Journeys with Jaye

What *is* a Guild?

Ask an MMO player what they think of when you say the word “guild.”

The common image is that it’s militaristic -  a highly structured organization, draconian by-laws, rigorous recruitment process, and high demands.

It can be!

The somewhat less intense analogy is the sports team.  The coach (guildleader) motivates.  Raids are games, where players hone skills and have chalk talk the following day with parse analysis.  Guildies are passionate players, proud of their team, love to trash talk other guilds, show highlight reels through machinima, zonewide guild shouts.  There still exists a demand though, that isn’t always realistic to expect.

Above:  Forming up for a relay race during our recent guild birthday celebration.  Centaur illusion was a requirement.  Cheesy 80′s headbands were not.

A third, and greatly overlooked, analogy is the guild as chess club.  Players share common interest, but not required to sweat blood for their guild.  People come and go as their play schedule, and their desire, allows.  There are some basic minimal expectations (don’t be a ninja raider), but you don’t always have to do what the pack does.

Yes, guilds are organizations that have websites, attendance policies, dkp trackers, ranks, and recruiting red tape.

But only a few guilds fit that description these days.

You, yes you, the one that plays with a set group of friends once a week – you’re a guild.  What is your MMO doing for you?

You, over there, with the lean and mean 7 person regime?  You may not have enough to raid endgame content, but you’re a guild.  What is your MMO doing for you?

And you, the one with the 200 person juggernaut, filled with lots of friendly people who like to play but approach it as a game, rather than a lifestyle.  You’re a guild.  What is your MMO doing for you?

I feel like MMOs have been notoriously negligent of the needs of guilds and social networks in their games.  That’s a shame, because guilds and games want the same thing – they want loyal players and they want them to stick around.  10 years later, though, MMOs haven’t adapted, and as a result, guilds are forced to style themselves around the sometimes unrealistic demands of the games they play.

Think about how MMOs affect guild behavior.  Game design drives how much time a guild member plays, and they affect a player’s choice to take an extended break.  They affect class choice.  They affect distribution of resources.  They affect the sizes of the guilds themselves.

Many players resent guilds, to the point that they have taken a sworn oath never to join one again.  Guilds respond by flipping off those players, and dismissing them as greedy, antisocial players, who are to blame for the emphasis on solo play in MMOs, and thus the decline of Western Civilization as we know it.

They’re both right, but their attention should be on changing their games, and not each other.

Posted by jayernh under Uncategorized | Comments (3)