CAUTION: LONG-WINDED MMORPG HISTORY LESSON AHEAD!
I'd like to talk about Asheron's Call. It was the third ever MMORPG (excluding MUDs) and the first ever 3D Seamless Open World not only MMORPG, but game on any platform. It was an innovator in essentially everything it did: it had a classless, points and credit distribution-based progression system; a unique lore and bestiary devoid of any traditional fantasy tropes (no elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins or their ilk); a complex spell economy and research system; an ongoing storyline marked by monthly updates and live events that had persistent effects on the world; a twitch, skill-based combat system with an attack height dimension as well as an accuracy/speed dimension for missile characters and power/speed dimension for melee characters; a vast, in-depth loot and treasure system...the list goes on. One I haven't mentioned is the one I'd like to talk about here.
That is the Allegiance System. Asheron's Call eschewed tradition at every turn, so it did not have the traditional guild structure that would be adopted by virtually all future MMORPGs. Instead, it had a hierarchical system with some unique dimensions to it. To join an Allegiance, you had to swear an oath to another player character. Hereafter, you would be his Vassal, and they, your Patron. Whenever you gained experience, your Patron would receive a portion of it modified by your Loyalty skill and his Leadership skill. Every Allegiance would essentially be a tree of Patrons and Vassals all leading up to a Monarch, who could use his time in game managing his Allegiance because every character in his Allegiance was passing-up experience to him, removing the need for him to level on his own. It's a beautiful system.
At the very least, the Patron/Vassal relationship seems perfect for a superhero-genre MMORPG. Since the dawn of the genre, both heroes and villains have had sidekicks or accomplices, who learned from them and eventually became heroes/villains in their own right, perhaps even gaining sidekicks of their own. City of Heroes had a shade of this with the Sidekick system, but I think including it as a function of a "guild" would reintroduce a forgotten but extremely beneficial social dynamic. Even if it were not a prerequisite for joining a "guild", it should at the very least be included as a function of the system, allowing the "Mentor" system many guilds across all MMORPGs use to have an actual in-game effect. There is even potential for content specifically designed for "Dynamic Duos".
I only knew of AC by name, and I do admit the Allegiance system sounds interesting. However, I can see a lot of players balking at giving any portion of their hard earned XP up a chain where the guy at the top ends up getting levels for free, given the systems they are coming from. Not saying its a bad idea, just may not be too popular here.
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I never set anything on fire accidentally!
The Titan Legacy - Defender of the Inner Flame
Well, as I said, they could make the xp passup not go further than the Vassal-Patron (or Hero-Sidekick) relationship. The developers eventually modified the system to this end due to individuals abusing it. The change was, specifically, that passup xp was differentiated from normal xp gained so that an extremely small percentage of passup xp is passed on a second time, reducing significantly with each level up the chain. Personally, I liked the system in its original incarnation because the Monarch getting levels for free was basically the whole point. Instead of spending all his time grinding, he could instead focus his energy on making his Allegiance better. It also produced a certain element of accountability. The Monarch would gain in-game rewards from an active and happy allegiance. Essentially, the better Monarch he was, the more xp he would gain. I think that's a beautiful system. But as I also said, thematically a hierarchy probably would not be well-suited to this game.
However, a non-compulsory Hero-Sidekick mechanic within a "guild" would be thematic. And, as indicated from the Mentor system players self-implement, [b]it's something that players want.[/b]
P.S. I may have expressed myself indistinctly earlier. When I said "your Patron would receive a portion of [your experience]" I did not mean your experience would be reduced by being a part of an Allegiance. When you slew a monster and gained 100XP, you would still gain 100XP. However, if your "Allegiance Quotient" (on the spot fabricated term) was 15%, your Patron would also gain 15XP.
Ahh, the bit in your post script does clear it up a bit more, thank you.
It is still an interesting system. The guilds/sg I have been in have been made up of friends that I talk with regularly so we were all "on board" for growing the abilities of the guild regardless of who was the official leader. I can see in a guild/sg that is made up of strangers how that would inspire some loyalty from the leader, having tangible rewards tied to how happy his guild was.
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I never set anything on fire accidentally!
The Titan Legacy - Defender of the Inner Flame
That does make things a little clearer. At first, I was thinking 'It's the Amway of MMO XP"