Trophy equipment
There’s a Terra Nova thread titled Source Identification and Soulbinding which basically says,
…soulbinding is a “source identifier.” In WoW-like systems, you know if a person has been through a particular dungeon because the item they’re carrying could only have come from there. I have a Misplaced Server Arm, thus, you know I’ve been in Naxxramas. Fine.
But in DDO (which does have soulbinding, but to a lesser degree), the difficulty is that I can’t read the life story of a potential groupmate in their equipment.
Or you could use a badge system, which actually tells you where people have been and what they have done, does not have limited slots for historical record, and can even provide finer detail, such as whether the person in question was actually effective in that raid or not — while still leaving the channel of equipment open so that the player can use it to broadcast things like whether they prefer to play frontline tank or backup, whether they have a sense of humor or are grim powergamers, whether they are more interested in cybering than in quests, and so on.
The problem with relying on this whole “item trophy” paradigm is that it actually dilutes the profile of the character. It forces badges to be displayed on the basis of their utility in the game, not on the basis of how much the player values them, what sort of achievement they represent, how reflective they are of player personality, or even whether they are appropriate for the combat role you want them to play.
Combat statistics (which is really all equipment trophies tend to be) are not a sufficiently rich language to capture a player’s profile. Their chief virtue is that you can read the very small amount of info they convey at a distance. We’d be serving players better to instead find ways to surface more useful elements of the profile and history in visible form.
51 Responses to “Trophy equipment”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
[IMG] On this post about “Trophy Equipment” over at Raph Koster’s blog, Raph was suggesting that badges (ala SWG) be a viable alternative to using wearable inventory items as “trophies” in MMORPG games, though an implementation of the idea that’s actually cool has yet to be found. Folks seem to be leaning both ways
[…] Long answer is on my blog. […]
The problem with that, of course, is that badges are lame. Or if you prefer the more know-it-all version, badges have as of yet failed to find the player resonance so far enjoyed by loot. Giant 8-foot flaming swords are just plain cooler than an icon on a character sheet that’s usually hard to find.
That suggests that we haven’t figured out a way to make badges cool enough yet. Burying them on the character sheet is probably part of the issue.
Oh — and there’s nothing stopping the loot from still being there. I’m just saying that using it as the badge is part of the problem.
I am pretty much positive that players would be MORE happy with trophy loot if they were able to customize it. Actually, scratch that — I’ve SEEN it — Legend had the “item strings” which did that — so I know so.
Come to think of it, Legend also had a big ol’ global announcement when someone earned a cool badge. Not all of them, just the cool ones.
I agree with Damion, badges are lame, unless I’m pulling them off the loot pile from yet another player corpse…
Perhaps a way to add some ‘cool factor’ to them would be for the paperdoll, character sheet, and badge listing to show up on a website that everyone can see? Something within the games domain and pulling right from the servers. Bragging rights are only cool when you can show others how much more competent than them.
Forgive my peen waving, but that’s why flaming swords are so damn cool. People see it and go ‘That’s some cool shit!’
Badges aren’t perfect, but they are a big step above soulbinding in the traditional sense. MMOG’s tended to have much better balance when developers designed for raiding as an occasional activity, not a fulltime lifestyle.
I’d rather see a tank pass his old breastplate to his protege as a hand-me-down than have to stick it in the bank because he got a shiny new upgrade (of course, it would be even better if it fell apart due to heavy use).
“Forgive my peen waving, but that’s why flaming swords are so damn cool. People see it and go ‘That’s some cool shit!’ ”
Untill all the warrior class on screen have that same cool shit sword.
Don’t badges of this kind speak to the lack of freedom, the linear game play directed down preset paths?
Badges can come in many forms, and players do like them. In UOs recent stuff they had MOBs in the invasions carrying “rations” as loot. Simply gray colored food drops. It’s amazing how many players collected these on top of the 100’s of other collection items they have, even as terribly simple as they are. But these rations serve as yet another “badge”, along with all the other items, as trophies in players houses.
So, badges are a desired thing. Even a “worldly” game desirer such as me wants them in some form or another. I loved the original UO “rare” items. Badges. I wanted unusual looks, through unusual colors and certain wearables, as a symbol for my character. Badges.
As you can see, there’s lots of ways to do badges, and it really is up to the player in question as to what he wants to satisfy this desire. But I think you’d be selling the idea short to think of it only in terms of character history. Badges are status symbols. As a player, I’d encourage developers to open this thing up. “Badges” can be built into every class or skill, every aspect of adventure, every corner of socialization. They mean alot to players, it’s one of the really biggies.
