Our efforts in Darkfall have been going unbelievably well, winning all but one siege so far in the alliance (LotD is undefeated), defending on all fronts, and doing well in roaming PvP daily outside of the epic large scale battles. LotD also has several scheduled events to attend each week to keep us busy killing and PvPing.
Darkfall is an amazing PvP sandbox game. However it has a pretty large barrier to entry for new players and somewhat difficult learning curve. The UI is non-intuitive at times and the game can be extremely cut-throat with a full loot system. If you die you can lose everything on you like in UO. If you don't have someone you know in the game to help and group with in your first weeks or even days of play, it's easy to be frustrated and leave the game before you are able to enjoy the experience it brings with large scale sieges, raids, naval battle, water, artillery, warhulks (land vehicles), and powerful mounted combat.
With that in mind, Lords of the Dead has taken the lead, along with Black Shields and several other guilds/clans in Darkfall, to create a guild called "New" located in the city of Hammerdale. The basic concept is NEW members have access to the clan and built city for 30 days. NEW is located by great starter area PvE, has free voice chat with Mumble, and several experienced Counselors that will provide not only gear, but instruction on basic game mechanics, pvp concepts, dueling, outings, events, and character building advice. Elite players from all over the world come and go helping new players on a daily basis too and showing off their talent.
LotD and Vendetta are leading the faction just as we expected. Week one has been mostly an issue of getting everyone on the server, getting our game plan executed, and preparing for the war in the Abyss.
The server is still shaping up, but already we have one shit talking guild. I'll admit that they are the fastest levelers on the server, and it may give them a temporary advantage. But in the long term I expect that they will be crushed under the LotD and Vendetta banners.
So Chris Mancil from Trion Studios flew several Guildmasters out to this year's Austin Game Developers Conference (AGDC) for a panel where we could interact with game developers and community managers. It was an interesting trip to say the least, and I'll give my version of how things went. I'm sure Sinister and Combine will write up their version as well, so be sure to check up on their sites too.
Title:
Making the Grade: What Gaming's Premier Guilds Really Think About You
Presentation Format: Lecture
Secondary Presentation Format : n/a
Audience Level : Intermediate
Presentation Description: Massively Multiplayer Online Games revolutionized our industry and redefined entertainment for an entire generation. While multiplayer clans and online teams were a common fixture in competitive gaming before, MMO Player Guilds transformed the way our online worlds evolved, how our communities developed, and occasionally – how our games died. Spanning Meridian 59 to Age of Conan, this panel will assemble five Guild Masters from gaming´s premier player organizations to discuss the state of MMO gaming from top to bottom. Why they choose some games and quit others, how they approach beta
This week the AION open beta begins, and the LotD AION chapter members are preparing for the new Faction War where we plan to unleash hell on whatever hapless victims we can find.
As mentioned in previous announcements, LotD will be teaming up with the Vendetta guild once again. LotD and Vendetta ran two waves of Destruction players off of the Azazel server in the Warhammer days, and both of our guilds work extremely well together. AION seems to understand that population is required for a Realm vs Realm (RVR) game, and so their retail launch servers will initially be between 10-15 US servers.
LotD is not caught up in the "Unofficial PVP Server" designation game because ever since WoW-Archimonde in 2004 those things never truly pan out. LotD and Vendetta will pick a server at release, and we'll face anyone brave or stupid enough to roll there against us.
The open beta is the last hurrah before release, so we're just going to have fun while its up. Our recruitment forum is open, and we'll continue to review applications through release. We're only recruiting what we need, so anyone who applies to the guild should pay particular attention to the information we put in the recruitment forum!!
We've been pushing hard in Darkfall and doing well. We've completed all major pieces of our main city. As you can see, our alliance has two of the top three city crafters in the game right now since launch and we're #1 for the Week:
PvP is warming up as people are getting their characters skilled to acceptable levels, and skirmishes are happening nightly.
If you haven't tried Darkfall, I definitely recommend you do. This game is already at an epic level for pvp, politics, and large scale warefare.
I am proud to announce that we achieved rank 1 for our server, Mug'thol, in the 10-Man Strict field in both Progression and Achievements. The 10-Man Strict field is represented by guilds that only compete at the 10-Man raid level. We have gained more achievement points(similar to the Tome of Knowledge in WAR), and progressed further in kills than any other guild in this bracket, on our server. This places us in the top 1% of the world in this bracket. All statistics were taken from www.guildox.com
With size and scope increasing we are pleased that our advancement into the 25-Man bracket is preceded by our first place accomplishments in the 10-Man strict rankings. We have many strong players in all aspects of the game, and we are happy to be a part of LotD as a whole, with many members waiting for their chance to play with LotD in other chapters. We would also like to thank our elders and leaders. You have given us this opportunity, and we hope you are all as proud of our work as we are.
Lords of the Dead
