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Online Empires:
Interviews With the Experts
(Part One of a
Series: Interview with Black Rose Noble of
Darktide)
09/07/01 -
Imagine a gaming world with
player-controlled cities, massive conflicts over
territory and resources, and where politics truly
matters. Sound familiar? |
| To many,
this may sound like a description of the upcoming
Atriarch, with the ability for players to
affect the game world like never before. Some of
these concepts, however, have already been
explored in a more rudimentary form on AC's
Darktide PvP server. What does it take to organize and
run a massive online guild, in an environment
where your group must fight for control of scarce
resources against competing groups and where
towns become battlegrounds for control? How does
one effectively control a group of over 1000
other players? Could any of this experience apply
to Atriarch? Let's ask
the experts.
For this first part of
an ongoing series, I had the opportunity a few
months ago to interview Noble,
the leader of the Black Rose monarchy on AC's Darktide
server. The Black Rose monarchy has maintained
itself on Darktide since the week of AC's retail
release as a Neutral guild, and controlled the
strategic town of Kara for well over a year.
Here's what Noble
had to say about such diverse
issues as recruiting, town control, guild
politics, secondary leaders, and even Atriarch.
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<Zang> hi
<Nobile|BR> how've you
been?
<Zang> want to do the
interview here in chat?
<Zang> I've been good
<Nobile|BR> sure if you
like...
<Zang> So, I have tons of
questions..but first I'd like to explain about
the interview
<Nobile|BR> sure
<Zang> Basically, I'm
interviewing the Monarchs of large Darktide
monarchies, to try to get a feel for what they
all think works and doesn't work in running large
guilds in MMORPGs
<Nobile|BR> I started to
write an essay on that and got a headache:)
<Nobile|BR> several times
<Zang> Basically, I think
MMORPGs are going to start moving towards more
player control over worlds...like Atriarch
plans..and the social aspects from Darktide I
think will be something to be looked back on as a
first step
<Zang> despite code
differences with other games
<Nobile|BR> Yea I've been
following Atriarch and your page
<Zang> Really? Nice :)
<Zang> How did you feel
about the "Pk/Anti-PK Trap" article?
<Nobile|BR> I wrote one of
those myself actually, asked to be
"unclassified" in the dnn listings .
Now the guild listings are just alphabetical
* Zang nods.
<Nobile|BR> You can call
yourself anything you like...Question is, what
are you really?
<Zang> I noticed that...I
assumed that you changed that because you felt
that BR isn't really "neutral"..but is
more "pro-BR"..is that why you changed?
<Nobile|BR> No, we're a
sum of all our parts. We have players that are
considered "anti" and we have players
that are very agressive...borderline PK
<Nobile|BR> and everything
in between.
<Zang> That leads in to my
first question...
<Nobile|BR> Then again we
have our guild guidelines
<Nobile|BR> If everyone
can function within the guidelines, then we're in
good shape.
<Zang> Some people have
said that PK/Anti-Pk distinctions don't mean a
lot anymore, and that guilds should move to
defining themselves like nations with set
territories...what is your take on that?
<Nobile|BR> Ok, I noticed
that everyone is starting to support this model.
I've been saying that for a very long time.
Alignment or anti-RPK tags sound simple to me
<Nobile|BR> Alignment
brings me back to D&D times...i had a roomie
who was so into it...it still makes me cringe
thinking about it.
* Zang nods.
<Zang> So, do you plan on
being PK or Anti/PK in the next MMORPG you
play..or more nationalistic?
<Zang> Your next MMORPG
will be what...Shadowbane?
<Nobile|BR> Nationalistic,
but I'm sure others will define us as one or the
other, or just as fence riders.
<Nobile|BR> Hard to
say...is it coming out?
<Zang> Some say it is ;)
<Nobile|BR> AC2 for
sure...if something good is out before then,
we'll go.
<Nobile|BR> But i'm not
very optimistic
* Zang nods.
<Zang> I'm pretty set on
Atriarch.
<Nobile|BR> Shadowbane has
been "coming out forever"
<Zang> yes...remember the
Mercs leaving to "go to shadowbane
beta" in Jan 2000
<Nobile|BR> Yeah Atriarch
looks good.
<Nobile|BR> Yea:)
<Zang> I hear they owned
it ;)
<Nobile|BR> I was worried
i was missing the boat back then
<Nobile|BR> lol..
* Zang nods.
<Nobile|BR> Mercs will
probably own it for a while when it does come
out...assuming they're in the beta already
<Zang> they're not..only
relatives and employees are in it so far
<Nobile|BR> They've been
preparing longer than anyone possibly
could...even the SB devs:)
<Zang> Ah..before we go
further..could you give me a very brief rundown
of BR history on Darktide?
<Nobile|BR> Sure
<Nobile|BR> I started out
hoping my UO guild would follow...but they never
did so i was basically alone starting out.
<Nobile|BR> I met a few
people early on, we lived in Arwic pretty much at
peace with the Mercs who came later.
<Nobile|BR> back then
there were no alignment issues
<Nobile|BR> Everyone was
just leveling
<Nobile|BR> One day Mercs
KOS'd me for discovering the BDC and sharing
<Nobile|BR> So i moved to
Kara and fought them till they left AC
<Nobile|BR> I picked up
some good people along the way who drew a crowd.
<Nobile|BR> That's the
shortest summary I can give you
<Zang> ok
<Zang>; At it's peak, how
large was Black Rose?
<Nobile|BR> 1300 I think,
we're closing on that figure again actually.
<Zang> really? good to
hear
<Nobile|BR> We never swore
in mules though, so 1300 was a whole lot of
people back then
<Zang> How much of that
growth would you attribute to having a set
"territory", and how much to other
factors?
<Nobile|BR> Ok we've tried
territory and we're now doing nomadic. Both work
if you have goals.
<Zang> Can you elaborate
on that?
<Nobile|BR> The territory
we "owned" back then was Kara..for a
long time nobody even knew where or what it
was...so people didn't find us easy.
<Nobile|BR> When most
people saw BRs it was us going somewhere to fight
<Nobile|BR> So they knew
we were a very active fighting guild..that
attracts people on a pvp server.
* Zang nods.
<Zang> And the situation
now? What do you mean by nomadic?
<Nobile|BR> Kara was a
good spot, at some point people found out about
it, and that attracted a lot more people. The
majority of people that will join you because you
own a territory aren't good members.
<Nobile|BR> opportunists.
<Zang> Can you elaborate
on that? Why aren't they good?
<Nobile|BR> Sure...
<Nobile|BR> The type of
player that wants to feel "safe" on a
pvp server by living in a controlled territory,
isn't the kind of player I really want in my
guild. Not someone you can depend on.
<Nobile|BR> You lose the
territory...they make other arrangements
* Zang nods.
<Nobile|BR> Instead of
toughing it out with their guildmates.
<Zang> If there were more
going on than combat...something like Atriarch
for example, would that change your view on that?
<Nobile|BR> Well I don't
mean just combat.
<Nobile|BR> I mean
contribution to the guild
<Nobile|BR> even in DT you
don't need just fighters
<Nobile|BR> Some of our
best people weren't great at pvp nor participated
in a lot of fighting.
<Nobile|BR> But in their
own way they made sure we won, and the way we
fight that's been very useful. I hope I haven't
lost you there.Click here to go to Page Two
of the Interview
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