I agree with Raph, and soulbinding is not my cup of tea. To go get something pre-placed there for you, like for everyone else, is by the way not to write a life story to me. I think you should be able to be an interesting person with a rich life story in a virtual world without a fancy burning sword.
Not only are badges lame, they’re hell on earth for the roleplayer-type who doesn’t actually WANT people to know everywhere they’ve been and whether or not they’ve achieved what level/skill level/profession.
At least you can unequip an item or weapon.
right on Cael.
but don’t forget that usually, “badge-loot” is the “best” stuff.
so while unequipping is possible, it’s not very wise for survival.
so once again, Roleplaying is not encouraged, and Roleplayers are put at a disadvantage because of their preference for “realism”.
and eventually EVERYONE’s gonna have that giant flaming sword. then it ain’t gonna look so cool anymore.
It’s nice to get special attention and all, but really, I’ll just go away. It is your blog, after all. I wish you luck in your attempt to break out of the chains.
The thing with WoW is that the linear progression is set up so you know that anyone with a Missplaced Servo Arm will also have seen all the other previous big raids and spent so much time in the game that they have several level 60 alts and hve done all the other instances and all the quests available in the game.
This type of linear path to all relevant badges makes each new one contain all the old ones. (At least as WoW is staged, it would be different in a game which is less linear.)
I really like my own Missplaced Servo Arm, it rox. 😛
Damn, sorry, I didn’t think that would post but would “await moderation” like the others. Didn’t mean to do that publically.
I find the badge concept interesting but it may require more then merely a line in a character’s bio stating *has been to the forge of doom*. This might very well be a case where an MMO might learn from a FPS or more perticularly from the Battlefield (2 or 2142) games.
Badges there are unique with interesting drawings and specific prerequisits. In Battlefield 2142 they took it up a notch by also giving points towards your next unlocked weapon with badges (the best badges giving more points). The same concept of badge and reward might be easily translated to an MMO but instead you might add *fame* or *reputation* points.
As a side note I have been a role player for a good while and I do not really understand how such a system could possibly hamper one. The worst case scenario is that role players agree not to use the opponent’s bio as a source of out of character information *shrug*.
What exactly is the purpose of “soulbound”, “no-trade”, “bio-linked,” etc loot? What’s the advantage over tradeable/sellable goods?
Oops, submitted too soon.
What about the one I got from the account I just hypothetically ebayed?
Soulbinding is no more certification of achievements than having the money to buy “Super-Rare Item #463.”
“The worst case scenario is that role players agree not to use the opponent’s bio as a source of out of character information *shrug*.”
I love naivity. In all its many varied and amusing forms.
CadetUmfer: “What exactly is the purpose of “soulbound”, “no-trade”, “bio-linked,” etc loot?”
The primary reason is to cut down on outside RMT (ebay, ige, etc), i.e. – loss of revenue to the developers. A secondary benefit, however, is that it reduces the camping of spawns that give the no-trade/soulbound item. Someone loots it, they’re immediately gone. You don’t have to worry about them camping the spawn 24/7 with a 3rd party program like autoit.
I find that trophies become much cooler when the game has a player housing system that allows me to display them.
For example, in EQ2 I shelled out the money (and status points) for a 5 room house so that I could have a library to show off all the cool books I’d collected from various quests. I’ve got another room that has weapon trophies on the wall, another room with statues and paintings, and so on.
It’s not a hard transition to have encounters drop trophy items as well that can be displayed. Kill Zzaxx the ancient red dragon? You can loot the cool +5 sword of uberness, but you also get a “Scale of ZZaxx” that you can mount and display, even though all it is, is a trophy.
As far as usable trophies vs. nonusable trophies vs. badges, I think there should be some of each in a game. But rather than badges being things on the character sheet (like SWG), they should be things like custom titles, special art assets (remember SWG’s nightsister bracer?), or other “visible on character” things for best effect.
Then by all means enlighten me Cael.
In 3 years in Star Wars Galaxies – which did have a badge system mind you – my badges or those of the people I knew were never used as a source of out of character information in role play. This was of course most likely due to the fact that we had so many and that they never were part of our role play to being with (just browsing through the 100+ that we had was long).
