There's a whole lot of assumptions floating about in this post. Let me point a few out.
1. Large Guilds Can Take Over The World. Watching DocGotGame's Interview Intrepid talks about how this wont be possible as there is no fast travel to allow a zerg to quickly move. If a mega-blog guild is on the east side of the map, they wont have time to respond to attacks on their west side territories. Their game mechanic is set up with NO fast travel, which means blobs need to mobilize and a lot of the time fights will be over before they can respond. In Warhammer Online we used this to our advantage when our forces were outnumbered and outgunned. We'd split into little groups of players and spread out across the maps hitting targets pulling the blob where we wanted them to be then hitting targets the furthest run away. It's highly effective and a large blob is not going to have the ability to just appear on the battlefield. They must ride via mount all the way across the land and be subject to other things slowing them down.
2. Preventing Large Guilds Prevents Blobs - As one of the most well known PUGmancers out there, I can tell you in almost every group I lead, 10-15 players are Gaiscioch and 50+ are not. The majority of my warforce since DAOC has always been made up of public militia. Regardless of how you split guilds up this will not stop people from flocking to capable leaders on the battlefield that are open for public militia. Guild size has nothing to do with blob size.
3. 500 Player Guilds Have 500 Players online. In the case of Gaiscioch in Guild Wars 2 we rotate our 500 person roster with the most active players in the community. 490 accounts are in at all times, people who go afk get rotated out as people who return from afk get invited. Every single player in the roster has played in the past 7 days. That said. Our community is Global. We have members in 67 nations across all times zones. Built on Casuals our average player spends less than 10 hours in game per week. Throughout the day you usually will find 30-45 people online. But this doesn't mean it's the same 30-45 people. Each of the 490 players actively in the roster plays at some point for a few hours here and a few hours there based on how much time real life allows. The assumption that 30-45 players are all who plays is false. Our roster is active 24/7. There is no peak time. This spreads out the 490 casual players across 24 hours and 7 days a week.
4. "A selfish request for your massive community" - My community is large yes, but we are built on casual players. The question I have for you is why, just because someone is part of a large guild, should their opinion not matter. If we have 500 players who want to subscribe to Ashes of Creation, why should their voices not be heard? What changes from a player who is by themselves with no guild, to a player who is part of a guild that makes their opinion null and void? This isn't 1 guild being selfish this is 500 players that want to play together who have been playing together for 16 years. We too look forward to Ashes of Creation, but what your saying is that 500 voices are not worth listening to because their linked by a community. We want to play this game the same way you do. If Ashes of Creation allows us to play together we will be a community that fights their ass off to better the game world for everyone.
Our focus has been and always will be on nurturing healthy game communities. Helping new players, providing fun events for all to enjoy, and providing players with guides and content for the game. We're not some mega-guild that wants to rule everything. We want to serve everyone. We plan to help others who need assistance. Ruling isn't in our plan.
So if you consider Gaiscioch selfish you really should google us. We've devoted 16 years to giving away the best loot in the game, supporting children's charities and helping games like Ashes of Creation. get crowdfunded. Over the history of our community I have always put others before myself. All I want is to be able to entertain a server community and bring laughter and fun times to the game. I don't want to have to tell my friends they can't come along because guild systems are too small. If that's selfish then I guess i'm selfish.
In Closing The amount of salt you guys are displaying this early in the game is amazing. I can only imagine what it's going to be like at launch. If this game does become a suitable home for us, we will have our work cut out for us. I'm sorry you guys have been traumatized by large guilds in the past. We're not all that way. Please don't put in the same bucket as other large guilds. We literally grew large by snowballing over the course of 16 years. But our members all are nurturing type players that look out for others and help out those in need. We're not looking for power, were looking for a place we can lend a helping hand.
I could go into full rebuttal mode on almost every bit of this. It really doesn't matter, though. You and your 'community' won't change your minds. The vast majority of us will not change ours. It's much like politics. It doesn't matter what type of valid points are thrown from each side. Very few are going to be swayed. I'm not sure where you're getting 'salt' from, either. As very few people have been blatantly rude. If you want to refer to debating pros and cons as salt, well...that's kind of telling already.
Megaguilds of 1700+ on a 10,000k server would disrupt the balance-fast travel or not. Especially, combined with alliances. It would be quite easy to control and dominate vast amounts of resources without the need for travel at all. You know it, I know it. Pretty much everyone knows it. All in all, this isn't just about your 'community'. Simply because YOUR community is supposedly just out to help everyone and the server-this does not negate the fact that it also enables permissions to other megaguilds forming. Which, indeed, they will if given the ability. Are they all going to be friendly and helpful? I dare say not. Therefore, the point is moot.
