GuildCafe Announces Funding from IDG Ventures Boston

The following is the press release announcing our funding…

GuildCafe Announces Funding from IDG Ventures Boston

CAMBRIDGE MA, July 24, 2007 – GuildCafe Entertainment Inc. announced that it raised venture capital funding from IDG Ventures Boston. GuildCafe is building a website that enables game players to find friends, discover game content and take part in fun activities through the lens of their social relationships.

Most players of GuildCafe participate in massively multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft, Guild Wars and Lord of the Rings Online. Unlike other social media sites, members of GuildCafe interact with one another through their gaming personas: wizards, starfighter pilots, heroes and other fantastic characters. These players also form groups—called “guilds”—that may stick together from one virtual world to the next.

“GuildCafe is becoming the place where players start their day. Before jumping into an online game, they’ll stop by to find out what their friends are doing, learn about new content or plan their fun for the evening. It’s our goal to create a community that places players at the center of the online gaming universe,” said Jon Radoff, President and CEO of GuildCafe Entertainment Inc.

New funds will be used to create additional functionality, enhance the user experience and expand the company’s management team. On July 1, the company was joined by Sanya Weathers, who most recently directed online community at Electronic Arts Mythic.

“In contrast to older communities that treat gamers as consumers of editorial content, GuildCafe is enabling new forms of interaction, driven by players and the groups they belong to. Through its early lead, management experience and deep understanding of players, we believe GuildCafe is in a unique position to redefine the gaming media market,” said Jon Karlen of IDG Ventures Boston, who will also be joining GuildCafe’s Board of Directors.

About GuildCafe Entertainment Inc.
On GuildCafe, game players can express themselves through gaming alter-egos, publish their accomplishments, share expertise and organize gaming groups called guilds. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, GuildCafe is led by a team of online media and computer games veterans from Eprise, New York Times Digital, Electronic Arts and Mythic Entertainment. More information about is available at: blog.gamerdna.com. About IDG Ventures Boston

IDG Ventures Boston is an independent partnership that enables entrepreneurs to grow innovative, global companies. With $280 million under management, the firm is focused on investing in early stage information technology and life sciences companies and is led by a team with more than half a century of combined experience in venture capital. IDG Ventures Boston is affiliated with the IDG Ventures network of funds, a global $1+ billion network of independently managed funds spanning Asia and North America. For more information, visit: www.idgvb.com

Media Contacts

GuildCafe Entertainment Inc.
Jon Radoff media@guildcafe.com 617-202-9560

IDG Ventures Boston
Kate Castle kcastle@idgventures.com 617.534.1228

World Class Guild: Shadowclan

Meet Shadowclan, blurring the line between NPC and PC for a decade. This crowd is for bloodthirsty roleplayers who make the worlds they inhabit just a little more fun, even as they are demanding tribute. Read on:

PlayerVox: We’ve got K’Dah, Hugzug, and Parfug with us today. To start off, why don’t you tell us how Shadowclan started off, why it was startedm and what your goals and ideals were/are for the group.

K’Dah: Shadowclan was started by the Elders, two guys that were bored of the stupid NPC monsters in UO and wanted there to be better opponents. They decided to become these better opponents themselves, for others. So they dressed as orcs and went into character, as orcs.

The idea took off, ended up being a lot of fun, and gathering hundreds, and then thousands of members. The Shadowclan has evolved a lot since then, but our basic goal is still to be the fun, role-playing enemy of the standard player.

"I first heard about "a whole group of murderers at the orc fort in Yew" shortly after I started playing on Catskills. Most people who I talked to at that time thought it was great until they went there and had 30 orcs rush out the front door and chase them into the woods."

Hugzug: Hoowah Shadowclan!

PlayerVox: Can you describe to us Shadowclan’s roleplaying mentality and rules/guidelines?

K’Dah: Our RP mentality is RP (stay in character) 24/7 while in the game. Everything is roleplayed, and handled with roleplay. We look at everything as our characters would. Of course, what this means changes from game to game and race to race. Our rules are always stay in character, and don’t ruin other’s fun.

PlayerVox: Shadowclan is famous for using "Black Speech.” Are the roots of this language firmly with Tolkien Orcs or have you altered it to your needs?