Now out of character information was indeed used sometimes to the detriment of role play, of that there was no doubt. The main sources in our case however was ooc information given between players or players reading and using information from stories typed in the forums (which their characters should not be aware of but what the heck, some cheated). There is only so much pertinent role playing information that you can gleam from a badge, especially if the guy mastered 31 professions. The fact that a character will have a flaming sword or a rifle in hand will be a much clearer sign.
Ditto on this and everything else David said. Trophies belong above the mantle, on the wall, or in trophy cases, not on the character as either items or badges.
We can give trophies to the player and we can give trophies to the character. We can soul-bound items to the character, but can we soul-bound items to the player? I think this is a key fundamental question.
We have many ways of tracking and awarding characters, but with the emergence of Xfire we have a system of tracking and awarding players.
The way I see it, Xfire is not about ladders, but about association and social identifiers. In the early internet forums and BBS days, we had various signature systems that describe who you are (regardless of your username or account).
So if we put the focus on player and character identification (of association or accomplishment), then it would be easy to implement the right methods for rewarding and presenting them.
Frank
That is one of the great uses for player housing, IMO. Another concept that I enjoy is having NPCs ocassionally broadcast statements about your characters.
Named NPC whispers, “I heard that (character’s name) has traveled to the treacherous Valley of Shadows and returned alive!”
Dotswarlock, any advantage, however so slight, WILL be used by someone eventually.
players “agreeing” on anything is completely naive.
unless you close yourself off within a small tight-knit group of close and trusted fellow Roleplayers, there will be people who use OOC info, including everything listed in your bio.
why the heck do characters need bios anyway?
i can’t look at someone on the street and instantly know that they’ve snowboarded down Mount Everest, played Baseball in Cuba, fought a polar bear in Alaska, and caught a shark in Portugal.
bios are a waste of pixels.
99% of bios are lame “teh Empior killd my paretns, and i fownded teh Ribelliun 2 aveng tehm” type nonsense.
and having badges in there is even more of a waste.
it’s not like anyone else in the game can’t go ahead and get those very same badges.
i’ve never seen a “one-time-only”, truely meaningful quest in an MMO, where a badge saying “damn! this guy right here is pretty remarkable!” would be warranted.
it’s not a trophy if everyone has one.
I’ll have to agree with Paul and David on this, trophies are nice as occassional rare loot but better displayed on a personal house. Besides thropies in a house adds a whole new type of game play (SWG BE Zoo’s and player museums for instance).
“The primary reason is to cut down on outside RMT (ebay, ige, etc), i.e. – loss of revenue to the developers”
Actually thats been completely worked out in WOW, there are in fact guilds that will act as a guide through an instance for a fee. 400gp per run, 250gp per epic, etc. this gold is then moved to…well you can guess where large sums of gold go….this is not only on one server its getting rampant. Gamers will think of ways to play the game the way the developers never intended, theyll also think of new RMT business models, no matter the games restrictions.
Adding a “show or not” button to a badge is easy.
What’s hard is making an item-driven game not force you to wear equipment that runs contrary to your roleplay. In a raiding world, for example, you can’t unequip that item or weapon.
voluntary on/off toggles don’t seem like a good solution to any design problem.
I don’t believe badges themselves are lame, but I do think the way I’ve seen them administered in game was lame.
Say what you will, but in SWG there were thousands of people who tried to get as many badges as they could because it became a status symbol they desired.
The biggest problem in SWG was the sheer number of badges players could get, documenting everything from killing a Krayt Dragon to standing on the spot where Anakin showed Padme his lightsaber.
If there was a way to have the more meaningful “badges” front and center, I think people would look for them like they do loot in WoW.
CoX has badges as well, and while a lot of them are of the “everything this guy has done” variety that most people won’t read through, they also added the option of having a title for your character appear below your name that corresponds to your accomplishment.
So using again using WoW, if players could get “Dragon Slayer” under their name to signal their accomplishment – distinguishing themselves from the “Murloc Master” i think people would clamor for it.
For me the biggest issue with WoW in this regard isn’t the status symbol aspect of loot, but rather how you really aren’t able to express yourself through your character. If you’re a lvl 60 Tauren Warrior chances are you look like damn near every other lvl 60 Tauren Warrior. And even if you break through and get the Sword of a Thousand Truths there are hundreds of other similar looking Tauren Warriors in line to get it so they can continue looking just like you.
As a result I think players lose that connection with their character other games foster.
