14 DAY TRIAL // Blizzard, which is still working on real time strategy Starcraft II, set to come in early 2010, and on Diablo III, which will probably arrive in 2011, caused a lot of waves by announcing that it plans to deliver yet another full-fledged expansion for its World of Warcraft MMO. It is called Cataclysm, does not have a release sequence and should modify quite a lot of the fabric of the game, completely changing the level progression and even the layout of some of the areas.
One of the aspects of the game that has heavily changed this time around is the experience players will have when being part of a guild.
The social aspect of it all is unlikely to change very much, with Blizzard maybe just offering an extra layer of communication options, but the way players will be rewarded for taking part in guild-specific actions in the MMO will be different.
There will be 20 levels through which guilds will be able to advance, with their own experience gained from big boss skills, Battleground victories, reputation gains, rank updates and the overall level ups of the players who are part of the guild.
A guild talent point comes after each of the 20 levels and allows the guild to get a mass resurrection skill or can enhance the amount of gold each player gets from drops. There will also be specific guild items that cannot be taken outside the guild, mounts featuring specific falls and cheaper potions.
Blizzard is also setting up a new interface, aptly called Looking for Guild, which will offer players a chance to browse the various entities present, seeing their stats, the players who are in and the way they choose to play the MMO, allowing for much easier choices for the novice and actually making being in a guild in World of Warcraft Cataclysm a complex experience.