K’Dah: The language is actually a combination of many things. As everyone that has looked at Tolkien’s Blackspeech knows, there’s not enough of it to speak it. We use what he gave us, some words from Warhammer, and a lot of words developed over the years by us ourselves.

PlayerVox: Is the language spoke 100% of the time by members when in character? Or do you allow for members to speak normally when tired even while RP’ing?

K’Dah: We try to keep it simple. The majority of the words are just ‘Broken English’ and easy for new members to decipher.

Parfug: They can if they want to get killed and accused of being oomie spies!!

K’Dah: We stay in character 24/7. So no ‘humie blah’

Hugzug: SKAH! If them blah in oomie blah… me cut dem’s tongue out!

K’Dah: Though, like I said, it’s not a hard language to learn. Ten words memorized and you’re speaking it.

K’Dah: The rest is just broken English.

Hugzug: As the long term female playing a female “makr” (usually cook), I’ve taken to cutting tongues out and feeding them for dinner to everyone. We rarely have orc tongue for dinner anymore *snickers*

Parfug: Yeah, more than a few people have complained they couldn’t understand it only to be fluent in it a week later.

Hugzug: It took me about two weeks to be fluent. My husband and I would practice to/from work while we commuted to our jobs.

Hugzug: Counting was the worst for me. I still spell “three” wrong to this day.

"We’d go to dungeons with maybe 100 kobolds. It was quite a sight." PlayerVox: From what I’ve gleaned from your site and some other UO players, I’ve learned that you took the place of NPCs in UO and controlled an Orc Fort. Can you tell us how that worked, how the logistics worked and what the reactions from your fellow Catskill players were like?

K’Dah: How it originally worked is that we moved to the orc fort, and then never left. We were there around the clock, so other players came to think of it as ours. Eventually Origin realized we were adding fun to the game, and had become a landmark, so they sanctioned our possession of the fort by marking it as ours on Catskills.

As for the logistics of keeping it – that was a challenge. We’d lose it and regain it several times a day on the more active days.

Parfug: I first heard about "a whole group of murderers at the orc fort in Yew" shortly after I started playing on Catskills. Most people who I talked to at that time thought it was great until they went there and had 30 orcs rush out the front door and chase them into the woods.

K’Dah: We kept it any way we could (while never exploiting). We’d fight, die, fight, die, and come back to fight some more.

Parfug: It became a huge source of fun for the shard

K’Dah: Eventually we convinced Origin to remove most of the NPC orcs there because they interfered with the fights.

PlayerVox: And what’s the story with you guys being enshrined in DAoC lore?

K’Dah: When we went to DAoC, we were looking for a race to fit us there. We eventually decided on the Kobolds, as they were small, and so lent themselves well to a ‘pack’ mentality. We created kobolds. All kobolds. A huge clan of kobolds. And we became known for it. So, when DAoC went to describe Kobolds, we naturally fit into the description.

K’Dah: We’d go to dungeons with 50, 75, maybe 100 kobolds. It was quite a sight.

Parfug: And the guild was so strong such for a long time in DAoC

K’Dah: We’d stick together, group with almost nobody else, and demand tribute from everyone else in the area. And if they refused, they got swarmed. Others on the same server learned to avoid us or carry tribute.

Hugzug: *bows* thank you Parfug! I helped open that branch.

PlayerVox: What games are Shadowclan currently playing? Have their been any attempts to do something akin to the Orcs of Catskills and the Orc Fort in those games?

Parfug: We still have a branch playing UO on a the player run shard of Angel Island.

Hugzug: I know are are also still active in WoW. My husband has his orc in our branch there.

K’Dah: We currently have a small presence in almost all of the MMORPGs out there. Though nothing strong currently. We’re waiting for a game that fits us better than what’s currenly available, much like UO and DAoC fit us. And yes, we’d love to duplicate the UO/DAoC Shadowclan experience. But it takes a game that’s more of a sandbox with open PvP. That’s rare these days.

Parfug: Shadowbane was a pretty big success for us too. We were an all Irekei guild got very very deep into the lore and culture of the race.

K’Dah: Yep, until Shadowbane died, we were there and well known.

PlayerVox: What MMORPGs currently in development is Shadowclan looking forward to?

K’Dah: We’re currently watching WAR and AoC most closely. Both look to be good games.

