I don’t enjoy screwing around and not paying attention. I don’t want someone in my instance/rvr/etc that is only 1/2 there. They should log out, take care of RL, and log back in when they are here to play. So I guess I enjoy ‘family and friends’ guilds with people that understand they are expected to be paying attention while in a group.
5. Yes, if you aren’t in my guild more than likely I don’t see you often enough to keep in touch. There are rare exceptions but most of the socializing happens for me in-guild.
6. That depends on the game. WAR seems to be doing well though I would still like to see more guild related content. WoW didn’t have a lot of stuff for guilds for a long time. Though I’m not sure what the current WoW guild interface looks like. The focus on guilds through raiding though which I think is a bonus.
7. Sorry can’t really answer this. For me it’s a summation of all of the smaller personal experiences. From having a /guild chat to talk in while questing to the organized guild runs. No single aspect is a ‘story’ to tell but it creates an atmosphere that I prefer.
1. Yes I am currently in a guild in Lotro.
2. I chose this Guild because it is a friendly guild with a casual ethic but is still large enough and organised enough to give access to end game content and raids.
3. No, I have no desire to get involved in guild leadership although I greatly appreciate the efforts put in by those who do. I do my best to be a good guild citizen and not make their job any tougher.
4. Casual but with sufficient organisation and critical mass to offer end game access.
5. Guilds are more complementary to my mmorpg experience rather than central to it. Guilds add hugely to my enjoyment of mmos but I can be a bit of a loner and I usually choose to remain outside the inner circle of any guild I join.
6. I don’t think that developers place too much emphasis on guilds because in my opinion it would be hard to have a real mmo without guilds. I do think that developers don’t do enough for guilds in any of the games I have played. Most Guilds have to go outside the game for essential tools like web forums, raid rosters and such. In addition I think that many games are designed in a way that hinders the growth of guilds. Why does all loot have to belong to an individual for example? Why not let a Guild own loot much as a company does and let the Guild lend that gear out to whoever needs it? That would solve the issue of the Main Tank who leaves the guild taking all his gear with him.
7. I guess my first time using voice chat was fairly memorable, finally putting voices to all of those names. Not to mention getting over the embarrassment of talking to other grown adults while using our silly in game names.
1. Yes
2. Joined because guild had same play style as me. I.e. causal non hardcore raiding in WoW. Same with WAR Casualties of WAR (CoW http://www.casualtiesguild.com)
3. Yes. Guild officer in WoW (Brothers of Honor “BoH†http://www.bohguild.com ). At first felt very honored. I help manage new recruits, guild bank requests, etc. Later as my play time dwindled it took too much of my time and I gave up my spot for a more active member. Overall not a bad experience, great bunch of folks.
4. Casual and some RP. Easy to find folks to group with and no requirements (i.e. required raids). Also easy to do RP with link minded folks. However I am not a heavy RP player.
5. Yes. It can be a problem because if the developer caters to that type and can make some player based feel excluded. However, MMOs I have been in seem to cater to all.
6. I’d say just right (at lease with WAR).
7. As guild officer in WoW BoH (pre BC expansion) I helped organize a guild event called “The Azeroth Amazing Race.†I was a checkpoint judge and wrote all the clues foe the four stops on the race. Was a great experience.
1. Yes.
2. Most of the guilds I have ever been in are guilds with RL friends. Occasionally, I’ll play a game solo or with one other buddy and find the need to find a guild.
3. I’ve been a cofounder and a founder of guilds,and I have been an officer in certain guilds. My responsibilities really all depend on the game and how we play it. Sometimes our guild is just a group of friends and ranks are more of a formality, and other times, I have had to do RP disciplinary actions.
4. I like RP guilds a lot. Within that, I try to focus on a casual guild who likes to group together often and even do some raids. I stay far away from hardcore raiding guilds because they seem to demand too much time.
5. When I first started playing MMOs, I would say yes. At this point, I find my social aspect is with people I have been gaming with for years, and we just end up in the same guild. I guess it makes the answer yes either way.
6. It depends on the game, but overall, ust having a guild feature in a game is good enough. Guild Halls and the such are cool, but it all depends on your guilds playstyle.
