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Social/grouping/exploration community project (a second try)
EDIT: I've reopened the forums and deleted the AoC theme (link). I'm doing some more groundwork, but this is the best place we have, for now.
EDIT: Had to rename the thread, since the last one was too cryptic. I hope you don't mind.
EDIT: No bargaining with mods, eh? Oh well.
What is The Path Ahead?
The Path Ahead was a project, that started around a year ago on this very forum. It's aim was to gather like-minded players, who were interested in certain things in MMOs, but couldn't get them, because of the crippling social issues a lot of MMOs had. We thought, that if we banded together and forming our own little community, we could overcome everything.
It worked. For around a month it really worked. We got together, tried a couple of different games, picked Vanguard and actually played it. It was a lot of fun. People genuinly enjoyed themselves. We had over a hundred people interested and something close to fifty, who actually registred, and played with us.
And then... It fell apart. I admit, this was entirely my fault. When we became a guild, it lacked direction, focus, aim. And I, myself, kind of lost focus, unsure, what the original intent even was.
It all went downhill from there. We regathered people, tried played Allods Online, b ut were forced to quit, due to mind-boggling Cash Shop prices. We regathered people yet again, switched to Age of Conan and then... Hard to say, what cane then, but needless to say, it failed yet again.
I generally gave up on MMOs then, switching to single-player games. Then RL issues came in, I got married... Not as interesting, as you'd think. But the point is, for the best part of the year, I simply waited.
And now... Now, I think, is time for us to try again. It's time to stop moping, whining and self-pitying. It's time for us to take matters into our own hands.
What is our goal?
To create a community of gamers, who are tired of the more modern design of MMOs and would prefer to do things old-school style. Instead of facing the grim reality of being unable to play older and less-known titles, because of the lack of other players, we gather together and do it our way. We group, we socialize, we explore, maybe even roleplay a little. All the things we were denied, because we were scattered and broken. We can unite, once again, and enjoy the journey, not the destination.
This is The Path Ahead. And I can only hope it works this time.
P.S. You can view the original thread here.
This will be the planning stage. Seeing how many people we can gather, how long it takes for mods to move the thread, et cetera.
Who might be interested?
A) Groupers
This is our core audience. People who are tired of playing alone, people, who had enough of games, that punish them, for what they like, people, whio have no one to play games they actually want with.
Social people
You find the chat dead, during downtime? Fellow players started turning into mimes? Then we will welcome you with open arms.
C) Explorers
People, who take the game at their own pace, who like to explore, discover and see for themselves. People, who can take a break from levelling and just "try and see what's over there".
D) Roleplayers
This is not on our top priority list, but I would love to start a small RP sub-group, within our own.
We will attempt to experience everything the game has to offer - all dungeons, all tasks, all zones. Every single little minute detail, that we can get our hands on. To milk the game, for all it's worth.
What games are we considering?
We'll be doing this elimination-style, untiul only one game remains.
1) Vanguard
Let's be honest here, VG is an excellent game, that needs a lot more love. And bettrer yet, it's not that well-known, making the experience fresh. THere's everything you need in an MMO - grouping, social tools, meaningfull guild progression... It's still quite buggy, however and it tends to have a lot of slowdown and glitches and the in-game population is really, REALLY low. However, wit our kind of a project, this shouldn't be such an issue.
2) EQI
One of the biggest MMOs ever made and one of the best grouping MMOs to boot. If we take it easy and do it progression-style, we'll be in there playing for months, if not years. However, the graphics, the UI, it's all "meh". Not a lot of people like that.
3) EQII
This one is probably the most solo-friendly on the list. However there are gobs of grouping content, and if we can force ourselves to band together and take it easy, this can be a good choice.
4) DAoC
Lot's of content, one of the best PvP systems in play and meaningful levelling. Don't know that much about htis one to comment, really.
5) Istaria
Seems to be one of the best PvE-centric MMOs out there. Again, don't know enough.
6) FFXI
This is THE group PvE game of the Post-EQ period. You literally can't do anything alone.
7) Ryzom
One of the more unique games of the decade. Could be an interesting choice, at the very least.
8) Darkfall
Have my reservations about that one. It's a good game, sure, but a little bit too-PvP centric. We'll see, what people think.
If you have anything to add or know games, that I've missed - fire away.
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
Comments
I applaud you for going beyond complaining and actually trying to create something, a community. Good luck. If the first attempt failed due to lack of a clearly stated goal then perhaps you should be very explicit about your goals now.
What game are you considering?
Older ones (or older-style ones) mainly - VG, EQI, DAoC, Ryzom, the likes. Maybe more sandboxish ones, like DF or EvE. Maybe even UO, if we're feeling masochistic.