Parfug: There are also a few who are still praying for Darkfall

K’Dah: And, of course, Darkfall, if it doesn’t turn out to be Vaporware.

PlayerVox: "How does one join Shadowclan? Is there an application process?"

K’Dah: And the answer is that we’re open to everyone. We’re an open membership guild. We’ve had over 10,000 members in our 10 years. All it takes to join Shadowclan is to find a game we’re in, create a character that fits our rules, and show up.

K’Dah: And roleplay. It’s an important feature of Shadowclan.

Very few other guilds are open membership. It means that anyone can join us and have fun. They don’t have to be a friend, or competent at PvP, or max level, or any of the typical requirements.

PlayerVox: Do you think roleplayers are a dying breed in modern MMORPGs? Or are we just waiting for an MMORPG without the leash, eg. Darkfall?

Parfug: I don’t think they are dying out at all. It’s definitely difficult for those of us who like to include lots of maiming and breaking of each others bones in our roleplay with the current selection of games out there.

K’Dah: I don’t think the number of role-players has changed that much. There are still large numbers of people out there that will roleplay if it’s fun, and there are others to roleplay with them. It’s just the games these days discourage it. As mentioned above, a sandbox game and open PvP are very important to RP.

Hugzug: I don’t see our way dying out because it’s different and not "cookie cutter" role play. On many games that provide role play [servers], I do see less and less of it and more of them being just general shards.

Parfug: More and more people are playing these online games, and they will run into people roleplaying and some will become interested in it. That is one of the things we have always done well.Many of our members, including me, had never roleplayed in any kind of organized or serious way before encountering Shadowclan

Hugzug: *cookie cutter role play* for me equals a role play server where everyone thinks they have to do the "thee" "thou" speech and are stuck to that. Most people do not realize role play can really be anything left to your imagination.

Parfug: That’s why it’s important to always interact and roleplay with everyone you run into. Even if they are calling you a newb and saying horrible things about your mother.

PlayerVox: Do you believe there can be roleplaying without PvP? Or do you think the two come hand in hand?

Hugzug: Oh, definitely hand in hand!

Just not for Shadowclan. Har.

"How do you as an orc react to someone standing there mooning you in an in-character way if you can’t just kill them?"

Parfug: You can roleplay without PvP I guess, but that really has never been our style.

K’Dah: There can be, but it’s much, much harder. How do you react to someone standing there mooning you in an in-character way (as an orc or such) if you can’t just kill them?

Parfug: I’d hate to see someone try to roleplay Orcs without PvP.

Hugzug: I have noticed when carrying the Shadowclan name over my head in a game you have to be able to fend for yourself in PvP because those that don’t get "it" with us will try to kill us.

K’Dah: PvP is important for roleplay, especially if you’re roleplaying an enemy to the standard character.

PlayerVox: What advice would you give to roleplayers and RP guild leaders alike, who are trying to become great RP’ers in MMORPGs?

Parfug: Interact with everyone in character, even if they don’t roleplay themselves.

Hugzug: Definitely not to break character. When you do that you pretty much lose credibility with what you are doing.

K’Dah: First off, try to fit your RP into the game. Don’t roleplay spacemen in a fantasy game. Second, be original. Don’t try to roleplay a character or society out of a book – make up your own. Third, stay in character at all times, and roleplay with everyone, even those not roleplaying. Some you’ll convert that way. The rest you’ll drive insane. *grins*

Hugzug: To also find something unique to help yourself stand out. Imitation is not always the best form of flattery.

Parfug: For RP guild leaders I’d definitely advise not getting tangled up in any kind of complicated Rules of Engagement with other guilds. It leads to pain and suffering and really annoying IMs every time. Keep it simple

PlayerVox: Thanks for the interview, K’Dah, Parfug and Hugzug!!

Is a CORPG in your future?

If you don’t know what a competitive online role-playing game (CORPG) is, you probably aren’t alone. This is a relatively new type of massive multi-player game that puts players in situations where they either compete with one another or have to cooperate with one another against other players in order to succeed. A CORPG can be either a Player Vs Environment (PVE) model, a Player vs Player (PVP) model, or a combination of both types of game play.

Common Features of A CORPG
While the genre is still early in its evolution both Guild Wars and Fury (mentioned later) seem to be offering some standard features that make the CORPG experience different than the massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) experience.

