Caster's Realm: The Importance of Pickup Groups

Archived from groups: alt.games.everquest (More info?)

Caster's Realm: The Importance of Pickup Groups

Single groups are the core of Everquest. Since the old cities opened
their doors onto a wilderness filled with the horrors of rats, bats,
and spiders, we have joined forces with our friends to stand up against
such terrible darkness. Today, seven years later, grouping continues to
exist as the core of Everquest.

It is our battles beside our friends that differentiate Everquest from
single player games. Grouping is the strength of massive online games
over traditional role playing games, the primary features to offset the
clear advantages of single player gaming not the least of which
includes that greatest of life improving treasures: the pause button.

There are many ways to group. Some group with their guildmates. Some
only group when they have to and spend most of their time in raids with
18 to 54 other players. Some build a tight knit group of friends and
hunt on a schedule.

But the pickup group is the strongest of them all. Before you scoff,
cry out, crumple this ancient sheaf of vellum and toss it into your
living room's roaring fire, consider the rest of this discussion. Think
back over your times hunting. Remember the moments where you first met
that close knit group of friends with which you hunt or raid. Where did
you meet them? Think to the people you met in Everquest that you never
knew previously. Think how your guilds originally formed. You might
have met them in a variety of situations but very likely you met at
least some of them in a pickup group.

Pickup groups offer many advantages. You hunt when you desire to hunt.
There is little waiting around for that one last friend to log on.
While you may have to wait for that one last class before you can hunt
successfully - a limitation and a topic covered in previous ancient
scrolls of vellum - there are no schedule conflicts. You hunt when you
want with those at hand. You will hunt with those of your strength and
power. Rarely will you find a circumstance where you must hunt with
those far below you or those far above simply because the duration of
your hunting time and that of your friends differ.

Friend groups are where you hunt with those you already know. Pickup
groups are where you meet new friends. There is no greater treasure
than a full friends list. The friends you meet are the true strengths
of Norrath.

Pickup groups are also good for the survival of Everquest. With fierce
competition, we have all watched old friends move on to newer games. It
is an evolutionary path that, while we might curse and despise it, is
inevitable. Only in our comfort hunting with those we do not yet know
will we continue to grow even when old friends move on to the clearing
at the end of the path.

What of the raiding guilds? We all have watched the raiding guilds loom
in the sky above us, crashing together or splitting apart as life rolls
on. Where will new members join these great powers? How will those
fallen heroes, risen from the ashes of their once powerful guild, meet
new friends and create even more mighty guilds? Pickup groups.

There are many who hate pickup groups. There are many who only wish to
hunt with those they know. There are those who do not like grouping at
all. I can do little to convince them except to ask them to
occasionally try either forming or joining a pickup group. Think of
your whole server as a single community, not just your small circle of
friends or your guild. You will find new regular hunting groups and new
guild members often come from this pool of hunters who, like you, want
to meet people and go on adventures.

What of Sony and the creators of the West? SOE would do well to
consider pickup groups the core of Everquest. They should do all in
their power to support these groups with both new content for the
widest range of players and new tools to make pickup group building
easier and faster. As the numbers grow and shrink, the pickup group
will remain strong. There will be days when no one faces the like of
Overlord Mata Muram. There will be times when no force can stand up to
the firey breath of Vishimtar. When these times come, it is the content
faced by the loose band of adventurers that will keep Norrath strong.

By no means do I claim these ink scratchings to be the definitive word
on this issue. We all have our views. This is simply the view of one
old pale cleric of Tunare, sitting at an oak desk with a strange
gnomish fountain pen, a candle burning low, and a page too full for
anyone's good.

Loral Ciriclight
The second of June in the year two thousand and five.
loral@loralciriclight.com