79 replies to this topic

[Tsuroyu]

I wonder how other guilds are handling the question of multiple guild membership? The norm throughout MMO history has typically been, "if you're in 1 guild, that is your guild, and you cannot become a member of other guilds without leaving that one first." Sometimes that was just due to game mechanics, but when mechanics allowed for multiple guilds, guild policies were usually set up to keep members focused on that one guild.

But GW2 isn't exactly the norm. It promotes cooperation between players and guilds more than any other game I think I've seen. So are the days of single guild membership a thing of the past? Are other guilds mostly just planning to allow their members to join as many guilds as they want? What about the fact that members who aren't representing the guild aren't earning influence for that guild, but still get to take advantage of the guild's perks whenever they want?

I'm just very curious to hear how the community is handling this, by and large. There are quite a few arguments favoring both sides.

[Lordkrall]

I for one would leave a guild as soon as they voiced the opinion that I had to be in that guild, and that guild only.

[Lady Rhonwyn]

I'll have my main guild ([GWO]) and I'll stay there.  But I'll also join the [Zoo] guild as that makes communications a lot easier if the Zoo Crew meets and do things together.

And with Lordkrall, I'd leave the second my guild said I couldn't join another guild.  Even if I didn't have plans to multi-guild, I'd leave.  I don't think such a guild would be for me...

[Grimmik]

It's not that big of a deal, FFXI and FFXIV did fine with it, all it meant was you were able to meet people and network a lot faster.  There were ofcourse limitations set for endgame content, if your main LS did Dynamis, you couldn't join another Dynamis LS, if they did Sea but not Sky, you could join a Sky LS aslong as schedules didn't conflict.

[Nabuko Darayon]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you can still be in only 1 guild with 1 character, you can join other guilds with another character or represent the current one. Most people will play their main character and they'll stay in the same guild just because people made friends there and will be loyal to that guild.
ANet just gave the option to us, but most will just stay with the same guild. (Unless they start spying on other top rated guilds - which will happen anyway.)

[Lordkrall]

Nabuko Darayon, on 13 August 2012 - 11:02 AM, said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you can still be in only 1 guild with 1 character, you can join other guilds with another character or represent the current one. Most people will play their main character and they'll stay in the same guild just because people made friends there and will be loyal to that guild.
ANet just gave the option to us, but most will just stay with the same guild. (Unless they start spying on other top rated guilds - which will happen anyway.)

Nope, all your characters are in the same guilds, and you can join as many guilds as you wish.

[Walrammetje]

Lordkrall, on 13 August 2012 - 10:56 AM, said:

I for one would leave a guild as soon as they voiced the opinion that I had to be in that guild, and that guild only.

Should make a meme about that. Overly attached guildfriend.

I would not even bother joining that guild, indeed. A game is supposed to be for fun and not be a job or responsibility. It's like telling your girl- or boyfriend that you forbid them to talk to other people.

[shanaeri rynale]

If it helps, here is my Guild's (DVDF) policy on multi-guilding.

" Multi Guilding is a new feature for GW2. It allows a player to swap to any guild just by the click of a button. Any influence they then earn will go to their new Guild, and they will be only be able to see the Guild chat of their new Guild.
Basically it’s the same as leaving a GW1 guild, going to another guild to earn faction and then coming back without having to bother about re-invites.

DVDF will have an open policy to Multi-guilding in that we will let people go to whatever guild they wish, whenever they like. The only thing we will ask is that if someone is going to swap they drop a note in Guild chat saying something like ‘Just dropping into XXX guild, see you soon’ That way their friends know where they have gone and no one thinks they have rage quit

While we would suggest officers and senior officers do not multi-guild for obvious reasons, they are not excluded but should first contact me so I know who is going to be available to cover us.

The only person NOT allowed to multi guild is me(the Guild Leader).

The onus is on all of us to make DVDF such a great place to be, that people will want to make us their main guild, but we’re also adult enough to realise that people have other friends and events they might want to join in and it’d be churlish and pointless to try and punish or stop them from doing so."

