Guild Wars 2

My guild is called Fated. We’ve been around since 2003, and we’ve played a lot of MMO. And we generally built a good reputation.

Guild Wars 1 and 2 forced us to reduce this to [Fate] for our tag. And we hate it. It’s dreadful. There’s half a dozen – if not more – guilds using Fate or a variation thereof. Members of MY guild have actually been blamed for things people in one of the OTHER [Fate] guilds did. No one apparently takes the trouble to select the offending toon and check the full guild name.

I’m pretty certain we’re not the only guild having this issue.

If there is any way whatsoever, I’d really like it if we could just display our guild names UNDER our character names, and do away with the current 4 character restriction in favor of something a bit more generous.

The point of the tag is to be an abbreviation under the expectation that you have a longer than five letter guild name, possibly influding multiple words. The fact that guild tags are not unique is somewhat problematic, but is also a fair way to deal with the problem of similar names.

It isn’t their fault nor problem how you choose to tag yourselves, nor that so many other guilds have reason to use the same tag. For that matter it’s not their problem that other people aren’t bright enough to actually identify a person by guild name rather than tag.

The only solution as you have put it forward is to allow guild names in place of tags, but what about those with really long guild names who insist on displaying it anyway? The point of the tag is so that it doesn’t take up much room and can be quickly identified, unlike guild names.

Maybe you would be better off with a different tag. FTD might do you well.

Actually, some of the guild names I’ve seen for guilds using the [Fate] tag didn’t even have ‘fate’ in it in any way, shape or form. I see that with a lot of the 4 letter tags. People pick something that looks cool and that is not necessarily related to the guild name.

As for your suggestion of using FTD… apart from the fact I don’t even know if it is possible to change the name of an existing guild, for us, “Fate” was and is a FAR more natural choice for us than “FTD”. Partly because it’s harder to associate ‘ftd’ with ‘fated’ than it is for ‘fate’, partly because in our 10 year history, we’ve actually created sister guilds in the same game (and on the same server) with other Fate related names.

The rest of what you are saying makes no sense to me. Quickly identify? Rather the reverse, since you have to click the character to find out for sure. Especially when I keep seeing things like a guild which has no ‘one’ in the name using the tag ‘ONE’, a tag I associate with the guild ‘Section One’. Or the guild using the tag MERC, which has zero relation to the guild that’s actually called Merc.

And how is it NOT the developers fault that they chose a guild tag format that only allows 4 characters? They must have known that this would create a situation where duplication was unavoidable.

And length restrictions this strict are only necessary if you insist on placing guild tags next to the player name, in stead of under it. Programming wise this should not even be all that hard. (And to avoid the inevitable ‘how would you know’… I’m a software engineer).

Pretty much every other MMO I’ve played – and I’ve played a lot – has no issues with tags that are longer than 4 characters. Most allow multiple words too, within reasonable limits. This allows for much more uniqueness in guild tags.

Not going to happen. I asked before when the guild I created had the same guild tag as someone else if they could change it or give us the opportunity to change it. Gems, whatever….and they said no. We decided to disband the guild, losing all our rep and starting over with a new one. Ran into the same issue again.

In the end. They will not be changing the letter limit to the guild tag. They also will not let you change it to something else to not lose rep. So, long story short, you are just going to have to deal with it. Sorry.

This is the weirdest feature. I really don’t know why ANet decided the four-letter guild tag was a good idea. It’s nice as an option for people who don’t want their screen cluttered in text, but I actually like seeing people’s guild names (and titles) as they run past.
A four-letter tag serves no purpose at all. It doesn’t impart any information, it doesn’t necessarily act as a mnemonic for the guild’s full name, and it’s likely that the same tag will be used by multiple guilds. For instance, my guild’s called Slashdance and our tag is BYOB. It’s not like “SLSH” or “SD” would have hinted at our full name anyhow, so what’s the point? The four-letter tag is just this extra, meaningless bit of waste data.

IT’s primarily for WvW so you can learn the guilds that are trashing you over and over, or the guilds that are easy to roll over. Or the guilds to follow in a seige because they know how to do it.

Also, names that don’t nessisarily contain the word that their Tag displays doesn’t always mean that the Tag wasn’t dirived from the name…

for example, my guild Elements of the Mind uses the tag [EotM] rather than [Mind] because it is the first letter of each word… other guilds may use composites from their guild name… like say someone called their guild Maniac Directive they might use the tag [MAD] utilizing a composite of Maniac Directive to get MAD.

however… an option to display Guild Name in place of Tags if the name is under a certain letter count… lets say less than 12? would be nice… or an option under settings that can be set by player to show Tags or Guild Names over other players.

It’s not the dev’s fault you have a common guild name.

Kal Spiro: “IT’s primarily for WvW so you can learn the guilds that are trashing you over and over, or the guilds that are easy to roll over. Or the guilds to follow in a seige because they know how to do it.”

Yeah, but that could be achieved by other means, assuming you’ve toggled-off guild name display. For instance, maybe you could have a miniature version of their guild emblem next to their name. And even then, why restrict the rest of the game according to what works in WvW? They homogenize all enemy player names down to simply “[Server Name] Invader,” so obviously they can reflect different information in WvW and PvE.

Panda: “for example, my guild Elements of the Mind uses the tag [EotM] rather than [Mind] because it is the first letter of each word”

Yes, but in either case I still wouldn’t have any idea what your guild is called based solely on your four-letter tag. Obviously, you know the full name of your guild, so the tag isn’t for your information. It’s for others to identify your guild, and yet it doesn’t identify anything.

DJ Dovahkiin: “It’s not the dev’s fault you have a common guild name.”

No, but guild names are unique whereas the four-letter tags are not — and there’s a reason they’re not. ANet knew there would be overlap, and having an uncommon guild name doesn’t necessarily guard you from having your desired 4-letter tag taken.
For example, look at Panda’s guild “Elements of the Mind” — it’s fairly unique, and safe to assume other guilds won’t try and take that. However, when “Executioners of the Meek” also want “EotM” as their tag, and “Mega Industrial Newb Destroyers” want “MIND,” you start to see repeats.

Fyrebrand.4859:

Kal Spiro: “IT’s primarily for WvW so you can learn the guilds that are trashing you over and over, or the guilds that are easy to roll over. Or the guilds to follow in a seige because they know how to do it.”

Yeah, but that could be achieved by other means, assuming you’ve toggled-off guild name display. For instance, maybe you could have a miniature version of their guild emblem next to their name. And even then, why restrict the rest of the game according to what works in WvW? They homogenize all enemy player names down to simply “[Server Name] Invader,” so obviously they can reflect different information in WvW and PvE.

IT falls under a completely different suggestion, but I love this idea. I really feel that those emblems serve very little purpose right now. IT would be very cool if they could be displayed next to names. I would definately take that over tags. Granted it would have the same potential trouble since they’re not unique either.