New Guilds system - Open Discussion

[Chapuz]

Many of us know that the Guilds system failed and became inactive after a little time the stuff begun, about a year ago.

This is a thread where YOU, the community, can propose new ways to design the Guilds system. After there is a general agreement and a viable system is thought and discussed, the Council will have the chance to hire one or more Guild Organizers who have a solid base to plan the polished Guilds system from.

I will start with a couple of very basic ideas to discuss:

. Less guilds. 12 was too much to handle and this isn't a 300ish active people community to fill them. 6 Guilds of opposing elements should be neat (  -  -  -  -  -  )

. When a player from a guild wins a Community event (a weekly tournament, PvP event, War winner team, non-PvP events, etc) the guild wins Guild Points. These points make the ranking of the guilds. For example, if a player of Guild  wins a weekly Tournament, his guild gets 3 GPs. The player who got 2nd gets 1 GP for his guild. Each member of a Brawl winning team wins 7 GPs. Participating in Brawl and War gives 1 GP for your guild.

. No Guild-only events, winning points for a guild is made in a passive way through events.

. The guild of the players is totally independant of the teams the player can be in element-related events. For example, a player in Guild  can be in Team  in War.

. All the guils members have a forum title in the top of their avatars. Not staff-like, more like Brawl-like, when players have a "Team Red Stars" on the top of their avatars. Maybe an elemental symbol and/or colored letters to make it more colorful. This passive promoting can make newcomers see more activity in the forum and generate enthusiasm.

. The top players of each guild get a different title, giving them a "position". Some examples of the titles can be General, Lieuterant and Private. This is another way to motivate members to get into events and such.

. A secret section for each guild. Same as they had before.

Now it's your turn to give your ideas for the guild system planning.

[Dm]

Grammar fixes :
Position*
Lieutenant*

I would rather guilds not be elemental made but rather friend-made; as in you have a guild with people you just like talking to or whatever. I think this would help clear out stuff like unpopular elements not getting many people in their guilds.

Granted, this is loosely related to Elements already and has borderline no Elemental Ties.

[iancudorinmarian]

I would rather guilds not be elemental made but rather friend-made; as in you have a guild with people you just like talking to or whatever. I think this would help clear out stuff like unpopular elements not getting many people in their guilds.

Totally agree with this.

[ddevans96]

First of all, I'm biased against guilds. Not only were they a total failure, they ruined any chance of WoE becoming a reality, something I was very passionate about. That being said, I'll remain objective.

. When a player from a guild wins a Community event (a weekly tournament, PvP event, War winner team, non-PvP events, etc) the guild wins Guild Points. These points make the ranking of the guilds. For example, if a player of Guild  wins a weekly Tournament, his guild gets 3 GPs. The player who got 2nd gets 1 GP for his guild. Each member of a Brawl winning team wins 7 GPs. Participating in Brawl and War gives 1 GP for your guild.

. The guild of the players is totally independant of the teams the player can be in element-related events. For example, a player in Guild  can be in Team  in War.

. All the guils members have a forum title in the top of their avatars. Not staff-like, more like Brawl-like, when players have a "Team Red Stars" on the top of their avatars. Maybe an elemental symbol and/or colored letters to make it more colorful. This passive promoting can make newcomers see more activity in the forum and generate enthusiasm.

. A secret section for each guild. Same as they had before.

Second, to my memory, all of these were already there, or at the very least something similar. So that basically leaves these as real suggestions:

. Less guilds. 12 was too much to handle and this isn't a 300ish active people community to fill them. 6 Guilds of opposing elements should be neat (  -  -  -  -  -  )

. No Guild-only events, winning points for a guild is made in a passive way through events.

. The top players of each guild get a different title, giving them a "possition". Some examples of the titles can be General, Leuterant and Private. This is another way to motivate members to get into events and such.

To start, opposing guilds makes zero sense. If you want to pair elements, my proposal would be as follows:

|| || || || ||

These keeps the quadrants together, but swaps the opposites with elements in the quadrant they're more closely connected to. There's other ways you could do this, but this would be my suggestion.

Will respond to the other two points later.

[SpikeSpiegel]

@ Chapuz: to avoid misunderstanding, please split your ideas from the opening topic, since the first reaction in chat after your thread came to life was: "Nice, guilds reviving".

This is a thread where to receive feedback and ideas from the community. Nothing more, nothing less.

PS: The Council is still discussing about Guilds and the possibility to bring them back to life or not, etc.

PPS: I'd rename the thread too in something less "misunderstandable"...

