With Guild Wars 2 offering players the ability to be in multiple guilds, whilst only being able to 'actively' represent one at a time, what are your thoughts or plans with regards to this? I can definitely see people belonging to a 'primary' guild, but also seeking out other guilds that may offer a more focused experience, like a roleplaying guild.
For me, I am going to pretty much stick with forming a small guild with the guys that I have been gaming with for the past 5 years.
I agree with Haelyn and I think it offers a unique opportunity. You could even imagine a large guild having several smaller "sub guilds." Let's say you have a large guild that is mostly a social atmosphere, then you could have a subset of members that want to have a PvP or Dungeon guild and want to represent their PvP activity when appropriate.
Is it clear if there is a limit to how many guilds someone can belong to?
"He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire" --Winston Churchill
I'll probably belong to about 3 guilds. One is a smaller guild that is currently mostly made up of old online friends of mine and they will probably honestly be more PvE oriented. Another is a bigger guild that tends toward PvP and that I've been involved with in a couple games (DC universe Online, Rift) and then the last will probably be the Necrobator guild if it does happen to be made. :)
I think it is cool, though I would hope they add means to be able to see more than one guild chat, as well as to easily switch around in game.
Do we know how you represent your guild? Will it be a nameplate only, or will you have different tabards for each guild?
"He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire" --Winston Churchill
I believe it is just the nameplate to begin with. As a guild earn Influence they can unlock armour vendors that sell gear that displays the guild emblem. There are some youtube clips floating around that show the guild vendors.
Ok thanks Haelyn...good to know.
"He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire" --Winston Churchill
My thoughts on this topic:
1) Sweet Freedom:
It's a great idea for players, because it's another step up from having 'alliance' guilds, and would increase the player pool they have for focus on different types of content.
2) Identity Crisis:
Coming from an older player's perspective where your server, much less your guild, was a source of your identity and pride, it's just feels odd/wrong.
3)The blacklist:
I have to wonder if it reduces the accountability of players (not that players are held accountable by the community like they used to be). In a one guild only situation, you could at least report a griefer's activities to his/her guild leader and it would have an effect. With guilds being more like a revolving door, I don't see that happening so much.
4) The health of any one guild:
How does this work with organized guilds who have shared bank space etc.? I can see players of a certain ilk robbing/begging/siphoning gear and materials from one guild and transferring them to another - or just hoarding and/or reselling these mats. Granted this is up to each guild to police that sort of thing, but it's a potential problem.
5) Semantics
Can we really call guilds 'guilds' in the traditional sense? You certainly wouldn't see a stone mason hanging out at the cooper's guild. I think a different name - 'association' for example might be closer to what guilds will actually be in GW2.
Summary:
I am not against this multiple association idea, but I am a bit wary of its possible effects on a server's community; I wonder if it might erode player loyalty and lower the consequences for bad apples. On the other hand, I think that having a choice for multiple player pools is a great opportunity for people to form a stronger overall community on a server. In the end, at least everyone gets to choose how they want to guild themselves, and choice is a good thing
As a dev once said, guilds are more like your social circles, or groups of friendship. Similar to Google+ Circles, I guess.
Also keep in mind that guilds are account-based, not character based. Alt-aholics might have tons of guilds to work with.
I'll probably be in a close friends' guild, a PvP guild, a fansite guild, another fansite guild, friend's guild, interesting guild, etc. Definitely going to see my guild association count be in double digits.
Deadpan snarking isn't.
If dungeons end up being good, I would like to be a part of a casual hardcore guild centered around finishing dungeons in every conceivable way. On top of Necrobator guild ofc.
I would recommend that every guild leader set up membership ranks, with separate permissions for each rank, and a probationary period/level of Guild Influence earned before moving up in ranks. Guild hoppers/robbers are less likely to hang around if there are no immediate benefits or if they have to earn their place/privileges (bank/vendor access) within a guild.
It would also help if you can see how many guilds a person is a part of (via character sheet). Although it wouldn't prevent guild hoppers/robbers per say, it might help raise red flags if the newest guildie is also a member of 30 other guilds.