In SWG I absolutely loved my Dark Jedi Knight and enjoyed having him stand out in a crowd from other DJKs because of his style and look. In WoW my counterpart is in love with his full set of Tier 3 armor and really care less about the dime-a-dozen night elf underneath it.
Not even ones where the design problem is “give me the option of showing this or not”? Uh…
I have no problem with badges, though they couldn’t really be a “replacement” for trophy items. With that said, here’s my quick idea surrounding badges..
There could be roleplay-esque ways of implementing badges that go a bit beyond a boring blurb on a character sheet that says “…has been to the peaks of no return.. and returned!”. I remember that UO had books that you could write anything you want inside and leave them anywhere to be read, which of course begs the “i b3atZ the b@d ar5e Drag0n” type of entry, BUT… using the book idea a little bit in combination with badges, there could be some sort of blurb about what was done, but perhaps it is served in the form of a auto-entered (read: designer written, but somewhat dynamic as well depending on the events taking place during a triggered encounter) descriptive “journal entry” in a book-item carried by the player in a special inventory slot., time stamped and the whole deal…
“December of the 14th year of rebirth, 3rd moon….
Stumbled upon a cobblestone path east of the misty forest, which in turn led to our near demise as we were ambushed by devout members of the Dark Order. We fought valiantly and they were felled, but not without casualties of our own, the scars of which will serve as a reminder of this day for the rest of our lives.”
Maybe group members didn’t die in battle, to which there would be other designated text snippets for building the entry, but hopefully you get the basic picture of the idea. Players interested in letting others know what they’ve done in their adventures could show the journal to other players. Maybe journals would “fill-up” and the used “filled” journals would be place-ables as trophies inside of your home. The journals themselves in either case would be titled with the player name, so they could not be forged in that regard and therefore a meaningful account of the player’s activities. Is just my quick one-off thought…..
Of course, as long as there are cool items in a game that not everybody can attain easily, there will be item trophies as well.
My two copper.
One of the things City of Heroes does with badges is attach a displayable title to go with it.
If you click on the badge entry in City of Heroes/Villains, that sets your displayed title.
“Equipped-item-based” history displays don’t work nearly as well as trophies that can be used for decoration. Having a player history is all well and good… but it’s not nearly as interesting as seeing what the player values and puts on display in a house or base.
everyone should be playing by the same rules, no matter how insignificant some of those rules may seem.
putting on/off toggles on things puts people at advantages/disadvantages.
obviously on the surface, a simple display of text indicating a badge, or lack thereof, would seem like an insignificant thing, offering little to no advantage. but there could arise a situation where it becomes significant, and makes the difference between an immersive and enjoyable experience for all, or an unenjoyable experience for some.
everyone should be playing by the same rules, no matter how insignificant some of those rules may seem.
So everyone can turn the badges on or off. It’s the same rules. You can’t abstract this.
Agreed, Michael.
😐
well, by that definition, yeah, it’s the “same rules”. but more in the sense that you’ve got sub-sets of rules.
whoops…
add to that: i just don’t like the idea of a toggle-switch in regard to ANY mechanic really. allowing players to change their ruleset on the fly doesn’t sit well with me.
it’s like when anti-perma-death people tell the pro-perma-death people that there can be a switch which allows the “hardcore” players to play with perma-death when they want to.
a perma-death character should stay a perma-death character. no switching back and forth on the whims of players.
An on/off button works for me. Heck, one nice feature that I found in EQ2 was the role playing on/off feature. At least that way it was easier to spot role players if you wanted to interact with them or turn it off if you were simply not in the mood that day 😉
So much is in the presentation. I don’t like the isea of turning things on and off, but I’d like to see something like a sash that displayed badges, as in medals, that a player could wear or not. It boils down to the same thing, just presents to the player in a different way that makes it feel more like “roleplay” and “world”.
I agree with the same rules thing. I don’t see a need to divide players into groups, and think that’s bad for a game in the first place. Roleplay doesn’t have to require special effort. It also doesn’t have to be strict. Just because someone says “u” instead of “you”, can’t that be accepted as a form of street language? If I were running a game, that’s one of the first things I’d present to players as they enter the game. I’d call the heavy roleplay speaking (thee’s and thou’s) a “high speach”, and note that there are many dialects in the common language. Set the tone to bring players together, give roleplayers a direction to go to when they encounter players who don’t roleplay. The divisions in MMO’s are hurting the game play, and switches and designs for style are a bad thing that further hurts the games community. It is what it is, and there is really only 1 community in a game. Even in all the games combined, if you think about it.
