Guild Games

by Lady Sirse

All across the MMO community, there are groups of people that gravitate towards each other in the hopes of greatness. They come together out of similar feelings on what they want to do during the time they log into their favorite gaming world. Whether it is to spend 8 hours a night working to get to the end game, or to log on and be part of a family guilds are a deeply bonded group of people that can accomplish a lot when their minds are set on it.

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Personally, I have always been drawn more towards the family/ light raiding type guilds that are more about getting to know your guildmates not your uber gear. The guild I eventually created was known for being a small but effective strike team for raids. But we were also known for something else…our Guild Games.

Every month or so, our guild, allies and friends would be invited to a huge event. Planning for this would go on for weeks. Special raids would be scheduled to hunt down great gear for prizes, our bakers and brewers would be clicking away for hours to make all the needed food and drink. Why would we go through all this trouble? Simply put, the guild that plays together stays together. Raiding and working all the time gets boring. It’s oftentimes stressful and frustrating. So a bit of play now and then does wonders for morale! In EverQuest, we would usually gather in The Arena or other large, open areas where PvP was allowed.

What would we do? We would take time to visit while everyone gathered. Then the fun would start. We learned quickly that anything involving drinking and trying to get from point A to point B was a hit! How many of you can recall seeing drunken races in the tree tops of Kelethin? We would do relays, races, obstacle courses and even duels! These are the games that would leave us all breathless from laughter.

After a bit more time of visiting while the effects of the drink wore off, we would cover a bit of guild business. Often we would talk about things we needed to work on to improve our raiding skills. This leads into the next bunch of games. The combat games became a time to hone skills and to work on group cohesion…sneaky huh?

We would generally not do all of these in one gathering but we would choose two or three types of combat games to play. Some games that were always favorites were the ones where we would let those of the same class fight it out and award a class champion for the day. Another was team games. Allowing everyone to choose teams made of 3-6 people we would do a round robin to declare a winner.

There is one game we would play that was always a hit. It was the challenges. This would take several forms from simple one on one battles, to how many guildmates does it take to bring down the Guild Leader and her officers! This was always amusing and led to many a grudge match.

I sincerely hope that when we are able to walk our first steps in Telon that we will find all the open spaces in which we will be able to once again punt gnomes in endless games of gnome ball, chase bards across numerous landscapes, or team up with fellow guild mates to enjoy a day of bonding. There are many other things that make a world full of life than crawling through dungeons and over the world hunting and raiding. It will be a pleasure to see what the launch of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes will bring in the way of games within the game. Perhaps there will be some new sport just waiting for us to discover!