7. In UO, I was a member of the Order of the Ebon Skull on the Atlantic server. We were a RP guild, and I was the co-leader of the Blood Harvesters (attack squad of Vampires (VTM lore)), and we would PvP against other RP guilds who were all part of this alliance on Atlantic. Basically, all the land was broken up into sections and you had to fight for control of each. It was probably the bes time I have ever had in any MMO.
1. Have you been or are you now a member of a guild in a mmorpg?
Yes (Wow and WAR)
2. If yes, why did you join that particular guild (or guilds)? If no, do you have any reason for avoiding one?
WoW: Because my brothers and I had to in order to do the big raids.
WAR: My brothers and folks we know created a small one (NO DRAMA).
3. Have you ever lead a guild or been part of the leadership in a guild?
Nope. In our guild in War we don’t have a leader, since we all know each other.
4. What type of guild attracts you the most and why? (see examples below)
Casual
Family
I prefer to keep them small with folks I know.
5. Do you feel that guilds are a/the central focus of your social MMORPG experience?
Depends if you want drama. Personally I work all day, and spend almost all my free time with my family. When I do choose to play games, I really don’t want to hear people bitch and complain (which is a lot of most guilds I have been in) I can see why others do, it’s just not for me.
I do enjoy the fact that there is a way in WAR for all of us to help grow the guild with just a small group.
6. In your opinion, do developers place too much or too little emphasis on guilds when designing the content for their game?
I’d say it’s about right. I can see how folks enjoyed the 40 man raids of WoW, and the need to have large guilds. But personally I enjoy smaller ones with folks I know and I appreciate games that allow guilds like that to succeed. WAR is just about perfect in my opinion, although I do wish there were ways that guilds of ~8-10 could take RvR Keeps without needing other folks.
7. Share a memorable experience you have had with a guild (If you have been a member of one).
There is NOTHING better then a bunch of your friends all in vent, all using teamwork, absolutly wrecking other folks. That’s what’s it all about for me.
1. Yes, many
2. I like people around, chatter to watch, things to read in forums, etc
3. Was a guild officer at one point, responsible for organizing raids and managing healing classes in those raids. Ruined my experience, ended up being much more wrok and far less fun
4. Casual
5. Not sure if they are central focus but I usually look for a guild early on
6. Getting better all teh time on guild functions/abilities
7. AHHHH, the DRAMA!
1. Yes
2. Playing MMORPGs with more than one person is a much more fun and rewarding experience. Many aspects of the games in this genre are only accissible by a group of players and having a guild is the easiest way to gain access to group members you enjoy and trust.
3. No – Managing a guild is usually more trouble than it’s worth. I would much rather be a cog in a well-oiled machine than the person applying the oil, which is usually an exercise in frustration.
4. Casual/Hardcore-Raiding – I want a guild of people who are as casual as myself but with the same hardcore aspirations. We may be limited by the amount of time we can play the game but I don’t want our skill or accomplishments to dwindle because of it. I also don’t want them to take things so seriously that it ruins the experience. This is probably the most difficult guild to find/make, but it is my ideal.
5. I am much more social with my guild than with random people I meet in the game.
6. It really varies game to game. Personally, I wish developers would make content and experiences for guilds of all shapes and sizes, also taking into account the solo or unguilded people.
7. Incoming when I have more time…
1. Been a member of several guilds 🙂 Currently not a member of any guild in any of the mmorpgs I play but I’ll be looking for a new guild soon for WotLK (old one disbanded for a long list of reasons but I had left by then) so I can continue my raiding.
2. Almost every guild I’ve joined (and stayed with) has a certain aim that i’m currently also gunning for, whilst also having a social side that’s engaging. I’m a pretty ‘hardcore’ raider with a big backlog of experience and thus I tend to look for much smaller and closer knit guilds that have a set of members I’ve met through parties (generally) and have impressed me whilst within that party.
3. I’ve led a guild in Vanilla WoW (before TBC) when I was done with Naxx and wanted to help new players through AQ20, ZG, MC and BWL. Apart from that I’ve done ALOT of Officer work, be that with negotiations, class leader based situations, marketting and trade, etc. If anything it’s taught me how good I am (Yeah what an ego 😉 ) in comparison to many and how much more I know compared to those looking to join guilds. In that way i’ve gained a good judge of character when people apply for guilds or are me to join theirs. It has occasionally made things stressful within the game though and left some situations unpleasant, such as having to remove people or get them to ‘sort their shit’ out. I suppose being an Officer opens you up to more drama, which in turn isn’t something I generally like but it also allows you to see how people work within an environment. It makes a MMORPG more engaging for me if I can see every level of communication, skill and planning that goes into events, raiding, etc. but then that could just be down to me liking to stick my nose into everything.