"He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire" --Winston Churchill
Idk on paper it seems like a good idea but the negative person in me thinks it will cause issues with Guild banks, and if you are spitting ur time between multiple guilds wont that make u less loyal to them? And to have a good guild youll need alot of loyal members. So there will be alot of guilds demanding that you never switch over to other guilds. idk just worrying as a guild leader but we shall see
I don't think any of my friends will be playing GW2 so I will be more than likely looking for a guild to join. Of course i might just form a guild myself that is geared towards older players that have responsibilities outside the game. Did a guild like this in rift and it went over pretty good.
As for the multiple guilds and demanding you never switch. It will be the kind of structure that alot of players crave in a MMO. Let's face it, some people would rather be told what to do instead of having to constantly worry about what they should be doing. I would highly recommend setting up guild ranks within the guild that limits access to the guild bank. Have your trusted friends/guildmates who have proven themselves to you be able to access it and take out things for the lower members. It may suck if all the officers with bank access are offline or busy but it's not the end of the world if a member can't get an item right away and if it is at least you know who the drama queens are and can kick them before they screw with guild dynamics.
Is it for-sure that there will be guild banks at release?
"He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire" --Winston Churchill
Yup.
But I should add that they are a feature that has to be unlocked by earning Influence. There are a couple of different levels of Guild Bank, but the first one is like 50 slots and then I think that there are two additional 100 slot upgrades.
Ok gotcha. Well yea then I guess you just have to be very judicious as to who has access to the bank. I also have to imagine that ArenaNet would not take guild robbers lightly...
"He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire" --Winston Churchill
Why should ArenaNet care? If you gave them permission to take items from the Guild Bank then 'technically' they have done nothing wrong if they decide to clean you out. How or why would ArenaNet punish someone for doing something that you let them do?
I rarely guild with people outside of the the group of friends that I game with, and if I do, I work on the principle of 'don't stick anything in the Guild Bank that you are prepared to lose'. There are always going to be moochers and leechers in any Guild (even those without robbers) who are going to take anything that isn't nailed down and keep/use it for themselves. I would rather mail items to people than stick it in the bank where any schmuck with withdraw permissions can poach it.
ArenaNet wouldn't directly care that you lost your stuff. But if you gave someone access in good faith and they emptied out you bank and then split, I have to imagine you could bring the complaint up to ArenaNet and they could reprimand the person and get your stuff back. Yea if you give access to every single person in your guild, it would be hard to argue. But let's say you have a guild of close friends and your top 3 officers have permission to access the bank. If one of the officers decides to empty it out and then split, you could bring that up to ArenaNet who ultimately has control over the characters on their server. Is this something you could do every day because Member A took out one too many copper ore? No. But there has to be a method of regulation otherwise this will be happening constantly if there are no repercussions.
"He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire" --Winston Churchill
I am pretty sure that Blizzard, SOE CCP, Turbine etc. all work on the principle of if you give someone the permission to take stuff from the guild bank, then you gave them the permission to take all your stuff. Giving out guild bank permissions is one of those 'buyer beware' things, and why you should make new recruit wait, or at least work for, their access. That said there are no guarantees that your best e-friend (that you have known for years) won't shank you and steal all your loot.
The guild tools in EQ2 are pretty robust and you can actually set limits on the number/amount of items/money that someone can take out of the guild bank per day. And you can also see who is doing what. This doesn't mean that you can get clean out, you can if you aren't paying attention, but it takes a lot longer than some other games.
I plan on lulling Sylvinstar into a false sense of security before stealing anything and everything that he puts into the guild bank. It doesn't count as theft if you steal from Necromancers.
I agree that there is a "buyer beware" and if you foolishly give out permission like candy from the back of a panel van, then if you get cleaned out it's tough luck. But I know of at least one instance in WoW where the guild I was a part of fell apart and one of the officers cleaned the bank out and put everyone on ignore. The guild leader put in a ticket to Blizzard and they were able to restore at least some of the items from the thief.
