Path Less Traveled, Small Guilds and Public Appeal
For large guilds, the path to Vanarch success is clear. Get big. Make an alliance. Appeal to the public for additional votes. For large guilds, appealing to the public is an insurance policy against the votes that are generated simply by being big and by being allied with other big guilds. While this path is well worn on every server, it is not the only path to Vanarch. For small guilds, appealing to the public is one answer to compete with the big boys.
In this week’s column, I want to explore some ways that a smaller guild can use the public to gain the votes needed to win a province. I will highlight what I feel is a political success story on Basilisk Crag authored by the guild The High Five to demonstrate my points. If you are guild leader of a smaller or less active guild that would like to make a run for Vanarch, but are not sure how to do it, The High Five may have provided you with a template.
The High Five, First Election
The High Five, lead by Dragonaught, is a guild on Basilisk Crag that is not terribly big (or at least not terribly active). You don’t see their members turn out with massive numbers at the Nexus, nor are they the center of attention in drama-inciting pages of forum posts. You don’t see them in massive GvG battles outside of towns. You rarely run into one of their members doing your dailies and, for the most part, they stay completely under the radar. They are, in most ways, a classic “Every Guild.”
In fact, in some respects, The High Five started their political career worse than many of the small guild leaders that may be reading this article. The High Five’s campaign in the first election was, to be honest, immature. Dragonaught’s political post introducing his candidacy even lacked any mention of the region for which he was running. It also happened to be decorated with bright yellow text, an immediately apparent faux pas. The message that Dragonaught opened with was memorable. “I am a 21 year old College student in Miami, my hobbies include dancing, online gaming, spending time with my close friends, and smoking cannabis.” Great.
Obviously, given The High Five’s introduction to the political scene, they did not secure any substantial alliances and, as expected by most people that followed the political scene on Basilisk Crag, they ran and lost, in the first Vanarch election without making much of a splash. The whole campaign seemed thrown together, unprofessional, and short-sighted. At the very least, it was an approach that failed to inspire confidence.
Second Election, The Comeback
Based on the above, most political players on Basilisk Crag completely wrote The High Five off for the second election. But, despite the shortcomings from the first campaign, Dragonaught proved resilient, learned from his mistakes, and put together a masterful second campaign that appealed to the public, rather than alliances, and resulted in him being elected to a province on Arun. So how did they do it? And, more importantly, what lessons can aspiring guild leaders learn from The High Five’s comeback?
The High Five excelled in the second campaign not through rapid growth or strategic alliances, but rather by appealing to the public in a positive way.
First, Dragonaught cleaned up the maturity level of his campaign. In stark contrast to his first message, his second message was clear and pointed: “I want to see this server rise to its potential. It is my goal to help strengthen our server, both in community and power.” Note that he focused on what he could do for the server and not about his personal life and his personal habits, a positive move for any popularity contest. He also clearly relayed the “basics” that were omitted from his first try, such as promising low taxes with services enabled and by naming the province for which he wanted to be elected.
The lesson from the distinction between the The High Five first two campaign messages is simple. You cannot win an election simply by making a post on the forums. You can, however, lose an election that way. Be simple and straight forward in your campaign posts. Clearly state your goals and what you offer in an intelligent manner than demonstrates an understanding of the system and your responsibilities in it. If you do so, the public will respond or at the very least, give you a chance.
Second, Dragonaught took great measures to increase his guild’s visibility on the server. He conducted a great interview with an in-game “news agency” that was gaining popularity on the server. He participated in a Vanarchy debate sponsored by a smaller guild on the server. He continued to follow up his new found visibility with many pointed and well thought-out posts on the forums that continued his momentum.
The lesson from The High Five’s campaign is that silence is the enemy for a political candidate. The first election, Dragonaught was nearly completely silent. The second one, he was one of the most active. A good candidate gets his message out there and forces other players to know his name. There are a variety of ways to do this, from posting articles or videos about TERA on fansites, to making well thought out forum posts, to participating in server events. It all matters. It all helps the community. It will all help you get elected.
Third, and most impressively, The High Five conducted an all out in-game event blitz that spanned over the course of the entire voting week:
Day 1: Hide and Seek with Riddles (http://tera-forums.enmasse.com/forums/basilisk-crag/topics/First-daily-event-announced)
Day 2: Very Unique Rodeo Round Up (http://tera-forums.enmasse.com/forums/basilisk-crag/topics/Second-Daily-Event-Announcement)
Day 3: PvP Deathmatches (http://tera-forums.enmasse.com/forums/basilisk-crag/topics/Day-three-PvP-deathmatch-event-level-60)
Day 4: Fashion Show (http://tera-forums.enmasse.com/forums/basilisk-crag/topics/Event-day-four-is-going-to-be-high-class)
These events were great. They showed the public that The High Five were not going to wait until they won to offer content to the community. Instead, they demonstrated that the previously laughable campaign had turned a corner. These guys were for real and the public was taking notice.
The lesson is that actions speak louder than words. Many small guilds will complain on the forums about how larger guilds monopolize the Vanarch seats and squash any competition. Small guilds that win will need to do more than that. Participate. Make fun events so that other guilds will participate. If you take the steps to add content for the public, the public will respond.
Lessons for Other Small Guilds
Even a small guild, standing alone with seemingly no chance to win, can– through hard work and attention to detail– appeal to the public and win. That is the beauty of the political system in TERA. Players want to have fun and have interesting content. Create it and you will be rewarded. And The High Five? Rumor has it that The High Five leveraged its success in the second election to ally itself with some similarly-minded guilds. I expect them to make a splash this election as they go after more high profile provinces. Congratulations to The High Five for running a great 2nd Vanarch campaign and to the players on Basilisk Crag for recognizing the fact that they did it and rewarding them with a Vanarch seat.
High membership and alliances can only count for so many votes. Don’t be discouraged into thinking that you have to “go big or go home.” Small and medium sized guilds can and do succeed by running a good campaign and appealing to the public. A good campaign for a smaller guild will: (1) have a good message focused around server health, (2) focus on creating high visibility through a variety of means to reach the widest possible audience, and (3) show commitment to the server through actions, not words.
Just for Fun
The Basilisk Crag Nexus PvP Scene is in full force. Here is a video (with Vent enabled) showing a surprise attack by the “bad guys” Illuminus, Rising Phoenix and Prophecy against the “good guys” Divine and Nagafen. (Since I wrote the article, I get to be the good guys!). We countered the attack with several smaller skirmishes throughout the night. I’m the guy doing most of the talking. Enjoy.
(The early part is choppy because it’s the Nexus + FRAPS, but the frame rate improves as the movie goes on).
Get Political with TERA-Junkies
TERA-JUNKIES urges all existing or aspiring Vanarchs to contribute to TERA-Junkies to get their message out there with a weekly political op-ed. If you are interested, please contact us at Draegan@Rerollz.com.
The post B.C. Political Weekly 7/6/2012 appeared first on JunkiesNation.