EvE and DF have their own strong community, though, so there's not that muh of a point. Some more intel-gathering is needed, to make a coherent choice. It also depends on the kind of players we will attract. Beyond that, anything is possible.
Goals are simple - basically to overcome the crippling problem of the lack of people in lots of these games. Once we have the people, it will depend on the game, for short- and long-term goals.
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
I think the problem with your project is the same problem that the vanguard guild had.
Getting all sorts of people who want different things and trying to fit them into one guild.
Unless people are all on the same page or at the very least you are able to be all things to all people, I can understand why there are issues.
Maybe you should pick a game you are really passionate about and find others who are equally passionate. define the parameters of the guidl and then see if everyone can make it work.
It's just a thought.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
True... But it's not only the game, that is the problem. I feel, that choosing a game shouldn't be the only priority. Most gamers are interested in at least two-three of the older games, that lack the thriving community of the modern ones, which leads us back here. If we can find the common point of at least several people, we can overcome anything.
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
Well, in that case, I would lay out the scope of the guild, what type of people you are looking for, commitement, etc.
So, if you are not going to be a hardcore raiding guild then that should be said. I recall in the vanguard guild, one of the members was a bit upset because people were spending a lot of time on the starter island. His feeling was that he wanted to push forward and felt others weren't on the same page.
So making sure you are not only getting people who say they want to be in a community guild but also players who have the same idea as to what type of guild they are interested in as well as what they are willing to bring to the guild.
I mean, look at the reasons the last tries didn't work and figure out how to mitigate that.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I did a lot of introspection, but thanks for the tips, anyway! I'm going to add things like that to the opening post, it's just... I felt, that if I didn't post it now, I wouldn't post it at all. Didn't have much in the preparation department, you know?
Always great to have your support, by the way.
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
This isn't something I'm really interested in but I applaud the effort and wish you the best of luck.
"There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer."
I support efforts like what the op wants to do in principle but there are many reasons why I have my doubts as to it working in the long run. It's easy to drum up some interest for any new project and not so easy to keep that interest.
Trying to set up a guild on a site like this I don't have a lot of faith in as I have tried to hook up with people like 4 or 5 times from this site and it never works due to things like people being from all over the world so there end's up being a big minus due to time differences and then as was stated previously people have quite different ideas in what they want out of a guild. What I have found is most who frequent this site seem to be of the "hardcore" mindest whether it's pvp or raiding or whatever. Now if that is what you want then you may be able to get a core group together and flesh out other people from within the game you want to play.
The other issue that I see is that you seem to want to play "old" games well that is another problem with 2011 looking like a bunch of new shiny mmo's will be released chances are there won't be much interest in playing stuff like eq1. With most vets having "been there done that" as far as the old mmo's are concerned.
Good luck in your plan though.
People are disillusoned with new MMOs. I'm aiming for precisely the kind of vets, that want to relieve "the days of old", but have no one to do that with.
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
Right, I've slept on it and think I have a pretty clear picture of the kind of people I would like to attract with this project.
A) Groupers
This is our core audience. People who are tired of playing alone, people, who had enough of games, that punish them, for what they like, people, whio have no one to play games they actually want with.
You find the chat dead, during downtime? Fellow players started turning into mimes? Then we will welcome you with open arms.
C) Explorers
People, who take the game at their own pace, who like to explore, discover and see for themselves. People, who can take a break from levelling and just "try and see what's over there".
D) Roleplayers
This is not on our top priority list, but I would love to start a small RP sub-group, within our own.
We will attempt to experience everything the game has to offer - all dungeons, all tasks, all zones. Every single little minute detail, that we can get our hands on. To milk the game, for all it's worth.
I will try and put up a list of games, that suit our needs and then we'll see, where we can go from there.
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
Wish you the best of luck , the 8 years experience online , i say it doesn´t matter how you do it .
You will succeed as long you work for it , so keep up the hope dont let the negative get to you .
But truth be told its a harsh world out there , not only is leading by example not good enough anymore.
Neither is words back by facts good enough anymore , people just want to believe what they want to believe .
The problem is people themselfs , so hope you can give them the postive they need .
Just dont expect gratitude , that word doesn´t excist anymore .
You forgot the most abundant catagory.
E) Soloers/Antisocials/Casuals/PUGs
This group makes up about 98% of all MMOs these days. This player wants all epic, rare, and hard to obtain items obtainable within at least 20 minutes after login. They want minimal interaction, don't want to explore, and want instant teleportation options across the entire game map. Anything that has to do with exploration, immersion, and communications with other players might cause severe anxiety and loss of subscriptions.
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
Right. I'm fairly certain he forgot this group on purpose. This won't be a guild for those types.
