The musings of a guild leader are always full of drama. I wouldn't deny that my own musings aren't free of the dreaded drama bug, but we're all human. It's just that guild leaders are more exposed to those sort of things. What makes you different though, is your ability to come back from cloud nine to the people you love.
Ugh, I hate the Guild Penalty. If you've read previous rants, you'll find that I allude to the Guild Penalty various times. Well, it's very much a feature that should not be in the game. It's inconvenient for the players, cuts potential profits from OGPlanet and harms the overall guild feature.
The number one thing that I must combat as a recruiter is the potential level of activity of the prospective member. If the prospective member comes back from quitting to a dead guild and buddy list, then the persisting activity of that player is at risk. In short, when you come back to a lonely situation, you will become lonely and will eventually quit again. Usually, joining a new guild can fix this problem. You get a new list of people you can be friendly with, be friends with, make some history with. This was an opportunity that was instantly granted, but currently, the Guild Penalty delays this process by three days.
Why three days? These three days can be some of the loneliest days for the people who come to the above hopeless situation. Even if they don't come from quitting, they have potentially lost part of their perceived society to drama, inactivity or other factors and can become lonely as well. If it was less than three days, then it would be more understandable. If it was a few hours or even a day, then maybe it would be understandable, but three?
If I went three days without Inflation, I think I would go insane. When I go on vacation, I get so bored and I think about my little munchkins and munchkets. They're apart of my life and if I had to be separated from them for three days, or any group of potential friends, I wouldn't know what to do. Yes, we have a buddy list, but there's so much a buddy list can do. Each person has their own respective guilds to go back to and when you don't, then you feel left out no matter how many friends you surround yourself with.
But on a business perspective, this useless feature has done more harm than good. Guild Crop Hop revolves around the surplus of Crop Seed Boxes and leaving guilds freely. Because the latter has been crippled by the Guild Penalty, the former suffers as well. I wouldn't be surprised if the Astro price of Crop Seed Boxes will go up to compensate for the lack of profit concerning guilds, regardless of Astro Rings. A profit is a profit and it keeps the game afloat.
Although logical, it will be looked past by the stubborn. So, let's talk about the whole guild feature in general. Because of the penalty, one would stay in a guild without haphazardly leaving or leaving on a whim. Combined with the tendency of those with power positions to not kick people with high Guild Point contribution, there's a lot of flow into guilds, but not a lot of flow out of them. On the flip side, with people having a tendency of staying, there is a possibility of drama to occur if not mediated well. Drama and guilds aren't a great thing to have and usually develops into leaving or kicking. The three days of the penalty can develop into more drama and will not subside until the player finds refuge in another guild, where the drama will stop or escalate. In short, the penalty gives us something else to consider in our decisions, where it shouldn't even be there in the first place.
If someone's happiness is at stake, then if they are leaving for a purpose, they should not be punished for something that will make them happy. The main audience that the penalty is catering towards are those who abuse Guild Crop Hop, but in turn it also punishes the regular people who don't abuse the Guild Crop Hop and are trying to carry out their regular business. It doesn't seem fair that some people are picking up the tab of others.
But I'll save that for another day.
No comments:
Post a Comment