Game Play
CORPGs combine some of the best aspects of action-based role-playing games, massive multiplayer online games, certain elements from first person shooters (FPS), and competitive multi-player games into a single gaming framework. A player can participate in a CORPG’s story-driven adventure campaign, or in a team-based competitive PVE or PVP gaming format. CORPGs can be thought of in the same way as collectible card games like Magic the Gathering because of the way skills are used during gaming sessions.

CORPGs are less about a player’s level, and more about exploration and achievement in PVE or PVP… By focusing more on achievement titles and rewards, CORPGs provide a wide ranging end game that keeps players engaged.

A player must choose a limited number of skills from the pool of available skills prior to entering PVE or PVP battles, which is similar to assembling decks of Magic the Gathering cards. Players must consider a specific strategy for the area they are entering, or attempt to use a general skill-set up to create synergies between groups of skills. When a team is formed, the strengths and weaknesses of player classes are also usually taken into account, so that players can have the option to create more complex skill combinations.

Co-operative Gameplay
CORPGs generally offer some type of co-operative game play options for PVE and PVP players. Players can explore a game world, kill monsters or players, perform PVE or PVP quests, and complete missions to earn rewards to advance the story or their character. Rewards can include experience points, skills, gold, or items for the player character.

Competitive Gameplay
Player versus Player (PVP) combat in a CORPG, to date, has been offered to players using a consensual and team-based approach. PVP is restricted to special PVP areas of the game world, and there can be a variety of different types of PVP combat. Guild Wars offers their PVP in the Battle Isles, and offers PVP gaming formats that range from one player fighting against one player to competitive guild versus guild type play. Fury is currently on record as providing several types of tournament maps where there will be PVP formats for single players, head to head, and multiple team combat. PVP character progression and rewards have been gaining momentum so that players who don’t want to play PVE content can grow their characters solely through PVP.

Skills
Players in CORPGs can usually select several skills from their primary or secondary character archetypes (commonly known as professions or classes). The skills are displayed in a skill-bar, from where they may be activated by using the keyboard, mouse, or number pad. Skill selection may be freely altered in game outposts or non combat zones, but are fixed once the character enters a PVE adventure zone or competitive PVP arena. There are several types of skills that are available to players. There are attack skills that are used to cause damage, healing skills, and then various defensive or buff type skills to help with survival. Most skills that players can use have a number of counter skills to negate their effects, and this requires the player to select a set of skills based on the type of encounter in which they are likely to find themselves.

The pool of skills available to the player and his characters is initially limited, and access to additional skills is unlocked through progression in the game. In Guild Wars, skills can be captured from slain mobs, PVP combat, or by purchasing skill unlock upgrades from Arena Net. In Fury skills are unlocked through PVP combat trials, and players are awarded points that can be used to buy certain skills.

Builds
In CORPGs, a particular combination of skills, attributes armor and weapons is commonly known as a “build”. Some builds are more effective at particular tasks than others, and so players tend to develop several builds based on their PVE or PVP roles. A build may be at an individual player level, or include all of the roles in a team to utilize skill interactions across multiple players. As the newness of a CORPG wears off, some builds get more popular. Sometimes it is hard or even impossible to get into certain parties without a certain type of build that is optimal for the situation.

A Semi-Persistent World
MMORPG’s provide the gamer with a persistent world type setting. In a true persistent world setting the world keeps on ticking with the player logs out for the day, all the PVP and PVE adventure zones remain open to everyone, player shops keep selling items, etc. Also when players adventure in a persistent world, they are all sharing the same PVE and/or PVP resources. So if someone needs to kill a boss mob for some skill or item, then they pretty much have to stand in line and wait their turn.

In a semi-persistent world, players share several common areas where they can interact with one another, and the rest of the world is played by using game "instances". Instances are temporary game zones that spawn for a player or their group, and do not include any other players who have not been invited into the adventure group. By using instances this helps to reduce the problems associated with spawn camping, mob stealing, item stealing, or other types of annoying player behaviors that are commonly found in persistent worlds.

Travel Around The Game World
One feature that seems to be catching on with CORPGs is the concept of downtime reduction while traveling. Anyone who’s ever played an MMORPG knows that getting to certain adventure zones or battle areas usually entails having to deal with a boring horse ride, griffon ride, or some other horrid combination. The result is that the gamer loses valuable time traveling, and CORPGs have adapted by allowing the player to travel via a world map.

