Your Next: Looking for Guilds

Who doesn't love a bit of guild drama in their MMO?

Another week groans by, dragging behind it those of us hoping for a chance at a glimpse of what we're waiting for. How dramatic a pose we strike; after all, it would be ludicrous to feel like this over something that wasn't that important.

So, here it is, the calm before the storm and the insufferable wait. I imagine we've all been here before, at different times and in different parts of the world, refreshing home pages and bouncing around subreddits.

I'm glad that, as an adult, I've found something akin to the magic of waiting for Santa, but I don't think my inner child sees it that way.

I wonder sometimes, in passing fits of maturity, how it must feel on the other side. The weight of expectation, the doubts, that feeling of having a secret you just have to pass on before it bursts.

The feeling of excitement coming from those with new toys to share at SOE Live is palpable; they're proud, they're confident, and they can't wait to let us see what they have.

In situations like this, I can't help but mull over every last detail of what we know already. What have we seen? What throwaway comments can we whittle away at until some shining nugget of information appears?

Honestly, in the light of everything we know now, the reveal presentation and panels from SOE Live 2013 have a wealth of interesting asides. Now that the usual redundant clamor around superficial elements like trinity combat and fast travel has died down, it's much easier to parse what was said for the messages they wanted to send out.

This week, Director of Development Dave Georgeson said this about Landmark: “I guarantee after SOE Live this will be a different game” – which  is simultaneously wonderful and terrifying.

At the same time, I couldn't help but notice another item on the blueprint, scheduled to go live in the first week of August. That would be guilds.

Social structures are something that has been lacking from Landmark. I can't say I'm not a little disappointed after writing a column earlier this year about how great it was that they would be making them a development priority.

In spite of this change of plan from SOE, I stand by my previous statements. I believe that guilds and social structures will have just as great an impact on the way we play Landmark as much as any of the big features we expect to be implemented in August.

I want to see players working together, I want to see groups form and projects undertaken. I want to see Island pride and groups with matching outfits. As different skills and activities become important, I'd love to see players with different abilities and interests come together to form teams that will perform to a standard they could never achieve alone. 

Of course, Landmark is not 'just' about building, and I can't wait to see Landmark players showing off their talents in all the different areas available to us.

A little healthy competition between groups can be great for pushing the standard as well, and when groups are fighting for the attentions of fickle players we will be in for some show stoppers.

Think back to the first few weeks of alpha and how far the game has come with us hammering away in isolation; soon we'll have the tools to do so much more, and we'll be doing it together. The speed of the building and iteration that we've seen since the workshop began has been staggering, and we can expect it to increase by an order of magnitude as whole teams of builders come together.

So after SOE Live, when Landmark is a different game, I'm glad we'll finally have a way to properly experience it together.

If you need anyone to test out what you make, you know where to find me.

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