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Updated on 09/10/00 05:35 AM
| Guild Index: | |
| Havenlight | Xegony |
| Reviewed Guilds: | Rating: |
| Havenlight | 8 |
Well here we go, I've been slacking getting this page going, as I didn't really have a place to start. Thinking about it some today I decided to get going on it. First off, I'd like people to fill out this Simple Poll: Are you currently a member of a Guild? Poll can be found HERE.
Due to the number of servers and number of guilds, I'm only going to be judging guilds on their web pages. I'll be looking at these pages as a person without a guild would. Would I, Player A, be interested in joining this guild by the information found on the web page. Is the page new member friendly? Is the guild even taking new members? Does the page add something to the game, in terms of useful information?
I'll also be looking at the guild page in terms of "Alliance Value". Would I, Guildmaster of Guild A, be interested in forming a working relationship with the guild based on the information I find on the web page?
Its hard to judge a guild on a server I don't play on. You might find some added info on the Guilds of Xegony as I have had contact with many of them.
Reviewed this Week:
Havenlight:
I looked up the Havenlight web site after spending an evening with them in the Plane of Hate. I found them to be helping and pleasant to group with for the evening. As far as the page goes, it has a very professional feel to it. The page design is clear and easy to follow, and getting around the page is a simple effort. They have a level limit requirement set at 47, if I remember correctly. The guild code is well laid out and fairly straight forward. Not really a guild you'd try and get in with your lower level character or if you were not a full time player, as they tend to play hard and go for the more difficult areas of EQ. Experienced play is definitely something they are looking for.
Page News: August
Welcome to the EQ guild review! This is actually the third time I have worked on a guild review page. The Original Guild Review (found here) was founded by Slyfiend, an avid player of UO. He needed some help along the way as the number of reviews was getting out of hand. He held an open contest to pick a reviewer that looked at guilds as he did, in the end I was picked and we worked together for several months. Later he turned over the page to me for personal reasons.
After leaving UO, I had a brief time with Tribes. I brought the guild review into that game also, continuing the work, and letting the great idea live on.
Then came EQ, and as many of you know I started and continue to update (although not enough) The Bilge Hunter.
So what is a guild review page? I think Slyfiend summed it up the best in the following, which I lifted from the original page (note this is written from the UO point of view, some things will change for EQ, but the idea stays the same):
"I just thought I'd write a few words on the nature of reviews, what we're looking for, why we rate guilds the way we do, and so on.
Whether you're reviewing music, theatre, art, games, or anything else, it comes to question exactly what you're writing about. Most sources say the same things: What is the intention? And does it accomplish this intention? Now, depending on the medium reviewed, there are additional criteria to make things interesting. With books, the question is, "Is it literature?" Or at least, "Does it fit well within its genre?" With games, one must decide if the playability and fun factor hold out. With guilds, I feel that this additional criteria is: "What do they add to the UO experience?"
With that in mind, we're not reviewing web pages. Quite frankly, we don't give a flying cow turd if you've got music and frames up the wazoo, cool animation, and whatever else. Yeah, you're pretty. But what are you doing in the game? Shadowclan has a simple web page, but they are contributing to UO in a way that nobody else is. There are all of a sudden 40 more orcs to fight. And they keep coming back. Even better: forget the web pages. Ater Insidae is one of the best thieves guilds around, and I saw that back before they existed only on the bulletin boards. But they were doing things in the game that rivalled all the web-page wonders we see these days.
So, there you have it. What does the guild wish to accomplish? Is it a PK guild? We judge it as a PK guild. Is it a guild that role plays polymorphed slime? We judge it by its own merits. Does the guild accomplish what it sets out to do? If it's a good guild, do they fight evil? Do they help newbies wisely? Or do they just give gold to beggars all day to increase their notoriety (or worse, run around and kill all the poor red-named newbies)? And, finally, what do they contribute to UO? Are the PKers exciting to fight? Are the evil guilds really role playing? Are the elves acting like elves?
It is with these three things in mind that we judge guilds, by their own merits, as well as what they contribute to the community of Ultima Online.
This brings up an important point: how to present yourselves. If you have a web page, it often helps to have these facts for all to see:
- Goals and creed. Do you fight evil? Are you PKers? Do you just want to role play a certain type of person? Let people know from the start what kind of guild you are.
- Means and methods. It can be a shock for someone to join your guild, then find out they have to pay 5,000 gp a day to stay a member. And someone looking for a carefree adventuring company wouldn't be too happy to find he has to work his way through the Eighteen Ranks of the Elder Gods.
- Where are you? What server, town, and/or general area of Britannia do you inhabit? We get a lot of requests to print which servers each guild is on. I would love to, if only people would tell us.
In the end, I always look forward to open communication. The
Fuckheads' entry was updated several times during the beta, and The
Syndicate is going through changes every day as new events and evidence
manifest themselves. Keep in mind I get my information not only from the
guildmaster or his web page, but also the allies and enemies, and any
other sources I can find. And if things start to contradict themselves (or
just sound "fishy"), I always try to find at least two sources
of information, and present all sides of the story when possible. It's
just bad journalism to do anything less."
I'll start doing reviews once I have a few pages submitted for review.
Please feel free to submit your guild to The Bilge Hunter Guild Review HERE.