With the advent of MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft, the concept of player organizations has become an important part of gaming culture. As opposed to teams, which may be created for single matches, guilds serve as persistent organizations with hierarchy, leadership, and long-term objectives.

Mobile games adoption of guilds

Mobile games have adopted the guild format of player interaction to bolster player engagement by adding a social element.  The idea being; if players organize into groups with their friends, rely upon each other for progress and aid, they will remain invested in the game for the long run.  This also serves to promote the game via word of mouth by having players converse with and invite their friends to join them in the game.

 

While the original intention of a guild was to provide structure and for leaders to set objectives for their charges, within mobile games they have typically served as simple mechanical systems where players gift each other resources.

Dawn of Titans

Natural Motion’s recent release is a game titled Dawn of Titans which has done a lot to move the combat builder genre forward.  Not the least of which has been their improvement on the interaction between guilds.

My friends began a new alliance, as guilds are called in Dawn of Titans, and their ambitions to become the strongest within our league lead to a back and forth between our alliance and another alliance in the league chat.

Before we knew it our leaders were linking islands to attack in our guild chat, targeting the enemy alliance.  A war broke out between us and I found myself setting out to engage in the unprepared enemies who had left territories unguarded and harassing their leaders who were too busy in chat to set up their defenses.

The main difference between this game and the many others that have represented players in guilds is that here players can directly interact with each other both as allies and enemies.  The leadership can easily point out targets for their charges to engage, and the coordination of attacks can lead to real changes within the standings of the alliances within the league.

Have you ever participated in a guild? Did you like the structure, did you feel like you played an important role in it?  Or did you feel more inclined to play by yourself since it seemed like your involvement was either irrelevant or too detached? I welcome discussion on this topic and if you have experiences of your own you wish to share please do so in the comments below, or write in to playprofessor@gmail.com.

Andrew Mantilla is a ludologist and video game journalist for Play Professor.  You can check out more of his content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube.