How to imprint a sense of..

[Bilko]

I think his brain has melted

or hes as addicted to BF2 as we are so hasnt time to respond

[Crasp]

recently the fact that we arent just a guild has been highlighted by a couple of members of nemetos. i shant name names, because its not important, but the fact is that they seemed nervous over belonging to a community. from now on in WoW, BF2 and PS we need to emphasise that while we ARE a gaming community, people are not required specifically to play other games. they are encouraged however to join in as much as they see fit, and stick around reading the forums because above all, its a group of friends that play games, not gamers that quit when a game finishes. most people have taken to this very well, but forum use still needs to be pushed as a major issue. its easy to maintain a good rapport with players you dont see online a lot, or dont share the games of in these forums.

things like our activities and topics in free chat are quite rare... the fact that theres such a good atmosphere here is a good indication that were going in the right direction.

[Vantre]

just another thought on this that struck me when looking at the TS channel tonight....

the idea of critical mass & community fragmentation came up in this thread before & looking at the small numbers of people in various channels tonight this seemed clear.

With BF2 being the current shiny new toy, this would be an ideal time to bring new members in - but there are often only a handful (or less) of people playing BF2. I think it's unlikely people would be inclined to join a community if there were generally only a small number of people playing their favourite game.

I dislike too many rules & too much structure around games as they seem opposed to the whole idea of 'fun' - but, that said, I think it would be helpful if there were specific times suggested for certain games; ie wed = WoW night, Thur = BF2 night, Fri = PS night...(twister on saturday anyone? )

Obviously this should be a suggestion rather than a rule, but it might help people know in advance when others are likely to be around to join in with a certain game, & also help to get a critical mass in-game that would attract non-members towards the community

Now this is something that over time will happen naturally, people work out when others are around playing certain games...but it could be helpful to be a little more structured when new games become available - particularly if the aim is to attract more players into the community around that game, before they end up playing elsewhere & so less likely to move around...

[Aveox]

I have to agree. In SW, we unofficially made friday night starwolf-night, and it worked great! You know that this night everybody will try to be online so you are guaranteed to have good fun. So I'm all for this.

Another item I like to adress is the "not joining an empty server" syndrome. Many times now I have seen our BF2 server empty. Ofcourse nobody is joining an empty server, so the server will stay empty. But every time I join and just start playing, I see more TNGC members pop in and we can play the game. It is as if everybody is waiting for someone else to join. So it is very possible to have 3 or 4 people just watching TS and the TNGC server and thinking "Oh, I'm not joining an empty server". I strongly recommended that you just start playing. I have plenty of things to do, even on empty servers. It is a great oppurtunity to goof around or trying vehicles you normally stay away from, and often other people join within minutes.

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I don't like inactivity on this issue, so I'm proposing a course of action:

Primetime: These are the evenings were you will most likely find people online for a given game. Note that this is not an agenda you have to follow. Just play the games you like, but you can expect extra people on the nights mentioned. For now, I would think this is the most logical setup:
Monday : nothing planned
Tuesday : WoW/Nemetos BG/Raids (I believe it was tuesday, correct me if I'm wrong)
Wednesday : Nothing planned
Thursday : Battlefield 2
Friday : Planetside
Saturday : Twister (according to V )
Sunday : Nothing planned
Any comments on this are welcome. Especially for BF2, as this is still in it's early phase.

TS server: Try and make a habit out of logging into the TS server. I know a lot of you are using MSN/ICQ or IRC. Use the TS server in the same way. Park yourself in a channel (or the AFK den if needed). You can mute your microphone/set away status if needed, but people can at least see you are online. We will need a new TS channel as well: "Playing offline game", for those people actively playing a game, but not online or community-related.

BF2/HL2 server: If you want to play, join the server, even if it is empty at the time. Nobody will join an empty server, but a few persons on a server is often enough to start it. Only look for another server if you have been on ours for at least half an hour. Even here it is possible to be idle to some extend.

I will add more if I can think of anything.

[Bilko]

I must admit I havent played on our server when there is zero people on it I have been logged into TS incase someone else logged in then I would have left what server I was on and joined up.

From now on I will log into our server but if nobody shows up after 15 mins TNGC or not I will go and find a game somewhere else time is precious.

once again noooooooo BF2 on thursday cant make it

:sobs uncontrolably:

[Aveox]

Well, Wednesday or monday is fine with me as well.

[Bilko]

Wednesday Wednesday

[Aveox]

Ok, Since there were no comments on it (except Soupy's), I made a post in the TNGC forum section containg the schedule.

[KillerWolf]

I think it's almost impossible to imprint a sense of community spirit with most of the WoW playerbase. Seems that the WoW gamestyle makes people think only about one person, themself.
Shame is that wow has so many guild at the moment that the only identities are "MC guilds" and "non MC guilds". Just 5% or even less gets the idea that it's more then just about the **bleeping** game and stay.
If they dont like the offer of having people to also play other games with and have fun then there is little we can do.

Killer...

Aveox edit: F-words are not your best friend

[Aveox]

Seeing as you wrote most of this out of frustration (why else dig up a thread that's almost 6 months old) I hope you vented a bit now

Just 5% or even less gets the idea that it's more then just about the **bleeping** game and stay.

I think there is very little you can do about that, unless you start a guild from the ground up as a fun guild. And even then it's hard finding like-minded players.

[AmigaFan2003]

And even then it's hard finding like-minded players.

I concur.

[Crasp]

from what i remember nemetos has always been a "fun" guild. doesnt stop us from doing more serious activity though, and in the process of recruiting weve found people like straz, who have stuck with us since very early days. realistically gamers want the most from their game, so it wouldnt be fair to guilt trip them into staying just because your meant to enjoy the company. of course, for people that joined us a long time ago the fact that we stopped doing MC for a bit doesnt bother them, as they prefer the company to the eppixx, which shows a lot of trust in us. because they want to do endgame stuff, but theyd rather do it with people they know and like.

ill be imprinting a sense of community on the nemetos members with more urgency though, as i know we have some quality people who dont play WoW on korgall and are well worth just conversing with, if theyre not playing games with one another. as someone stated before, when the next big game comes out the people who feel theyre in a community will want to play it with us, and i think a lot of our guild atm can be called community members, they just dont know the community members outside of the guild. its convoluted thinking, but it makes sense in my head

[Aveox]

from what i remember nemetos has always been a "fun" guild.

You know. This sounds familiar. A certain Dutch guy who was outfit leader of Starwolf said the exact same thing 2,5 years ago. The outfit did start out as a fun outfit, but slowly things changed and the outfit became more and more dedicated and tight-knit, until it was the hardcore of the hardcore without even knowing it. I'm not saying this is the case with Nemetos, but it's quite possible. Those that were there since the early days may not see it, because they have gone through the same gradual change.

[Crasp]

no i totally agree theres a change, but we dont do things like kick people out purely because theyre not interested in endgame stuff. we only recruit new members to cover the gaps in raiding spaces, but the community spirit still exists with the other players that have been with us for ages and enjoy a more leisurely playing style. they join in the odd run, have a chat, all the normal things, just arent quite as active. itd be really bad of us to get rid of people that helped us grow and stay alive for so long.

as i said its the game in its entirety that people want, not the casual side. i dont honestly think people would pay the subs per month if all they did was log on once a week for an hour, it doesnt make sense. WoW is an immersive game, and for nemetos to survive as a guild we had to adapt to what the members wanted, which was to experience the newer stuff and progress, getting items and downing bosses. thats what makes it fun, being successful as a team, be it 5 people or 40. i can safely say i dont know anyone that would pay subs just to run baron and scholo 10man in pickup groups forever.