Guild Wars 2

Hi all,

I’ve gone back and forth a little on the best area to post this in – but ultimately figured it was a general enough query to go here (i.e., I’m not specifically looking for a guild or members for one).

The query is pretty much as per the topic – I’m curious how people, but particularly from the perspective of Guild Leadership if we have some at hand, feel about people utilising the ability to be in multiple guilds at the same time.

Note: I’m making no suggestion to changing this feature in any way – rather the query relates to a certain reluctance I’ve had to utilise the capability to myself, perhaps based on antiquated (?) views on guild ‘loyalty’.

I can see the potential benefits to the players to be sure; perhaps being able to join guilds with different focuses (i.e., I’m in a WvW mood, so I’ll tag up for Guild X, or now my PvE Guild Y is hosting a Raid, I’ll flip tag and join).

But are there benefits to the guilds themselves? Or at minimum, is this viewed as a problem to have what could be seen as a sort of guild infidelity going on? Does seeing someone in your guild with a ‘Not current representing’ line up in the roster really grind your gears?

Or on the other side, do you think it helps with guild member retention perhaps?

Take care,
– Naithin,.

Every month or so, someone starts a thread about this topic and the responses quickly fall into three categories:

• Those who think multi-guild hurts their guild’s ability to recruit, retain members and to be the go-to place for guildies.
• Those who think multi-guild is great for recruiting, since folks can e.g. be in fractal guild and a wvw guild, without getting frustrated by being in one guild that doesn’t do both.
• Those who don’t care because they don’t join guilds, they only join with a small circle of friends, or they only join one guild anyhow. For them, multi-guild = one guild per account.

There are digressions about storage guilds and per-character guilds, which don’t really change the main points above. Multi-guild supporters don’t see why the game should restrict choice, because guilds can choose to be 100% rep (or nearly so); one-guild fans don’t see how it’s even possible for someone to belong to multiple guilds and be a loyal member to them all.

I’ve yet to see one of these threads end up with someone changing their mind about the topic.

Thanks Illconceived Was Na, I was thinking there might be a more general consensus within the community – but in retrospect, I’m not sure why I thought that might be the case. We’re on the internet.

Still – I’d be keen then to hear the views and rationale for the views from a few different people!

Personally I’m (co-)leading a social pvx guild of about 100 members, many of which have been playing together for longer than this game even exists. We have an open membership, no requirement to represent. We have members that represent 100% and are in this one guild only, and members who never represent but still participate in guild chat, join guild groups for dungeons as well as pve, and even contribute to our guild treasury frequently and generously. Of course, there are also all kinds of in-betweens, and (unfortunately) a few that rarely if never interact with the guild any longer, but if you play within the same social circle for a long time there’s bound to be a few conflicts coming up inbetween .

I’m also member of two other guilds, one a very small friends guild, not much more than a glorified chat channel (but with our own guildhall ), and the other one a social guild with tendencies towards dungeons/fractals/raids as main content. Both guilds to me are most important for the guild chat and interaction with the guildies.

As such, I’m happy about being able to be in all games at once, because I can chat and interact with all of my friends in the different communities (the two larger guilds have different main languages as well as very different kind of players, so I’d have to leave one group of friends or the other if I were restricted to only one guild). I contribute to all of my guild with chat and activity participation as well as guildhall upgrades and such.

I can have (and have) different friends. Why should I feel less loyal to one because I feel loyal to the other? The same goes for groups of friends. There’s nothing in this game that keeps you from being loyal to different guilds at the same time if you want to.

My opinion is that the multi-guild system is great, it allows people to more easily find guilds that suit them. It’s pro-player not anti-guild.

Some GMs seem to think that they have a right to demand loyalty to their Guild. The idea of loyalty being something that you enforce highlights a basic misunderstanding of what loyalty is, I think. To those I’d say: if you’re playing a game where people are allowed be in 5 guilds and people are leaving your guild to join others then it’s not that they’re “disloyal”, it’s that you’re doing something wrong. Or, possibly, doing nothing at all.

Those GMs need to stop thinking of their Guilds as a kingdom that they rule with absolute power and start thinking of them as a club that meets a set of needs for its members. If a Guild doesn’t meet their member’s needs then those members should leave and loyalty be kitten ed.