In DAOC we were 400, In Warhammer we grew to 750, in RIFT we grew to over 5,000 (until storm legion drove 80% away from the game), in Guild Wars 2 we hit the shore at 2700 but dropped to about 700 active players within 6 months because of the guild limits, in ESO we hit the shores with 1700 and dropped to 300 within 6 months because of the same guild size issue. The drops weren't people leaving the guild, they were people leaving the game. We have a tracking system in place on our website that we track afk removals from the game differently than someone leaving the guild on their own accord. These were dead accounts that we removed. Today our total membership exceeds 7500 players of which 1,600 are still actively playing and interacting with us over the course of 14 days in one of our chapters.
Snowballing refers to starting off small and gathering people along the way. We never intended to be a big guild, we just looked out for people and people flocked to us. Over the year's weve had members join, go afk (a lot of soldiers were deployed), come back years later and play again. We've got a simple philosophy. Once family always family. People can go dormant for years at a time and come back and resume right where they left off.
I'm more of a solo player so idk much about big guilds and stuff like that so don't mind little old me. I would think about whether or not ALL 500 people can/want to buy the monthly subscription. If they do, then just make two guilds in game and form an alliance?
I agree, this could be a viable option, to allow guilds to form an alliance and merge. This will allow all merged guilds to use a special alliance chat alongside their own guild chat. No different than real life politics or countries!
I'm actually more curious about small guilds and what will be offered to them. When I join MMOs, it tends to be with the same small group of 6-10 people yet the systems always favor the triple digit plus size guilds in terms of rewards. We have all joined bigger guilds for the benefits but it just isn't the same as carving your name into the world as a smaller group. Another fun reason for alliances--keep your small guild but band with others for larger goals.
I think the one major thing people are forgetting is that there is one thing that mirrors real life in every MMO: Not everybody is going to get to experience everything. And not everyone is going to experience it the same way.
Now, that being said, Smaller guilds can't realistically expect to experience the power and prestige of a large guild. Just because people in a smaller guild don't want to be part of a larger guild, don't hate on those that do. If you want that castle, but your a small guild of casual players, then I'm sorry. In terms of taking a castle, it would be months, and in some cases years before a casual guild would be on par where a hardcore guild was months before, even against a hardcore guild of the same size. Time played = gear, experience, higher level or reward faster.
I have nothing against casual players, for the most part, I am one, but when you want to experience as much as possible of a game, you have to set life aside for a little while and really put in the effort in game. Then once you've done what you wanted, seen what you wanted to see, then evaluate your play time/family time, and go back to the casual play style.
It's interesting, though, because the smaller guilds have paths to power that the larger guilds don't have access to.
The smaller guilds can have prestige - it will be different than the larger guilds. Likely they won't be in competition for the same prestige because their paths to power are different.
In Ashes, no one will get to achieve everything because it's a dynamic world rather than a static one. Casual challenge folk typically aren't interested in achieving everything. I dunno, some hardcore challenge/casual time folk may still be striving to achieve everything while they're in transition from being hardcore challenge/hardcore time. They will adjust in time.
I completely agree the widespread use of blobs in MMOs is a bit out of place. In the case i used it i attempted to use a commonly used word i thought you might be familiar with. Perhaps the games youve played do not line up with with the ones weve played.
Zerg is the more common term which got rebranded as blob to be cooler apparently. In all honesty though. People fling both words around to explain ANY warforce bigger than their own. Any time they get beat they say they zerged us or they blobbed us. Think most of the new mmo blood doesnt even know where the term zerg came from.
Point is you can take away guilds completely but that wont solve the issue of people flocking to victory. People want to be on the winning team and they will flock to each other to be winners. Nobody (except for dark souls fans) enjoys loosing. As a pugmander i can tell you ive lead giant warforces and its never been just my people. Its always been largely made up of public militia. My people are there to help herd the cats.
I completely agree the widespread use of blobs in MMOs is a bit out of place. In the case i used it i attempted to use a commonly used word i thought you might be familiar with. Perhaps the games youve played do not line up with with the ones weve played.
Zerg is the more common term which got rebranded as blob to be cooler apparently. In all honesty though. People fling both words around to explain ANY warforce bigger than their own. Any time they get beat they say they zerged us or they blobbed us. Think most of the new mmo blood doesnt even know where the term zerg came from.
While I don't really like the term Blob, it does have a slightly different meaning than Zerg. This is how I read it:
Blob means attack by numbers. Eg: 1000 x level 1s vs a level 20
Zerg means attack by overwhelming power. Eg: 2 massively geared level 5s vs level 10.
I completely agree the widespread use of blobs in MMOs is a bit out of place. In the case i used it i attempted to use a commonly used word i thought you might be familiar with. Perhaps the games youve played do not line up with with the ones weve played.
