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Guild hosting
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A guild hosting or clan hosting service is a specialized type of web hosting service designed to support online gaming communities, generally referred to as guilds or clans. They vary from game server hosting in that the focus of such companies is to provide applications and communication tools outside of the gaming environments themselves.
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The services typically offered by such a service include:
- Public and/or private forums for members to communicate with each other, or other tools for communications such as instant messaging or chat servers.
- Tools for tracking the roster of characters that a player might have in an MMORPG.
- An application for scheduling and organizing raids, tournaments and other gaming events.
- Applications for tracking treasure, items, or points accrued toward redeeming treasure (often referred to as a DKP system).
Originally, most people who decided to create a website for their guild used bulletin board software such as vBulletin and phpBB on traditional web hosting services. However, as the complexity of online games increased--accompanied by larger memberships, needs for more sophisticated scheduling tools, and roster-management features. One of the earlist such companies was GuildPortal, formed in 2001.[1] In 2006, GuildCafe combined the features of a social network with guild hosting, to provide guilds with the ability to network with each other, as well as their own members (much like GuildPortal's "Alliances" feature, which allows the sharing of forums and events between multiple allied guilds -- guilds that get together in-game to take on tougher challenges that a single guild may not be able to handle). [2]
Guild hosting services address a guild's basic need to have an online presence and allow guild members to communicate with each other outside of the game. While it is possible for any guild to do this on their own, setting up and maintaining a site requires constant maintenance, upgrades and integration of new software. One of the key reasons for the popularity of guild hosting services is their focus on relieving the guild from this overhead and freeing them up to spend more time playing the game.
- ^ GuildPortal FAQ, http://www.guildportal.com/FAQ.aspx?FAQEntry=47
- ^ Gamasutra, Industry News, Jan 17. 2007, http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=12425