I just did a fun little contest for my guild in a released MMO. It was simple, but I wanted to share it here because it illustrates several of the types of things that I think Pantheon needs to support when it launches.
The contest worked like this:
1) I took my character to a snowy zone and sat him down on an out-of-the-way ledge that was off the beaten path and where he couldn't be seen from the road.
2) I challenged my guildmates to come and find me. To win, they had to find me, *and* they had to hit me with a thrown snowball (a social emote that required them to be standing near me)
3) When one of them finally found me and won (it took about 15 minutes), I rewarded her with a custom title within our guild that she'll get to keep for a month or so.
Again, a simple little social game but it was great fun for my guild. And what made it work was having animated emotes (like throwing a snowball) and the ability to create custom ranks within our guild.
I can literally put up dozens of examples of little things like this that we players can use to do fun things, both within our guilds and for server events, but I wanted to just share this to hopefully make a point about something I think we shouldn't forget for launch. Thanks for reading :)
Nuggie said: Good lord, yes please with the customizable guild titles. That's near the top of my "want" list. Having "flat" guild structures is about as exciting as watching to grass grow, with a telescope, from the moon. That game sounded fun, btw.
Being on the moon with a telescope so powerful it can see grass grow on Earth sounds like fun to me! Think of the possibilities...
Anyway, yes, things like this are great... We used to do a "Where is Kipling" competition where I would take a screenshot in a zone r place and post it on the guild forums, whoever guessed where I was first won a prize.
I think one of the most memorable things I did in EQ was a guild-lead scavenger hunt where each clue lead to a new guild member who would give the next clue.
I wasn't even in the guild and just stumbled upon the third clue giver, who sent me back to the first and away I went. I didn't win, but it was such a wonderful spontaneous (for me) social event.