A bit of Game Research

Horza

Hi

I've made this topic to ask for your opinion on a feature for an MMO. It's basically to do with guilds/corps and their command structure. So what I'd like to know is if you would take orders from another player of a higher rank.

An example set-up: you have a space MMO which has a player run police force. You can create a guild which only players who have joined the police force can join. However the person who set-up the guild is not neccessarily the guy giving out orders. The guild works by rank, the higher your rank the higher your position in the guild.

Your rank would also be the controling factor in what ships you can fly, and so if you became an Admiral you could fly a capital ship and if you were a private you could fly the starfighters which launched from the capital ship. The admiral rank would be giving out the orders to the privates and telling them what ships to attack. Rank wouldn't be gained by the amount of time you have played the game, but on how many pirate players you have killed.

However the mechanics of how it works isn't the main point of this topic. It's really to ask if you would be willing to be the private taking orders until you gain a higher rank. Or if you'd never do this as the guy who is a higher rank could be younger than you or maybe even a female (although please don't take that as a sexist remark, in my opinion females would be good commanders as they have better multitasking abilities but some 35 year old guy might not be willing to follow an 18 year old female into battle).

Thanks for your time in reading this and answering this. It is much appriciated.

ianubisi

It seems to me that you are asking two separate questions:

1) Would you be willing to take orders from a person in a guild who has a higher rank than you?
2) Would you be willing to play a game where your rank determines your ability to perform tasks?

In the guilds I've been a part of in my years of playing MMOGs the question of following a leader has always been answered by how effective the leadership is. If the leader (raid leader, guild leader, whatever type of leader) is effective then I am more than willing to follow his/her commands. If the leader is ineffective then I begin to question why I am in the guild to begin with. This is true in every walk of life: the effectiveness of the leader determines his/her success.

As for the question of playing a game where my rank determines my exposure to game mechanics, that would depend very heavily on the mechanics and the game. It's not impossible to consider how this could work well, but it's very easy to imagine how this would be a total train wreck. If you try to blend this with a self-determined leadership structure then you could get into some pretty ugly issues.

Incidentally, I don't give a damn if the leader of an organization is a 50 year old veteran of table-top games and every MMOG made or a 10 year old girl with pigtails. If the leader brings victory, fortune, and excitement then it is 100% inconsequential.

Puoltry

The ability to lead is a rare find.

It is ALWAYS the most thankless job and least rewarding.Been there done that.But sure if i felt like the "president" was doing a good job and is fair then without a doubt i would do whatever he asked.

Then again ive left a guild or 2 and been asked why i left as if it had some bearing on gameplay.Truth of the matter is i leave a guild because there is too much drama at times and i get sick of it.

Id rather just play on my own terms.

Horza

Thanks for your constructive comments guys.

I had an idea that you could possibly change it so that advancement beyond a certain level would be dependent on the people of a higher rank promoting you. However I'm pretty certain that this would never work as some people would no doubt try and create a kind of power vaccum by only promoting their mates.

So I came up with another idea, well another 2 actually. The first is where everybody in the guild gets to vote on who to promote, so only those people who would make good leaders will get anywhere. But once again I'm not sure how well this would work, as if a group of mates formed a guild then a new commer might not stand much chance. But then again if your in a corp full of players with that attitude then your probably best leaving anyway

The second idea was to have 2 seperate rank systems. The first determining what ships you can fly, missions you can do and so on. The seccond would be a command rank and the only way to get better in this would be to play as a battle commander and after the battle has taken place then your underlings could vote on how you did.

On another note, this police/military type of guild would not be the only type you could join. There would be more traditional types of guild and other types aswell. However at the moment I'm just wondering about this type. Thanks again for all your input guys.

ianubisi

Whatever you consider, drop entirely the idea that "majority rules" is a good form of government. There are no true democracies in this world, as rule by mob is always a terrible thing. You need people who have experience and wisdom to sometimes correct the impetus of immediate emotion. It's very easy to convince 50.00000001% of almost anything, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea to act upon.

I think you have the entire concept turned upside down. Instead of trying to create mechanisms that enforce a hierarchy of power you should enable a system that allows people to define their own. Take a look at player corporations in EVE...there are highly defined hierarchies there, and trusted players are given greater access to ships and materials for their efforts. This can be found in almost any guild structure in almost any game. Those who have leadership abilities rise to the top and are given greater freedoms.

People tend to govern themselves far better than any system you can provide.

Horza

Well the reason behind making a guild with a command structure already is because I want it to be different from Eve and most other MMO's currently out. I mean if my game idea was ever going to happen it would be a few years down the line and I'm sure by that point the standard MMO set-up will have been played to death and it'll take new fresh ideas to get more players.

One thing I personally hate about Eve (or did as I haven't played it in ages) is that every man and his dog has a Battleship or 2. I'd like a very limited number of what will essentially be Capital Ships in my game idea. People could actually know them by name, well depending on the number of players.

I also played Eve for over 14 months and in that time I went through a couple of different corps and worked my ass off for all of them, almost failing uni for one of them. Did I get anywhere? No. I see a few main reasons why this was. Sometimes the corps were run by a group of mates and so they would always make the descisions and if there was ever a need to go outside this circle they would pick whoever was on at the time and not go on past efforts. Which leads me to my next problem, I'm not always on at peak times and so there were no senior dudes on to see what I was doing.

Which is why I think a system like mine has the pottential to work. Especially because at the end of the day the police would only be 1 of many careers and you certainly don't need to join it, but it is always their as a choice.

However I do appriciate all your views and thank you for posting them.

Noubourne

Face of Mankind is coming out with nearly this exact system.

Goober2k3

A good idea but it may be too constricting for players. Giving them the option of rebelling and flying any ship they can afford might be a good idea to add to this, with retribution of course.