Project Lore

Note: The below information was covered as part of our Live Blogging & Tweeting during the show.  But the information is simply too important to be glossed over.  Here are the major class changes in one convenient, to the point package. Quick Synopsis Of The Upcoming System Guild progression was, without a shadow of a doubt, my favorite WoW announcement during BlizzCon 2009.  The crowd erupted when the snippet was splashed across the screen.  The bees nest was stirred further as the developers began detailing the progression tracks, rewards, and reward schemes.  The panelists had to stop speaking numerous times during the presentation as the crowd drowned them out with hoots, hollers and hoorays.  It seems that I wasn't the only player desperately seeking a reason to grow with a guild.  Prophetic vision placing that in the The Next Expansion column, rather than Wishful Thinking methinks. Cataclysm's Guild Progression basics:

• You're guild will earn experience by way of its most active members (top 20 guildmates contribute).  The "gate" is to limit the "grindiness", a reoccurring theme at this year's BlizzCon.  Limiting the amount of players who can contribute helps maintain a balance between massive guilds, and those with only a few dozen players.
• Guild contribution won't change your daily activity much.  You can contribute by doing the stuff you already do, be it dailies, professions, farming reputation, raiding, PvP (rated Arenas and BGs) or bum rushing Hogger.  Different acts will be weighed differently.
• The guild level cap currently discussed is level 20.  Guilds will receive talent points, much like the class talent points.  More on this below.
• Looking For Guild system being implemented.  The idea is to make it easy for a Raid Leader, Officer or GM to find exactly what a guild needs, or to post a casting call.
• Guild Achievement system is also incoming.  It'll act like today's system, but require that a certain percentage (75% discussed) of the attendees be a part of the guild.  Some current achievements will be recycled, but most challenges are to be new.
• A new paid service, guild transfer, was mentioned as a possibility.
• No, it's not going to happen.  There is still no guild housing plans.

Look At All Those Talents The current rewards for guild progression are too fluid, and numerous, to discuss in bullet form.  According to the Systems panel, guilds will have numerous rewards for sticking together, and not sucking.  First off is the guild Talent system.  Effectively a clone of the current class talents, but with convenience rewards.  The guild variety will offer no gameplay changing talents (no buffs or anything like that).  Instead it will focus on making things easier for a guild.  Bottom line, you're guild will never have to spec a certain way to beat a boss.  We'll be hit with tons of time saving abilities like grabbing extra money from mobs, mass resurrection, mass summoning, reduced durability loss and reduced repair bills!  Quite awesome right?  Sadly, I didn't call that last one correctly. On top of those guild wide buffs there will be a way to reward individuals a bit more, the vendor/currency system.  Users will gain guild currency as they earn XP for the guild.  They then can buy special items, including rare reagents (hello Frost Lotus), Heirloom gear, crafting plans, vanity items, guild standards, guild respects and guild bank slots.  The items are all bound to the guild, so if you leave the Totally Rad Guild, you lose access to the totally rad loot they have accumulated.  Leaving a guild is not as painful as it sounds.  If you join another guild, you get access to their perks right away. It remains to be seen exactly how easy guild leveling will be.  Those specifics were not detailed.  Numerous other titles, old and new, have had guild progression systems of varying success.  Some developers made it incredibly difficult to obtain.  Others tied the size of a guild to its success.  Yet others made it so easy and bland that the feature was lost, a common occurrence.  Worst of all, some demanded that a guild have certain attributes before they could continue advancing in content, disrupting the idea of choice. Hopefully Blizzard's track record of incredibly polished, not always innovative, design will prove to be successful once again. At least they are giving guilds yet another topic for drama, what to spec in!  I vote saving money spec.

