Launching Group Up!
What is Group Up?
Group Up is my attempt to help bolster the MMO (and other) games that I hold so dear to my heart. About 20 years ago I started playing Runescape and my fondest moments go back to playing as a member of the clan Tunescape. We would have "iron wars" which you can still go and view on YouTube here led by EmpCaesar and SiteMouse, thanks guys for all the fun times.
After that I took part in Guild Wars and was a member of a few small guilds, playing with many fewer friends pitting my Elemental against my friend Dan's Necro and eventually the leader of the guild would bring in his Mesmer to teach me a lesson.
These were the times I most enjoyed being online, playing with large groups of people creating our own fun.
I recently started playing Eve Online with a friend and noticed that for some insane reason people still sit in major hubs like Jita spamming that their corporation is recruiting claiming to have regular events without any hope of really connecting with the people who might be interested in playing with them.
That's why I made Group Up.
It's Free
Firstly it's free, for as long as I can keep it that way. Anyone can create a group and layout their schedule, invite their friends and post about their group's exploits.
Why not just use Reddit?
Well if I have to go out of my way to look at your subreddit chances are unless I subscribe that instant I'll forget it exists by tomorrow, or knowing me later that same day.
Personally I have stopped using Reddit because it throws topics at me that I really don't want to see no matter what I did to try to prune my feed down. It's like Facebook driving engagement with spicy topics rather than just showing me what my friends are up to.
When I was playing with Tunescape the website was a link off of what I think was a country / folk dance or band website? In other words it was not exactly purpose built. That's hard for so many groups, perhaps they don't have the resources or capability or perhaps they don't want to devote the time to building a website of their own.
Organisation
I've been told that this is the number one tabletop campaign killer, a lack of organisation. Setting a schedule was one of the first things I built, a simple weekly calendar whereby regular events can be scheduled.
Recruiting / Advertising
This is the thing that is just so damn hard. If I join Eve Online I have no idea which corporations are really active and organised. Back in the day I think I used the forums on RuneHQ or maybe Sal's Realm (I forget) to discover Tunescape. It really took some digging and these days that seems harder than ever on the internet of today.
If you are sharing regular posts, screenshots and stories of what you got up to this weekend with your friends "raiding" (I never played WoW) then people can get excited. They can read the banter in your group's comments and even join in before deciding to become a part of the group.
You no longer need to spam at the grand exchange
red:wave2:Recruiting members for new clan!!! Pm me
The most boring part of the game, instead you can simply get together your current members and start sharing the fun you had recently in the form of group posts.
Once they see your latest post, they can scroll back through all of your group's posts, they can determine for themselves how regular your events are, how successful your team is, whatever matters to them they can see you playing the game they want to play. The goal is to make others want to join your group.
Ashes of Creation
After the early death and failure of Crowfall - Ashes of Creation is my next big hope for an MMO that can revitalise the genre. My hope is that Group Up helps to keep that social aspect vibrant, maybe it can breathe life back into the clans of old Runescape.
Have Some Fun
So now it's over to the gamers, the individuals who want to grow a large community, I hope this website helps you get there and I am excited to see what you build.
If you ever need me, drop me a message via the contact form.
Have Fun!
Alex