[devicus]

I can see a few people joining various specialised guilds, however for a lot of people multiple guilds will just allow them to meet or hang out with a larger number of people. I can see this being pretty beneficial. Guilds who ask a lot but don't give much back will suffer most but that's not a bad thing, a guild will have to exist for a purpose to get members. It has to do something well, or just be social and easy going and let people drift a lot. I see myself joining a couple of the latter guilds in addition to the main one I play with, though in the long run multi guild membership may allow my guildies to find a better, bigger main guild to integrate into, or vice versa as initially I will be spending most time with a few friends from other MMOs. Joining a couple of other guilds when it's quiet may result in friends following and eventually joining if we all like it.

I can see guilds who demand either a certain amount of activity or dedication from guildies existing and doing alright but they'd need to do a lot for their members and cover just about everything for this to work (perhaps not so much if they let people guild hop around provided they contribute some influence from time to time).

I think there will be a lot of guilds which are just opt in social networks or bank space. Then you'll have specialised guilds which players may join several of, and generalist ones who rely on a fairly high level of activity or a rota of structured events. The guild system will allow people to split up but still stay together and to shop around for a suitable home or to find others in similar situations and absorb them. I can also see it put a strain on guilds who don't offer so much or don't have strong ties of friendship, establishing a guild will require a very concerted push and a bit of luck, you'll need an active core toughing it out for a while to make he leap from being a fairly social and loose group into the sort of guild people spend most of their time playing with. Or a large existing community, or a lot of luck and timing.

[Cyvil]

Lordkrall, on 13 August 2012 - 11:03 AM, said:

Nope, all your characters are in the same guilds, and you can join as many guilds as you wish.

Your account joins all of the same guilds, can't your characters each represent a unique guild?.

Edited by Cyvil, 13 August 2012 - 12:31 PM.

[Eqo]

I like this way of doing guilds because I don't have to ditch my friends when I want to do something they don't. For example I might join a guild of people who like sPvP and another guild of people who do RP. Most of my friends don't like to do both. In GW1 I would feel guilty for leaving a guild because it's not my intent to ditch anyone...I just want to play with the people in both guilds at different times, depending on what I want to do that day. So allowing me to be attached to both guilds is great because I can swap back and forth without anyone feeling like I'm leaving them for good!

Edit to answer guy above me:

Cyvil, on 13 August 2012 - 12:30 PM, said:

Your account joins all of the same guilds, can't your characters each represent a unique guild?.

You are correct. If you play a warrior in Guild A, then create a necromancer and join Guild B, when you swap back to your warrior you'll find he's still representing Guild A. Any of your characters can swap to either guild at any time.

Edited by Eqo, 13 August 2012 - 12:35 PM.

[Siumai]

Cyvil, on 13 August 2012 - 12:30 PM, said:

Your account joins all of the same guilds, can't your characters each represent a unique guild?.

Yes - each of your characters chooses to "represent" one guild at a time.  I haven't been in multiple guilds, but I did see the "represent" function.

[Tallenn]

I would be willing to bet that people who represent more than one guild for more than an insignificant amount of time will be rare. In other words, vast majority of people will either be in a single guild, or will spend almost all of their time representing a single guild.

Over time, this will probably open up some, but I don't think the practice of representing multiple guilds for more than a token amount of time will catch on as a mainstream practice.

[Tregarde]

shanaeri rynale, on 13 August 2012 - 11:12 AM, said:

If it helps, here is my Guild's (DVDF) policy on multi-guilding.

" Multi Guilding is a new feature for GW2. It allows a player to swap to any guild just by the click of a button. Any influence they then earn will go to their new Guild, and they will be only be able to see the Guild chat of their new Guild.
Basically it’s the same as leaving a GW1 guild, going to another guild to earn faction and then coming back without having to bother about re-invites.

DVDF will have an open policy to Multi-guilding in that we will let people go to whatever guild they wish, whenever they like. The only thing we will ask is that if someone is going to swap they drop a note in Guild chat saying something like ‘Just dropping into XXX guild, see you soon’ That way their friends know where they have gone and no one thinks they have rage quit

While we would suggest officers and senior officers do not multi-guild for obvious reasons, they are not excluded but should first contact me so I know who is going to be available to cover us.

The only person NOT allowed to multi guild is me(the Guild Leader).

The onus is on all of us to make DVDF such a great place to be, that people will want to make us their main guild, but we’re also adult enough to realise that people have other friends and events they might want to join in and it’d be churlish and pointless to try and punish or stop them from doing so."

That seems pretty fair to me. Was going to write something very similar for my guild.