Count me in depending on what game it is. I wouldnt be interested in, say, the original EQ. The graphics are just too terrible by today's standards. But I might be very interested in this if enough other people are. I have some characters on some of the older games that may even prove useful to this. I will be watching this thread with interest.
I think most of us will start from scratch. Could be a prequisitte even.
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
I might be interested depending on what game. Holidays coming up means excess free time I'm not used to having to fill. In turn, that means MMO-itch.
I think I'm ready to post a list of games up for consideration.
1) Vanguard
Let's be honest here, VG is an excellent game, that needs a lot more love. And bettrer yet, it's not that well-known, making the experience fresh. THere's everything you need in an MMO - grouping, social tools, meaningfull guild progression... It's still quite buggy, however and it tends to have a lot of slowdown and glitches and the in-game population is really, REALLY low. However, wit our kind of a project, this shouldn't be such an issue.
2) EQI
One of the biggest MMOs ever made and one of the best grouping MMOs to boot. If we take it easy and do it progression-style, we'll be in there playing for months, if not years. However, the graphics, the UI, it's all "meh". Not a lot of people like that.
3) EQII
This one is probably the most solo-friendly on the list. However there are gobs of grouping content, and if we can force ourselves to band together and take it easy, this can be a good choice.
4) DAoC
Lot's of content, one of the best PvP systems in play and meaningful levelling. Don't know that much about htis one to comment, really.
5) Istaria
Seems to be one of the best PvE-centric MMOs out there. Again, don't know enough.
6) FFXI
This is THE group PvE game of the Post-EQ period. You literally can't do anything alone.
7) Ryzom
One of the more unique games of the decade. Could be an interesting choice, at the very least.
8) Darkfall
Have my reservations about that one. It's a good game, sure, but a little bit too-PvP centric. We'll see, what people think.
If you have anything to add or know games, that I've missed - fire away.
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
Reading the list of games you've posted I would be interested if the group decides on Ryzom. I played the game years ago and it was a great experience for me. I enjoyed the game, even the PvP and I'm not too crazy about PvP, but in Ryzom it was fun guarding a group of harversters foraging materials that can only be harvest according to the season while others tried to kill them (because they wanted the materials for themselves), and at the same time having to avoid the agro that also roams in these PvP zones. The game is fun, group oriented, and it has no class system so anyone can be a tank or a healer or nuker at any given time. The crafting system is one of the best I've experience in games; all the best materials are harvest from the game world, there ar no dungeons or quests that reward gear the best gear is made by the players, and last I heard new professions where added and even player housing that you can decorate your self with the use of RP Points collected in RP events (I'm not all sure how this works I only read the patch notes haven't played the game), and players can invite friends to their homes too. Ryzom would be my first choice for many reasons and I wouldn't mind starting from scratch.
Might I suggest you wait until GW2 releases?
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
Sigh...
The whole point of this community is to fix the problem of having no one to play with in less-populated games.
Also, I'm personally mnot interested in GW2 and probably never will be, since I didn't like the first one and don't like the ideas they're throwing out.
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
Guys, I'm sorry, but maybe we should stop whining in other threads and try to make this work?
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
I'd be all about helping with this if I could play an MMO right now, my internet is too crappy where I live (hughes net)..That's why I'm moving as soon as this lease is up (four months), it's a nice place just far too out of the way for my taste.
I'd say the best game for this sort of thing would be VG:SOH. EVE online as well, simply because the more people you have working together in EVE the better off you are.
AOC wouldn't be a bad option either, their guild city set up is decent. OF course that game is heavily zoned though.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
AoC doesn't have a population problem. ANd the last time we did it, the guild died here, since one of our guys levelled to 80 in two weeks.
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
Yeah that was a shame, since I had to buy aoc all over again, since we were us. But its a great choice, even though I have one 80 character, they have added a lot since I left. Played at launch a few months, reached max lvl cap, and there was not enough to do to keep me around.
I also loved our time in vg, too bad the guild got kinda dived at that point and things just fell apart. Mmorpg.com had another guild called After Hours. What a great success it was the month and a half I played, I think we had over 100 unique players, and over 200 characters in the guild. I ran dungeons almost every night. Some dungeons could take up to 4-5 hours, and so many bosses. We got lost so many times, so wicked cool. I'm not sure what happened with the guild, now its gone, very sad because I don't think the game had got so many new players in such a short time. And it was a good opportunity to give the game one last hoooorah. So when I came back some weeks later when my life schedule permitted it, all my friends had left
The timezone is still a problem, but luckily we had so many players in after hours there was always someone around. On average I think we had 15-25 people online when I played. I'll be interested for sure, but playing with Americans is really difficult, because their peak online time is in the middle of the night for me :
I'm from Russia mself. I work around these issues, by being sleep-depraved.
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