4. I hate family guilds straight off. I’ve had some bad experiences with them and generally speaking any guild which is family based is a problem when it comes to ANY form of critque (e.g. stop being an asshat and let the fucking elf just walk by).
At the same time ‘casual’ guilds can be problematic because the majority from my experience lack basic understanding and well.. I hate that. From my view, if > I < can move out the fire, so can you, and therefore no excuse you tell me will be sufficient.
So I suppose that fits me into the Hardcore raiders guild more than anything else. For me a brilliant guild would be a true roleplayers guild (upon which I’ve never -really- been a part of) with a good amount of raiding on the side. Not many 6 days a week sort of raiding but simply 3 nights, maybe 4, of solid, number cracking, raiding. The sort where you work your arse off for 3-4 hours and everyone knows what they’re doing and can provide a good amount of input if they feel something is wrong/right. But then, it’s also got to have a good amount of chit chat over Ventrilo at the time. I’ve only ever found two guilds that have ever managed all this (bar the RPing) and both were the best guilds i’ve ever been in (and one of the top few on the server), which means if a guild ISN’T like the above, I often find myself logging in just to raid and don’t fully commit to tasks, rather than looking on pruely to throw banter at the ginger kid for sending 200g to the wrong character.
5. Guilds are the centre focus of my social life in MMORPGs. I wouldn’t log on half as much if the guild in question was rubbish or I don’t have one (e.g. WAR currently is suffering from my attention because I lack a good guild). Without them I see no point in really playing more than an hour here or there.
6. More work should be placed on spending MORE time for guild orientated stuff. Simply put, there’s not enough guild things to do and I hate how it’s (generally) limited to just raiding and/or PvP. The more thigns a guild can engage with and focus upon the better a game is in my view. I consider it a rubbish argument to state the solo player should have more options than a guild player. The point of an mmorpg for me is to have wide scale social interaction whilst working as a unified unit. Thus the more they can offer guilds the more interested I am in things within that game.
7. God, so many things. Certain things stay with you and to be fair most of my memories are sparked within WoW. Killing of Ragnaros after a week of solid trying. The amount of effort and thinking into how to perfect killing Bloodboil or RoS. For me, any boss that has meant player input has been more valuable than guides, player reactions to situations help conquer a fight (e.g. seeing a Warrior using a Sprint potion to escape the raptor in the bloodlord fight in ZG because Sunder was stacking too high and we didn’t have a spare tank xD) and just generally the feeling of accomplishing something, as a unit, when things seem impossible is a moment to remember and a testimont to how important (and fun) being in a guild is.
1. Yes, I always find a guild to play with in any MMO I play.
2. I enjoy the guild atmosphere, working together as a team to beat what ever the game holds. Making tight knit groups of friends.
3. Yes I have been a leader, an officer, and a council member. As a leader I had to manage people in a way that got the most done and kept every one happy. Putting together raids and events as well as settling disputes.
4. What type of guild attracts you the most and why?
I enjoy a hardcore guild but with casual undertones. We are hardcore in our play style and requirements when you are logged on, but do not have hardcore requirements of time you need to play, etc.
5. Do you feel that guilds are a/the central focus of your social MMORPG experience?
Yes
6. In your opinion, do developers place too much or too little emphasis on guilds when designing the content for their game?
Personally I would like to see more focus on guilds, but for whatever reason, which I do not yet understand, people enjoy playing solo in a massively multiplayer game. I feel they are doing a good job atm as far as balance goes.
7. Share a memorable experience you have had with a guild
Raids where we tried something we had never done before. Or in WAR with guild vendetta, we after a memorable night in RvR (awesome fights, surprising them from behind, etc) after that we all went to a lower RvR area and turned into chickens, we had about 100 of us. Then we went out and attacked people and managed to kill 2-3
1. Yes.
2. My previous guild had imploded, my wife and I were looking for a new home.
3. In my current guild, I started off as a member, became an officer/raid-leader, then guild leader, then back to officer, and finally back to member as I focused on starting a family. Over the time in leadership roles, I did game-mechanic leadership (organized and led raids, tutored players in the mechanics of the game), human leadership (dealing with intrapersonal disputes, recruited for both members and encouraged and taught members to lead), and out-of-game guild support (built a guild website, ran the guild forums, etc).
