gimme a crash course on mmo paradigms.

[gold163]

title says it all. I don't play MMOs, not enough to understand the jargon thrown around or to optimize builds at least. I've tried out a couple but I've only spent about a dozen or so hours on each at most. I don't really need to know some basic, popular things like healer/tank/dps etc. since a lot of those concepts bleed over into other genres. I also understand that a lot of terms are going to be game-specific.

Essentially, what I want to know is this: I just want to get a gist of how guilds operate, what their functions are, and how the hierarchy works, etc. I'd like a definition of "Raid" and I want to have an overview of PvP mechanics and terminology, and how it is different/separate from PvE. Comparisons to other close genres would be appreciated but are not entirely necessary.

Reason being I'm just curious as to how guilds in TL2 would operate (or how you think they would operate), and how different it would be from how they work in MMORPGs, since guilds in TL2 are sort of a metagame, artificial construct and not something that the game is built around. I'm also getting more interested in online RPGs in general, now that there are a bunch of games on the horizon I'm looking forward to as well as some games that I'm currently interested in that could possibly fit within a mindset of "guild" play (although not in the same sense or scale as conventional MMOs such as WoW).

[Kukuku]

I think guilds in Torchlight 2 will be based on mods that are used or restricted and difficulty settings that are used, including hardcore mode. PvP focused guilds would probably be based on certain mods, if they are genuinely interested in game balance. As for how large a guild or guilds will be, I doubt anyone really knows. I'm guessing many people are going to stick to playing with people they know.

So basically, just about everything is still unknown about guild functions in T2.

[EdgeDamodred]

Guild- 1. A group of people who either accidentally clicked a confirm button that kept popping due to someone else spamming an invite. 2. A group of people who regularly play together, they may or may not have a focus in content within the game they play. A hierarchy of leaders(usually called officers) may exist for organizational and problem responding purposes.

Raid- 1.Parties of players who stand around in the same place while waiting for some "key" person to log on in hopes acquiring loot they couldn't buy on their own. 2. Several parties banding together with the focus of accomplishing a major goal such taking down a huge boss that cannot be taken down by a single party or strategically attacking an enemy target en masse.

PvP or Player Vs. Player-1. an activity engaged in by 2 or more players resulting in words such as "pwn j00!' being uttered, usually to someone designated as an opponent, though not always if co-operation with teammates is unachievable. 2. Simply put it is a form of competition where your opponents are other players as opposed to A.I. controlled agents. This can be unstructured(such as everyone attacking each other usually referred to as deathmatch) or structured in which a goal other than simply killing an opposing force is the primary objective.

In the case of Torchlight 2 we can possibly infer about what guilds will be used for and what activities they will engage primarily in.

Guilds will essentially provide the friend of a friend circle of players to play with. Since guilds usually have like minded players it is usually safe to infer certain behavior and personality patterns in a person you don't know that well because the guild they are in usually as a whole is associated with certain types of players. If you belong to a guild chances are its because you knew someone you liked and they recommended the guild to you so you're likely to find other players you may like playing with as well(though not always).

Since the focus of TL2's multi-player(note TL2 is not the Torchlight MMO) is playing either solo or with a small group(something between 2-6, the exact maximum number has not been set and it has been stated it would most likely be moddable), guilds will generally be used to form parties with people you are more likely to enjoy playing with than with just random people. I really have not heard anything about PvP in any form within TL2, though I guess the possibility may exist in the form of small scale deathmatch in the open world if whoever is hosting the current play session allows it.

[gold163]

Thanks. I generally figured that's what a raid was, but I didn't know it was made up of multiple parties that weren't necessarily associated.

I'm not betting on Torchlight 2 having PvP functionality, and quite frankly I don't care whether it does or not. I'm more interested in the cooperative gameplay, and from that point of view I also think that's generally what the purpose of guilds in TL2 will be for.

[Zidders]

Thanks. I generally figured that's what a raid was, but I didn't know it was made up of multiple parties that weren't necessarily associated.

I'm not betting on Torchlight 2 having PvP functionality, and quite frankly I don't care whether it does or not. I'm more interested in the cooperative gameplay, and from that point of view I also think that's generally what the purpose of guilds in TL2 will be for.

