“Of Bears, Bull and Beagles!”

Who are the GoG?

Who are the Guild of Greeters? Some weird religious cult? Devil worshippers? A group of wacky tour guides? The Guild of Greeters or GoG as we have become known are a group of fans of the Myst series of games & books, who dedicate their free time to offering online help and support to fellow Myst gamers and fans. The organisation was founded late in 2003 and has become a huge success.

How did I become involved?

Back in March of 2003 I joined the closed (invitation only) beta test of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst. Being a huge fan of the Myst series of games and books I was totally psyched to be invited to join the beta and embraced the role with full enthusiasm.

Originally the game was planned as a MMO (massively multiplayer online) game and it has been statistically proven that MMO's are more successful when they have some kind of in-game help system. With that in mind Cyan and Ubisoft decided they wanted a group of volunteers taken from the beta testers to be the in-game help. No they weren't being cheapskate's using volunteers instead of employees, it was a very sound strategy to use fans who were passionate about the game who would pass on their enthusiasm more than a paid customer service representative.

I had became very active in the Uru beta community, frequently rambling on the forums and I guess became known to the powers that be because for some reason known only to them, they approached me and asked me if I would be interested in running the group.

Naturally I was flattered and felt very honoured to have been chosen and accepted the role. Thus the Guild of Greeters was born. We started out with a committee of 9 to help me set things up and a membership of 115 extremely dedicated "Greeters". The sole goal of everyone involved was to make new gamers feel welcome as they arrived in game for the first time and to answer any questions they may have. Our goal was to have 24/7 coverage in game, making sure that if anyone anywhere in the world needed help or a friendly face - they could get it. At the time of launch we had over 200 Greeters, and were a success. It was a huge achievement that was made entirely possible by dedicated fans volunteering their time and spirit.

Unfortunately the online part of the game never made it to publication, for a number of reasons, but basically it was a very ambitious project that was ahead of it's time and therefore very expensive and sadly the money pots ran dry before completion. However the game was released as a single player game is still awesome and whilst the GoG is no longer in game help we are still here continuing our mission to greet and help. We have a staffed chat room where gamers can go for live help, a fantastic website jam packed with useful info and resources. Also a busy forum which now has over 1650 members and is a wonderful addition to the Myst Community.

I am very proud to be associated with this amazing group of people. Lets face it there are a lot of freaks and geeks out there in cyberland. Many forums/online communities are full of griefers and trolls and are not the most enjoyable places to be. It has to be said that the Myst Community is very unique and the GoG is truly the friendliest group of people on the entire Internet (we do have a few lovable freaks and geeks though! - you know who you are ;)