11/FEB/13
New Releases: What upcoming games are you looking forward to?
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#1
04-24-2007, 01:56 PM
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Guild Websites: Crossing the chasm from eye candy to virtual neeting hall
Everyday in every game that supports guilds, a few zillion groups of people form up to create them. They pay their gold, pick colors and emblems, get capes, halls, tabbords, other accoutrements and go. Some guilds don't even last a day. Within a month, many are gone--within three months, almost all. Yet a few go on for years like those featured in our World Class Guilds column in PlayerVox.
As a guild hosting service, I would like to be able to say that having a Website makes the guild, but it doesn't. Every guild needs a Website in the same way that every business person needs a business card. Both the business card and the guild Website need to look good in order to make a great first impression. However, after the initial introductions have been made, the business card and the guild Web pages have passed their usefullness. In order to offer more value, the guild Website must make the transition to a virtual meeting hall. What is a virtual meeting hall? Its an out of game place where your members want to hang out and get stuff to make playing the game more fun. A place they can check into game happenings at times when they can't play, such as work. A place to get a little game/guild fix when real life prevents play. Not every game needs guilds with virtual meeting halls. For the most part, in most games, everything that can be done to make a guild successful must be accomplished in game**. For games in which an outside virtual meeting hall can be of use, GuildCafe has provided some unique tools to help guild Website cross the chasm from guild eye candy to virtual meeting hall.* I have lead guilds since 2002. Not just one, but several and while I have hugely succeeded with some in some games, I have hugely bombed in others. I am building a new guild right now, Band, so once again, I am having all the same challenges you all have when establishing a new guild. I use this know how to guide my decisions about what to build for GuildCafe next. I'd like to augment that experience with your yours. Not only because I want to excel at guild hosting, but because my larger goal is to have guild leaders be more influential in the game industry--after all as a group, we have been working for free to make gaming better for our members for years. In short, Tarinth and I ,with our software and game development and marketing backgrounds, have been, and will continue to code our brains out to give guild leaders the best, most innovative tools to cross that chasm, but I am looking for something more...something elusive and ephemeral perhaps. When you started your most recent guild, what did you have in mind? Were you hoping to build a guild that lasts or just goofing around? If your guild failed or you gave up shortly after formation, what happened? Did you simply get tired of trying? Or did you need something you could not find? What are your biggest challenges as a guild leader? * I think GuildCafe has not put enough effort into explaining how to make the most of our cool tools and I intend to address this in this thread. **another subject I want to explore more in this forum. 
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#3
05-15-2007, 07:38 PM
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For me, the biggest challenge I've encountered in starting up a new guild is recruiting. Its very hard to get momentum going when you've only got six founding members. Your forums are dry, and your guild roster is empty. Its really hard to get people to take a chance with you, or if they do take a chance, its hard to get them to hang around patiently while you recruit more members.
If you cant get members, you never get to find out if you even have what it takes to lead a good guild.
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#4
05-15-2007, 11:12 PM
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member retention has always been the number one issue. My guildies stick with Nuke as long as they're playing a game with us.... but as soon as some new game grabs their attention, they jump ship, often without finding out if anyone else from Nuke is going to play it as well.
One of the big things I see Guildcafe helping with is not only having forums (we had those before), but with the way the site is presented as multi-game oriented. As many of the older and larger guilds are becoming -true- cross-platform entities, coordination of expansion into new game releases is a logistical nightmare for guild leaders... I've been telling guildies & ingame associates that this site can function like "a Myspace for MMO dorks," but has too many other features to be contrained by that description. Sometimes I use too many words (as above) so let me summarize: I want GC to help me keep track of every member of my guild no matter what game they're playing, or even if they're inactive, so that we can coordinate events and new gaming projects.
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#5
05-16-2007, 04:13 AM
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My friend just IM-ed: "so, it's like...one of the many guild mega-sites that allows you to host your guild and forums." Argh.
