I see it all the time. People broadcasting open invitations to join one Supergroup or another. Rather more mind boggling, at least to me, are the blind invites to JOIN a Supergroup, even when it’s plainly easy to see the little white words under your name stating what Supergroup you are with. This only leaves me to conclude that it’s very hard to get a Supergroup, to keep one together, and even if you get one, there’s a good chance it will fall apart, and not actually do you any good.
Of course, my Supergroup is primarily made up of the people I know here, in real life. Three people that I game with on a regular basis, plus someones co-worker, plus a couple I recently corrupt– ah, recruited to the game. The only person that none of us actually see and speak to on a semi-regular basis is an old member of our Clan from Asheron’s Call, and is also on our private boards set up ages ago. So, really, our Supergroup is made up of friends. I’ve occasionally been tempted to invite people into the group, but usually hesitate to long, pondering how they will fit in the tightly knit bunch.
Not all of us are members of just our Supergroup, either on CoH or CoV. Since all of us have multiple toons, several of us have at least one toon that is not in the Supergroup. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to get into another group! A lot of the bigger, better groups have stringent criteria that must be met to join. Not all, but enough to make me cringe. Or you have to go through an interview and screening process so that they know they aren’t letting a complete idiot into the group, and I can’t really blame them there. Still, that can leave some people hanging high and dry. Like some newbies to the game, and people with limited time to play.
So is the little Supergroup better than the big one? I’m not really sure, since I haven’t been in a large group. One person pointed to an alt of one of our group who had skyrocketed through the levels because he was in a very large group and always had teams. We’re rather small, seven people total with at least two, usually more, toons each. Personally, unless absolutely no one is online, I can still get a team ninety percent of the time – because these people are my friends! We like to help each other.
Again, I’m speaking from the little groups perspective, but I can tell you that, when we team, we run like clockwork. Especially on CoH, where we all have our primaries. Not all that long ago we did the Citadel Task Force, and, since we were only four, had to bring in outside help. When we finished, one of the people was doing the old ‘Whoa’ at the end, and commented that he’d never seen a Task Force go so fast. Not that it was terribly long in the first place, but we do tend to mow through them like butter. It was nice because he fit himself into the group very neatly, not disrupting the flow. Even when we get together to do regular missions, we tend to do that. Makes it kinda hard to go back to the old pick up team after that.
There are disadvantages to a small group. There’s not going to be members on all the time, our base is rather small, and it takes us time to work up to pieces, which are usually accompanied by much cheering on the channel. Again, I don’t know how the bigger groups run, but I like my little Supergroup. It’s not that we’re not willing to spread and take over all of Paragon, it’s just that most of the time, it’s not worth the effort when the group works so well as is.
Well, I’m going to sign off for now, I’ve promised one member to help with leveling a toon – and not power leveling, just teaming up to get there faster, so I better get to it. Have a good day, and remember to have fun most of all, and we’ll see you later. @Mialiah.
