Guilds: Finding Your Place in the Server

Guilds:  Finding Your Place in the Server

Ark of War was meant to be played socially as part of a Guild.  There is a thriving community dedicated to helping each other get the most out of the game.  The Guild is the starting place where you get plugged into the community of players.  There are many kinds of guilds with many leadership styles and memberships.  Most guilds are haphazard collections of players brought together through random chance as they are required to pick or create a guild early in their career.  The best guilds are guilds that have active leadership and members who play daily.  If you are in a guild and you see a lot of 7 day inactive in the membership list, find a new guild.  If you intend to be active and are looking for a guild, don't be afraid to call out in World Chat that you are an active player looking for a guild.  A good guild will ask you some questions before letting you in to see if you will fit with them (though that may not play out fully until you are in the guild for a while).  Look through the guild lists in the Leaderboard and read their Announcements to see what kind of guild they are.  Here are some considerations for evaluating a guild is right for you or if you are right for your guild:

What type of player do you want to be?

There are many types of players with various attributes that fit in different guilds.  There are two main types of investments you will make as a player that will help you decide the kind of player you want to be: monetary and activity.  Together these investments determine what kind of player you will be and help you choose a guild accordingly.  The most important is your activity level (time investment).

Activity Level: (Time investment)

Hardcore: Highly active daily, diligent player who does the daily activities and helps with the Guild Events while farming resources, killing tiles, farms parts for equipment builds, optimizes gear loadouts, participates in special events when able (for F2P) or most events for the P2W crowd. Your shield is up when you need it and down when you are having fun (but only long enough not to be hit).  In addition to being active in the game, you consume in various Ark of War media from Line chat groups, Discord, consuming and commenting on YouTube videos, and actively chatting with your guildmates in game and in Line or Discord.  7 Pirates loves players like you and so do your guildmates!

Core: Active daily, diligent player who does daily activities and helps with Guild Events, but that's about it.  You hop on a few times daily to check in and finish your daily tasks and make sure your shield is good to go.  You help the guild when you have time, and you are a team player.  You participate in your Guild's Line or Discord chat groups and learn about the game as time allows.  You are solid - you keep the guild going strong!

Active Casual: Active daily, but you may not remember to do your daily tasks or check your shield.  You don't always check the Guild Event to see if you can help.  You might be in the Guild Line group, but you don't participate in the guild discussion as often as you would like.  Being active daily helps your guild, but you can do more!

Casual:  You log in when you can, but you don't have time or resources to put into the game like you want.  Sometimes your shield falls and you are zeroed and ask your guild for resources or you can't shield, so you rely on the kindness of your guildmates to keep troops.  Maybe you should consider another game, or take a break until you can be more active.

Filthy Casual (quit now):  You log in if you remember.  You can't remember the last time your hospital wasn't full when you logged in if you even have units to heal.  You wonder why you play this game, and so do your guildmates.  This game is a social game, get with the program.  If you are busy, let your guild know that you will be back when you can and take a break from the game.

Monetary Investment Level ($)

F2P (Free-to-Play):  You will not pay greedy 7 Pirates for shortcuts, resources, gear, or commanders.  You save your gold and invest it as often as possible, building a nest-egg for the event that has that piece of gear that will bring your main commander one step closer to perfection.  Keep the faith brother and don't let those slimy devs steal your hard earned money!

P2W low-tier: You spend between $20 and $100 monthly on the game, doing events as often as possible and building a solid collection of gear for your commanders.  You only spend money during events when the deals are the best and you have a good idea of what you want to chase after.  You try to keep up with the big dogs, but may not have as many troops as you would want.  You are the gamer that 7 Pirates ignores to its detriment.  You are legion!

P2W mid-tier: You spend a little more than the low tier ($100-$300 monthly) and try to do most special events that don't require huge monetary investments.  You may not be able to get a Spirit or Geist Stone when they come up, but you usually get the gear you need or want from an event.  You build and upgrade enough of your best troops to keep your main filled out for the most part, but you could always use more troops.  Maybe you should think twice about making that $99.99 purchase next event.  7 Pirates doesn't need your money that badly.

