I suggested the other day to a friend that she should use the Twitter system for coordination in a game she is playing. The game in question is The Reincarnation, a web based strategy game where you fight wars between guilds of players.
A guild of players in a web based game encounter some problems when wars drag out over the period of weeks or even months. One of the major problems is how to coordinate the troops. Different guilds use different systems to solve this problem. The moste used are:
- IRC
You demand of your players to idle in an IRC channel and thus they are somewhat available when they sit by their computer.
- MSN
A messenger is a good way to see if someone is actually online.
- Forum
In a forum you discuss strategic or tactical options and also you inspire the troops from here.
- Mail
While at work you can’t always take part of forums and such but with a mail you can still relay information and/or give orders.
These systems are only tools and how effective they are depens on how your guild is built. Some ways I’ve seen working are:
- The Brotherhood
Everyone is equal. The “leader” is the one with most charisma. An informal leadership. With this system you gain a lot in the inspiration area but you can’t really grow to big without loosing a common focus. These types of guilds usually use MSN or the like or even the phone since they often know eachother IRL as well.
- The Army
The leader has absolute power. He relays his orders to a group of subordinate leaders, or generals. This type of guild has the capability to grow to a size of 20-30 members and for every 5-6 members there should be a general. It’s possible to devide the guild into subgroups with tactical advantages since it is easier to coordinate with 5 people then with 20.
- The Democracy
Most big guild sooner or later grows into a democracy. The leader doesn’t make all decicions alone. Sometimes leaders are declared in different areas like war, diplomacy, intelligence and such. These guilds are often strong and if they manage to keep the guild active they are often victorious in wars. But they could be even stronger.
So, where does Twitter come in to all of this? Well it’s another system to use, especially if you belong to The Army or The Democracy type of guild.
Twitter is a system to let others know what you are doing right now. It works somewhat like MSN status message. You can update it how ever many times you like during the day and those that follow your twitter will keep track on what you do. Now I wouldn’t suggest that everyone gets a twitter and you try to follow everyones dayly routine, that would make you insane in a heartbeat. What I suggest you do is use the SMS part of the Twitter system. Here is an example of how it would work.
The guild Barbarians Of Gore Under Skies, or BOGUS for short, is a mix of Democracy and Army types of guilds. They have a leader called Grand General. BOGUS has 45 members devided into several teams. Main force is a team of 12 really good players called The Intelligent Trio. Two teams of 10 makes up the rest of the army (one in the US and one in Europe). The other 13 are either not very active or they belong to the intelligence team…the spies.
I would suggest that this guild should create atleast 5 or 6 Twitter account.
- Main Account
Everyone should subscribe to this group with SMS (it’s free) and the leader or the group of leaders should be the ones who post status updates. This would be used to remind everyone of wars, BBQ or other activities involving the entire clan.
- Leaders Account
An account for just the leaders to relay msgs that they want the other leaders to get fast. Decisions needs to be made fast and if you can’t get a hold of everyoneyou might not get input wich would lead to a win. If someone can’t get to a computer they can always give their opinion by answering the SMS and all those that subscribe to that twitter account will get the reply to their mobile phones.
- Trio account
The special force gets their own account. Their general and the leader gets to post to them and they get to post to eachother when needed. Leader gets all the updates from here.
- Group account
Same goes for the other groups perhaps with the exception that they don’t get to post themselves.
- Another group account
- Spy account
Give orders to your spies fast an easily. Let them know when you need information fast and let them find a way to find it for you.
Other Twitter accounts that could be created:
- Spellcasters
When you need spells thrown on an enemy you seldome have time to wait until they get back to the forum…you need ppl now! Twitter is your hero.
- Basedon position
Bottom feeders to kill people off? Just send them a msg. Top dogs to protect the other top dogs from falling when you suddenly get attackt? Another twitter for them. Up to each member to choose wich groups to belong to here.
- Partners in crime
Your allies. Create a twit just for them. If you need them to change their stacking or need to tell them they are under attack…just tweet away.
The benefits of this system is that you can reach the cell phones of your mates very quickly and places where you can use it for coordination is plentiful.
This could ofcourse be adapted to other types of gaming where you have a group of people you need to get hold of quickly. Let’s say you have a Counter Strike clan and you need to get a fifth or loose a match on WO but nobody is online on Xfire…just Tweet and they get a msg on their cell phones and rush to the computer to save you.
Well, this became a bit long to explain something really simple. Tweet away.
Tomas “TomWolf” Forsman
PS. Leave a comment if you like what I’ve written, dislike it or have further thoughts on the subject.
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