What already makes it go beyond that is the mapping of personal interests to games to guilds. (Wow, I'm getting all corporate here, but hey the title does involve the phrase "crossing the chasm" so never mind.) I'd like to see tracking of relationships between guilds (alliances in particular), but it's not really that important. So, here's how I ended up in this mess. A certain superhero game which shall remain nameless pretty much requires you to join a supergroup, uh, I mean guild, if you want certain features. I don't even really want to be in a group (AESK, see?) but I'm not antisocial. Hey, I want to fit in, I just don't want any pressure. Apparently, nobody else has ever felt this way, so I formed a group with this as its primary charter. So now, like many people, I have a clan with almost two members, and I'm perfectly happy--but it's a great clan charter, and many people could benefit from my wondrous leadership if only they knew about it. So, obviously my first goal is to recruit someone who cares about building the membership, and maybe make a nice graphic (something kewl note spelling). My second goal is to find other like minded individuals who have done the same thing, and ally with their clan/groups etc. Bootstrapping is generally individual, but I think alliances are very important. As are rivalries. An enemy is just a special kind of friend.  Well, hope I'm not as full of it as I think I am, but I feel that I'm pretty typical in that I've reached the "oh crap I formed a clan, now what" stage. t/DD
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#6
05-16-2007, 04:14 AM
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Meaning lives in the heart of the believer. I think the difference between the guilds that I have been in that have lasted and the ones I've been in that have not, is whether or not the tag meant something to the guild's members. Do they share a set of ideals? Do they strive to maintain a consistent reputation that defines them to themselves and to others? If you think about what a guild tag is, it's very insubstantial... for the most part just an in-game chat channel and a line of text by your character's name... it is only what people think the tag stands for that gives it any substance. I think this is indeed "something elusive and ephemeral" but it can also be something extremely powerful: a force that unites people, drives them to achieve common goals, and gives them pride to be a part of something they believe is greater than themselves. Guildcafe is uniquely situated to tap into what I think gives our guilds substance. Similar to the player fame system, perhaps something could be implimented to allow entire guilds to recieve (positive) community feedback, reinforcing what their tag stands for... what defines them and fuels their devotion to their guild. For example I kept a list on my guild's forum with feedback from "enemy" players as a persistent reminder of what our tag stands for even to our opponents in the game. Um... it was good feedback, heh... I'm in a respect/maturity kind of guild. =P
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#7
05-16-2007, 05:43 PM
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we are a new kinship in LOTRO & we experience the problem of members getting bored to visit our site/forum.every day we talk to them about the fact that the forum is the best place to write down ideas-problems...etc.
some of them think that its a waste of time.i really dont think so.Guildcafe has many features,all can use it.all kinships/guilds have their members joining & taking part in their forums. thats what we did in wow.we want to do it here too.so simple maybe its because they are low lvl and want to lvl up fast.time will tell....
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#8
05-23-2007, 05:11 PM
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A guild website can be an important and usefull tool if used correctly. If not used right, it can just be alot of work wasted that no one checks out.
CoT was kind of created on a spur-of-the-momment. We wanted to stay together, yet as a casual group, we're not always in game. It was important for us to have a central place on the web to connect. The internet is loaded with guild websites that are empty ghost-towns. If I was going to do the work, I wanted our site to be active. As a former English/Literature student, I had no idea how to create such a place. I decided the best way to learn was to check out the guild websites that were active and see what features contributed to that. As someone who was unfamilar with the guilds I was looking at, it also helped me understand what features were necessary for new people to navigate the site easily. The thing I've learned is that, it can be hard to get people to check the website. Some people are not forum people. In order to draw people in, you have to do a few key things: 1. Make it attractive. If the website is an eyesore, people aren't going to look at it. You don't have to be a webdesigner to make the site look attractive. The less you know about making a website, the more simple you should keep your design or use one of the hosting sites that allow for easy designing (like on GuildCafe). Sometimes the more you add, the more distracting the site can be from the important information. 2. Make it pertain to the members. There are many ways to do this. Include a screenshots area and allow people to submit their own to be shown. CoT has a featured mini-screenshot on the main page that changes on each visit or refresh. We also have an area for screenshots, and another area for member profiles. The profiles can be updated anytime a member e-mails me new info. We also have guild quotes that refresh on our forums. These are usually funny to the members and rekindle some fond memories we shared. This helps people see that they're really an important part of the guild and that the guild appreciates them. The guild site becomes a source of gaming pride. It also shows new people that this guild matters to each other. 