Musse Dolk is a 2nd year game student from Sweden. As a part of his studies, Musse created the MMORPG Gamers Handbook, a fantastic basic resource that introduces new players to some of the terms, concepts and etiquette of MMORPG gaming. Today, we present part two of the guide.

Guilds

A guild is an organization whose players share the same goals and decides to work together in a larger scale. Upon creation of a guild it is wise to have a clear set of goals, which the members will strive to achieve. Look at the guild as its own entity following a vision instead of personal opinions. With a clear vision, members of the guild are less likely to have misunderstandings about it.

5.1 Recruitment

Be open with your guilds intentions and try to recruit likeminded people that share the vision of the guild. Try to have active discussions every now and then about where the guild is going and its future plans.

Keep in mind that not every guild is suitable for everyone. This is often a matter of play style. It’s not as easy as it sounds to throw someone out. Many guilds are torn apart because someone got thrown out who had friends, who in turn had more friends and suddenly a big chunk of the guild left.

Read it all here.

Yesterday I ragged on part 1, part 2 is slightly better in the fact that it generally stays on topic; however, you fail at providing any detail.  In the first part, your academic study provided such detail that this part is just lacking.  For example, you fail to acknowledge the many different types of guilds, instead you just say they need a purpose to exist.  Even if you leave out a few of the misc. guilds it's not that big of a deal because players would get the point.

In "5.2 Leading and Delegation," you fail to mention what this job is.  "Leading" is a very broad term and any technical writer would tell you to pick another term or define it.  Leading can refer to recruiting new members, planning raids, or simply planning group events if it's an RP

Section 5.4 Loot Systems is slightly out of place.  Loot Systems don't apply strictly to a guild, and since this is a general MMO guide you should have placed it in the first part when you were discussing roles of party members.  Because all of the "Common Problems" are compared to the Point System and not any other, this section should be categorized as "5.4.3.1" rather than "5.4.4" to avoid confusion with the other sections.  The problem may be common in other systems, which I know from experience that it is, however you fail to relate it to the other systems.

The raiding section for the most part is fine.  However, from a technical standpoint, section 6.2.3. Gear would've been better handled as a list.

Your time spent in the games you've played leads me to believe that you're very hypocritical of the roles.  You say that we should be aware of everyone else's roles in games; however, you fail to acknowledge the DD as a melee character.  So this leaves me with a few agonizing questions.

1.  Why are spellcasters the only DDs available in games?

2.  Why not detail the common purposes of guilds?

3.  Why simply interview players from the games you didn't play?  Many of the games have offered free trials for quite some time.

Here's my overall opinion of the second half: You made your necessary word count for your homework assignment and you just wanted to finish it.

I'm not sure it's really much of a handbook that I could recommend to... well, anyone.  I agree that Part 2 seems more focussed than 1.  I'm not sure I would have put out the love letter to Brad McQuaid will find many in agreement -- sure he did wonders for EQ but since...?  ;)

Where do I find the first part? I didn't find a link to it

Originally posted by Bert337

Where do I find the first part? I didn't find a link to it

Read to the end of page two. There's a link.

LOLZ

The "Background" summary at the end shows you exactly how much the author really knows about his subject matter:  Nothing about anything that isn't EverQuest.

You really ought to put the background up front so we'll know not to take you seriously and won't waste our time reading your uninformed crap.

The problem with doing an article like this, you are damned if you do and damned if you don't.

You either become so general, that you only cover what is generally found in most MMO's or you get specific and really address the differences found across the MMO's.  Option B would take a book, he should have stuck with option A, instead of trying to do a little bit of both.

Ello, thanks for your input. : )

1. They aren’t, the tactics I pointed out for those apply to melee’s as well, which is why I merged them. I will have to look over the choice of words though. Or was there anything in particular you found missing for melee DD’s?
2. This was because of time limitation and I didn’t want to make something half-done to avoid confusion. When I get time for a new version, I’ll be sure to update the whole 2^nd part in a lot more detail.
3. Also a time limitation, I chose to play WoW actively instead to get a good feeling of the largest player base.

Sincerely,
/Musse

The bit about loot systems is not at all general, and your advice there is irrelevant to a number of MMOGs I can think of.