Guild Wars 2

Since HoT apparently removed the importance of representing a guild according to many in the community, why not get rid of it completely and call it a day. Just show members who are online/offline in ur guild and be done with it, that way everyone is in every guild they wanna be in and everyone is happy, right?

Imo, the only thing repping does right now, is it gives the guild leaders annoying big headache to try and keep their guild together. Members not repping the guild, never bother to interact with the guild members who ARE repping and they’re there just as a reminder they don’t really care for ur guild or anyone in it. I hate that little oval greyed out green symbol against their name and when u hover over it, the bracketed message that says (not representing). So please get rid of it we don’t need it any more.

Uh… no?

Representing still has meaning. Many players (including myself and I even run a guild) are part of multiple guilds because each different guild is for different things (PvE, WvW, roleplaying, and so on).

Repping or not, all the members in my guild still talk to eachother thanks to the shared guild chat system so communication is NOT an issue and they all still contribute and participate in our guild events and helping our guild hall grow.

Edit:
It looks like you just have a problem with members in your guild being interested in being in that guild. The repping feature has nothing to do with that.

Gizmo.9178:

Uh… no?

Representing still has meaning. Many players (including myself and I even run a guild) are part of multiple guilds because each different guild is for different things (PvE, WvW, roleplaying, and so on).

Repping or not, all the members in my guild still talk to eachother thanks to the shared guild chat system so communication is NOT an issue and they all still contribute and participate in our guild events and helping our guild hall grow.

Edit:
It looks like you just have a problem with members in your guild being interested in being in that guild. The repping feature has nothing to do with that.

Well i’m happy for you, but that is not my experience. I know many guild leaders and they’re all experiencing same problems.

I guess what i personally don’t like, is that members in multi guilds can chat in ur guild even when not representing it, you have no idea if they actually are watching ur chat or not. Even worse, they can listen in and espy what is going on in ur guild, but you have no idea what they’re up to if they don’t bother to tell u. In order words, guild leaders have been brought down, lost control, while members have been enervated with this new chat system as well as this notion ‘why even bother repping anymore.’ I’m starting to wonder, why even bother having guilds any more eh?

Okay you lost me at the “spy” thing.

If they are part of your guild (representing or not) why would that be considered spying? I am really trying to understand.

I also really don’t understand how guild leaders have been “brought down” due to this feature.

I am sorry you had bad experiences within your guild but without examples I can’t see how this feature is causing issues. I think you must have had some really bad eggs in your guild that need to be cleaned out.

Hey,
also the leader of a guild here. o/

Tiger Ashante.1792:

Imo, the only thing repping does right now, is it gives the guild leaders annoying big headache to try and keep their guild together. Members not repping the guild, never bother to interact with the guild members who ARE repping and they’re there just as a reminder they don’t really care for ur guild or anyone in it.

To me, this issue seems to be with your target audience.
I have members who represent and members who don’t. They are completly fine with their interactions and as such your presumption is simply false. :/
Your members may act like this, other leaders’ members may act like this, but not all members act like this.

Tiger Ashante.1792:

I hate that little oval greyed out green symbol against their name and when u hover over it, the bracketed message that says (not representing). So please get rid of it we don’t need it any more.

“I” hate it.
“We” don’t need it anymore.

Please refrain from speaking for others.

Tiger Ashante.1792:

I guess what i personally don’t like, is that members in multi guilds can chat in ur guild even when not representing it, you have no idea if they actually are watching ur chat or not. Even worse, they can listen in and espy what is going on in ur guild, but you have no idea what they’re up to if they don’t bother to tell u. In order words, guild leaders have been brought down, lost control, while members have been enervated with this new chat system as well as this notion ‘why even bother repping anymore.’ I’m starting to wonder, why even bother having guilds any more eh?

It seems your issue is associated more with size and lack of trust than with representation in itself.

• “…, you have no idea if they actually are watching ur chat or not. Even worse, they can listen in and espy what is going on in ur guild, …”
  You’re a guild. Not a sovereign nation at war during the Cold War. You appear slightly suspicious and perhaps even paranoid with a statement such as this. If you fear people who don’t represent to be something as extreme as “spies” I honestly begin to wonder if you’re cut-out to be a leader, pardon my rudeness.

