dndhatcher

Depends on the kind of guild. In a PvP, RP or endgame raiding guild there is little room for even casual friends, much less kids.

It was actually easier to let my kids be in my guilds before they learned to read. Now that they are pre-teens and on some games I am not, I have to observe their guild chat.


I lead a social guild for gamers who are playing to have fun. There is basically one rule. Have fun as long as it is not at someone else's expense. Part of that philosophy is keeping guild chat civil and gaming friendly. There are plenty of adults who dont want guild chat full of swearing and swapping porn urls. Keeping chat social and game focused makes for a good community with fun people and allows kids and friends to be invited without much worry.

Where is the "they are nothing but glorified demos that help more than the harm?" option?

Beaurocracy Online.

Everyone gets their own cubicle to decorate. Hardcore players can work themselves up into a corner office with windows.

Its a sandbox game where everyone has their own objectives like:
>exploring the skyscraper and visiting all the other players cubicles and offices
> staking out a resource node like a copier, lunch room or water cooler and socializing with every who comes by to farm resources
> accumulating corporate karma which can be used to garner promotions, cubicle upgrades and other in-game perks.

I really like the "holistic support" replacing healing statement.

I understand why you focused on one character, in particular someone wanting or trying to play a healer but by doing so I think you miss the other parts of the GW2 "soft trinity" concept.

There is also "holistic control" instead of tanking and "holistic damage" instead of DPS.

The "holistic support, control and damage" roles are performed by multiple people in the group. There wont be one elementalist trying to do all the support and healing by themselves, Rangers will move in, pop healing spring then move back, Engineers will drop healing and thumper turrets or heal/buff poitions into the front lines. Pretty much everyone in a group can contribute to the front line's survival by using control, buff and heal skills as appropriate. A smart group will stagger these skills so that a constant array of heals, buffs and CC will hit the front lines to maximize their survivability.

Just by the nature of almost all skills being damage skill plus some other effect everyone contributes damage at the same time as they contribute to the overall control and support of the group.

I liked the poster above that said sandboxes are FAT.

Freedom (for players to roam broad areas)

Alternatives (different play styles: crafting/building and exploring are as relevant as fighting)

Tools (for players to affect the content)

Your faith in your fellow gamers is a your weakness.

Thats kind of the point of the author's article. You wont find an MMO that is everything for everyone.

SWTOR having a million subscribers will teach the exact opposite of what you think they should. You can have a million subscribers for weak gameplay as long as your swords glow.

@scfs123 GW1 was a miracle CORPG. Not truly an MMORPG. The reason I would qualify it as miracle was showing a good, well supported and expanding multiplayer online game with no sub fee was viable.

You dont consider WoW to be the first "miracle MMO"? A game that influenced and dominated how the entire MMO industry worked for several years?

SWTOR may be a mini-miracle MMO in pushing future MMOs to have better voice and better single player RPG features.

It is way to early to know if GW2 might have similar industry wide impact on how open world questing is handled, or the policy of removing time-sinks and grind in future MMOs.

Mining gets raw materials for strong metal weapons, heavy metal armors and magical jewelry. Wood is only good for Bows, Spears and practice swords.