There are quite a few things that Arenanet could/should (IMHO) be doing to help guilds help build their own customer base. With that in mind, here are a few suggestions our Guild has come up with for things that we would both like to see, and that would help us bring new players into the GW2 fold:
1. The long-promised API
Long before GW2 even launched, Arena net talked extensively about an API that guilds/fan sites would be able to use to pull info from the game to create interactive websites, etc. Where is it? Why has it no longer been mentioned? It would seem this would be one of the easier tools to deliver to folks.
At any rate, as a large gaming community, we like to reward our members for doing things that directly contribute to our success in any game. An API would go a long way towards allowing us to do that very thing.
For example, an API that tracked things like “influence earned for the Guild” by each member would allow us to create internal competitions and rewards for our Guild members that brought in the most Guild influence. (that’s just one example of a number of things we could do with a good API).
An API would also go a long way toward promoting the game by allowing us to incorporate as much player-info as possible into our community forums. Things like current player location, player stats, appearance, etc. The more of our members who DON’T currently play GW2 that we can get to ask “What’s this all about?”, the more potential customers for Anet.
2. Guild Gem Donations/Guild Boosts
These two suggestions go hand-in-hand. First, adding the ability for Guild members to donate Gems to a Guild “Gem Fund” which would could then only be used to purchase things like Guild Boosts (and by boosts I mean things like Guild influence boosts, karma boosts, experience boosts). Of course, one would not work without the other, but it might be a good way to both increase gem sales, AND give smaller Guilds a way to earn influence faster, etc.
3. The iPad/We App(s)
Whatever happened to all the offline “apps” we were promised during the pre-launch marketing push? Out of game chat, etc.? Again, we’ve heard nothing more abut these since launch…why is that? So many of these “promised” features are what got a lot of us to sign on in the first place. Time to deliver.
4. Free Guest passes/weekend for Guilds
Free weekend promotions are great, and I’m glad to see Anet has partnered with so many PC gaming sites to distribute keys/get the word out. However, I honestly think a far more effective way to both give new players a taste of GW2 AND reward existing Guilds would give those keys out to the Guilds themselves. Think about it, a “Free Guild Weekend” promotion could work like this:
- Issue each Guild “Free Weekend” keys on a unlimited basis (give each Guild a uniquely-generated URL to send their members to generate a key)
– For every actual “paying member” a guild generates (i.e. a customer that buys the game after trying it using that guild’s key), give that guild some rewards (X amount of influence, Guild Merits, some kind of communal boosts, etc.)
Think about that….not only would that give Guilds incentive to bring in new folks, but it would also motivate them to make sure those folks have the best possible experience in the game as well.
5. World vs.World recruiting tools
- allowing a Guild’s “flag” to be interacted with after they had claimed a building might be a good recruiting tool for them (i.e. clicking the flag could bring up that Guild’s “recruiting/about us” page, which could contain a “Request an Invite/Apply” button.)
Now, obviously, there would have to be a few things in there to prevent abusive behavior by some guilds (like fighting to claim all the best structures even though they have no buffs to run on them – something I hate to see myself). SO – I would probably want there to be some “minimum requirements” in order for their flag to be “clickable”. Perhaps making it so that it does not allow players to interact with it until a Guild puts a minimum of X amount of buffs on the claimed structure. Something that scales by structure type might be appropriate (i.e. 1 buff is required to claim a supply camp, 3 for towers, 4 for keeps, and all of them for things like SMC).
In fact, that might kill two birds with one stone – disallowing Guilds to keep claiming structures that they have no plans to run buffs on, AND rewarding those guilds that DO put the proper buffs on things they claim by turning those structures into recruiting “tools” for those guilds.
6. Guild Leaderboards
I love the new leaderboards….but they would be much better for us if we could have our own “Guild Leaderboards” to see where people stand within our own guild (and adding all that info to the API would go a long way as well by allowing us to add it to our website).
Anyhoo…..that’s just a few ideas we’ve had ;-)