Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

JoBildo: I’m here with Greyhawke from the League of Titans, one of Champions Online’s premier Supergroups.  Greyhawke, welcome to Ten Ton Hammer, and thanks for taking time out of your busy day beating bad guys to do this interview.

GREYHAWKE: Hi, JoBildo. Thank you for selecting us to be one of the first to participate in your Supergroup Showcase.

JoBildo: Tell us (that is the entire world or at least those reading this) a little bit about The League of Titans.

GREYHAWKE:  The League of Titans was founded by a group of individuals who met on the original City of Heroes fan forums, while that game was still in development. We found ourselves running into each other on the same roleplaying threads, and began to form a circle of friends. When the game released, we decided to incorporate all of our characters from various teams into a new League of Titans.

While not all of our CoH members have come to Champions Online, we have a significant number that have, not to mention quite a number of new friends who have joined pre- and post-launch. We have a wonderful group of people, and a great sense of family and community that has kept us together through the waxing and waning of several games. We run the gamut from die-hard role-players to the most efficient min/maxers to the casual player who just grabs an hour or two here and there. 

We manage it because we enjoy hanging out together.  It’s that sense of family that binds us, and no matter where we go that League of Titans channel always feels like coming home.

JoBildo: How would you guys classify yourselves?  Are you a tight-knit role-play guild, a PvP focused group?

GREYHAWKE: We are a community of friends first and foremost. Our goal is to provide an environment where are members can relax and have fun with their friends.  For some that means helping one another with missions, for others it’s the creative stimulation of roleplay.  Some folks just like to have somebody to talk to while soloing. 

I classify us as an “RP friendly” supergroup, but not “RP required”, with most members being light to medium RPers. Though there are some who do not RP at all, and some who would never stop if I didn’t keep reminding them that our main channel is for OOC chatter.  Our roleplayers range from casual to mature RP.  As we are a family-friendly supergroup – several of us are parents whose children also play – we do expect our members to show discretion, both in character names and in keeping “NC-17” chatter in private channels.

As for PvP, it has not been a focus for our group in past games. We have had a few members who enjoy the challenge, but we have never done anything serious with it as a group. In Champions Online the PvP seems to be more friendly to the casual PvPer, and I imagine that as our membership grows we will have a segment of our members who will explore this more and more.

JoBildo: How’s the Supergroup run?  I mean, is it managed a certain way?  What’s the leadership like, and how do you guys delegate authority?  Basically, as I used to ask the Age of Conan clans, are you more Hitler or more Gandhi when it comes to how things are run?

GREYHAWKE: We hold periodic elections to decide our leadership. Currently in Champions we have two Captains (what we have named our top rank) and a good group of veteran officers (Lieutenants) who have made the leap from City Of Heroes. We have a charter that we use as a guideline to get us through the rough spots, but for the most part it boils down to a good old-fashioned democratic republic and a healthy dose of common sense.  With the next election cycle, new members will have the opportunity to step into leadership positions – and we hope they do!

JoBildo: How many Titans are there these days?  Do you guys spend time across more than one game?  I noticed you come from a background in City of Heroes/Villains.

GREYHAWKE: We’re over the 100 unique member mark as of this interview and growing daily. Not all of our new folks will decide we’re right for them, and we expect to settle out somewhere between 75 and 125 players. 

We were fortunate enough to have around 20 members from our City of Heroes group become active in Champions Online, which gave us a good foundation on which to build. We’ve been active on the CO boards from the day they opened, so that’s helped a lot with people knowing who we are and what we’re about. With a significant number of our officers having lifetime subscriptions, I am confident that we will have a consistent and long lasting presence in Champions Online.

City of Heroes is where we started, and where we initially built this community that became kind of an extended family. (In fact, my wife and I met as members of the League Of Titans!). As mentioned, we have been active there since the beta boards. We still maintain a small presence there, though some of us have put our subscriptions on hold until the Going Rogue expansion. We also have several members active in Lord of the Rings Online, DDO Unlimited, and a few in WoW, although not under the name League Of Titans.

JoBildo: One of the trends we see with some of the larger guilds in most MMOGs is the hosting of server or guild-wide events.  Is that something the League Of Titans ever does?  Are you very active in the community, or do you mostly keep to yourselves?

GREYHAWKE: We have had a few forays into guild wide events, but have discovered that is one of the areas where Champions Online is in dire need of improvement. We’re still exploring the game for possibilities for more events, both for our guild and for the server as a whole. We did host a few events in City Of Heroes and have some experience at doing this kind of thing. Hopefully we will see improvements in the coming weeks that will facilitate planning and management of large group events.

JoBildo: If you guys are recruiting new members, can you tell us what exactly it takes to become one of the Titans?  What’s required of a prospective member?

GREYHAWKE: Our recruiting process was one of the things we felt we needed to improve in Champions Online. We decided to make ourselves more approachable for the person showing a casual interest by incorporating a recruit level rank to our membership. In order to become a recruit, all that is needed is to provide some basic information to help us get to know you better. This process is outlined in detail in our thread in the Superteam Section of the Champions Online forums (http://forums.champions-online.com/showthread.php?t=44632), but essentially it boils down to letting us know your global handle, a brief character background, and a little bit about the player behind the character.

Our recruits have the same in-game permissions as a member, but our officer nominations can only be made from those of member rank. Recruits that decide they enjoy our supergroup enough to take the next step can attain member status by continuing their application on our website at leagueoftitans.net and having a bit more in-depth review.

In the end, what we are looking for are mature (which doesn’t have to mean old) and helpful members who are active in our community.  That may be through forum or RP participation, or by actively helping in our events or helping those who ask the craziest questions over our global channels. It boils down to looking for new friends who enrich and enhance that sense of family and community I mentioned earlier. 

In character, Titans have run the gamut from traditional four-color superheroes to acid-spewing demons.  What the Titan characters all have in common is that they have the desire to help their community in some way, whether it be on a personal basis or in general fighting crime.  We do not allow characters who routinely use lethal force, which isn’t to say that we don’t have darker characters. 

We expect our players to be able to walk that sometimes fine line between playing a hero (light or dark) who has chosen to join a known supergroup, and a vigilante.  Our members are welcome to (and often do) have other characters they play that may not be appropriate for the League of Titans SG itself.  That’s what our global channel is for, so we can still keep in touch!

JoBildo: Would you like to add anything more about Champions Online or gaming in general? I'm sure the developers are reading, so say what's on your mind.

GREYHAWKE:  Being a part of a great supergroup is what makes a game worth playing, for me and for many players of Champions Online. It is this camaraderie that draws us, and often what keeps us going through the tougher times of a game’s growth.  I hope Cryptic has many good things in store for supergroups on the horizon - things like bases, supergroup missions and supergroup rewards based on life cycle of the team, etc.

That said, there are many things that need to be implemented as soon as possible to aid supergroups in helping their members enjoy the game more. These things include better management tools for large group functions, information on last login date for activity management, and an increase in the number of characters allowed in a supergroup, even if this is tied to life cycle of the supergroup (i.e. supergroups that have been around a month can increase membership by 50, six months adds another 200, and so on.)