Guild Expansion Readiness Program

AIE has been growing and changing for some time now--we started out as a WoW guild created by the hosts, fans and friends of the podcasts The Instance, ELR, Buzz Out Loud and Jawbone Radio. Since that initial small guild was formed, AIE has grown into a community that extends way beyond Warcraft.

We have expanded into many games; including EVE Online, Rift, and Star Wars: the Old Republic. As we expanded the AIE's community, we saw that the AIE officers and council members could not investigate and evaluate all the new games. Plus, we didn't want to limit new AIE games to just games that officers were interested in (or have time to support). So we made a system to get guildies involved in getting AIE into new games. We call this our Guild Expansion Readiness Program--our GERP.

GERP is our basic framework for how AIE will investigate, try out, and staff a new game universe. It involves four phases. Each phase may lead to nothing--or it may set the stage for expanding into the next level. These are the voyages of the starship AIE; our continuing mission: to explore strange new games, to seek out new members and new civilizations--to boldly game where no one has gamed before!

The program described here is a guideline. It will probably differ slightly for each game depending on what the game allows or requires us to do.

Discovery Phase

The information-gathering phase for games in development. Any AIE member is encouraged to bring up games they think would be good for AIE to get into, and discuss it in the Imperium Lūdī board section of the forums. This phase may last a long time since some games are a long time in development. The AIE council likely has little involvement at this point, we rely upon the community to find interesting new games and determine what level of interest the games will maintain.

What happens

• Through forums discussions and polls in the Imperium Lūdī board we see if there is enough interest in the community to go for it.
• The game is listed on the GERP Status page to track it through the process.

Expedition Phase

This happens when there is widespread availability of the game. This may be open beta or when the game is released... basically when most anyone that is motivated to play it, can. This phase may last a long time or short time, based on the developer’s schedule. Ideally, we would like it to be about a month.

Entry Criteria

• One or more of the groups that have formed during the discovery phase send an e-mail message to council@aie-universal.net with a brief description of the game milestones (open beta, early access, planned release, etc.) and stating that they wish to set up an expedition.
• The game must be consistent with the culture and policies of Alea Iacta Est.

What happens

• A subforum will be added to the Imperium Lūdī board. This board will be shared by all expedition groups in the game.
• At this point it is just AIE people playing the game, the expedition groups are not official AIE guilds, clans, or corporations.
• The expedition chooses whatever servers or factions it wishes to explore. We encourage different scouting parties of the expedition to try different options and compare the experiences they have.

Participation

The decisions made in this phase will not necessarily carry over to later phases. If re-rolling your character on a different server or as a different faction is not something you are readily willing to do, we highly recommend that you wait until the game has entered the Settlement Phase before participating.

Settlement Phase

In this phase, the official AIE presence is established in the game with an acting settlement leader. This phase is expected to last several months as the game moves beyond the initial honeymoon period and our guild infrastructure is established. The settlement leader and his or her team are responsible for the in-game ramp-up: getting the guild going, inviting people, etc.

Entry Criteria

• The settlement phase should start shortly before the game goes into general availability, when any guild establishment is permanent.
• Any expedition interested in settling the official AIE presence should provide impressions of the game to the AIE Council. The expedition leader should identify the justification for settling the game and the significant choices with respect to the establishment, such as faction(s) and server. The letter should also outline any significant challenges that are anticipated.
• The AIE Council takes this information and recommendations and makes the decision of whether to settle the game and who the settlement leader will be.

What Happens

• The settlement leader documents the characteristics of the AIE presence in the game. This should include all server, faction, and rank details.
• The game is incorporated into UMAMI.
• The expedition forum board is relocated as a subforum of the AIE board. The subforum structure is decided upon and implemented.
• Recruiting and building the guild.
• Anyone interested in becoming game director (guild leader) can submit their Letter of Intent via e-mail to the AIE Council (Suggested format for the letter is below.)
• Periodically, the AIE Council meets with the game team (settlement leader & officers) to discuss the settlement progress and identify any settlement issues.
• The settlement leader and the council decide upon a date for the delivery of a final settlement report. This report is a brief sumamrization of the success of the settlement and the outastanding issues that must be considered as the AIE guild moves to the doamin phase.

Domain Phase

The guild is considered an official, mature AIE guild in the game with established guild management procedures and officers.

Entry Criteria

• The AIE Council considers the Letters of Intenet that have been submitted and the advice of the settlement leader. A domain leader is selected by the council.

What Happens

• The new game director selects her initial set of officers from the settlement officers.
• The new game director and team publishes the official game policies from the settlement draft.
• Continue recruiting and building the guild.

Recommended “Letter of Intent” Content

Here are some items you should include:

• Name, forum.myextralife.com ID and any other names you are known by in the community.
• Your interest in the game.
• Your background in gaming and the AIE community.
• Your thoughts on how the guild structure would be set up under your leadership.
• How you plan on forming of a leadership team and their relationship to the community.
• Your thoughts on how to handle disciplinary issues.
• Ideas on how this new game can add to the rest of the AIE family--for example, opportunities for interacting and “cross-pollination”.
• Anything else you care to say to impress us :)