It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
So I've been playing Runescape for nearly the past 10 years now (along with a bit of Guild Wars 2 and Diablo 2) but it's changed a lot since then and the clan scene is a lot more inactive than it used to be, not to mention I can't stand the combat mechanics anymore. But the one aspect of the game that I personally think is really unique and hard to find in other games is how immersive the clan scene was. Really heated rivalries between clans, active forums dedicated solely to clan discussion, and the occasional drama/beef between clans. There would also be pretty concrete rankings of clans based on the results of fights/wars and I always thought that was a lot of fun. It would basically be a never-ending cycle to see who could establish dominance over the "Wilderness" (Runescape's pvp zone) and hold the top ranks.
It was immersive to the point where people would play the game SOLELY to fight other clans and bicker over forums/IRC. I've tried looking for other games with similar clan/guild scenes but the ones I found were pretty dead (Ultima Online and Darkfall). Does anyone know any other titles that has mass pvp style combat with some good old fashioned clusterfucks and really heavy competition between guilds or clans within the game? Thanks!
Comments
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
But it seems that the whole clan versus clan rivalries can only exist in a game environment that fosters roleplay. We may say to ourselves, "heck, my guild doesn't want to roleplay. We just want to pwn all." But pwn all in relation to who and to what? The essence of powergaming is to game better the folks who aren't as focused on pwning for the sake of pwning, but who pwn for the sake of some abstract, lore-centric cause. Guilds can be mad-efficient if they care not to bother with continuity. In fact, part of the fun of it is to get on top of the boards as "Im2sexy" in a world which, lore wise, cannot even grasp what "Im2sexy" even means.
The greatest drama I always saw in games in the middle to late 2000s were always around the powergaming clans upping the ante over the establishment players. And that was because the establishment players wanted some fidelity to the lore, while the powergamers really only cared about PvP. You'd have these powergaming guilds on both sides, however, in factional conflict. Soon, there were nothing left but powergaming guilds. And soon after that, no reason to even powergame at all.
Frankly, is there any real difference these days between a guild or clan, and a PS Network or XBox Live or Steam friend list? Most of the new multiplayer combat games don't even have a clan option, and for good reason. They just aren't necessary to organize players anymore and, in a lot of cases, cause more problems with retention and organization than they solve.
Perhaps in games like Planetside 2 or EVE, big clan versus clan rivalries are still applicable. But Planetside 2 has no real world per-se, and EVE has pretty much developed itself into a stagnation of mutually assured destruction between rivals.
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
--Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
Funny enough I just got done with another 10 months of hardcore pvp in ESO and I'm playing Runescape atm. Yet, I agree it's a shadow of it's former self.
21 year MMO veteran
PvP Raid Leader
Lover of The Witcher & CD Projekt Red
ESO is not the place to go atm if you're a hardcore pvp'er looking for competitive pvp, yet alone some type of guild v guild pvp. At launch you'd of loved it, yet it's been nothing but down hill since and the pvp community is pretty insignificant anymore. I can literally list the hardcore pvp guilds on NA per faction left in the game on one hand for the EP, and on two hands for the other two factions. You're much better off trying Albion Online and BDO since they'll have active and thriving communities at launch, plus many of the guilds that used to play ESO are there also lol.
21 year MMO veteran
PvP Raid Leader
Lover of The Witcher & CD Projekt Red
After playing gw2 for quite a while (doing only roaming because everything else kinda sucked) i turned to ESO with hope.
Turns out there's a massive powergap, after grinding levels for many hours you'll have to grind other levels for many hours and then you'll have to grind CPs and then you'll have to grind gear.
Basically unless you're a hardcore player that can play 4/5 hrs a day easy you'll get bored out of your mind waaaay before you can get to endgame pvp.
And everyone that looks up to the good times of UO and such knows that pvp doesn't start anytime sooner than when you char is maxed out. Sure you can have fun fights here and there but that's not it.
I'm trying B&S atm but sincerely... it sucks. I love it at the beginning. But the whole design is not good for open pvp and arena matches, while extremely skill-based, are real stupid.
I really wish you'll find something to enjoy but I for myself am very skeptical. It's kind of a sad moment for good mass pvp mmorpgs. I think i'll come back at the end of the year and see if CU or BDO are doing.
But maybe you're a more hardcore player than me and you'll find something.
GL
http://www.kdsguild.org/
These guys are dedicated to open world pvp and are extremely good at it. They were one of the biggest/best imperial guilds in SWG (Euro-chimaera). I was also on the same server as these guys in WAR. They rolled Destruction first and won everything to the point they got bored, so most of the guild rerolled on Order and within a month, they were dominating the server again from the other side!
Anyways, KDS are currently playing Albion Online which means there must be a decent open world pvp scene in there. The videos they've posted on their site make it seem alright, not my sort of game, but as you like Diablo its probably more up your street.