Voting in a guild is worthless. When people vote for in real elections, they have some pretty dumb reasons why they vote for someone. "I think he's nice." "I like his speeches." "He looks nice." Seriously? Your going to give someone legislative power over you for those reasons?
In a guild, it's even worse. People vote to let people in the guild because they don't mind the person chattering away endlessly and annoyingly in vent. They vote to get a DKP system in place that will make sure they can always get the loot they want. They will vote for policies that they think their friends want to follow. They will even vote in a certain way because they think they are voting the way the guild leader would like them to.
The best thing about voting is it assures the voters will get what they deserve. Not what they want.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Friday, June 6, 2008
Nothing can last
Not even the best run guild.
Given enough time, people get sick of the place. Your hard working officers get burned out and step down. No one else wants to step up and help. Everyone sits around, waiting for someone to come in and make the guild fun and exciting again. Sitting. Waiting. Not lifting a finger.
Imagine a town where the volunteer fire department got sick of always doing the work and quit. Then while the mayor is trying to get people to help put out a fire, the townspeople just kinda sit back and watch things burn. Some even wander off. "That building wasn't THAT important." People get upset at each other. "Why didn't you do something!?!?" "This town is letting me down!" "The mayor should fix things! I don't have time to help."
At least, if people pay taxes, the mayor can hire firemen and police. No such luck in a guild.
Given enough time, people get sick of the place. Your hard working officers get burned out and step down. No one else wants to step up and help. Everyone sits around, waiting for someone to come in and make the guild fun and exciting again. Sitting. Waiting. Not lifting a finger.
Imagine a town where the volunteer fire department got sick of always doing the work and quit. Then while the mayor is trying to get people to help put out a fire, the townspeople just kinda sit back and watch things burn. Some even wander off. "That building wasn't THAT important." People get upset at each other. "Why didn't you do something!?!?" "This town is letting me down!" "The mayor should fix things! I don't have time to help."
At least, if people pay taxes, the mayor can hire firemen and police. No such luck in a guild.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Better or worse?
You go to the eye doctor and he will have you behind the giant eye machine. "Better ... or worse?" Cha-chick, another lens pops in front of your eye. "Better ... or worse?" People in WoW often end up doing this with their gear. It's kinda sad.
Your players should NEVER have to resort to third party applications or data sources to make decisions about their in-game character.
People in WoW run addons and consult external (non Blizzard) web sites to decide what gear is better for them. No wonder so many people see raiding as hard core! Nothing in the game can actually tell you how expertise rating will help, or hurt you. Nothing tells you if 25 agility is better than 25 critical strike rating.
If someone has to go to the Elitest Jerks forums and read five or six posts about their class before they can understand what gear is best for them, you have failed as a game designer. You have basically divided your community of players into knowledge rich and poor.
I see two ways to repair this in a game. One way is to make the game easier so that such decisions become less important. People can show up for raiding in whatever they want and manage to get through it. The other way would be to actually show all the data to people in a format that helps them make good decisions. Basically, every piece of gear should come down to "is this more or less DPS/healing/tanking?"
Your players should NEVER have to resort to third party applications or data sources to make decisions about their in-game character.
People in WoW run addons and consult external (non Blizzard) web sites to decide what gear is better for them. No wonder so many people see raiding as hard core! Nothing in the game can actually tell you how expertise rating will help, or hurt you. Nothing tells you if 25 agility is better than 25 critical strike rating.
If someone has to go to the Elitest Jerks forums and read five or six posts about their class before they can understand what gear is best for them, you have failed as a game designer. You have basically divided your community of players into knowledge rich and poor.
I see two ways to repair this in a game. One way is to make the game easier so that such decisions become less important. People can show up for raiding in whatever they want and manage to get through it. The other way would be to actually show all the data to people in a format that helps them make good decisions. Basically, every piece of gear should come down to "is this more or less DPS/healing/tanking?"
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