I’m currently in one main guild (and a personal banking “guild”, population: me). It’s small, relaxed and I really like the people in it. But as I said, we’re small so we can’t do everything. I have in the past temporarily joined Tequatl and Triple Trouble guilds. I am currently considering looking for a fractal guild. I’m also considering looking for a raid training guild. I love that I can do this without needing to drop out of my guild.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Every month or so, someone starts a thread about this topic and the responses quickly fall into three categories:

• Those who think multi-guild hurts their guild’s ability to recruit, retain members and to be the go-to place for guildies.
• Those who think multi-guild is great for recruiting, since folks can e.g. be in fractal guild and a wvw guild, without getting frustrated by being in one guild that doesn’t do both.
• Those who don’t care because they don’t join guilds, they only join with a small circle of friends, or they only join one guild anyhow. For them, multi-guild = one guild per account.

There are digressions about storage guilds and per-character guilds, which don’t really change the main points above. Multi-guild supporters don’t see why the game should restrict choice, because guilds can choose to be 100% rep (or nearly so); one-guild fans don’t see how it’s even possible for someone to belong to multiple guilds and be a loyal member to them all.

I’ve yet to see one of these threads end up with someone changing their mind about the topic.

What he/she said.

Personally I’d say it’s good that people have the choice and it’s up to each individual guild to set their rules and each person to think about what they want and find (or create) a guild that suits them.

For the first 3 years or so of this game I was in just one guild – the same one guild – and never felt any need to join more. Then that one went inactive so I joined another (and very much appreciated the multi-guild functionality because it allowed me to stay in my first guild while also being part of an active one).

When that one went inactive I wasn’t able to find a 3rd guild that really suited me, so I ended up joining 2 different ones and for now that’s working well for me.

In some way it’s purely practical: one of my guilds is based on a different time zone to me so they start guild missions about 10 minutes before I get home from work so I almost never get to do missions with them. The other does them at a much more convenient time. But it’s also about the social aspects – I have very different conversations with each guild and I enjoy chatting to both groups of people, even if I know many of them probably wouldn’t get along with each other.

I think given the choice I’d prefer to be in just 1 guild at a time, but it’s nice to know I have the option to join more than 1 if I can’t find one guild that suits all my needs. (And I really do not have the time to start my own, I couldn’t possibly give it the commitment it needs.)

I’m a guild leader. 400 people in my guild now. Pretty active. Very happy. I don’t care if people rep and NEVER have.

If your guild is worth joining, and being a part of, people who feel at home there will want to be a part of it. Why would I want people who don’t feel at home there to a part of it. They won’t add to the guild.

Guilds are a service. I don’t own people and they owe me nothing. So I start a guild and attract like minded people and we have over 100 people logging in each and every week. People repping most of the time.

Enough people to get stuff done. Enough friends to play with. Why would I try to force someone to rep my guild.

As a side comment, I belonged to multiple guilds in WOW and Rift too, just on different characters. Here at least it’s in the open.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Every month or so, someone starts a thread about this topic and the responses quickly fall into three categories:

• Those who think multi-guild hurts their guild’s ability to recruit, retain members and to be the go-to place for guildies.
• Those who think multi-guild is great for recruiting, since folks can e.g. be in fractal guild and a wvw guild, without getting frustrated by being in one guild that doesn’t do both.
• Those who don’t care because they don’t join guilds, they only join with a small circle of friends, or they only join one guild anyhow. For them, multi-guild = one guild per account.

There are digressions about storage guilds and per-character guilds, which don’t really change the main points above. Multi-guild supporters don’t see why the game should restrict choice, because guilds can choose to be 100% rep (or nearly so); one-guild fans don’t see how it’s even possible for someone to belong to multiple guilds and be a loyal member to them all.

I’ve yet to see one of these threads end up with someone changing their mind about the topic.

What a superb post!

I think multi-guilds are a fantastic idea. I use;

• one as my old guild that died
• one as my main guild
• one as a scouting and information sharing guild for people in WvW
• one as storage guild
• one as a guild that I’m rank “guild friend” in, which I chat to but never represent

I think five is the ideal number, too. Not two. Not that two was ever the number.

Thanks all – I appreciate you all taking the time to comment.

I’m somewhat glad to hear that even at a guild leadership level the (general) view here seems to be one of acceptance if not outright happiness with the player freedom this offers.

Makes me feel a little more open to the idea of going guild hunting, that’s for sure!

I have my personal/bank guild that I almost never use, but I might as well keep it now. :P

I have a main guild that I rep, and it’s usually the busiest of the ones I’m in. I’m a part of a second guild that I chip in for occasionally. Another one’s gone quiet, sadly. I guess that’s a factor of the sort of guild I look for: small-to-medium guilds with less inane chatter.