Zerg is the more common term which got rebranded as blob to be cooler apparently. In all honesty though. People fling both words around to explain ANY warforce bigger than their own. Any time they get beat they say they zerged us or they blobbed us. Think most of the new mmo blood doesnt even know where the term zerg came from.
While I don't really like the term Blob, it does have a slightly different meaning than Zerg. This is how I read it:
Blob means attack by numbers. Eg: 1000 x level 1s vs a level 20
Zerg means attack by overwhelming power. Eg: 2 massively geared level 5s vs level 10.
Technically a Zerg is overwhelming by numbers. This is a Starcraft reference of a race that literally overwhelms you with bazillions of insignificant soldiers. Zerg Swarms were often 100 vs 1 style fights. See: http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Zerg It was originally the widely popular term in games like DAOC or WAR to refer to a massive group of the opposing side.
Over the past 4 years we've seen a major movement to shrink guild sizes. Let's take a brief look at a few of the games limited guilds to less than 100 players at launch.
Blade & Soul limits guilds to 50
Black Desert limits to 100
ArcheAge limits to 100
Age of Conan limits to 100
Devilian limits to 95
Aion at launch only supported 90 characters
Skyforge begins with a 30 person limit and requires grinding to raise that up to 250
What do all these games have in common? They all experienced massive reduction in player base shortly after launch. Could it be that players would rather not play a game that doesn't allow casual players to belong? Now let's compare that to titles that don't limit guilds to less than 100 players:
EVE limits 12,600 Accounts
Everquest 1 & 2 do not limit
RIFT does not limit
Ultima Online does not limit
World of Warcraft limits to 1000 characters
All of these titles have crossed the 5 year mark, some even the decade mark. All of them are still profitable and active.
However, it has made the assumption that there is a direct relationship to guild size and success of the game. That is up for debate.
Over the past 4 years we've seen a major movement to shrink guild sizes. Let's take a brief look at a few of the games limited guilds to less than 100 players at launch.
Blade & Soul limits guilds to 50
Black Desert limits to 100
ArcheAge limits to 100
Age of Conan limits to 100
Devilian limits to 95
Aion at launch only supported 90 characters
Skyforge begins with a 30 person limit and requires grinding to raise that up to 250
What do all these games have in common? They all experienced massive reduction in player base shortly after launch. Could it be that players would rather not play a game that doesn't allow casual players to belong? Now let's compare that to titles that don't limit guilds to less than 100 players:
EVE limits 12,600 Accounts
Everquest 1 & 2 do not limit
RIFT does not limit
Ultima Online does not limit
World of Warcraft limits to 1000 characters
All of these titles have crossed the 5 year mark, some even the decade mark. All of them are still profitable and active.
However, it has made the assumption that there is a direct relationship to guild size and success of the game. That is up for debate.
Over the past 4 years we've seen a major movement to shrink guild sizes. Let's take a brief look at a few of the games limited guilds to less than 100 players at launch.
Blade & Soul limits guilds to 50
Black Desert limits to 100
ArcheAge limits to 100
Age of Conan limits to 100
Devilian limits to 95
Aion at launch only supported 90 characters
Skyforge begins with a 30 person limit and requires grinding to raise that up to 250
What do all these games have in common? They all experienced massive reduction in player base shortly after launch. Could it be that players would rather not play a game that doesn't allow casual players to belong? Now let's compare that to titles that don't limit guilds to less than 100 players:
EVE limits 12,600 Accounts
Everquest 1 & 2 do not limit
RIFT does not limit
Ultima Online does not limit
World of Warcraft limits to 1000 characters
All of these titles have crossed the 5 year mark, some even the decade mark. All of them are still profitable and active.
However, it has made the assumption that there is a direct relationship to guild size and success of the game. That is up for debate.
Over the past 4 years we've seen a major movement to shrink guild sizes. Let's take a brief look at a few of the games limited guilds to less than 100 players at launch.
Blade & Soul limits guilds to 50
Black Desert limits to 100
ArcheAge limits to 100
Age of Conan limits to 100
Devilian limits to 95
Aion at launch only supported 90 characters
Skyforge begins with a 30 person limit and requires grinding to raise that up to 250
What do all these games have in common? They all experienced massive reduction in player base shortly after launch. Could it be that players would rather not play a game that doesn't allow casual players to belong? Now let's compare that to titles that don't limit guilds to less than 100 players:
EVE limits 12,600 Accounts
Everquest 1 & 2 do not limit
RIFT does not limit
Ultima Online does not limit
World of Warcraft limits to 1000 characters
All of these titles have crossed the 5 year mark, some even the decade mark. All of them are still profitable and active.
