Feedback Social Groups Reboot

[Dionysos]

It has been decided that Final Fantasy Forums will be rebooting the Social Groups. Some of you may have forgotten about them but we’ve had the Social Group feature for a while now, and yet they have been inactive for many years! Some of the most popular groups have not seen an update since 2013, if not earlier.


Most people were creating groups to serve as fanclubs for particular franchises, and since FFF already has a section for clubs (in the Kalm board of the Spira section) we have decided to completely overhaul the Groups system.

Expect to see the former groups deleted soon.

Full details will be revealed once the Group system is revamped, but we shall no longer be allowing groups dedicated to fandom. Instead we can expect the groups to be used for things like team-based competitions, gaming clans, and events. Groups will now serve a more practical purpose when a thread or a club would prove too messy. This should hopefully mean that the Groups feature will make more sense and have meaning again in FFF as its purpose was previously unclear.

The ability to create groups shall be purchasable in the MogShop in the near future.

If you have any questions or would like to provide feedback about the overhaul, please let us know.

 

[Mitsuki]

I'll show you guys what we've been working on this past week:


The newly revamped Groups!

I actually have a few threads up already but you guys can't view them yet.

The emblems were created in Adobe Illustrator and I tried to make them unique as possible. No, they don't resemble the original logo in the games. I was hoping for a more original design for FFF (though he real reason is I'm not that skilled, therefore I can't imitate complicated shapes yet.)

Now, originally we were planning on letting people create their own group, but after much consideration this option won't be available, at least not for a long time. We don't want a repeat of last time - everyone created random groups for whatever, ...and then it was just sitting there inactive for years. We needed to make Groups shine and think of ways to make it stand out on its own.

So now we have created an official guild for FFF: Cerberus Guild. You can thank @Shu for coming up with the name! By joining the guild, you will earn additional rewards (on top of the rewards you would normally earn in any competitions) as part of the membership rewards program by completing specific tasks and goals throughout the community - things that you normally wouldn't earn as a regular member. This is part of our incentive program for joining Groups (credit to @Dionysos for making a mention of it). Every month or so we will try to think of new ways to change things up a bit, so it won't always be the same recycled stuff over and over.

Joining Groups will cost Gil. Anyone and their mother can afford it.

You will also notice that we created an Alliance category. Alliance has a more competitive edge to it, as they will take form of team-based competitions, such as Team Member Elimination Game (few items will be on sale in the shop, such as Medic items to spice up the game), photo-relay challenges, etc.

Taking some ideas from Blitzball Tournaments (FFX) members can choose an alliance of their choice. Members will have a 'contract' for one year; meaning once you choose your Alliance, you cannot switch until the end of the year. Given that we are going to give this a trial run, we'll allow members to switch alliance in December. You can quit the Alliance, of course, but you won't be able to join again for a few months.

I think for now we will be looking for 15 members in total, first come first serve. That's five members per team. Eventually we'll increase it to 30 members, but right now we would like to closely monitor this with fewer players and see how that goes. Perhaps we'll even allow each team to recruit their own members at a later date, but overall there should only be 10 members per Alliance. One of the reason is that we want to have this 'exclusive' feeling to the Groups, something that is only limited to the most active members. If someone is inactive and we see a pattern (they keep missing out on team-challenges, etc) then we'll have to dismiss them to make room for new players.

As for the 10 players limit, this doesn't mean that all ten members must be online at the same time to compete, or that team-challenges will require all ten players. Some might have to warm up the bench.

It will cost CT to join an Alliance, so just for that it will be Invite-only group. Once you purchase that item in the shop (and choosing your alliance preference) it will prompt us to invite you in the Alliance of your choice if there's room. This is to ensure that members will be taking it seriously and it proves that member really earned their way to sign up for an Alliance. Won't cost too much.

Of course, rewards will be given but I haven't thought that far ahead yet. An Alliance Leaderboard will be setup in Blitzball Stadium though.

We might also create a group for the FC, similar to how Cerberus Guild works. For anyone who's part of the FFF FC, they can earn additional rewards when they enter/participate in FFXIV-related competitions. The Free Company sub-forum will stay in FFXIV section as we don't want to take attention away from the forums. The guilds/alliances are mainly there to collect rewards, discuss strategy with your team mates (easier communication rather than PMing multiple members at once) in a more private fashion. There is a forum block set up for Groups so people can easily see it on the right side panel where Twitter and Articles are at, but again you guys can't see this feature until Monday.

So that's pretty much where we're at atm. Still working on Groups (threads to set up, re-thinking strategy, etc) but we hope to have this ready by Monday. FC Group will definitely not be ready for Monday though (this was just something that came up today).

 

[Mitsuki]

Another update regarding 'contracts' ... like I said, we're doing this Blitz-style!

This is just a sample.

Those will be removed from the Cerberus Guild eventually, but I wanted to show you guys how contracts will be displayed. The contracts expire every year, from your join date.

I honestly don't know if we can get the Groups finalized by Monday (if anything it might have to wait another week), but we're working to see that it happens.

Any questions so far? We'd love to hear them. Great ideas are usually born when people speak up and make suggestions, ask questions, or provide input.

 

[Mitsuki]

Hey guys, unfortunately I have to call off this project for now, at least until we can iron things out. I also have my finals in a few days and I won't be able to work on it at all for awhile, therefore we're putting this in the back burner for now. Apologies for the inconvenience. Hopefully we can have more info for you all in the future.

 

[FinalxxSin]

Hey guys, unfortunately I have to call off this project for now, at least until we can iron things out. I also have my finals in a few days and I won't be able to work on it at all for awhile, therefore we're putting this in the back burner for now. Apologies for the inconvenience. Hopefully we can have more info for you all in the future.

On a serious note: Good luck on your finals.