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BlizzCon is slowly creeping up on us, and this year most people expect the company's big announcement to be World of Warcraft-based.  With StarCraft 2 locked in for this year, and Diablo III looking like 2010, early 2011 is rip (if not late) for the third expansion to Azeroth.  As it stands now, people are expecting The Maelstrom (not storm) or The Emerald Dream to be the focus of the next expansion (water mounts anyone?), but World of Warcraft needs more than epic lore to pull people in and retain the current amount of users.  Like any good internet subscriber, I need to get my ideas out there before the announcements are made so I have something to point to and go "told you so!" We, the citizens of Project Lore, touched upon the idea of guild progression earlier this week.  The short quip in the post almost lead to a complete derailment of the topic.  Nearly as many commentators spoke out for guild progression as guild cohesiveness , the actual discussion.  Obviously the topic is an important one to many of us here, so here's to hoping that Blizzard is listening.  Outside of player desire, there's also another reason Blizzard needs to step up, every other game is doing it.  There is the whole jumping off a bridge philosophy to worry about, but I say the leap needs to be made.  Desperately. Plan and simple, there is absolutely no reason to stay in a guild these days.  None.  Not one single reason keeps me from guild hopping daily.  Okay, perhaps SolidSamm 'The Guild Hopper' wouldn't be a great title, but I could still get things done.  I could leap from guild to guild and still raid, still participate in Arenas, still do my dailies, you name it.  I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't be able to do these things without a guild.  Not by any means.  What I am suggesting is that your guild, and one's standing in the guild, should rise the more you contribute to it, and the rest of Azeroth. How cool would it if your guild leveled up along side you through various means?  Guild age, member count, average member length, these are just some easy ways to measure a guild's progress.  Then we have more complex, and fun things to participate in.  Complete 100,000 quests as a guild and receive a new Feat of Strength, all guild runs of Ulduar and Naxxramas award another.  A new title, "Home of Mick" if your guild contains the #1 Arena team.  "Die Hard" for guild domination (no deaths) in all of the Battlegrounds.  The creativity could be taken as far as Blizzard would allow it.  However, without player/guild housing, the developers would be somewhat restricted to what types of rewards they could offer.  We'd be limited to things like extra guild bank slots (no longer would the GM have to pay up), news titles and achievements, super tabard construction, guild recognition, guild summoning (for those Warlock-less nights), discounts at vendors...Should I keep going? One cool thing I would like to see is auto-progression in the guild.  Instead of, or perhaps in conjunction with, the current guild ranking system we'd have a ranking system based upon atoon's contributions to their guild.  No longer would a player's popularity allow him to raise the ranks of a guild, instead a toon's standing in the guild would be promoted by way of merit.  As cool as it is I doubt this idea would fly due to the loss of control by the GM and officers. A complete, and detailed, overhaul to the Guild system in WoW would be a huge boon to the community, and a great selling point on the back of The Maelstrom's/Emerald Dream's box.  Who in their right mind wouldn't want to be a part of a guild that did their best to stay together, tried their utmost to deal with the internal issues, was full of selfless and giving members, was a group of friends and not random acquaintances.  In a word, comradery.  After all, aren't MMOGs supposed to be all about the social experience? Those are just the seeds to get the greater readership brainstorming.  What other progression mechanics would you have in mind?  How about other types of rewards?  Are you fine with the guild hopping ways of today, or do you desperately want a change like I, and many others, do?

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World of Warcraft may not be a difficult game by any means, but that doesn't mean the MMORPG is easy.  Yes, I know that gear is collected as time is spent, money is acquired by repetitive quests, and some classes can be setup in a fashion to allow good ole button mashing victories, but that is the not difficult part.  The difficult part is managing the 'massive' feature of the game.  I of course mean the very element that's supposed to make MMORPGs so grand, the people.  Lots of them. There is a reason that managers get paid so much in the fleshy world.  People are difficult to control.  We all have brains (mmm) and each of us works best under different conditions, at different times and with varying degrees of dedication.  Take just those few details, mix in the anonymity of the Internet, and you have yourself one difficult situation to handle.  The re-grouped Warriors of Faith were handling it, and well, well until it happened, the GM got married! Before his wife reads this over his shoulder and wrings my neck through the tubes let me clarify.  The troubles had nothing to do with him getting married, just the simple fact that he was gone for two weeks.  His absence, and another main raid leader, lead to nothing for fourteen days.  Simply nothing happened, no raids, no heroic Wednesdays (those have been dead for awhile), nothing of interest.  Even in a casual guild that will lead to complaints and gquits .  And so it did.  In the week following their return, one that was marred by sloppy raiding, where it was had at all, we lost core members to transfers,unsubscribing and basic gquits. I wholeheartedly blame Canada Summer, but my GM is far to dedicated to brush off the guild's struggles on Mother Nature and human impulses.  With himself and others reaching the point of burnout he took the time to lay out the issues, and then put out a call to the members for creative solutions to our problems.  Here's what I have suggested to the leaders and other members:

• With over 200 members, let whoever wants to leave go.
• Although we are casual, trim the roster down to at least active players who login.  Personally, I believe it looks bad to have that many members, even if they are alts, and not be able to fill a 10-man.
• Get rid of members the higher-ups dislike.  Sorry, but if you dislike them, their very presence will add to burnout.
• Have members fill in the open spots in the roster with friends, alts, or other players that they know well.  Even if other players aren't willing to join the guild, drop them a line so they know that WoF is in need of some PUGs.
• Re-roll your main.  I am hard at work on leveling my priest so I can fill in the healing hole left by two members.  Although I love and enjoy my rogue, I enjoy raiding much more than not raiding.
• Go back to 10-man raiding, two nights a week.  Cutting back to 10-man should ensure that the raid is filled.  Slashing to two nights a week, say one night progression, one night farming, will give members a concrete schedule and reduce burnout.  If they want to do more, see point one.

Unfortunately not many people will go to these extreme measures.  In my humble opinion, that is all Blizzard's fault.  Unless you are already friends, there is simply no reason to stay in a guild these days, and there was little to begin with.  Blizzard desperately needs to add some sort of guild progression - larger bank, expanded tabard creation options, guild summoning, discounts with vendors for repairs and consumables.  Something. Any other suggestions?  Has summer ruined your raiding or guild yet?  Here's to hoping that Call of the Crusade gets WoF back in action.  Either way, I am in it for the long haul. These issues, headaches and ulcers are the exact reasons I would never want to be a GM again.  For the GMs out there, you never get enough praise for all the hardwork, time and effort that you do.  Allow me to just say "Thank you" to all those dedicated GMs out there.

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