Using map travel, a player simply pulls up their map display, clicks on where they want to go, and then they are instantly teleported to that location. Some games like Guild Wars make you unlock areas of the map by questing before you can gain regular access to the zone, but once you do you never have to wait around to travel again. To a casual gamer the increase in travel efficiency certainly helps them to maximize their game time.

Enter Guild Wars

Guild Wars by NCSoft was the first game designed and marketed as a CORPG. Below is the exact text from one of the public releases about the game.

"Guild Wars is a competitive online role-playing game. Players can engage in cooperative group combat, in single player adventures, or in large head-to-head guild battles. Guild Wars is a mission-based game set in a stunning 3D fantasy world that offers full, integrated support for guilds. Because the team that is developing Guild Wars has had experience creating successful online game series such as Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo, the members are familiar with the complex issues surrounding online games, and are creating a game that’s both easy to learn and compelling to play long term, and yet doesn’t require players to spend hundreds of hours slogging through the preparation just to get to the fun bits."

 

 

Guild Wars went on to sell over two million copies, and helped put games based on a CORPG concept on the market. Since the start Guild Wars supported competitive PVP, and has had several tournaments with a grand prize of $100,000 for the global winner. GW supports both PVP and PVE ranked ladders, has a reward system for those that participate, and is planning a sequel to be released in the future. Guild Wars doesn’t require a monthly subscription, and that has helped it to gain popularity from younger gamers.

Enter Fury

Fury is currently in development by Auran Studios and will be the second game to be developed as a CORPG. Unlike Guild Wars, Fury will be based entirely on a game design geared towards those who prefer PVP combat. While the exact marketing hype has yet to be determined, here is what CEO Tony Hillman said recently about the game over on the Gamespot.

"Because we’re not a traditional MMOG. We’re a very new take on the MMOG genre. I’ve just come back from our publishers in the US, and we’ve coined the term PVPMMO.By being really tightly focused on our feature set, and not spreading ourselves too thinly and not trying to be all things to all people, we can find a niche and dominate it. We’ve totally focused on the player versus player experience. So we haven’t had to make any compromises to try and squeeze in any [player-versus-environment] content at all. Everything is balanced for PVP. Every feature that we discuss, we’re not going "hmm, now the PVE guys would like it, but the PVP guys wouldn’t," or vice versa. So by focusing on a simple subset of features, we’re going to really appeal to that audience extremely well."

In Fury, there are a few main types of PVP combat in development:

Team elimination: The winners are the ones that win two out of three rounds. These are pretty fun head to head matches, and could become a great place to arrange matches between guilds.

Vortex: This map is basically a resource race. Your team has to capture crystals, and bring them to your base. The twist is the other team can raid your base and steal all the crystals you have massed. This makes for some interesting offense/defense type action, and the sloppy team can quickly snatch defeat from the jaws of victory if they are not on top of things.

Fortress War: This is a large scale battle of 32vs32 in a conquest to capture nodes and ultimately the fortress. Again this creates a lot of different types of situations for teamwork, and you have to be on top of your game to win.

Bloodbath: This is a big Free For All (FFA) type match where everyone can kill everyone. It is a very fast paced, chaotic, and fun type of PVP. Its also where a lot of new players will learn to PVP in Fury, but it will provide some fun competition on a permament basis.

Fury is currently in a "Pre-Beta" test phase, and scheduled for release in late 07 or early 08.

Concluding Remarks
Few MMORPG’s cater to the casual gamer, and various reports show that casual gamers are the largest segment of online game players. While they may sacrifice some sense of a persistent world, CORPGs provide both the casual and hardcore gamers with a lot of the same fun but without the shackles that make so many MMORPG’s feel like a second full time job.

Due to Guild War’s success, you can expect more CORPG offerings in the years to come. Fury is currently the second known CORPG in development, and Richard Garriot from NCSoft has gone on record as citing that they will publish more games using the model from Guild Wars.

So if a semi-persistent world with competitive or cooperative type game play appeals to you and you don’t have the kind of time to devote to a hardcore MMORPG, then keep an eye on the CORPG gaming genre in the years ahead.