However, it has made the assumption that there is a direct relationship to guild size and success of the game. That is up for debate.
I don't mean this in a negative way, but I'm wondering how many people who're agreeing are from the Gaiscioch community. If they not, then I'm pretty surprised at how many people seem to like the idea of Mega guilds.
Haha, I personally always thought casuals just joined guilds for various reasons, like fun people, having players to around to help, guild that provide free items, guilds where their friends are at, guild size, chances to meet familiar faces and friends (which having "smaller" guilds does help).
It's pretty strange to me to say that limiting guilds to a paltry 300 hurts casuals but I do speak from a position of someone never being in a guild that's been more than 80, so perhaps you guys have some magic formula going. Are mega-guilds with 800+ casuals common? Haha, wouldn't it be more efficient casuals just aim to join a guild with active gaming hours that matches them?
From what I have seen, minus 1 or 2...almost everyone agreeing with this is from the community and made their accounts today.
I'd have to agree with that... I rarely see mega-guilds unless it's some Korean raid/PvP swarm fest MMO. Even then their not that common and typically split into subsections that do their own thing. The last major one I saw actually got disbanded forcefully by the devs because they caused major issues and were "trading" PvP wins for gains.
Well, I'm from the community. I can say we've been following AoC development closely for some time, with many of us kickstarting the project. It's not because we don't make a lot of noise that we don't have a lot of interest in the game development. Now, at the first stages of game development it was stated that guild caps would be 500+. Even though the game seems incredible so far, it was that fact alone that made many of us support the project. The fact that we would be able to play the game as the community we are, all carrying the banner of the same guild, a thing we have been prevented from doing more times than we'd like to count, in games past.
Yes, we do have numbers and statistics to show about the benefits of no caps. But reducing the previously announced 500 cap hurts us at the core of the community.
Oh and no, with all due respect for serious Korean players, we don't abide to the same code, or lack of one, of mercenary guilds, Korean or otherwise.
I'm having trouble seeing where a guild cap will remedy an issue of a monopoly. They can easily work around that and take care of each other as if they were still one warband; the "You mess with one you mess with them all" sort of thing.
In the case of Gaiscioch, we're the entity that will be there to provide help for the smaller guys who need it when they're pushed by the wicked monopolizers. We have tons of people in our family from all over the world. I would estimate we might have up to 200 players online at one given time during the launch. After 5 months I would be surprised if you see more than 50% of that online at a time, but you would see a decent population of online members throughout the entire day. We're big, but we're spread out over all time zones. That's what we mean by a home for the casual. You don't have to worry if your work schedule changes or whatever comes up, there's always people on to play with when you log on.
If you are interested, please visit our Guild Recruitment Ad on this forum, or visit us at our Website and have a look around. You're cordially invited to join if interested =D.
I'm having trouble seeing where a guild cap will remedy an issue of a monopoly. They can easily work around that and take care of each other as if they were still one warband; the "You mess with one you mess with them all" sort of thing.
In the case of Gaiscioch, we're the entity that will be there to provide help for the smaller guys who need it when they're pushed by the wicked monopolizers. We have tons of people in our family from all over the world. I would estimate we might have up to 200 players online at one given time during the launch. After 5 months I would be surprised if you see more than 50% of that online at a time, but you would see a decent population of online members throughout the entire day. We're big, but we're spread out over all time zones. That's what we mean by a home for the casual. You don't have to worry if your work schedule changes or whatever comes up, there's always people on to play with when you log on.
If you are interested, please visit our Guild Recruitment Ad on this forum, or visit us at our Website and have a look around. You're cordially invited to join if interested =D.
I'm having trouble seeing where a guild cap will remedy an issue of a monopoly. They can easily work around that and take care of each other as if they were still one warband; the "You mess with one you mess with them all" sort of thing.
In the case of Gaiscioch, we're the entity that will be there to provide help for the smaller guys who need it when they're pushed by the wicked monopolizers. We have tons of people in our family from all over the world. I would estimate we might have up to 200 players online at one given time during the launch. After 5 months I would be surprised if you see more than 50% of that online at a time, but you would see a decent population of online members throughout the entire day. We're big, but we're spread out over all time zones. That's what we mean by a home for the casual. You don't have to worry if your work schedule changes or whatever comes up, there's always people on to play with when you log on.
If you are interested, please visit our Guild Recruitment Ad on this forum, or visit us at our Website and have a look around. You're cordially invited to join if interested =D.
I'm having trouble seeing where a guild cap will remedy an issue of a monopoly. They can easily work around that and take care of each other as if they were still one warband; the "You mess with one you mess with them all" sort of thing.