Like I said, it's not something you can do all the time and it's far easier to just be smart about who has access. But if something like that did happen, I wouldn't say you're totally S.O.L. Especially in a system where you can be a part of multiple guilds, there has to be some internal control or oversight otherwise the game will be full of guild looters.
"He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire" --Winston Churchill
See? See? I told you guardians are evil!
Are you a guardian? Let me introduce you to my Flesh Golem, he's getting a bit hungry.
I remember when our guild leader cleaned us out. He had had enough of a certain individual within the guild who he wanted rid of, but was part of our core group of friends who basically ran the guild. We all told the leader that if he kicked the guy then his guild would collapse.
Leader then went and took over 300k worth of gold, over 500k worth of crafting materials and a dozen or two epics and quit the guild.
Blizzard would not do anything about it. Their stance was "it was his guild to do with as he pleases. In future don't stick everything in the guild bank."
I unsubbed shortly after.
@Yski
Yes, I will 'accidentally' leave some mats in the guild bank so Haelyn can greedily skill up his crafting...then when he drops the items in the bank I will take them and equip my necro....
I will probably be in two guilds. One will be with my real life friends so we can hang out and help each other. The other one I would want to be in would be a raiding guild because my friends guild will more then likely not be able to do those things.
I personally will be making a guild with my real life friends and hopefully we can do all the content without having to be too hardcore. But it will be nice to have the option to be in a second more hardcore guild if I so choose
Sylvinstar wrote:
5) Semantics
Can we really call guilds 'guilds' in the traditional sense? You certainly wouldn't see a stone mason hanging out at the cooper's guild. I think a different name - 'association' for example might be closer to what guilds will actually be in GW2.
**** Actually, I would say we are using the word "Guild" in this case in the sense of Guild Wars History. Prior to the Charr invasion of the Human lands, lands which had previously been the Charr's, the three human run countries (Ascelon, Kryta and Orr) were ostensibly run by their respective royalty, however in truth, it was the guilds who truly ruled the lands. They often fought each other to show who had the better, strong, smarter members and thus comes the name of Guild Wars. These guilds are not professional guilds in the sense of masons versus coopers, but rather one group of people from all different professions and backgrounds who would fight another group, each contributing to their "Guild"'s strength and power, allowing their group to triumph over the others. It also lends into the reason Warrior, Elementalist, Necromancer, ect are not called classes, but rather professions.
Or so I would think, at least.
It also addresses your 2nd consideration as well, I believe.
Hmm. Perhaps I am being a bit to pedantic. I am loosing my audience, aren't I?...ok...umm..."Go Necromancers! Necromancers Rule!"
There. Ending with a plea to the more gullible profession in our midst is sure to appease :)
Galen...that's all...just...Galen.
Galen
But if you are going to try and look at it from a lore perspective, I doubt that the organisations involved in the Guild Wars would have been accepting of members swapping allegiances every couple of days or so. Members would have pledged their loyalty (worn the emblem and earned Influence (to use some GW2 terms)) to one group.
I do see your point, but what you are forgetting is that was over 250 years ago. It was also prior the Char wars, the battle against the destroyers and the awakening of the dragons. These events all had drastic affects on the cultures of the races and, no doubt, the evolution of the guild system.
I'm no sociologist, but I would say the char wars caused humanity to draw closer together, the guilds learning to work together against a common enemy. Allegiance and loyalty would have become more important against the cause of Abadon and the Destroyer threat, over time solidifying more into a nationalistic ferver, one that perhaps even infected the other races as they became more and more drawn together with the dragons reawakening.
So basically...there is lots of stuff that could change over 250 years living little beyond the original names.
Then again...it is a game :)
Galen
Galen
One of the things guilds I have been with have done is only officers can take things out and if you want something you ask an officer for it. That has worked very well people can see what is in there add stuff and only people who are actively playing get stuff. Also account based guilds is something I've wanted for a while if you have alts most guild don't want the extra characters taking up space in the guild and this way only the main has to join.
I didn't play around with it much, but I couldn't promote members for the life of me. How is that done?
Pages
Add new comment