Having played countless triple-A MMOs over the years, I’m still shocked and dismayed at how few launch with adequate social tools at the guild level. Guild systems, when implemented correctly, help provide a foundation for solid communities. Without guilds, an MMO is missing a core bit of the DNA that transforms a fun game into a killer social experience.
The folks working on Skyforge thankfully understand not only the importance of guilds, but giving those guilds purpose and function. Details on the Skyforge guild system – called Pantheons – were revealed on the official website in a new blog post that the social gamers among you will certainly want to check out.
A few of the major highlights that grabbed my attention right of the bat include:
1. A single player can form a Pantheon, but will have a limited time to bring new members into the fold. This helps kill two birds with one stone. First, you don’t have to go through the lame process of gathering a full group in the same zone just to toss some coin in an NPC’s pockets to get a guild started. It also prevents the game from being bloated out by mountains of 1 person guilds, and instead encourages players to consume the game socially.
2. Pantheons will have reasons to exist beyond a convenient chat channel. Fairly detailed systems are covered in the blog post that include everything from building up your Pantheon, to social structuring, and large scale PvE and PvP activities that will open up you as your Pantheon progresses.
One of the gems of the second point above is a system called Pantheon Wars. Commanders within a Pantheon (think guild officers with an actual purpose) will be in charge of leading groups of up to 100 people into these weekly battles that factor in both PvP battles and PvE trials. The larger group of 100 players will see 50 fighters each in the battlegrounds and trials, and victory will grant territory control for that week.
One of the benefits of aiming for territory control will be the income it generates, but it will also unlock access to additional gameplay, which is always worth fighting for in my book.
Be sure to hop on over to the official Skyforge website to check out the full announcement on Pantheons. As always, we’re greatly looking forward to seeing these systems in action, and applaud the developer for understanding the importance of building out proper social systems in an MMO. Curious as to what else Skyforge has to offer? Below you can view a full hour of Skyforge gameplay from a recent official livestream. Enjoy!
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