In the case of Gaiscioch, we're the entity that will be there to provide help for the smaller guys who need it when they're pushed by the wicked monopolizers. We have tons of people in our family from all over the world. I would estimate we might have up to 200 players online at one given time during the launch. After 5 months I would be surprised if you see more than 50% of that online at a time, but you would see a decent population of online members throughout the entire day. We're big, but we're spread out over all time zones. That's what we mean by a home for the casual. You don't have to worry if your work schedule changes or whatever comes up, there's always people on to play with when you log on.
If you are interested, please visit our Guild Recruitment Ad on this forum, or visit us at our Website and have a look around. You're cordially invited to join if interested =D.
I don't mean this in a negative way, but I'm wondering how many people who're agreeing are from the Gaiscioch community. If they not, then I'm pretty surprised at how many people seem to like the idea of Mega guilds.
Haha, I personally always thought casuals just joined guilds for various reasons, like fun people, having players to around to help, guild that provide free items, guilds where their friends are at, guild size, chances to meet familiar faces and friends (which having "smaller" guilds does help).
It's pretty strange to me to say that limiting guilds to a paltry 300 hurts casuals but I do speak from a position of someone never being in a guild that's been more than 80, so perhaps you guys have some magic formula going. Are mega-guilds with 800+ casuals common? Haha, wouldn't it be more efficient casuals just aim to join a guild with active gaming hours that matches them?
From what I have seen, minus 1 or 2...almost everyone agreeing with this is from the community and made their accounts today.
I'd have to agree with that... I rarely see mega-guilds unless it's some Korean raid/PvP swarm fest MMO. Even then their not that common and typically split into subsections that do their own thing. The last major one I saw actually got disbanded forcefully by the devs because they caused major issues and were "trading" PvP wins for gains.
Well, I'm from the community. I can say we've been following AoC development closely for some time, with many of us kickstarting the project. It's not because we don't make a lot of noise that we don't have a lot of interest in the game development. Now, at the first stages of game development it was stated that guild caps would be 500+. Even though the game seems incredible so far, it was that fact alone that made many of us support the project. The fact that we would be able to play the game as the community we are, all carrying the banner of the same guild, a thing we have been prevented from doing more times than we'd like to count, in games past.
Yes, we do have numbers and statistics to show about the benefits of no caps. But reducing the previously announced 500 cap hurts us at the core of the community.
Oh and no, with all due respect for serious Korean players, we don't abide to the same code, or lack of one, of mercenary guilds, Korean or otherwise.
I'm having trouble seeing where a guild cap will remedy an issue of a monopoly. They can easily work around that and take care of each other as if they were still one warband; the "You mess with one you mess with them all" sort of thing.
In the case of Gaiscioch, we're the entity that will be there to provide help for the smaller guys who need it when they're pushed by the wicked monopolizers. We have tons of people in our family from all over the world. I would estimate we might have up to 200 players online at one given time during the launch. After 5 months I would be surprised if you see more than 50% of that online at a time, but you would see a decent population of online members throughout the entire day. We're big, but we're spread out over all time zones. That's what we mean by a home for the casual. You don't have to worry if your work schedule changes or whatever comes up, there's always people on to play with when you log on.
If you are interested, please visit our Guild Recruitment Ad on this forum, or visit us at our Website and have a look around. You're cordially invited to join if interested =D.
I'm having trouble seeing where a guild cap will remedy an issue of a monopoly. They can easily work around that and take care of each other as if they were still one warband; the "You mess with one you mess with them all" sort of thing.
In the case of Gaiscioch, we're the entity that will be there to provide help for the smaller guys who need it when they're pushed by the wicked monopolizers. We have tons of people in our family from all over the world. I would estimate we might have up to 200 players online at one given time during the launch. After 5 months I would be surprised if you see more than 50% of that online at a time, but you would see a decent population of online members throughout the entire day. We're big, but we're spread out over all time zones. That's what we mean by a home for the casual. You don't have to worry if your work schedule changes or whatever comes up, there's always people on to play with when you log on.
If you are interested, please visit our Guild Recruitment Ad on this forum, or visit us at our Website and have a look around. You're cordially invited to join if interested =D.
I'm having trouble seeing where a guild cap will remedy an issue of a monopoly. They can easily work around that and take care of each other as if they were still one warband; the "You mess with one you mess with them all" sort of thing.
In the case of Gaiscioch, we're the entity that will be there to provide help for the smaller guys who need it when they're pushed by the wicked monopolizers. We have tons of people in our family from all over the world. I would estimate we might have up to 200 players online at one given time during the launch. After 5 months I would be surprised if you see more than 50% of that online at a time, but you would see a decent population of online members throughout the entire day. We're big, but we're spread out over all time zones. That's what we mean by a home for the casual. You don't have to worry if your work schedule changes or whatever comes up, there's always people on to play with when you log on.