They’re called “roleplaying” games and everyone accepts that. Heck, we all know we’re playing a computer image with computer designed parts. But from there, we start going directly into divisions. Not good.
I don’t accept that lol. The amount of people that actually roleplay is a very, very small portion of the gaming communities i’ve been a part of.
If anything most folks are taking the “RPG” part out of these online games. Anybody else noticed they aren’t “MMORPGs” any more and just “MMOs” or “MMOGs”?
MMOs, MMOGs, MMORPGs… that’s semantics for the most part.
who’s taking the “RPG” out of these online games? the players? or the designers?
most “MMOs” are not designed with Roleplaying in mind. so it’s no surpise to not see many people Roleplaying in them.
those that do are usually “swimming upstream” as it is.
on the other hand, i’ve come to learn that most “MMOs” are designed to be quite similar to traditional pen&paper “RPGs”, at least in terms of hard combat mechanics.
so in a sense, they’re more “RPG” than not, no matter what you like to call them.
they’re just not designed for “Roleplaying”.
In some respects you could say that combat stats and the in-game value of trophy items along with the trophy-aspect of demonstrating an accomplishment are mutually reinforcing. I will care more about looking at a players equipment or about obtaining equipment if I know that it demonstrates an achievement and I am also more likely to care about and notice achievements if they exist as an object that I already care about because of its in-game value.
It may not be ideal but I think it sort of works. The problem with housing is that most people don’t go visiting other people’s houses. They do notice your equipment when they run by you.
Housing is a niche channel with a high bandwidth. Equipment is a mainstream channel with low bandwidth. They both have a place.
I agree. But lets go farther. Guild housing, holds and keeps, has an even bigger place if the game is tailored to social organizations, expanding even as far as city building. Imagine status symbols in the way of golden statues and marble reliefs, magical wells and gryphon flight towers. Can we imagine this as another aspect of “end game”?
To expand on what I said about “badges” earlier.
Badges should probably take one of two forms. Either a custom title “Slayer of XXXXX, Defender of XXXXX”, or custom artwork that can be applied by the character.
The way I foresee custom artwork happening would be that every character has certain types of visible items they can wear – like cloaks, tabards, shields, etc. These items carry stats of course, and have their own artwork (so if I pick up an elven cloak, the initial artwork might be a simple green cloak). However, based on my achievements (badges), I might be able to choose a different cloak design to display. So if I’d rescued the Imperial Princess and saved the land from the Demon Lord, I could choose to display that special cloak design instead – purple/gold with the crest of the Empire emblazoned on it perhaps. My cloak would still have its old elven cloak stats, but because of my achievement, I have the option of having a more unique cloak design. You could do it with shields or tabards as well in a fantasy game. In a sci-fi game it would depend on the flavor but I’m pretty sure that there would be two or three pieces where this would work.
As a side note this is also a great way to allow people to show guild affiliation – in fact I believe it’s how EQ2 is handling guild cloaks in the new expansion. Basically it would be like giving all tabards in WoW stats, and then allowing the player the option to display the base item graphic or their guild tabard graphic instead.
Amaranthar:
Not really. See also SWG where all of this stuff was available and roughly 150 players per server gave a damn about it. Those were the and wannabe mayors. Nobody else cared – all they cared about was the utility. “Does it have a shuttleport, does it have cloning?”
Seriously. Players do not care, or at least not a significant enough proportion that it is therefore a viable financial decision to waste resources on that stuff.
Also, please bear in mind that city-building scatters populations and impacts on other resource-types (whether mobspawns, mineralspawns or anything else). Players like accomodation so it needs to be provided, but for the love of all that’s holy, unless you’re also providing strict per capita limits on number of cities, just provide it inside the static NPC cities instead.
Oh, i wandered off-topic again…
I have to disagree with you Cael. A great number of players do care about housing, citybuilding, guildhalls, and so on. See SL’s huge population. See player demand for player space stations and capital ships in EVE online, SWG, and before them, Earth and Beyond. See guild halls being at the top of nearly every guild’s wishlist in EQ2. Players almost always have a subconscious desire to build and be part of something bigger than themselves, and the game that can achieve that for them will be one that keeps their subscription for a long time to come.