• “guild leaders have been brought down, lost control, …”
  Why must you be in control? It is of my opinion that as a Guild Leader you provide a service, you’re not doing your members a favor and they don’t owe you. Nor do you own your members. The only control a Guild Leader has and should have are the Guild-Mechanics/authorities and the ability to keep your members content with what you provide.

• “…as well as this notion ‘why even bother repping anymore.’ I’m starting to wonder, why even bother having guilds any more eh?”
  Representation does nothing but add a tiny “[TAG]” behind your name and turn that dim bright square into a brighter one in the Guild Roster of the guild you represent. If this, largely meaningless, activity decides something as important as a members’ interest in the guild, you might want to look at what your guild is providing.

• Are your members content with the services or content your guild provides?
• Do your members have reasons to represent or not to represent?
• Is being a Guild Leader more of a job to you than actual game-content?
• Do you feel the desire to control your members or to serve them?
• Is your guild perhaps too big for you to manage?

I know some of my remarks may seem very rude but I have no intention of insulting you.

Required representation is a relic of the past. Some guild leaders use it as you happen to be doing, an indication of interest in & loyalty to your guild. It is, however in my experience, no accurate depiction of either interest or loyalty and as such should be used less.

A personal advice: attempt to keep your guild small and don’t fear members using the multi-guild system.
A small guild will allow you to get to know your members well and to trust them. Being closer to your members will show that them not representing your guild isn’t something scary or dangerous.

Good luck and I hope I haven’t bothered you with my opinions. ^^

-Nero,
Guild leader since 2005,
Current leader of the Seraphim Order [Ankh], a small, trustworthy bunch of casuals who play as they want, when they want.

I left my first guild because they had a 100% repping requirement and I won’t join another guild that has a repping requirement. On the one hand, maybe doing away with it would create a situation where people like me could try out new guilds without repping pressure. On the other hand, I kinda like knowing which guilds will want to control me and my game play to the extent that they would demand 100% loyalty all the time to that one group. I think this is especially important for new players that haven’t experienced different kinds of guilds to be able to do so without all that pressure from guild leaders. New players do not have a lot of experience to know what’s out there

Ophidia Moonstone.2587:

I left my first guild because they had a 100% repping requirement and I won’t join another guild that has a repping requirement. On the one hand, maybe doing away with it would create a situation where people like me could try out new guilds without repping pressure. On the other hand, I kinda like knowing which guilds will want to control me and my game play to the extent that they would demand 100% loyalty all the time to that one group. I think this is especially important for new players that haven’t experienced different kinds of guilds to be able to do so without all that pressure from guild leaders. New players do not have a lot of experience to know what’s out there

It’s amazing how many guild require 100% repping despite it not actually doing much of anything for them. If a guild require 100% rep, imo, it just comes down to ego, and I’m not going to waste my time inflating it.

Op has a valid point. I also created a topic like this right after HOT launch. There is zero reason to have representing in the game still. Reasons being:

When i rep one guild, it has no advantage over another. No gain of influence. I can read all guilds chats that ive joined, all 5 of them simtaniously whenever i want. I can interact however i want.

Only thing left that has a difference is the tag beside the name, thats a direct sale of a guild to other people, showing how active a guild is or isnt. Representing should be removed and let members decide for themselves what tag they wanna wear.

How do you determine which guild gets the favor on a mission? I’m not pshawing the idea of removing rep, but missions (and WvW claims and guild PvP teams right?) do require you to rep in order to assign where the rewards go.

Donari.5237:

How do you determine which guild gets the favor on a mission? I’m not pshawing the idea of removing rep, but missions (and WvW claims and guild PvP teams right?) do require you to rep in order to assign where the rewards go.

Wouldn’t it be rather easy to create a dialogue box and you select which guild you are doing a mission for when you start the mission?

Ophidia Moonstone.2587:

Donari.5237:

How do you determine which guild gets the favor on a mission? I’m not pshawing the idea of removing rep, but missions (and WvW claims and guild PvP teams right?) do require you to rep in order to assign where the rewards go.

Wouldn’t it be rather easy to create a dialogue box and you select which guild you are doing a mission for when you start the mission?

