Players take MMOs very seriously. When it's a game like Throne And Liberty and the balance of the game rests on the power of your guild, that's a recipe for very serious behavior indeed. My guild is in the top 10 on our server, but it comes with a price: you have to show up for Riftstones, Boonstones, be active for guild reputation and participate in open world PvP events. All of this amounts to what is basically a second job.
My guild isn't even one of the most demanding. Some require you to have already reached over 3,700 gear points, a threshold that is – at this stage of the game – extremely difficult to reach without playing several hours a day every day since launch, or opening your wallet for Lucent (the premium currency. ) A players recently joined our guild because their previous kicked them for inactivity – they didn't play the required 16 hours a day. While that may sound like an exaggeration, I think you greatly underestimate how seriously some people take this game.
The Siege Dilemma
Managing a guild is actually even more work. With the siege event coming up this weekend, my guild leader has been constantly balancing player expectations with how much we can actually achieve in combat. We are a solid guild, but there are huge alliances on the server, some with close to 200 active players. People obviously want to be part of these guilds to have a better chance of securing some of the Lucenten from the castle's treasure reserves. If you win the castle, everyone involved gets a share. So players leave to join these alliances, and recruitment to the guild must continue – although with each passing day there are fewer active and committed players available.
Group PvP
Throne And Liberty inspires this kind of compulsive playtime because it's very hard to have fun in the game unless you're part of one of these massive guilds. Throne And Liberty is not very solo friendly. It's a game designed around huge PvP events, like the upcoming siege. As a solo player, the siege is basically inaccessible to you. You can come and enjoy the spectacle, but you will achieve very little unless you are in a zerg of at least 100 players.
The bosses of the conflict world are similar. While there's always a peaceful option for solo players to go to and find a group, conflict world bosses are also inaccessible unless you show up with a lot of allies. Our guild managed to capture an excellent (and expensive) world boss drop yesterday, but this would not have been possible without our three-guild alliance controlling the area and getting the maximum damage allowance on the boss. Those who are part of a large alliance become stronger in the game and will snow past any solo player or even smaller guilds.
Burn out
While the game is healthy at the moment with tons of dedicated and casual players, my biggest concern in all of this is that NCSoft has created a horrible beast that will cause everyone to burn out and leave the game. When the demands on the top clubs are so strict, it's not really that surprising. NCSoft needs to constantly deliver content to keep people engaged, as the repetitive pattern of dungeon runs, daily gating and chaotic PvP events won't be enough to sustain a player base.
That said, the drama of Throne And Liberty's guild relationships is fascinating to watch. The siege event feels like something monumental, and even if non-players don't really understand, it's kind of like Game Of Thrones – we have no idea which guilds might change alliances or which top players might move to another guild, and no idea what will happen during the day. If that means I have to play several hours a day to be involved in it, I will. For now.
Family
Throne And Liberty's bot problem is only getting worse
The bots are back.