4. Raiding / Casual / Family-friendly.
5. Absolutely. I’d play a single-player game instead if the social aspect wasn’t there.
6. Very much so. The mechanical support for guilds is still in its infancy. I’ve written about this with respect to achievements in WoW.
7. A long-time member of the guild died in real life, and the sense of mourning in the members of the guild was very real. People cried and consoled each other. I know it’s not the happiest story, but it highlights how real these relationships can become, even in the strange space where it’s text and voice.
I have done it all and been it all.
but the guild need changes with the years of your age…
at the moment I am in a casual guild.. you go for a raid when you want.. you log in and out at the most weird times… well kids come out of bed or need a bottle or need to be brought to the toilet before their bed turns into a waterbed 🙂
been playing online since ultima but the older you get your playing time will also be very different.. raiding is for me a no go.. as it takes too much time.. casual play is perfect.. it can be hardcore but family life dictates the login and logout…
if you would go through the various online forums you will notice the biggest guilds are now the old gezers one… they are not the best but a lot of fun and one has someone to chat with ingame.
so to answer your main question guilds are a major impact in a game for the social experience for the player, but is linked to its playing time and place in life at that moment…
1. Yes.
2. I joined this particular guild because they do a lot of the endgame content I want to do (open RvR), and it’s harder to experience that content if you don’t have a guild.
3. No.
4. I don’t care much about guilds for PvE, the attraction is organized PvP.
5. They have been in the past. In my current guild, I don’t really socialize with anyone, I just chat on vent to a real life friend who plays. This may be a relic of the difficulties in chat implementation WAR had at launch. Also, it’s harder to find a guild that is ‘pure PvP’ in a game like WAR, which limits my interest in the guild.
6. It depends on the game. In WAR I’d say yes (too many people required to take a keep), in WoW I’d say yes (you’re either solo or doing a raid with your guild, PUGs are really bad). In Guild Wars I’d say no, you can do all areas on the hardest difficulty with only 2 people (though it’s easier if you have a full group of guildies). I think Guild Wars strikes a good balance.
7. Being involved in high level Guild vs Guild for a brief time in Guild Wars was a blast! Having a system that ranks your guild compared to others is a real incentive to play. Though, at the same time it creates a lot of grief if your guild sucks.
Other: Guilds in MMO’s are not what I thought they’d be before I’d played the genre. I’m used to RPG’s where you had such things as the Thieves guild, the Mages guild, etc. Guilds are just a collection of players, and don’t feel like a special society in the game world.
1. Yes.
2. Normally to hear chatter over chat channels (sense of people also playing the same game, sense of belonging) and have increased opportunity for group-required activities.
Other more esoteric reasons: Friend and I started a casual guild in City of Heroes to build a supergroup base, and sucked in a few more real life friends for camaraderie and prestige earning. MMOs that look to require serious group activity in the endgame = me hunting for a decent guild from the get-go.
3. I’ve led a guild on a MUD. Responsibilities were morale-building, chattering over chat channels to make people feel welcome, and being a nexus of successful group activity so that the organization reputation was well spoken of, attracting people to join up.
Other sidelong things were keeping updates posted on message boards, cleaning out the roster (alts and lazy spies abounded), watching our guild vault for thieves (in those days, no such thing as setting permissions, yeesh), maintaining a website and guild bot, etc.
Fun while it lasted. But what a chore. Successfully burned me out and made me avoid any sort of leadership role in the newer-fangled MMORPGs. Herding ~50 members with 8-10 regulars and another 10 semi-active was enough. Goodness knows how the guilds that need to form 25-man raid groups manage now.
Much respect for good leadership though. That’s one of my criteria for guild hunting.
4. Type of guild I like: casual requirements, serious play, take themselves nonseriously.
RL comes first. No questions about it. Accepting of AFK/family issues, but also taking online play seriously, with good etiquette. Members should be honorable, and try to respect everyone’s time, and strive to improve their game. Signed up for a 2 hour activity? Be there, and don’t vanish unless absolutely necessary. But if stuff screws up, be able to laugh it off and shrug.