3. Make it useful - You can include various guides and tools to help your members in the game you are in. You will know what is most useful to your members for the game you are playing. We have a regularly updated Links page for whatever game we're currently in. It's a simple thing to do and people will check your site to use it rather than bookmark a ton of different sites. 4. Keep your forums active. This is probably the most difficult. Unfortunalty you can't just set up a forum and expect people to use it. Most people check a forum for conversations and then just offer their 2 cents on ones they find interesting. If there are no new conversations happening, day after day, eventually people stop even checking. You need to regularly post news on the guild and the game. Post happy birthday notices to your members. Start silly forum games. Let people use sigs and avatars. Maybe you all like a certain TV show and you can start a discussion of that. If you're roleplayers, then an area for RPing is a way to get that going. It doesnt all have to be about the game. Anything to make sure there's something new and interesting there to engage people. Also posting guild event plans in advance will help people coordinate and save you in game organization time and allow more people to participate. This is a good selling point to those folks who say they can't be bothered with out of game stuff. Make it so that the guildies who check the site are in the know. We make new members register on the forum and post an introduction before they get invited to the guild. This lets us know that the new person at least knows where to go for guild information and allows us to give them the appropriate access. After that, it's up to them. We don't ever make anyone check it after that, but most do. 5. Keep the rest of your site up to date. If you have a news area, make sure you always have something for the current month showing (at least). If you have a links page, make sure they work. If you have a members area, keep it current. You have to make a committment to updating these types of things or your guild site will suffer. New people checking out your guild will see old stuff as a sign that the guild is not kept up. 6. Make the whole thing easy to navigate for potential new recruits. What's obvious to you is not always obvious to others. You designed the site, your members have explored every nook and cranny. You know where everything is. New people are not going to spend this kind of time looking for the information they need. On your first front page, include the basics or at least link to the basics. What game are you playing? What server? This may be obvious to you and your members but new people need this info. I've seen alot of guild websites, impressive and active ones, but there's no indication as to what or where they play. Don't get too big for your britches and think that everyone worth having already knows your guild. As a person looking for a new guild, if you're on a EU server and I'm in US, then I don't want to waste my time looking all over for that info. Make your guild rules, structure and any joining procedures easy to find. Some things that aren't necessary but are fun: guild email, IM/chat name exchange, guild myspace, guild facebook groups, guild frappr, anything that lets your guildies connect is usually good and these things do not require much updating. Circle of Trust has been around since March 2003. We still have 6 of our original founding members and most of the others have been with us over 2 years. We have stayed together through a couple of games and are currently awaiting WAR. I can honestly say that we have stayed together because we have an out of game area to keep coming back to. Because of our website, our guild has become more than just a means to an end in a game. These things are basic and alot of people are probably saying "DUH" right now, but there are tons of guild websites out there that don't do these things and they become just some outdate website before they even get started. Just because I've referred to our site alot, here it is: http://www.circleoftrust.org It's rather simple looking and it's not the best site out there, but it works for us.
Last edited by Zeli : 05-23-2007 at 05:34 PM.
Reason: typo
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#9
05-24-2007, 08:38 PM
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Then again the top of the site gets somewhat crowded that way, so maybe some of our site options or guild options should be along the left side, like the account tools or something. Also, is there a quicker way to get to my guild site (besides the direct link, I mean?) than going to my personal page, clicking the groups tab and then clicking the banner? Maybe there could be a way to set one of your groups as your default group and then have a button that takes you to your default group's page, so that you could easily get back to it from anywhere? On the topic of making things easy to find...is there a way to customize which page (out of the four that we get) is listed first? I made them as I thought of them, and would really like for the more important ones to be first...do I have to remake them or is there a way to move things around?
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#10
05-24-2007, 09:02 PM
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Quote:
Quote:
We want to be careful about trying to throw too much of our own navigation into a guild's page -- we want to make sure it's YOUR area. Related to the above, perhaps it would be helpful to have the groups you are a member of appear in the upper left, near the GuildCafe logo. That could provide the cross-linkage you're looking for.
Last edited by Tarinth : 05-24-2007 at 09:19 PM.
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55.42%
The number of players who play "Bad Company" that also play "Bad Company 2."
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