[Symbiont]

i prefer the freedom and will do some guild hopping before settling down somewhere.
on the other perspective of guild leaders, i think it will be a hassle to manage the stray guild members who haven't hop into the guild for some time. and as a guild leader i will question if i should remove them from the member list.
and to make such a decision i would like to see in which guild the players is most active in.
it would be better if it's automated through ingame mail notifications and let the player know they are about to be let go, unless they manage to accumulate x amount of points in x amount of time for the guild.

Edited by Symbiont, 13 August 2012 - 03:04 PM.

[Iron Legionnaire]

I think it's awesome. I don't have a problem with it.

Representation can get a bit iffy, but it let's people choose who they like the most.

[Wookie4726]

I think in the early days of GW2 there will be a greater tolerance of multi-guild membership as most guilds are going to try to build their roster as much as possible. However, as a co-guild leader, if I saw members online time after time and not representing my guild I would begin to have concern. Perhaps if the guild's maximum membership has not been met we would tend to let it go but if we were close to capacity we might have to start sending in-game emails to potential kicks and ask them what their plans are as far as our guild. Many players will probably take advantage of multi-guild membership in the early days which will mean that a lot of guild leaders will eventually find a lot of dead weight on their rosters. Thinning will eventually become a necessity. (This is yet another aspect of how great the in-game email is! I think this is one of the best features!)

Multi-guild membership was undoubtedly created for the PvP crowd. In GW1 it was very common for players to temporarily leave their home guild and guest into a guild that needed an extra player or extra skill for some PvP... usually GvG. When GvG is introduced into GW2 I'm sure the multi-guild membership aspect will show its convenience.

[Cyvil]

Wookie4726, on 13 August 2012 - 03:02 PM, said:

Multi-guild membership was undoubtedly created for the PvP crowd. In GW1 it was very common for players to temporarily leave their home guild and guest into a guild that needed an extra player or extra skill for some PvP... usually GvG. When GvG is introduced into GW2 I'm sure the multi-guild membership aspect will show its convenience.

From what I see, this replaces the GW1 guesting feature. If used in that way, there shouldn't be too much trouble. I think this version of guesting, however, opens up many more options that may lead to some issues.

[Geistware]

As a guild leader my role is to develop a guild that will make all members want to represent us 100% of the time. I also know that we will not be everything to every member. If there is an aspect of the game that our guild doesn't provide, we are not selfish enough to say that our members can't go elsewhere to find it. The benefit I see is that our members don't have to permanently leave the guild to get their satisfaction from a particular niche of the game.

[DarkWasp]

shanaeri rynale, on 13 August 2012 - 11:12 AM, said:

If it helps, here is my Guild's (DVDF) policy on multi-guilding.

" Multi Guilding is a new feature for GW2. It allows a player to swap to any guild just by the click of a button. Any influence they then earn will go to their new Guild, and they will be only be able to see the Guild chat of their new Guild.
Basically it’s the same as leaving a GW1 guild, going to another guild to earn faction and then coming back without having to bother about re-invites.

DVDF will have an open policy to Multi-guilding in that we will let people go to whatever guild they wish, whenever they like. The only thing we will ask is that if someone is going to swap they drop a note in Guild chat saying something like ‘Just dropping into XXX guild, see you soon’ That way their friends know where they have gone and no one thinks they have rage quit

While we would suggest officers and senior officers do not multi-guild for obvious reasons, they are not excluded but should first contact me so I know who is going to be available to cover us.

The only person NOT allowed to multi guild is me(the Guild Leader).

The onus is on all of us to make DVDF such a great place to be, that people will want to make us their main guild, but we’re also adult enough to realise that people have other friends and events they might want to join in and it’d be churlish and pointless to try and punish or stop them from doing so."

I like it!

I think I'm going to incorporate the "drop a note in guild chat saying something like ‘Just dropping into XXX guild, see you soon’" part into my own guild.

[Critus]

Personally i wouldn't mind regular members to be in multiple guilds, but officers or any other leadership position should be only in 1 guild to show their commitment to that guild.

[Sheepski]

There's a lot of different opinions on the matter of course, but as a guild leader, I just wished there was a way of knowing how long people had been offline for... such as there is on every other game I've played. The roster doesn't show any time unfortunately.

This is even worse when people who are representing another guild, are shown as online, but with a grey line through the green box, so you know they're somewhere else, but you have no idea how long it's been since they last represented.

