http://earthbound.guildportal.com/Guild.aspx?GuildID=376344&TabID=3162259&ForumID=1815765&TopicID=10395627&Page=1#49614698

Guild site front page has the new server info. I'll be on and in the root channel as much as possible this weekend (Friday afternoon, Saturday, and Sunday). Izark has admin rights so he can register you too.

It's been quiet around these parts while we've been working behind the scenes to figure out what needs to be tweaked with the Earthbound to bring back our lost luster. We went from nothing to WoW Insider's Guild in the Month pretty quickly and seemingly just as quick faded. Here's our plan to restore The Earthbound.

First, better communication! We at the end of the day intend to create a community that spans several games and platforms. We have tried to start in other MMOs: Rift, SWTOR, and Tera but have always fell back on WoW as the core. Since that is the case and Wow is our only active branch we'll start making changes there. In addition, we have members who still keep in contact via Steam, Xbox Live, PSN, and/or Facebook. We will continue to push into other games but our biggest failing is that we expanded too quickly. Our second failing is not ensuring everyone is on the same page. We are first and foremost creating a community of level-headed people that are pleasant, mature and fun to enjoy games with.

Continue to the website read the whole letter, here[earthbound.guildportal.com].

With the launch of PlanetSide2, I'm finally able to publicly announce that The Earthbound was part of a select group of guilds who not only had early access to the game, but to the developers prior to the start of even the technical beta.

On May 25, 2012, I received the following e-mail:
Attention Soldier!

My name is Tony Jones and I am the Community Manager for PlanetSide 2. I wanted to personally extend an invitation to you to join us as we make the next epic MMOFPS experience. So why am I contacting you? I’ve looked all over for the best FPS and MMO groups in the world, the elite of the elite. I believe that you are in that elite group, and PlanetSide 2 Command has authorized me to extend a unique opportunity and invite you to join us in making an amazing MMOFPS game even better.

When you join our First Platoon program, you will be among the first in the world to get access into the PlanetSide 2 Beta. As gamers we’ve all wished we could talk to the developers and fix things like annoying level design or imbalanced weapons. In the program, you will have direct contact with members of the PlanetSide 2 Development Team and the opportunity to share your thoughts on gameplay and general design.

If you think you’re up for it, respond to this email and enlist today! Become a member of the First Platoon!

Tony Jones
First Platoon Liaison
Sony Online Entertainment


For those who noticed, yes, this was a generic message. However, this was not a message many people saw, including PlanetSide 1 vets (which I nor this guild as a whole played). Googling this term will only get you a few responses, and I can tell you from the forums that it was a VERY small group of people (probably less than 50 guild representatives). We're far from elite, but we have had a strong sense of community events in MMOs. While not everything that was suggested made it into the game, one big one that was suggested by us and a few other of the rare non-PS1 vets was player controlled bases, and John Smedley has stated it's up for future content.

Being an FPS though, our guild hasn't shown huge interest in this game, but seeing as this game won many awards at E3 2012, it's good to see that relevant MMO developers recognized us as a guild that stands out from the rest.

For those interested in the game, dowload the game and make a character sooner rather than later due to the game's offline skill up system. I've made a character on the Connery server with the New Conglomerate faction.

http://earthbound.guildportal.com/Guild.aspx?GuildID=376344&ForumID=1815765&TabID=3162259&Replies=17&TopicID=9328880