[theelkspeaks]

I've also discussed guilds with a number of community members in chat, and here's some of the things that have gained some traction in the discussions I've had

-having the option for guilds to be player driven and named, rather than just element affiliated, making guilds such as "Knights of the Round Table" or "Race for Glory" instead of "Guild Water Fire".  Players could of course still name a guild after one or more elements in the name.

-Guild events focusing on team play (such as the 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 formats I've already been discussing) in addition to accumulating points from standard forum events.

-Some incentive structure for guilds to recruit and mentor new players within their guild, as junior members of a guild.

-A yearly guild championship, held starting in April (6 months away from WC) qualified for by top guilds based on GP standings.

-Points for game account achievements including but not limited to topping arena, completing BE/TE, and getting level 80.

[JonathanCrazyJ]

I've also discussed guilds with a number of community members in chat, and here's some of the things that have gained some traction in the discussions I've had

-having the option for guilds to be player driven and named, rather than just element affiliated, making guilds such as "Knights of the Round Table" or "Race for Glory" instead of "Guild Water Fire".  Players could of course still name a guild after one or more elements in the name.

This is all fine, but in such a small community, there should be a limit on the number of guilds. I'd rather call them "Factions" tbh, as this implies a finite number, and avoids the depressing event of a guild simply failing. With regards to DM's point about not being element affiliated, I think that it is a neat structure to have 6 Guilds as opposing elements, but the NAMES of those guilds should be customisable.

-Guild events focusing on team play (such as the 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 formats I've already been discussing) in addition to accumulating points from standard forum events.

-Some incentive structure for guilds to recruit and mentor new players within their guild, as junior members of a guild.

-A yearly guild championship, held starting in April (6 months away from WC) qualified for by top guilds based on GP standings.

-Points for game account achievements including but not limited to topping arena, completing BE/TE, and getting level 80.

All cracking ideas.

In general, guild / faction systems can be absolutely fantastic, building a sense that what you are doing MATTERING. It can also breed a culture of knowing that your actions affect others, which makes people take things more seriously.
These things only happen if the system in place is:

A) Fair across all guilds.
B) Guilds are not too exclusive - otherwise new players might not stick around, feeling as an outsider.
C) Guilds are a bit exclusive - otherwise people take their position within a guild for granted.
D) Not Futile - I would suggest any points system being rotational / yearly (or even monthly / 6 monthly) - you don't want a situation where only the top two guilds have any chance of being competitive.
E) Has several ranks, allowing progression. This does not have to be the same for all guilds, perhaps guild masters can come up with their own ranking system.

My knowledge on guild management comes from 3 1/2 years as GM for a top 3-in-server PvE guild in World Of Warcraft. For my sins.

[Treldon]

I would also limit the number of available guilds/factions/whatever, because we hardly have enough active members for even 6 of them (I would like to be wrong in that regard though). 4 (or 3) would probably still be sufficient and would provide bigger teams - because the main problem I have found with guilds in any game is there being a gazillion of them with only a handful of members, which severely limit the possibilities of playing together (that is a lesser concern here though).

I would also support the custom structures. As War, Trials, Brawl are all based around one element or another, it would perhaps be better if guilds weren't set up around them as well.

[theelkspeaks]

I love a lot of jcj's commentary here, just a few things I'd like to reply to:

In response to jcj's points, I'm personally ok with the number of total guilds fluctuating and members deciding to form a new guild to try to chase down an existing top guild, and I understand that guilds might dissolve over time.  I'm not sure that that's a major problem, and thus don't worry as much about a fixed number of guilds.

I agree points should be time-based, with perhaps a decay-over-time aspect? I'm not entirely sure how this should work, but I think a full reset might be too punishing.

I think some ties of mentoring to guilds and reserving some guild slots for newer players will help make sure of the "not too exclusive" thing he mentions.

[Dm]

I think one issue with player-made guilds is that each guild has it's own Secret Section.

[Chapuz]

- If every member can choose the guild they are in, a groupie of friends can go all to the same guild.

- The elemental thee of the guilds is just that, a thematic. Many newcomers say "Wooohoo I love X element" and would like to be in that element's guild if there was.
Any theme can be proposed, like:
Summer:     
Spring:     
Autumn:     
Winter:     

[andretimpa]

I agree points should be time-based, with perhaps a decay-over-time aspect? I'm not entirely sure how this should work, but I think a full reset might be too punishing.

The score could take into account the last 12 months achievements and be updated every month / week / whatever, so the window of achievements being taken into account moves with time.