Maybe I should have a better memory and try to remember everyone, but this'll become difficult, and I don't want to kick someone for being inactive (offline or representing somewhere else) if I think they've been gone longer than they have, or have someone sitting there for months taking a guild spot etc...

[DarkWalker]

Lordkrall, on 13 August 2012 - 10:56 AM, said:

I for one would leave a guild as soon as they voiced the opinion that I had to be in that guild, and that guild only.

Same here.

[Sirius Black]

This is great at the player level since you are going to be able to join many guilds even if you represent one. I just miss that Alliance option that you had in GW1 where many guilds came together and created a bigger community.

I hope that something like that gets added to the game later on.

[Daesu]

For you guild leaders who want all their guild members to be representing them, would you be allowing everyone access to your guild vault?

If not, those members who do not have access can claim that they have already contributed more than 2500 influence to the guild ever since they joined, which would get them at least a 50 slot guild vault should they have represented their own guild instead.  This maybe raised as an issue on fairness.

I am sure many issues similar to these would come up, "like I represented more than X so why is X having more access to the guild resources that I helped build up more than I do?"  Furthermore, keeping track of who contributed how much influence is going to be difficult for a guild size of near 50.

Edited by Daesu, 13 August 2012 - 04:01 PM.

[Iron Legionnaire]

Sheepski, on 13 August 2012 - 03:47 PM, said:

Maybe I should have a better memory and try to remember everyone, but this'll become difficult, and I don't want to kick someone for being inactive (offline or representing somewhere else) if I think they've been gone longer than they have, or have someone sitting there for months taking a guild spot etc...

Indeed.

Not that I'd want to kick anyone, but if guild reaches capacity, you gotta do what you gotta do, unless you're going to expand into a multi-room guild like what Gaiscioch is doing.

I probably don't have to worry about that any time soon, though.

Daesu, on 13 August 2012 - 03:56 PM, said:

If not, those members who do not have access can claim that they have already contributed more than 2500 influence to the guild ever since they joined, which would get them at least a 50 slot guild vault should they have represented their own guild instead.  This maybe raised as an issue on fairness.

Problem is, the game doesn't seem to provide many tools for this kind of stuff... and making everything set as "don't take it or we'll kick you" is awkward.

Edited by Iron Legionnaire, 13 August 2012 - 04:01 PM.

[Red_Falcon]

Think I'll be guild-zapping till I find the right one.
I tend to be unlucky with guilds, I always find ones that are either too casual, too hardcore, too serious, too lighthearted, too pve-oriented, too pvp-oriented, too elitist, too noobish...

It's like finding the right woman, no easy task I tell you.

[MyTabbycat]

I can see guilds forming alliances with other guilds and not having a problem with people joining multiple guilds in that alliance.

If however, you have a character in guild a and guild b is the sworn enemy but you decide to join guild b anyway, then you would most likely have serious problems with guild a.

[Daesu]

Iron Legionnaire, on 13 August 2012 - 03:59 PM, said:

Problem is, the game doesn't seem to provide many tools for this kind of stuff... and making everything set as "don't take it or we'll kick you" is awkward.

Maybe it would be better to make all guild resources, like the guild vault, available to everyone in the guild.  Meaning to only put items in the guild vault if you want to share them with the guild, but only trusted members hold the "key" (i.e. temporarily grant permission to whoever wants to access the vault).

You may also want to have a waiting period before letting new guild members access the vault since there maybe people who joins a guild, take everything from their vault, before contributing any influence, then leaves.

[Iron Legionnaire]

Red_Falcon, on 13 August 2012 - 04:00 PM, said:

I tend to be unlucky with guilds, I always find ones that are either too casual, too hardcore, too serious, too lighthearted, too pve-oriented, too pvp-oriented, too elitist, too noobish...

Tell me about it.

Daesu, on 13 August 2012 - 04:13 PM, said:

Maybe it would be better to make all guild resources, like the guild vault, available to everyone in the guild.  Meaning to only put items in the guild vault if you want to share them with the guild, but only trusted members hold the "key" (i.e. temporarily grant permission to whoever wants to access the vault).

You may also want to have a waiting period before letting new guild members access the vault since there maybe people who joins a guild, take everything from their vault, before contributing any influence, then leaves.

Yes, yes... never been a guild leader before, this will be interesting. lol

Edited by Iron Legionnaire, 13 August 2012 - 04:16 PM.