At first impression Wyn appears unremarkable, just your average 21-year old. Pat Miller profiles Wynbertson Ngie, leader of the FFXI TeaStation linkshell, and looks at how online games can offer the same experiences real life social groups do.
Join or Die
Despite their significance, guilds these days are still rather simple constructs. Damion Schubert talks about the challenges the next generation of online games need to meet to fully embrace guilds and their potential.
Since the dawn of online gaming, players have naturally banded together in formal and informal groups. Laura Genender explores these groups, focusing on their most formal form, "guilds."
Within online virtual worlds, most guilds stay small or splinter apart over time. Only a small few manage to form long-term communities of any size. Sean Stalzer discusses the method of success behind his guild, The Syndicate.
Billed as a game of war and conquest, a guild in Shadowbane managed to control the bulk of their world and enforce an iron-fisted peace. Joe Blancato relates his experiences in this guild, and the political machinations that birthed a new conflict.
In the past few years, more and more games have been released that are entirely focused on the multiplayer experience. M. Junaid Alam discusses whether this focus on "Human Intelligence" is always a good thing.
Like classic immigrants' associations, guilds and corps that we form in virtual worlds have an important impact on the kinds of experiences that we get out of them. Mark Wallace highlights similarities between immigration and his experiences in Eve.