We might see some PvP but generally, you're probably correct. As far as my guild goes (The Ember Adventurers club), the guild is meant to be a place where people can hang out, get to know each other and have fun together without having to worry about never being able to find someone who isn't an asshat to game with. I'm pretty much open for anything. If people want to get a raiding thing going and do boss runs, they can do that as long as they're not giving people grief if they don't have 8 hours a day 7 days a week to put into it. if they want to play relaxed, they can do that too. If people want to mod, or don't want to mod. Whatever, as long as people are having fun, that's all that matters.

[gold163]

I don't really forsee any sort of head-to-head guild confrontations. The atmosphere around here is pretty chill and I like that attitude. I can't imagine people blowing up over Torchlight.

[hawkn]

I'll be playing GW2 for my PvP anyways.

[gold163]

hey, me too! Speaking of which, it's looking pretty sweet. I don't know how much it's changed since then but the last time I saw it there was footage of a razer tournament or something. Destructible environments and everything.

I think if people want to PvP D3 is more their game.

[hawkn]

Except PvP in D3 will likely be DLC.

[gold163]

I'm pretty sure Blizz fans have money to spare

they'll use the money that they angrily won't be spending on TL2 because it didn't come out before Diablo.

On a serious note though, I'm really excited for GW2 because of how Arena.net specifically states they want to reach out to non-MMO players like me. I like a lot of stuff the genre does but I hate enough of it to deter me from being involved in it. Subscriptions being one thing.

[EdgeDamodred]

Hmm a mode where two parties battle each other and random bosses drop in to screw with them could be fun.

*Puts it on the notepad document list of mods I'll never make but had full intention of making them at some point*

[gold163]

Hey, that actually sounds pretty crazy. I'd play it. A Torchlight take on moba.

[Brixtan]

title says it all. I don't play MMOs, not enough to understand the jargon thrown around or to optimize builds at least. I've tried out a couple but I've only spent about a dozen or so hours on each at most. I don't really need to know some basic, popular things like healer/tank/dps etc. since a lot of those concepts bleed over into other genres. I also understand that a lot of terms are going to be game-specific.

Essentially, what I want to know is this: I just want to get a gist of how guilds operate, what their functions are, and how the hierarchy works, etc. I'd like a definition of "Raid" and I want to have an overview of PvP mechanics and terminology, and how it is different/separate from PvE. Comparisons to other close genres would be appreciated but are not entirely necessary.

Reason being I'm just curious as to how guilds in TL2 would operate (or how you think they would operate), and how different it would be from how they work in MMORPGs, since guilds in TL2 are sort of a metagame, artificial construct and not something that the game is built around. I'm also getting more interested in online RPGs in general, now that there are a bunch of games on the horizon I'm looking forward to as well as some games that I'm currently interested in that could possibly fit within a mindset of "guild" play (although not in the same sense or scale as conventional MMOs such as WoW).

Guild: a group of players joining together under one public identity. It's the video game equivalent of sport's teams. You tend to have a Guild Master, a few officers to make sure the guild runs smoothly and people don't get out of line, and then just regular members.

They function for a variety of reasons, depending in large part to whatever the guild master wants to focus his/her guild around. However all guilds can typically be generalized as being either a raiding guild or casual guild. Their are raid guilds who typically are very hardcore in their playing and focus on downing the most difficult and current raid content as fast as possible. These raid guilds typically have a very small roster of individuals, normally just enough to run their raids. You also have more casual guilds that focus around helping players enjoy content of said mmo across the spectrum (from questing, to leveling, to crafting, to raiding, to running 5-man dungeons, to pvp). Their rosters are typically large because their focus is so broad as to encompass a variety of aspects of gaming.

Raid: a larger group of players who tackle the most difficult end-game content in an mmo. Normally a raid consists of a dungeon with very difficult bosses. Raids in WoW consist of 10-man or 25-man groups, but used to be 40-man back in early days of 2004-2006. Generally running 5-man dungeons is not considered raid content (for clarification).

These are from my own experiences in playing several mmo's over the years, primarily WoW, DAOC, Rift.

As for how guilds might operate in TL2, that's a very broad and subjective question. It depends on what you want to get out of TL2. Hope that helped.

[gold163]

Thanks Brixtan; extremely helpful. I can't imagine TL2 getting raid focus since the content is going to be tailored for both single player and multiplayer experiences anyway. I can imagine some mods that would do stuff like that but I'm just hoping TL2's base content scales well enough so that it doesn't get boring to solo end-game.