Hard to find. Sometimes family guilds clique up too much and get hard to break into. Striving towards hardcoreness leads to drama when members get antsy about different rates of progress.
5. Guilds are a part of my social MMO experience. But not the be-all and end-all. I like to hear the guild chat, supply knowledge to people looking for esoteric info, the guild groups to join now and then. But because of irregular playing time, I’m never always-on when everyone is on.
I do a lot of PUGs. I need MMOs wherein forming PUGs are not a 100% horrible experience. Just a different social experience from a guild group.
And 30-40% of the time, I need solo ‘me’ time too. So I like a guild that doesn’t guilt trip you if you decide you just want to solo for a bit.
6. Hmm. Depends on the game. AoC on paper looked like a big guild experience. WAR has the whole living guild system, plus RvR is best started by a small guild core and have PUGs join up to fill fodder ranks. 😛 But there’s leeway for the loner to find a niche too.
Raid content generally = forced grouping and calendar watching. Not keen on forced grouping. Not catching me in WoW or EQ or similar fantasy raid-alikes any time soon.
Supergroups were just a social group in CoX for a long time. And I didn’t feel the need to join up for ages until I got bored of the quiet. Then they tied in prestige and supergroup bases and changed the mechanic so that being part of a big guild meant a cool-looking base (but not something you could mess around since base permissions were kept for one architect)…while having a small personal guild let you indulge your artistic ability and store Inventions loot.
Not in a guild in Guild Wars, ironically. Just like the solo /small group PvE. So no pressing need to be part of some hardcore l33t PvP team.
7. Casual playstyle, casual guilds = nothing super-memorable. Of course running around in a big guild group with your tag/capes/banner proudly flying while decimating the opposition (PvE or PvP) is always cool – but that’s what I normally expect from a guild. 😛
I think my most memorable experiences come from MUD guilds, where a mixture of being uber-hardcore and having downtime to type and chat while camping mob respawns helped.
Felt seriously special (if egoistically elitist) when your guild was truly the ONLY one who knew how to get to and take down a special mob. Not a server first deal. T’was an only server monopoly on leet loot. Say 10 out of 400 players. That was our personal private mob for a good six months. Camping there and chatting between respawns was sweet.
MUD chatting was great for me. I type fast and read text well. Hearing people talk over Vent just isn’t the same, and ruins a bit of the immersion to hear your female hobbit guildmate or Stygian necromancer talk with a male Irish accent.
Then there’s trying to strike up a decent conversation while running around with WASD and mouselook. Can’t do it. Can’t coordinate. Can’t focus on two things at once. Once I get into a 3D environment, action-filled at that, and play seriously, I can’t talk.
1. Yes
2. Because I knew the guild from a previous game, and I knew they were a well organized force when it came to PvP and I wanted to join them for their beginnings in Warhammer.
3. Never been in a leadership position, since you usually have to know the guild leaders personally or have been playing with them a long time to get one of those spots.
4. Casual guilds attract me, because I am older and have responsibilities so I don’t like guilds that try to force participation or a certain level of attendance. I like guilds with active players that do plan events, but who understand that real life comes first.
5. Yes they are a central focus. Playing with a guild enhances the experience of every MMO I’ve played. You start to team up with the same people, you begin to know and anticipate their play styles and you work out a little system. Playing with other people who know the function of their class allows you to accomplish more, and allows you to feel powerful when you’ve beat the odds. Not to mention guild mates help each other out by giving each other gear, crafted items, etc.
6. I feel the emphasis on guilds is about right. Developers know their importance and all the modern MMO’s now have extensive guild tools.
7. Soon after WAR went live our guild went on our first T2 keep run. Our guild plus members of our alliance took the keep in the Greenskin area (Fangbreaka Swamp I think?) We kept the Order at bay by fighting on the bridge at the keep entrance. Each time we would push them back to their war camp. Then we would run back to our keep and Order would mount another defense.
This went on for a good hour or two. Order never broke down the keep door. As it got later and later in the evening people needed to log off, so to end the zerg, we all decided to chase Order back to their camp one final time, and we all suicided by running straight into the Order warcamp to get hit by the Guards.
Even though we were instantly killed by their guards, the Order continued to run away. It was hilarious.