P2W boss-tier: You pour more money into the game than two thirds of the server combined.  Your gear is unparalleled and your commanders lack for nothing.  Your armies are the envy of the server and your rivals eagerly await your shield's failure.  7 Pirates bends to your every whim - use your power for the good of the community!

Guild Participation Level

Lonewolf: You do you and you don't bother helping with guild activities unless it benefits you - or you are just oblivious to the current objectives of guild events.  You spend mags while Guild Kill Event is still rolling on Monday, Kill Monsters while Guild Leadership Event is going on Tuesday, and donate resources early on Wednesday before the Guild Donation Event.  You are useless to a guild that wants to be competitive in guild events.  Get with the program and start participating!

Participant:  You try to pay attention to the guild events, but don't always help every week.  You play daily, helping when you can and are generally diligent to not sabotage the important guild events with negligent play.  Your efforts help the guild grow and excel.

Officer:  You have demonstrated loyalty to the guild by participating in events and taking the initiative to help other players to learn and grow in the game.  You follow the lead of the Guild Leader and their Vice-Leaders, but think for yourself and bring up concerns or thoughts as you deem appropriate.  You foster the guild and help the participants remember what's on the agenda.  The guild leadership appreciates your efforts.

Vice-Leader:  You lead by example, scoring in the top 10 of guild participation consistently in events deemed important by the guild as a whole.  You provide leadership in guild discussions and have earned the trust of the Officers and more importantly the Guild Leader.  The Guild Leader can delegate tasks to you and trust you that they will be done to the best of your ability.  You take initiative to better the guild by recruiting or training members when needed, but delegate to Officers when possible.

Guild Leader:  Your name is on the Guild Information page.  You are the decision maker that directs the momentum of your Guild for better or worse.  Use your influence to unite your guild and make sure your Vice-Leaders and Officers know the direction you want to take the guild.

Champion:  You might be Guild Leader, Vice-Leader, or just an Officer, but you are the powerhouse - the most effective fighter, and your guild helps build you up so that you can reach new heights. Whether you are a hands on leader or just in the game to kill everything you can, you inspire the guild and help them win on the battlefield.  You inspire the troops and they rise to your rally cry.  Guide them to victory!

Author Perspectives:

Wild Orion's Perspective: I fall somewhere in the F2P group but I don't mind dropping a few bucks into the game. After all the developers need the $$$ to keep things going.  For the guild participation I am between the Participant and Officer level.  I'm in the guild daily.  I chat with people regularly.  I do the events but due to size (and probably $$$) I'm not in the top.  At some point I'll be higher up in the rankings of the guild events.  

Lucalus' Perspective: I am solidly in the P2W mid-tier, spending a little over $100 each month (more when the events are good), and I am definitely in the Hardcore camp as far as time commitment.  I am consistently in the top 20 of a few of the individual events and I do my part to make sure our Guild Events are in the top 3 for the events we prioritize.  I am a Vice Leader in my current guild and have been Guild Leader of a training guild as well as my first guild.  I am active in our Line groups, I help push lower players to the next level when they are struggling to get over the hump, and I provide insight and game knowledge whenever possible. 

My first real guild was a training/resource protection guild.  The guild leader was an alt (whose main was on another server), and he served as guild bank.  He ran a push program where all guild members were required to donate resources to the guild bank to be eligible for a push.  A push was a full level upgrade - all buildings and researches that were at that level.  The rule was to always be fully researched before pushing to the next Ark Level so that at any given point, you were as strong/effective as you could be.  He always was pushing one of our Champions and two or three others.  He drilled into us the importance of sending unprotected resources to the Guild Bank to prevent the resources from falling into enemy hands. The Guild we merged into recently (a year ago?), is a competitive guild who focus on Guild Events and trying to compete in Galactic Campaign.  Lately, our focus has been on getting everyone on the same page in Guild Events and Guild Mobilization along with getting more involvement with Galactic Campaign.