Even if it’s not at the top of their agenda, all those little things add up to a more immersive experience, and they miss them when they’re gone. Utility will always be top of mind for most players though, so, in terms of civic structures, the majority of civic structures in a city-building metagame should definitely have utility. The same as if you allow guilds to build guild halls or fortresses or whatever, the things they do should have a benefit for individual players and reason to exist.
In SWG, player cities served several important roles. First, as a mark of achievement. People were proud of their cities. Second, as an economic limiter. By spreading the population out, and with a very limited ability to shop galaxy-wide, local markets were encouraged, and the game economy (which was crafting-based) could support more crafters. And finally, as an enabler to roleplaying and general wordly-ness of the game.
There was a lot more that could have been done with them for sure, that would have made them even more central in the life of the every day player, but to say that most players didn’t care is a severe and inaccurate generalization to make.
players do care about housing. but the majority only care as far as their functionality goes.
in SWG, player-cities and houses had little to no function.
i’m talking REAL function. serving an integral role in the game-World.
player cities amounted to little more than customized places to hang out.
they did facilitate Roleplay, but only to an extent. and not much moreso than the 3D graphics facilitated Roleplay.
there were no cities controlling/defending important locations like harbors or mountains rich in resources (in fact, there was no need to defend a city at all, as buildings were unattackable).
their locations, and therefore much of their function was arbitrary.
player houses amounted to little more than extra storage and a decorating mini-game.
characters didn’t need to seek shelter from harsh weather or extreme temperatures. they didn’t need to rest their weary legs, nor their weary heads in a safe and comfortable place.
guild-halls were amounted to little more than player houses with the functionality of forming a guild (which also had little to no TRUE-function in the overall scheme of things).
i realize player-cities and houses in SWG were a popular idea, and that similar mechanics are requested in many other games.
but unless they’re implemented in ways that allow for TRUE functionality, the majority of players will tend to care little about them.
for proof of this, see the many ghost towns littering the landscape of SWG.
(i realize that other factors, like the CU, NGE, ect. contributed to a drop in subscriptions which led to many ghost towns. but ghost towns existed LONG before any of the player exoduses. i was part of a Roleplaying town or two. spending a majority of my time in those towns, i would often only see two or three other characters in town at a time.
in a town of 50 individual houses…
that’s a ghost town.)
[…] Comments […]
I agree that player cities should be much more than just a place to showcase things. They should be able to offer all that NPC cities do, plus much more.
If you think about games like Ages of Empires and Civilization, why can’t player built cities add structures that add capability to the city?
Of course, the design would have to be altered to fit the MMORPG. What can be done to add to a player city by building particular city owned structures? Temples? Inns? If you build a well, you have access to water. Can’t this simple thing be incorporated into the basic low level city building design to mean something? Many trade skills need water in the production. Shouldn’t players be more prosperous if their water is easy, and free of labor charges, to get? Couldn’t building a wind mill to grind grain be incorporated into the game design to mean some benefit to the players there? Couldn’t golden statues and marble reliefs be used to train skills through study? Can’t magical wells be used to some purpose? Wouln’t gryphon flight towers be an attraction for players?
There are so many ways to make player built cities become focal points through trades and advancement, with a “trophy” system as a part of it.
A big part of a trophy system designed for player cities (also for guilds which could be like villages, or even individuals with a “manor”) can be bringing back discoveries. We’re used to looted “recipes”, and this same idea can be expanded to this kind of design. Moreover, players could learn a great deal from the world around them.
Wouldn’t players want to learn to build taller, multifloored structures? How about being able to study ruins to learn to construct arches?
There are so many ways to go here, to use a trophy system well beyond personal gear or collectables.
Some of these ideas I have outlined in an MMO plan i’m working on. It’s really kind of my ideal game if somebody like Blizzard came to my door and said “we want to build the game you want to play.”
Some details are here … http://mmo.relicsofcorbantis.com/civ.shtml
But basically the idea is to take cities from SWG and turn them into the Coronet/Theed/Ironforge/Ogrimmar for your guild. Tons of functional buildings, NPCs, quest givers and also the added capability of defense structures to defend your city against other guilds who might attack.
[…] There was an interesting topic doing the rounds earlier this week, related to a post on TerraNova about the concepts of soul-binding, “trophy equipment”, and how different designs impact the general ability to gauge a player’s level of experience, at least, via a review of their equipment. Raph also commented on the topic, and there was some significant follow-up commentary. The impact and ramifications of RMT on this kind of situation were touched on as well. […]