By Black Label
September 2006
©Guildhelper 2007. All Rights Reserved
As a guild leader, you will see members come and go. Many of them are just online acquaintances
while a selected few will become wonderful friends. So when your favorite member decides its time
to cancel the MMOG account and move on to greener pastures, consider this one option. Have them
go out with a BANG!!
This one role playing event will do a multitude of things for your guild. Not only will it honor the
member that is leaving the MMOG, it will unite your guild, surprise your guild, and give your guild
members a goal. It will be a memorable event that can involve other friends and allies. What event
am I referring to? It’s the funeral event. No other event can unite a guild like this event.
Here are some specific examples and ideas.
Talk to the person leaving the MMOG. Have him leave the game and die with all his might and glory.
Go out with a BANG!! Plan a storyline around his death. Who killed him? What killed him? Tie it to
an arch villain or a nemesis your guild battles and despises. Or perhaps, the member died for a
specific cause or sacrificed himself to save the guild.
Example#1: He injected the virus into himself to provide antidote for the guild members. His death
would ensure that other live.
Example#2: He infiltrated the terrorist camp and planted the bomb. However, the bomb exploded
before he had a chance to escape. Nevertheless, the mission objective was met. The city is no longer
under the control of the terrorists.
Decide how you want to spin it but plan a heroic death. Assure the player involved that if he does
decide to come back, you can always bring the character back either magically or artificially. Or,
maybe he never dies and went underground to hide or undertake a secret mission. If you read enough
comics or watch enough soap operas, you will get a million ideas on how to resurrect an old soul.
If you want to plan a tragic death, that would really unite the guild and give your guild a mission.
Once news breaks out that the favorite member X is dead, prepare a funeral event for him. You will
need to post this on your forums and calendar. Your objective is to rally the members up for this
event. Make them feel that revenge and retribution is needed. But in reality, you are also planning a
good bye party for this particular guild member. So plan a date where you can get the most
participation of your guild. Request the member’s best guild buddies to make a small speech or
eulogy. This is a good way for your members to talk to each other while reflecting on the member’s
merits. Allow your allies or friends to comment if relevant. Overall, this is a good venue for your
guild, your friends, and your allies to say good bye to a loved online MMOG buddy.
Plan your funeral event at a quiet area on the MMOG map because you will be doing a lot of talking
and interruptions from by standers can easily ruin the moment. Churches, temples, graveyard or
areas with obelisks or statues are good spots to set this up. Have your members show up in guild
uniform. If you want to take one step further, suggest a change in uniform like adding black stripes
on the shoulder pad or a black sash to be worn. Whatever you decide upon, make sure it’s available
to all that attend. A simple funeral will take place at a church. The leader and the closest friends will
each make a speech and eulogy about the departing member. Once the role playing is done, you can
talk in real life, wishing the departing member well and ending the funeral.
Now, if you are a die hard role playing guild, then you can take this event even further, allowing the
funeral event to open up other role playing events. Because you have the entire guild in one location,
you can plan and plot a lot of storyline around this event. Perhaps, a bomb goes off injuring other
members. Or something gets stolen because all the security members are attending the funeral. Worse
yet, a prisoner escape! However, you want to plan it, the funeral event and what happened during the
event can give your guild a mission to accomplish.
So suggest this event to the member that’s leaving the game! It will be sad to see him leave. It will be
sadder to see his MMOG character die! It will be dramatic to see his character die for the sake of the
guild! So think about it! Have him leave with a BANG!!
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