Ok I’ll help you out, what are friends for? 🙂
1. Yes, I’ve been a member of a lot of guilds/kins/supergroups
2. I usually make my own guilds but I sometime join them cuz I enjoy the people that comprise it.
3. I have led a guild in Wordl of Warcraft and now Lotro. Leading a guild is both parts exciting and a pain in the neck. How much of a pain it is depends on how awesome the members are and how the game is built towards retention. (Warcraft was awful in this aspect)
4. This is difficult. I don’t tend to go to guilds who focus on hardcore raiding but I like my guild to either be capable of it or I ally my guild with another so we can do some of it. Casual guilds are relaxed but almost too sleepy to feel alive. Family guilds are great. Roleplay in an MMO is something I’ve never really gotten into. Other: goofy, fun guilds are my favorite.
5. They are in Warhammer. There is no social experience otherwise. In Warcraft you can get by wiht a good friends list and in Lotro and City of Heroes its the same way, some people run around kinless/supergroupless.
6. Developers rely too much on players to make the social fun. Granted players should make some of it, but they need encouragement. All the game itself tends to focus on is fighting and fighting skill. There should be social games with real rewards and they should not be viewed as fluff but an integral part of drawing a guild closer together.
7. I used to be part of the Tram Defenders and I remember very well once we became well known on Wildhammer that anytime the Deep Run Tram was under attack the server would call our members to action! 😛
Other: Guilds need more reason for you to work for them. How bout a guild rep system with real rewards? Honestly I can’t understand why so many games think its ok to make a guild a glorified chat and tabard system. 😛 That just encourages guild hopping.
1. Yes to both. I have been in four guilds, two of which I have had control of.
2. In general, I joined so I could have a community from which to draw people to play with. In WoW it was specifically to make the numbers necessary in order to conquer dungeons (my friends alone did not number enough). In WAR it is only for the sense of community and commraderie, which I really enjoy.
3. Yes, I was a guild leader in two guilds, and an officer in another. In the first two cases (in WoW) I was responsible for scheduling events, recruiting, and loot distribution. Loot distribution was extremely aggrevating as no one seemed to feel things were fair unless they received something. The entire experience made me very bitter with regards to games that put loot distribution in the hands of the player. It’s one of the big reasons I left WoW.
4. “Hardcore/Casual” is sort of a meaningless catch-all phrase, so I will explain. I like to play with people who – like me – know what they are doing, are always trying to improve themselves, and want to accomplish things when they log in. That said, I like to play with people who – like me – have lives outside of the game, do not obsess over the game, and do not ever get angry over the game. People who realize that it’s really other people they’re playing with…that’s the kind of player I like in my guild.
5. Definitely. I talk to my guild more than anyone else by a tremendous margin; in fact without a guild I admit to feeling very lonely in such games.
6. Too little, until WAR; I feel WAR has set some new precedents that I hope become mainstays in guild design in games.
7. The first time I deployed the “For Science” guild standard in open RVR was just excellent. We immediately ran into half-again our number of Destro and managed to hold them off – by the skin of our teeth – all to defend the standard. What a cool idea.
1. Yes to both, I have been on several guilds in many games.
2. I think the one in LOTRO was that I had a guy in a group that I did several quests with and we became friendly so he invited me to his guild. In EVE I heard about the guild/corp and thought it was interesting and went through many hoops to get into that guild. The one in Guild Wars was more of a I got randomly invited and I accepted.
3. I did once, but I was rubbish at it. It was in Guld Wars I made a team did the recruiting got 6 memebers and then they all left. Then I abandoned the guild.
In LOTRO I became an officer and then the secondary leader, my duties were inviting people in the guild, helping people out in quests, and genrally making the guild fun. Which I did with my speciel brand of humour.
4. The first three, I have never done roleplay so it doesn’t really appeal to me. I like raiding every week, I like being casuel most of the time and I like communicating with everyone and having fun.
5. Definitly, loads of quests I wouldn’t have been able to do without a guild, and when its a slow day the guild can make it fun. If I was all alone with no communication I think I would have quit many MMOs because it got really boring.
6. A bit too much, you can’t raid really without a guild with you and sometimes a lot of guild members are offline so I think it should be easier on random groups.
7. Many groups went to our guild house for the house warming, and we had a great hideand seek game, we had a great chat about random stuff, and i even had a talk with a nice lady friend 🙂