If you are interested, please visit our Guild Recruitment Ad on this forum, or visit us at our Website and have a look around. You're cordially invited to join if interested =D.
I'm having trouble seeing where a guild cap will remedy an issue of a monopoly. They can easily work around that and take care of each other as if they were still one warband; the "You mess with one you mess with them all" sort of thing.
In the case of Gaiscioch, we're the entity that will be there to provide help for the smaller guys who need it when they're pushed by the wicked monopolizers. We have tons of people in our family from all over the world. I would estimate we might have up to 200 players online at one given time during the launch. After 5 months I would be surprised if you see more than 50% of that online at a time, but you would see a decent population of online members throughout the entire day. We're big, but we're spread out over all time zones. That's what we mean by a home for the casual. You don't have to worry if your work schedule changes or whatever comes up, there's always people on to play with when you log on.
If you are interested, please visit our Guild Recruitment Ad on this forum, or visit us at our Website and have a look around. You're cordially invited to join if interested =D.
Your argument is that because you have a big community of older casual gamers and this game is probably targeted at older gamers then this game should cater to your community. Your argument is flawed because what you should really be trying to prove is that the majority of gamers are in large communities.
Not all casual gamers belong to large gaming communities. The cap is there because most people aren't part of communities and large guilds(like yours) create a unfun, zergy environment for the rest of the player base. If everyone were part of a big community then it would be fine to raise the cap because everyone would be a part of a blob.
Comments
Megaguilds of 1700+ on a 10,000k server would disrupt the balance-fast travel or not. Especially, combined with alliances. It would be quite easy to control and dominate vast amounts of resources without the need for travel at all. You know it, I know it. Pretty much everyone knows it. All in all, this isn't just about your 'community'. Simply because YOUR community is supposedly just out to help everyone and the server-this does not negate the fact that it also enables permissions to other megaguilds forming. Which, indeed, they will if given the ability. Are they all going to be friendly and helpful? I dare say not. Therefore, the point is moot.
Snowballing refers to starting off small and gathering people along the way. We never intended to be a big guild, we just looked out for people and people flocked to us. Over the year's weve had members join, go afk (a lot of soldiers were deployed), come back years later and play again. We've got a simple philosophy. Once family always family. People can go dormant for years at a time and come back and resume right where they left off.
I'm actually more curious about small guilds and what will be offered to them. When I join MMOs, it tends to be with the same small group of 6-10 people yet the systems always favor the triple digit plus size guilds in terms of rewards. We have all joined bigger guilds for the benefits but it just isn't the same as carving your name into the world as a smaller group. Another fun reason for alliances--keep your small guild but band with others for larger goals.
Now, that being said, Smaller guilds can't realistically expect to experience the power and prestige of a large guild. Just because people in a smaller guild don't want to be part of a larger guild, don't hate on those that do. If you want that castle, but your a small guild of casual players, then I'm sorry. In terms of taking a castle, it would be months, and in some cases years before a casual guild would be on par where a hardcore guild was months before, even against a hardcore guild of the same size. Time played = gear, experience, higher level or reward faster.
I have nothing against casual players, for the most part, I am one, but when you want to experience as much as possible of a game, you have to set life aside for a little while and really put in the effort in game. Then once you've done what you wanted, seen what you wanted to see, then evaluate your play time/family time, and go back to the casual play style.
The smaller guilds can have prestige - it will be different than the larger guilds.
Likely they won't be in competition for the same prestige because their paths to power are different.
In Ashes, no one will get to achieve everything because it's a dynamic world rather than a static one. Casual challenge folk typically aren't interested in achieving everything.
I dunno, some hardcore challenge/casual time folk may still be striving to achieve everything while they're in transition from being hardcore challenge/hardcore time.
They will adjust in time.
And while not particularly important to the discussion, aren't blobs supposed to be small @foghladha ? haha.
noun \ˈbläb\
play
Definition of blob
1a : a small drop or lump of something viscid or thickb : a daub or spot of color
2: something shapeless
EDIT:
hmm, it seems dictionary.com has a slightly different definition how confusing.
Autumn,
I completely agree the widespread use of blobs in MMOs is a bit out of place. In the case i used it i attempted to use a commonly used word i thought you might be familiar with. Perhaps the games youve played do not line up with with the ones weve played.
Zerg is the more common term which got rebranded as blob to be cooler apparently. In all honesty though. People fling both words around to explain ANY warforce bigger than their own. Any time they get beat they say they zerged us or they blobbed us. Think most of the new mmo blood doesnt even know where the term zerg came from.
