June 24, 2010
Adam and I were back at it again, this time judging all the entries for the Fallen Earth contest that Adam hosted at Epic Slant. After that, we dove back into the mailbag, answering over a dozen great questions from listeners about a variety of guild issues.
A View From the Top – Episode 13
Questions included:
- How do you find a guild that fits your playstyle on a lower populated server?
- How do you deal with the stress of leading a guild, especially during guild formation?
- What do you do when you, as a leader, take a hiatus, and return to find that your officers did too good of a job? Is there a way to graciously step back into your old role?
- How should guild leaders, particularly of a hardcore guild, handle the issue sharing personal info? (phone numbers, acct info)
- How do you revamp a guild’s culture if it’s undesirable? (too many cliques, too much drama)
- What do you do when a key officer in your guild goes MIA?
- How should a guild handle low morale from members joining and then leaving after getting big upgrades. How do you deal with the added frustration of being left out of the larger alliance raids as a result?
Got a guild issue that’s driving you up a wall? We welcome any of your guild-related questions. You can contact us at viewfromthetop@vagary.tv.
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June 22, 2010
THIS IS AN ENTRY TO A SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT SPONSORED CONTEST.
This is a true story (true story!) of a ranger.
Who started a guild with a few friends.
To work together and have their lives screenshotted.
To find out what happens
When people stop playing solo
and start getting virtual.
About 10 years ago, on a little hill in Lesser Faydark, I decided I wanted to do more than just run around lost and kill orcs by myself. Along with Troval, I started up a guild, called Revelry and Honor. Little did I know, I had chosen a path that would connect me with hundreds of people from around the world, and take us all on adventures through several worlds.
I’ve met moms, dads, and their kids. I’ve met truck drivers, military heroes, doctors, lawyers, and even belly dancers. I’ve seen children grow to be adults, I’ve celebrated friendships that turned to marriage, and I mourned two who were gone way before their time. From New York to Denmark, people came to play in Revelry and Honor, and we had fun.
Along the way, I’ve played Everquest, Everquest II, Vanguard, and Free Realms, and have reached the level cap in all of them. I’ve seen and done a lot in these games, but what I’ve never done is attend a Fan Faire. This year will be my first, and I’ll be meeting several guildmates, bloggers, and podcasters that I’ve met along the way. I would love to share my experiences with others, and hope to be selected as a Backstage Blogger.
THIS IS AN ENTRY TO A SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT SPONSORED CONTEST.
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June 15, 2010
It took me a while, but I finally cinched up my sword belt, tightened the chin strap on my helmet, and waged war in Everquest 2′s Battlegrounds. It was time to teach those gankers and griefers a lesson!
Above: Battlefield of Ganak, fighting off an invasion.
Ok, I’m not exactly what you’d call a hardcore PvPr. Lucky for me, the RnHrs overlook that, and we’ve had a few nights of guild groups in the 6 and 12 man instances. Not too many in the guild are really gung ho PvPrs, but that’s not surprising considering we’re on a blue server. What’s interesting, though, is that almost everyone who’s tried BGs on our guild nights has seemed to really enjoy it, and we’ve run with BG vets and complete greenies like me. I figured I’d share a few impressions of Battlegrounds, now that I’ve finally had a real taste of what it’s like.
First off, I have to admit that I almost walked away from Battlegrounds completely after the first one. The reason was because the first time you zone in, you have to select your UI, since the BG zones are on a different server. You only have a few seconds to do this though, and since I wasn’t ready for it, I ended up choosing a different UI setting than my custom Profit UI settings that I am used to. Just like that, all keys were borked. I couldn’t move, couldn’t target, couldn’t attack, and worst of all, couldn’t talk. When I tried getting the UI load window up, I still couldn’t get the right setting that I use on Guk. So I spent the entire time sifting through options and manually fixing them. The cherry on top of this craptastic sundae is that we ran the 6 man with one PUGger, and when he noticed that I wasn’t moving or talking, he started lobbying my group to vote me /afk, which is the in game feature to punish botters. At that point, it was actually a good thing that I couldn’t speak in group.
I got to relive this wonderful experience a few nights later, when my husband tried Battlegrounds and had the same thing happen to him. I’m happy to report, though, that both of us survived, and are well into our honeymoon phase of the BG relationship. My husband is even more into it than I am, and might be competing with Grandpop for the title of Biggest BGr in RnH.
Above: Defending the flag in Ganak. Don’t be fooled by the dimunitive gnome. That’s Grandpop, and he’s absolutely terrifying in combat. The green mushroom’d Sarnak is Orko. He updated his wardrobe from the pink bunny look.
Overall, I am having a lot of fun. I know there have been some enormous roadbumps along the way, but if you step back and look at the enormity of the task – fitting a block of PvP into a wall of PvE, it seems to be working out pretty well now.
There are a few things that I’d like to see. The first is some sort of mercy rule, to speed up the lopsided battles. You can usually tell in the first minute whether it’s going to be a real fight or not, and when it’s not, it becomes a sad sight to watch the other side getting steamrolled.
I’d also like to see Gears of Klak’anon go back to the way it was, where the relic drops at the spot where the carrier dies. Right now, it spawns in the center every time, so it just becomes a big scrum, where everyone plunks themselves down in the middle and camps the relic spot. I really enjoyed the hide and seek aspect of Gears, but that’s gone right now, and I’d like to see it return.
Lastly, I do hope the devs are watching class balance and gear very closely. There are still classes that are much stronger than others, and I think the problem is becoming exacerbated by the new gear sets. The difference between the geared up BG grinders and the more casual BGrs is very noticable, and in the past few weeks, it does seem like we’re facing fewer and fewer PUGs. Last week, it seemed we saw the same people over and over on our BG night, and I hope that doesn’t mean that the more casual BGrs are being driven away by gear imparity. It’s funny, because there’s always a ton of concern about making sure that battleground gear doesn’t outdo PvE gear, but people rarely consider the flip side. Shouldn’t hard earned raid gear provide a little more survivability in a BG than it does now? I’ll leave that migraine inducer to the devs!
If you’re someone that’s interested in some low key, fairly casual BG’ing on the Guk server, look us up! Revelry and Honor does Battlegrounds every Tuesday night, starting at 8:30 EST. We’ve usually had enough for the 12 man, but with a few more, we can queue ourselves up for Smuggler’s Den. Send a tell to Riske (me) or Orko for an invite!
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