Valid Concerns in our AL World
To all fellow Arcanians,
Before I go into the depth of this subject matter, please allow me to give a brief detail about myself. [personal information removed]. I have been the leader/master of many various online MMO’s, online games/gaming sites, and online chat organizations. For some of you who may remember this, my first online leading role was with the visual avatar online chat community known as OnChat. I was the leader of a very high profile group known as <IKA> Infamous Killarmy, which ran into a lot of the major problems that I foresee occurring now within AL. These issues ultimately lead to the demise of OnChat and gave me my first view of the potential dangers of non/low moderation. I will also draw from real life scenarios which translate fully to the online realm.
Please remember that this is not an attack or a trolling attempt against any guild, moderators, or players. These are just my personal and shared observations of many in our online community who have expressed similar fears and wish for this game to continue and flourish. I in no way am pushing an agenda for myself or any person(s) or guild(s).
There is currently a set of serious issues that if we do not take responsibility or try to correct, it could spell disaster for our game in the near future. That is the increased lack of moderation within game and the ability of the select elite few to self-govern the gameplay, experience, and even the market of AL. Yes, these recent guild mergers have played a huge role in this. Guilds are supposed to be supportive atmospheres for players, formed for camaraderie, assistance, goal setting, and ultimately keeping the AL pool fresh by recruiting and engaging newer players who will sustain this game for us all. Yet, we see guilds being formed to wage war, shake up Leaderboard rankings, and divide players. Ranking wise, these are our top guilds, yet we see forum spamming, trolling, flaming, and even obscenities. In game we see obscenity laced rants, spot blocking, name calling, slurs, and bullying. After rounds of this in forums, finally our moderators stepped in, not the guildmasters or players. Top guilds should represent the spirit of our game and not accentuate the negatives that come with online gaming.
So you ask, “Why is this problem for all players? This is only a PvP thing right? Players still have PvE or can join different PvP maps and how can these mergers affect the market.” Honestly, PvP drives the need for gears. Hence, PvE is needed for those gears. Once players have farmed all maps and have all the top gear needed, the only thing left for many to do is PvP. Now with these guild wars occurring and these major guilds collecting all the elite talent/gold pool, it will become an At All Costs win scenario. This means that things like markets and maps will and can be affected to enhance the winning chances of one side over the other. There will be no way to avoid the collateral damage sustained to other guilds/players. The market could easily be manipulated by well-to-do players and guilds who would like to hoard and also make gears unavailable to others by skyrocketing prices. Just buy everything up and force your rivals to pay up if they want to compete. In the crossfire, innocent players/guilds will suffer unable to even farm or buy enough platinum to keep up.
This leads me to the new players who want to enjoy all that AL has to offer but currently cannot. These are all end game scenarios being that most players here play for endgame. Many new fellow guildmates and friends would like to experience PvP but upon entering a map, they are caught in a cross fire and are asked to leave or be attacked. Even if they are in a map first, a flood of these warring guilds enter and begin bullying so they can control the map. Slowly, I and many have noticed activity within our guilds crawling to a standstill. Many players need PvP for the activity outside of the normal boss killing. Honestly, PvE doesn’t award the player staying power that PvP does. PvP adds a new dynamic to MMO’s and is also more personable. Unfortunately, it’s getting to the point they have to choose one of these warring guilds to be able to play, which leads me to my next observation. At some point, things will tire and these guilds will begin running out of opponents and will find it harder to collect kills, being that majority of PvPers are in these select guilds. The only natural evolution from there is to gang or begin hunting your own, especially for the leaderboard chasers. After the smoke clears, only the hardcore players remain and in their wake, many new potential everyday players and future stars *and plat spenders* were pushed away for the sake of guild wars. If our oldest plat spending player’s burn out and quit game, who will replace that necessary monetary support? Remember a battleship with holes will sink and there will not be enough interested players left to repair it. STS will be forced to institute more ways to generate sales, which leads to a not so free game, hence the demise of a wonderful online experience.
I don’t have all the answers nor do I think these guilds should just disband and quit. The reason we are even able to discuss this is because this game is alive and well. Let’s make sure we are responsible in what we do to ensure it stays that way. Guildmaster’s be guildmasters and senior players act like you’ve done this before. Let’s be a better example for the newer players who will sustain our game.
To our mods: Please take a more active role in game. We don’t expect you to babysit but there are some serious concerns as stated that need to be addressed sooner and not later. We still care about this game and don’t want to see its reputation tarnished.
Thank you to all those who troubled themselves to read this and hope you consider all that was said.
Sincerely,
A concerned AL Community
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