I think that Blizzard needs to implement certain tools to help the casual guilds overcome barriers that prevent them from raiding. A few tools would go a long way to making the game more accessible to all players. All these tools can be done out of game, but if they were in-game it would be a lot easier and intuitive to accomplish. The fact that a tool is out-of-game is itself another barrier.
Also, these tools don't necessarily have to be very complex. The bare minimum should be good enough.
1. Allow guilds to form alliances
The biggest barrier to endgame raids is the lack of numbers and class balance. The easiest solution is to form guild alliances, where several small guilds team up to tackle the raid instances. An alliance would be created at the guild level, with officers or guildmasters being able to commit their entire guild to the alliance.
The option to form or join an alliance would only exist if there is a level 60 in the guild. Otherwise, alliances would be overused in the lower game, and you'd probably start getting 10 guilds of 5 people forming an alliance that would have normally been a guild of 50. Alliances are aimed at the endgame, and should probably only be available at endgame.
Guilds in the alliance would get a common channel, and share a common schedule (see suggestion 2).
2. Have a schedule where officers can post raids
Raids need to be scheduled. If there is one place in-game where the schedule can be seen, it will be a lot more effective than getting people to visit a website. A guild needs a common schedule, and a guild alliance needs a common schedule. It doesn't need to be very complex. Date, time, and event is good enough. The ability to do sign-ups would be amazing, but is not strictly necessary.
3. Have a base loot system with memory
Almost every raid guild uses a memory-based system to distribute epic loot (DKP, Zero-Sum DKP, Suicide Kings, etc.). I think that if Blizzard included a default system, that would be good enough for most guilds' purposes. If a guild felt that Blizzard's system wasn't good enough, they can always make their own system, as they do now.
I would suggest Spend-All DKP as the default system. Every time an epic drops, each player gets a point. The loot box that pops up has two buttons: Spend and Pass. If you hit Spend, and you have the most points, you get the item and lose all your points.
It's a simple and relatively fair system. Blizzard only needs to keep track of one additional piece of information: the amount of epic points that a character has. As well, the system would work across multiple guilds or guild alliances, as your point total is now inherent in your character, rather than tallied by the guild.
4. Have a guild bank
A guild bank, accessible by multiple people and with contents visible to the guild, would help guilds pool resources in order to accomplish goals. This would allow a casual guild to better work together. Right now, guild banks tend to be extra characters created by the officers. Such banks lack transparency which--in addition to trust issues--means that a lot of members are not aware of the contents of the bank, and are unable to take full advantage of it.
I think that these 4 tools would go a long way to enabling casual guilds to do raid content. Each tool lowers the barriers to entry for a casual guild, and makes it more likely that more people will experience the raid content that Blizzard puts so much time into.
The more work something takes, the less likely it will happen. Secondly, if it is in-game, it will be used more than if it is out of game.
ReplyDeleteA bad in-game interface will be used far more than a good out-of-game interface.
For example, take looking for groups. If you've ever used the Call To Arms mod, you will see that it is a superb LFG interface. Yet everyone uses the LFG channel, because that is 'good enough'.
As well, there is a certain permanence to in-game tools. If you form an alliance with a guild, and the alliance is listed on your guild interface, and your members are automatically added to channel, it's better than a more nebulous system that is set up.
Most people stick with the base game. Very few use out of game tools.
I disagree. Meeting stones are not used because there is a better *in-game* interface (the LFG channel).
ReplyDeleteGuildportal does a lot, but it's still a lot of work to make your members go out of game, and go read the website. I believe that a simple calendar listing that can be referenced in game would be used far more than a guildportal calendar.
Besides, if all the tools exist and are easy to use, why aren't there more casual guilds taking advantage of them?
None of these are strictly necessary. But I look at the endgame and see that 70%+ of 60s do not raid. The question becomes how to get some of these people to raid.
ReplyDeleteIf a few in-game tools would make things easier, reducing the barrier to entry, why not implement them? Better than spending effort making another huge dungeon that very few people will see, imo.
I think all your idea's are great, but I highly doubt Bliz will implement any of them :(
ReplyDeleteI think if Bliz actually does something about the meeting stones that nobody uses that would be a huge deal for alot of people.
I've never been in a guild "alliance" or "metaguild" but does leadership become a problem? Who has the final say in decisions that need to be made? I think having multiple leaders usually causes conflict.
In Burning Crusade there is a very nice LFG interface and that will go a long way to getting casual guilds into raids if they want to go. There will still be issues with raiding due to the PUG nature of the groups that come out of that tool. Also Blizz should implement some sort of *in game* Vent so there are no arguments about who's vent server to join or "go download vent". People would use it much more if it was in game and this one factor would allow casual guild or PUGs to raid.
ReplyDelete