09-16-2014, 01:57 PM
Random thought.....
Traditional MMORPG guilds do not do a good job of modeling real life social connections. Guilds are more like workplaces and have some of the same problems as workplace environments, namely: drama, because you have lumped a bunch of people together who do not necessarily all like each other and any disruption can disrupt the whole organization.
I like Bob. Bob likes you. I hate you. We're guilded together. Drama ensues.
What if a game came out that, instead of guilds, had something more like Facebook: a really nicely designed, well integrated friends list that gives profile pages and lets you get to know people (as their characters -- I am not talking about people's real-life persona) and open chat channels and so forth.
This actually replaces your guild interface. There is no "The Purge". There's just a Facebook-type interface. Which of your friends are online? What are they doing? Message someone and see what's going on. "Hey Slamz, yeah, I'm just over here grouping with Sally." Dammit, Bob. You know I hate that bitch. Lemme know if you're up for some castle sieging later, I'll be around Mordor.
I wonder if that would actually be a vastly superior solution to the concept of "guilds".
("The Purge" may well live on in this environment but it would be like a Facebook Group. Your connection to this group is fairly superfluous. Your friends list is your real social connector.)
Traditional MMORPG guilds do not do a good job of modeling real life social connections. Guilds are more like workplaces and have some of the same problems as workplace environments, namely: drama, because you have lumped a bunch of people together who do not necessarily all like each other and any disruption can disrupt the whole organization.
I like Bob. Bob likes you. I hate you. We're guilded together. Drama ensues.
What if a game came out that, instead of guilds, had something more like Facebook: a really nicely designed, well integrated friends list that gives profile pages and lets you get to know people (as their characters -- I am not talking about people's real-life persona) and open chat channels and so forth.
This actually replaces your guild interface. There is no "The Purge". There's just a Facebook-type interface. Which of your friends are online? What are they doing? Message someone and see what's going on. "Hey Slamz, yeah, I'm just over here grouping with Sally." Dammit, Bob. You know I hate that bitch. Lemme know if you're up for some castle sieging later, I'll be around Mordor.
I wonder if that would actually be a vastly superior solution to the concept of "guilds".
("The Purge" may well live on in this environment but it would be like a Facebook Group. Your connection to this group is fairly superfluous. Your friends list is your real social connector.)