Brand Loyalty (was Re: [MUD-Dev] Requirements for MM (was Complexities of MMOG Servers))

[Dave Rickey]

From: "Jessica Mulligan" <jessica at mm3d.com>

> This phenomenon can occasionally lead to a mass defection of an
> entire guild to a different game, should the micro-community feel
> they've been badly treated in some way. On occasion, I've also
> seen M-Cs from games that have closed down transfer to new games.
> Several from AD&D: NeverWinter Nights on AOL managed to stay
> together for years in the game and then transfer to Meridian 59
> and UO after AOL closed the game in 1997, for example.

This seems to be my week for "Me Too" posts.  Yes, organized,
cohesive guilds with a strong sense of group identity can and do
move en masse.  The DAoC "Guild Beta" was a deliberate effort to
draw the leadership of pre-existing guilds into DAoC, on the theory
that if the leaders defected the membership would follow.  It was
fairly successful, although a few of those guilds later drifted back
to their old games or moved on to new ones, the vast majority stuck.

"Want a community for an online game?  Steal it."  It works a *lot*
better than bootstrapping it into existence from scratch.  It takes
months, sometimes years for a community to become coherent but they
are somewhat "holographic", a large enough chunk of an existing one
is fully functional if less detailed.

--Dave


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