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Reichmar's Rant: Guilds, Communities and PvP
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by Reichmar12, Member — Category: Editorials
Post #18572
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 Reichmar's Rant: Guilds, Community and PvP In my previous rants about the glories of PvP and my personal love of awesome gear, I talked about the Player vs Player experience on an individual level. I talked about the importance of fluid and responsive gameplay, the need for a reward structure and vertical vs horizontal gear progression. One topic which I left for last is the role that community plays in PvP. How important are guilds? Do communities matter in PvP? Do developers care about their development? Since I have a lot to say about this issue, and in order to stay on topic, I'm going to save the gear issue I mentioned in last week's rant for a different day. Since the dawn of time, human beings have congregated to form small groups or communities in order to accomplish the mutual goals of land cultivation, hunting, gathering and survival in general. Early humans realized that life is much more difficult when alone. As a result, they came together around common goals. Spare us the history lesson, Reichmar -- I know, I know. But although I'm discussing virtual guilds in an online game today, these natural tendancies towards forming bonds between like-minded people hold true today just as they did in Mesopotamia thousands of years ago. Guilds have been foundational aspects of MMO gameplay for two reasons: 1) variety and difficulty of content, 2) requirement of other people to consume said content. Dungeons and raids are designed with the specific intent that players will be forced to create teams to tackle the bosses. Why get 9, 24, or even 39 other random people when you can build a team of people you know? If you can find others with the same desire to succeed (assuming a basic level of player skill), your odds of clearing the most difficult PvE content, as well as your odds of being a capable PvP team, get pretty good.  But guilds aren't just about killing bosses and getting loot. They also aren't only about competition. There is a larger community aspect at play. By being in a guild, players have the ability to talk to other people in a friendly (hopefully) setting; you can buy and sell merchandise to your guildmates, you can help them with quests, you can contribute towards guild projects (if your game has such a thing) and you can just simply hang out. Each time you log on and interact with those people, you start building a relationship. Before you know it, you've made friends; friends that you might play other games with, and friends that you'll spend hours talking to. By forming guilds, you suddenly place yourself in another tier of gameplay. You aren't just killing bosses or stomping pugs -- now you're competing against other guilds in PvP ladders and raid clearing times. Ideally, the more your play together with your guildmates, the better the group as a whole will get. You'll learn the strengths and weaknesses of your colleagues and you'll work to complement their needs. Niche roles will be filled, weaker players will slowly be replaced and new blood will be thrown into the fold until you find a solid team composition. Well.... hopefully you will. With respect to the faction-based world PvP in Elder Scrolls Online, communities are even more pivotal. Multiple guilds on all sides now fight both against and alongside each other. What matters more is not the skill of an individual group of players, but rather the collective ability for players of different guilds to apply their skills, on the fly, to adapting situations. In fact, your awesome set of +10 Pwn Star Plate is insignificant when hundreds of players are slaughtering each other for control of an objective. Your faction either wins or loses on the backs of all of its members regardless of your individual character's gear or rank. This isn't to say that very good PvPers can't and won't distinguish themselves, of course. Certain players will always excel; they'll always be the first ones to that rank and the first ones to get that gear. Those of us who've played faction-based world PvP games know that there's always that group of infamous players that win, and win often -- the guys that you remember by name. You watch for them and smile when they show up to aid you, or frown when they're attacking you. Players strive to make their guilds just as organized and capable, or try to join those guilds themselves. Guild leaders take note...  The beauty of this type of PvP is that individual infamy doesn't win the war all by itself. Even if you're a member of the metaphorical "1337 guild", you need other guilds. You want more people to show up. You want them to get better and learn their class as much as you have. You want them to succeed where others would fail. You rely on them to bolster your lines, or to guard a spawn point, or to distract the enemy by assaulting another key point. So yes, you can be awesome, wear the best gear, and have the best title, but you always need your faction-mates -- always. With two factions to face, as in Elder Scrolls Online, you'll need them even more. The aftermath of battle is always shared between you, your guild, and your faction. If you win, everyone revels in it; stories are told in vent, faction teammates extend virtual fist-bumps, and rewards are had. If you lose, you all lament it; everyone will know the one flaw that cost them victory and you'll remember the people responsible (if applicable). It doesn't matter if you're in multiple guilds (like in ESO) either -- you'll always cling to success and distance yourself from failure. In a guild that dominated the campaign? You'll be sure let people know in some way, shape or fashion. Part of the failure squad? You'll likely act like you were never a part of it -- no matter how much you think you won't. You might blame that one guild for not showing up when they were supposed to, or that other guild for failing to hold their ground when they needed to. You tell yourself, "if my guild were there, things could have been different. Things would have been different. We would have never let this happen." Maybe you were to blame -- maybe the criticisms from the other guilds are true. Maybe your raid leader sent you to the wrong spot, or maybe you failed to hold your section of the ranks. If any of that is true, you'll certainly work to avoid that shameful display next time, won't you? What are your thoughts about communities in MMOs? What do you think about the role of communities in Elder Scrolls Online's faction-based PvP? The views expressed in this blog are those of Reichmar12 and do not represent the views of TESOF, Zenimax Online Studios or any of its subsidiaries. |
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