Point is you can take away guilds completely but that wont solve the issue of people flocking to victory. People want to be on the winning team and they will flock to each other to be winners. Nobody (except for dark souls fans) enjoys loosing. As a pugmander i can tell you ive lead giant warforces and its never been just my people. Its always been largely made up of public militia. My people are there to help herd the cats.
http://magazine.gaiscioch.com/features/the_antisocial_epidemic.html
Over the past 4 years we've seen a major movement to shrink guild sizes. Let's take a brief look at a few of the games limited guilds to less than 100 players at launch.
What do all these games have in common? They all experienced massive reduction in player base shortly after launch. Could it be that players would rather not play a game that doesn't allow casual players to belong? Now let's compare that to titles that don't limit guilds to less than 100 players:
All of these titles have crossed the 5 year mark, some even the decade mark. All of them are still profitable and active.
However, it has made the assumption that there is a direct relationship to guild size and success of the game. That is up for debate.
Now, to see the sentiment vote here
http://https//forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/33675/what-should-be-the-maximum-number-of-guild-members
http://magazine.gaiscioch.com/features/the_antisocial_epidemic.html
Over the past 4 years we've seen a major movement to shrink guild sizes. Let's take a brief look at a few of the games limited guilds to less than 100 players at launch.
What do all these games have in common? They all experienced massive reduction in player base shortly after launch. Could it be that players would rather not play a game that doesn't allow casual players to belong? Now let's compare that to titles that don't limit guilds to less than 100 players:
All of these titles have crossed the 5 year mark, some even the decade mark. All of them are still profitable and active.
However, it has made the assumption that there is a direct relationship to guild size and success of the game. That is up for debate.
So to see what a wider sentiment is, vote here
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/33675/what-should-be-the-maximum-number-of-guild-members
http://magazine.gaiscioch.com/features/the_antisocial_epidemic.html
Over the past 4 years we've seen a major movement to shrink guild sizes. Let's take a brief look at a few of the games limited guilds to less than 100 players at launch.
What do all these games have in common? They all experienced massive reduction in player base shortly after launch. Could it be that players would rather not play a game that doesn't allow casual players to belong? Now let's compare that to titles that don't limit guilds to less than 100 players:
All of these titles have crossed the 5 year mark, some even the decade mark. All of them are still profitable and active.
However, it has made the assumption that there is a direct relationship to guild size and success of the game. That is up for debate.
Now, to see the sentiment vote here
http://https//forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/33675/what-should-be-the-maximum-number-of-guild-members
http://magazine.gaiscioch.com/features/the_antisocial_epidemic.html
Over the past 4 years we've seen a major movement to shrink guild sizes. Let's take a brief look at a few of the games limited guilds to less than 100 players at launch.
What do all these games have in common? They all experienced massive reduction in player base shortly after launch. Could it be that players would rather not play a game that doesn't allow casual players to belong? Now let's compare that to titles that don't limit guilds to less than 100 players:
All of these titles have crossed the 5 year mark, some even the decade mark. All of them are still profitable and active.
However, it has made the assumption that there is a direct relationship to guild size and success of the game. That is up for debate.
So to see what a wider sentiment is, vote here
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/33675/what-should-be-the-maximum-number-of-guild-members
Yes, we do have numbers and statistics to show about the benefits of no caps. But reducing the previously announced 500 cap hurts us at the core of the community.
Oh and no, with all due respect for serious Korean players, we don't abide to the same code, or lack of one, of mercenary guilds, Korean or otherwise.
I also didn't make my account today.
In the case of Gaiscioch, we're the entity that will be there to provide help for the smaller guys who need it when they're pushed by the wicked monopolizers. We have tons of people in our family from all over the world. I would estimate we might have up to 200 players online at one given time during the launch. After 5 months I would be surprised if you see more than 50% of that online at a time, but you would see a decent population of online members throughout the entire day. We're big, but we're spread out over all time zones. That's what we mean by a home for the casual. You don't have to worry if your work schedule changes or whatever comes up, there's always people on to play with when you log on.
If you are interested, please visit our Guild Recruitment Ad on this forum, or visit us at our Website and have a look around. You're cordially invited to join if interested =D.
Dharkon
In the case of Gaiscioch, we're the entity that will be there to provide help for the smaller guys who need it when they're pushed by the wicked monopolizers. We have tons of people in our family from all over the world. I would estimate we might have up to 200 players online at one given time during the launch. After 5 months I would be surprised if you see more than 50% of that online at a time, but you would see a decent population of online members throughout the entire day. We're big, but we're spread out over all time zones. That's what we mean by a home for the casual. You don't have to worry if your work schedule changes or whatever comes up, there's always people on to play with when you log on.
If you are interested, please visit our Guild Recruitment Ad on this forum, or visit us at our Website and have a look around. You're cordially invited to join if interested =D.
