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On This Day In Gaming History...
| 2001, GameRifts.com (Hey that's us!) launches! |
| 2001, Vivendi Universal announces they will publish Dark Age of Camelot. |
| 2003, Another hit to the Shadowbane game by Ubi when "The Covenant of Swords" guild announces they are departing the game due to numerous game issues. |
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Special Sections: Shadowbane Related
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Guild Management: Chapter 5 - Faust (05-07-01)
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This is the fifth installment to Faust's series titled "Guild Management!" Be sure to read part one and two of "Guild Management!", part three discussing "Success and Longevity" and part four on ">1 GM = Bad".
On Guild Management
By Faust
Chapter 5 - Win & Spin
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So, you've got a big guild of skilled members, each are wearing the latest fashions in Uber-gear. nobody touches your "turf" without getting the beat down. You're members are all great friends and have a blast together... but something is missing. People don't shiver when you walk by. Nobody seems to know who you are. You haven't seen an application for membership cross your desk in six months. The guys over at SBVault don't give you top billing as the Best in the Business... and you notice they are spending a lot of hooplah on a guild with 10 active members and no visible presence in an online game. What's up? You're technically a "successful" guild but it doesn't get out to the public and you don't get that feeling of Uberness you always felt you deserve.
You've got a Marketing Problem. You feel you need some PR. You send out an occasional "news item" like an online wedding or a Newbie raid or something... but it doesn't seem to get you much. When your name comes up on message boards the other guilds hammer you and call you a bunch of Newbies. They crow so loudly that others start to chime in with the chest pounding and the insults. Some of your members get upset and start flaming back. Now you have a verbal war in the enemy's home turf. Most "bad-ass" PvP guilds are best known for their efforts OUTSIDE the game... posting insults is a form of PvP believe it or not. Their exploits in the game might cause temporary setbacks but the injuries are minor compared to the insult outside the game and in the hearts and minds of your members. Now your fighting guys who have spent years thrashing others verbally. They twist every word into something to make them look good, and you look bad, even if they were clearly beaten at something. Even if they are out and out lying! If the verbal bashing gets to you or your members... perhaps you ARE a newbie of sorts, eh?
To some extent, a guilds success is based on an ability to Win and to Spin. Each guild determines its own goals and themes but in the public eye your success is often measured by how loudly you crow about it. Some groups simply want to make fools out of everyone but themselves and they often call themselves "evil". (In fact, off the top of my head, I can't remember too many guilds that were "good" but talked a lot of trash with the possible exception of The Regulators who are 404 at the moment or the Soldier of Light who have come and gone a couple times.) The realities of life are this... you can't win a war on the Message Boards (I can't anyway). There will always be someone with more talent at spinning the truth or fabricating reality and god help you if you make a mistake or two over time. These guys pick their battles and don't often accept a challenge unless they are assured victory... ala its rarely an even fight.
I've noticed over the past two years that EverQuest Based guilds seem to spend a lot more time in the game than on the boards bashing each other. I think this is good in a way. It shows that people are starting to spend more time trying to "Win" than "Spin". In sharp contrast, in the old days of NeverWinter we spent very little time actually in the game and more time bashing each other on the boards. Perhaps that's an improvement. ...then again, with no PvP or "Evil PvP'rs" in Everquest (for the most part)... why bother? Maybe it's a bad sign ::shrug::
There's good news, however. The groups that have entered the "legendary" category and get the press can be lumped into in two general flavors: Those that overcome their enemies (Win) and those that flame their enemies (Spin). Its my opinion that the first groups "enemies" are mostly internal organizational challenges over several years. the second are groups made very tight because they have made a lot of enemies and will get pounced on if found unprepared. Most of Wolfpacks noted examples of guilds demonstrated on their interactive map are either very big "good" groups or very small "evil" groups, at least.
That's not to say that Winners don't spin and spinners don't win. The successful guild that overcomes its internal issues has to keep its members happy and proud to be members. A successful raid, even if it's a moderate victory mush be lauded as a significant achievement even if the victory is "we all had fun!" Further, trash talking PK's who get their asses handed to them every time they walk out to the Arena aren't going to be taken very seriously.
Consider all the thousands of people who play online games and are members of "successful guilds" who are quiet and happily playing their games without press releases and hullabaloo. Then consider the combined total membership of the most notorious trash talking guilds. The question is, are the notorious PK's notorious because they are so elite? Or are they notorious because they say they are louder and more often than anyone else? Now look at how many of the trash talkers currently "don't happen to be playing any game in particular at the moment". No game is good enough for them at the moment, I guess. More Spin than Win, in most cases. Yet they are considered elite PvP'rs. It's Curious.
I'm looking forward to Shadowbane where, we are told, large groups of organized people with a common enemy will emerge as the winners WITHIN THE GAME. Some groups are already generating Spin to downplay a potential inability to "Grief" others. I expect that, if this is the case, outside the game we will continue to hear from the Spinners and inside we'll know about Winners. It may not be easy to mesh the two with Spin. Either way, seeing the Trash Talkers when they are forced to merge their talents when faced with an overwhelming "good" enemy will be high comedy... or, perhaps, Shadowbane wont be good enough for them either.
Discuss: No boards for Spin Today.
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