Social Needs in the Digital Era

A very simple argument for why a guild is fulfilling

In the old days, we would have had a town, or a city, and some favorite hangout places in that city, and we would have had a job somewhere in the city and some people that we knew there and some people that we knew elsewhere and called on the phone.

If we needed services, we had a big yellow book that we thumbed through, trying not to smudge the ink as we looked it up. Same with friends and family whose phone numbers we didn't know.

And then the Internet came along and shattered all of that.

For many of us, myself included, we remember this past. But, as I look back to what I had ten years ago, twenty years ago, I think to myself: How did I live?

How did I live without a smartphone?

How did I live without the Internet?

How did I live without books websites?

How did I live without a laptop?

Now, the important question is not any of these. That's surprising, because if you think about how you lived five years ago, or two years ago if you're a technology person, you've learned new things and incorporated them into your everyday life.

The important question is: How do I live now?

I guarantee you someone your age plays Star Wars: the Old Republic. The most common age bracket I've seen is people in their twenties, an age when parental restrictions and complications have been lifted, and college gives some freedom with time. (That's an experience statistic, not a research statistic, though). If someone your age plays Swtor, then someone your age definitely plays WoW.

So, how do you live now? If you can find a group of like-minded people and get over age gaps and maturity gaps (not necessarily caused by age gaps), you may find a place online that suits you.

It's harder to meet people these days. Everyone has smartphones and they'd rather text their circle of friends than pay attention to you.

It's easier to find services, even in your area.

It's harder to find places to hangout.

Imagine a hangout you can bring with you on your back, like a turtle. It's attached to your smartphone or ipad. If you have a laptop, it's everywhere you are and the Internet is. And the Internet is in a lot of places these days.

Imagine logging in every day to a community of people who know you, care about you, and want to share in your everyday life. And oh yeah, it's not awkward to initiate contact, because you're in a place designed to initiate contact. So it's not like calling someone on the phone. New people come into the community. Others may move on, but by then you've had a chance to build a contact, a friendship.

And oh yeah, you can do incredibly fun things with these people online in the game that you play. It's not just about talking. You do things.

That's right. You don't have to be alone anymore.

Hello World!

I'm Ajantis, the Guildmaster of <Aisthesis>, a guild in Star Wars: the Old Republic (Swtor).

I'm blogging because I think people inside of MMOs, not just Swtor, would enjoy reading about and perhaps learning about some of the issues with running a guild. <Aisthesis> started two years ago in August. I had been doing some leadership roles before that, not with a guild but with a loosely-connected alliance of people, and I founded the guild to bring my friends together. It had seven people and about twelve characters back then:

Ajantis
Aceofthesky
Ys'chian
Darian
Woozy
Azucena
Vedista

Now, at nearly the two-year mark, I've grown the guild (a completely voluntary activity group) into an organization of 100+ people across both factions of Swtor. We have an assistance fund for guild members in financial hardship. We have a thriving community. And we're having our very first real-life meetup next month!

I've helped some people with leadership advice and I'd be glad to help out anyone who reads this blog. I'd also like it to be a place where I can share the good and bad of leading a guild and stories from other people in <Aisthesis>.

But I would also like to reach people who don't play video games, much less MMOs, and describe to them not only what a guild is and what real-world skills it takes to run one, but also the fact that we're so much more than a bunch of twenty-something nerds living in our parents' basements.

So, posts will describe the business, the personal, and the interpersonal side of things, all interwoven together. It's what makes <Aisthesis> great.

Please comment, share, and participate! And if you're interested in playing Swtor, we're always recruiting!

Here's our official guild website.

I will be updating this blog at least once per week, so check back!