Dharkon
In the case of Gaiscioch, we're the entity that will be there to provide help for the smaller guys who need it when they're pushed by the wicked monopolizers. We have tons of people in our family from all over the world. I would estimate we might have up to 200 players online at one given time during the launch. After 5 months I would be surprised if you see more than 50% of that online at a time, but you would see a decent population of online members throughout the entire day. We're big, but we're spread out over all time zones. That's what we mean by a home for the casual. You don't have to worry if your work schedule changes or whatever comes up, there's always people on to play with when you log on.
If you are interested, please visit our Guild Recruitment Ad on this forum, or visit us at our Website and have a look around. You're cordially invited to join if interested =D.
Dharkon
In the case of Gaiscioch, we're the entity that will be there to provide help for the smaller guys who need it when they're pushed by the wicked monopolizers. We have tons of people in our family from all over the world. I would estimate we might have up to 200 players online at one given time during the launch. After 5 months I would be surprised if you see more than 50% of that online at a time, but you would see a decent population of online members throughout the entire day. We're big, but we're spread out over all time zones. That's what we mean by a home for the casual. You don't have to worry if your work schedule changes or whatever comes up, there's always people on to play with when you log on.
If you are interested, please visit our Guild Recruitment Ad on this forum, or visit us at our Website and have a look around. You're cordially invited to join if interested =D.
Dharkon
Yes, we do have numbers and statistics to show about the benefits of no caps. But reducing the previously announced 500 cap hurts us at the core of the community.
Oh and no, with all due respect for serious Korean players, we don't abide to the same code, or lack of one, of mercenary guilds, Korean or otherwise.
I also didn't make my account today.
In the case of Gaiscioch, we're the entity that will be there to provide help for the smaller guys who need it when they're pushed by the wicked monopolizers. We have tons of people in our family from all over the world. I would estimate we might have up to 200 players online at one given time during the launch. After 5 months I would be surprised if you see more than 50% of that online at a time, but you would see a decent population of online members throughout the entire day. We're big, but we're spread out over all time zones. That's what we mean by a home for the casual. You don't have to worry if your work schedule changes or whatever comes up, there's always people on to play with when you log on.
If you are interested, please visit our Guild Recruitment Ad on this forum, or visit us at our Website and have a look around. You're cordially invited to join if interested =D.
Dharkon
In the case of Gaiscioch, we're the entity that will be there to provide help for the smaller guys who need it when they're pushed by the wicked monopolizers. We have tons of people in our family from all over the world. I would estimate we might have up to 200 players online at one given time during the launch. After 5 months I would be surprised if you see more than 50% of that online at a time, but you would see a decent population of online members throughout the entire day. We're big, but we're spread out over all time zones. That's what we mean by a home for the casual. You don't have to worry if your work schedule changes or whatever comes up, there's always people on to play with when you log on.
If you are interested, please visit our Guild Recruitment Ad on this forum, or visit us at our Website and have a look around. You're cordially invited to join if interested =D.
Dharkon
In the case of Gaiscioch, we're the entity that will be there to provide help for the smaller guys who need it when they're pushed by the wicked monopolizers. We have tons of people in our family from all over the world. I would estimate we might have up to 200 players online at one given time during the launch. After 5 months I would be surprised if you see more than 50% of that online at a time, but you would see a decent population of online members throughout the entire day. We're big, but we're spread out over all time zones. That's what we mean by a home for the casual. You don't have to worry if your work schedule changes or whatever comes up, there's always people on to play with when you log on.
If you are interested, please visit our Guild Recruitment Ad on this forum, or visit us at our Website and have a look around. You're cordially invited to join if interested =D.
Dharkon
In the case of Gaiscioch, we're the entity that will be there to provide help for the smaller guys who need it when they're pushed by the wicked monopolizers. We have tons of people in our family from all over the world. I would estimate we might have up to 200 players online at one given time during the launch. After 5 months I would be surprised if you see more than 50% of that online at a time, but you would see a decent population of online members throughout the entire day. We're big, but we're spread out over all time zones. That's what we mean by a home for the casual. You don't have to worry if your work schedule changes or whatever comes up, there's always people on to play with when you log on.
If you are interested, please visit our Guild Recruitment Ad on this forum, or visit us at our Website and have a look around. You're cordially invited to join if interested =D.
Dharkon
Not all casual gamers belong to large gaming communities. The cap is there because most people aren't part of communities and large guilds(like yours) create a unfun, zergy environment for the rest of the player base. If everyone were part of a big community then it would be fine to raise the cap because everyone would be a part of a blob.
@nagash is right, 200 is very large. I would hate to see this game fail because they went over 300