Choosing fights for your guild or clan: Is it cowardly?
No self-respecting general enters a battle without having an idea of the odds, of whether he can push his troops to victory. It is this very principle that guides a leader in handling the affairs of his guild or clan in MMORPGs. So it’s really a surprise why some players view decisions of some guild or clan masters to not attack a rival as a sign of weakness.
This observation is very true in my current online game of choice, Perfect World, which I play almost 24 hours a day. The guild war feature of this game operates on a bidding system, where clans engage one another in combat for control of 44 territories.
I belong to the Guardians, a clan in Perfect World Philippines’ Tiger Server that has weathered numerous trials since the start of the game (more than a year ago, methinks). These trials include, of course, expanding territories and trying to keep them in your clan’s control (that is, if you value the perks that go with owning territories including free teleport to clan-controlled territories once an hour, special potions and pills that can only be produced at castellans or governors of territories, and higher-level pots for characters level 70 up).
At present, we control about 40 percent of the map, give or take a few percentage points (If you click on the link, it’ll show you the map. Yes, my clan’s logo looks like Hello Kitty … some freak accident at Wan Mei turned out sword and shield into a cute pussycat). That’s 16 of 44 territories. Attacking and trying to conquer territories already in the hands of another clan is no easy feat, which is why most battles quickly turn in favor of the defender. Only the most powerful clans have an iota of a chance of successfully laying siege to a rival clan’s territory.
The Guardians is far from being the most powerful clan on Perfect World Philippines’ Tiger Server despite having our “moments,” such as bragging rights to being the first clan to successfully capture a city (there are only six cities in the mythical world of Pangu). There are more powerful clans out there, and one of them happens to be our most bitter rival, Exiled.
With this in mind, our clan master, winwin, does not hesitate to protect our territories through every means possible, including using other clans to place bids on our territories to block attacks (since in Perfect World, a clan can only defend three territories on each day of the weekend and attack only one territory in the same duration).
I guess at this point in this article I should admit that I’m only reacting to a comment made by a clanmate that “the Guardians only survived this long because its clan master keeps blocking attackers.”
Doesn’t it make perfect sense to block some if not all the attacks to maintain your clan’s hold on territories—territories its members have spent countless hours claiming and maintaining?
Some call the tactic cowardly. Some say it’s a flaw in the game that needs to be remedied. I submit that it’s neither a cowardly tactic or a flaw. Bid blocks can be circumvented by placing the maximum allowable bid of 200 million yuan (the in-game currency) on a territory. Thus, the theory that it’s a flaw is in itself flawed.
As for labeling it a cowardly action, well, you can’t really expect a fair fight whenever your clan is holding a large number of territories ripe for the picking by other clans. Fight a battle with bad odds to maintain one territory while releasing the clans hold on two other territories on either a Friday, Saturday or a Sunday? If you think that’s the better choice (just to show that you and the rest of your clan have the balls to go toe-to-toe with another equally or more powerful clan), then you don’t really understand the game.
Photo shows Montgomery Scott, who was played by James Doohan in the original Star Trek series. I’ve chosen the image to go along with this story to illustrate the lengths a leader will go through just to keep everything intact, including pushing things to the limit as in the Enterprise of Captain James T. Kirk.
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POSTED IN: Asian MMO, Asian MMO Players, Level Up! Games, MMORPG, My World, Perfect World, Random Rants
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