No, because then they have to go in and change a bunch of code for everything, and then ensure it does work. When it involved programming, what a lay person thinks is “easy to (x)” it really isn’t. It actually has the chance of causing more harm.

My Two Pence:

1) As a guild leader myself, I think it’s the Guild Leader’s responsibility to make it worthwhile for members to represent, not ArenaNet’s.

2) My guild doesn’t have one of those 100% rep rules. The ones that do rep, are repping by choice, which is how I’d prefer it.

Gizmo.9178:

Uh… no?

Representing still has meaning. Many players (including myself and I even run a guild) are part of multiple guilds because each different guild is for different things (PvE, WvW, roleplaying, and so on).

Repping or not, all the members in my guild still talk to eachother thanks to the shared guild chat system so communication is NOT an issue and they all still contribute and participate in our guild events and helping our guild hall grow.

Edit:
It looks like you just have a problem with members in your guild being interested in being in that guild. The repping feature has nothing to do with that.

+1

You need to make your guild more interesting… I’m part of one of the biggest dragonbrand guilds and we’re always active, have things to do and tons of reasons to rep solely this one guild.

Representing is a paradox. There is no right or wrong answer, the main issue is players being contradiction to their idea.

To give an example.
I find the players who are on that side of “what’s the point of representing” extremely contradictory in nature. Why? It is really simple, if there is no point in representing, then why are they so bothered about it? If they are not bothered about it, then why do they feel the need to talk about it or complain about it or even get annoyed about it?

At the end of the day, representation do mean something. The real problem is some players want to use this as an excuse to attack others, especially guilds who has rep requirement even when these guilds done nothing to them personally in the first place. Representation was never the main issue, the main issue is some players simply have bad personality and character.

Welcome to the internet.

Lets see

Guild Missions
Guild Buffs
Guild Objective Claiming
Guild Hall (and all assorted amenities)

Are but a few things players get when they Rep a guild, So Repping a guild should be something players want to do, not something they feel obligated to do.

Tiger Ashante.1792:

Members not repping the guild, never bother to interact with the guild members who ARE repping and they’re there just as a reminder they don’t really care for ur guild or anyone in it. I hate that little oval greyed out green symbol against their name and when u hover over it, the bracketed message that says (not representing).

I have no idea of how to say nicely, what I am about to say next, but, Truth is, if you have members that are not active in your guild, and you have not reached out them to, to find out why, and just fuss that the box is gray… I hate to be bearer of bad news, but you’re the problem, not them.

OP, I led a guild for a couple of years and was a commander in 2 others, I don’t think there’s an issue with how things are now and even the issues you highlight are 1st world problems and don’t affect game-play. I’d rather Anet spend more time pushing out meaningful content and bug fixes to be honest.

I get why some people are against guild representation, but I also see the benefit to it.

If GW2 is a game you like to play in between other MMOs as you try to find a long lasting MMO home (if that’s even something you want), sure who cares what guild you’re in. You want to be in as many different ones as possible, with as many people as possible.

But for guilds that have been around from the start and plan to be around GW2 to the bitter end, having a guild full of members that represent helps to build a lasting community for the long haul. It creates a sense of pride, especially as you see the guild grow. Some people are looking for that. They are looking for a solid community that could even span multiple games. Representation is crucial for this. It’s not for everyone and that’s fine. No one can force you to represent a guild 100%. But there are certainly people that like it and like what it brings to the table.

Tiger Ashante.1792:

Since HoT apparently removed the importance of representing a guild according to many in the community, why not get rid of it completely and call it a day. Just show members who are online/offline in ur guild and be done with it, that way everyone is in every guild they wanna be in and everyone is happy, right?

Imo, the only thing repping does right now, is it gives the guild leaders annoying big headache to try and keep their guild together. Members not repping the guild, never bother to interact with the guild members who ARE repping and they’re there just as a reminder they don’t really care for ur guild or anyone in it. I hate that little oval greyed out green symbol against their name and when u hover over it, the bracketed message that says (not representing). So please get rid of it we don’t need it any more.

I understand that your guild isn’t taking advantage of ‘representation’. Other guilds do.

The headache of managing membership won’t be notably easier by ANet spending the time to “get rid of guild representation.” I think their resources would be better used by identifying tools that would help leaders manage membership. (And those would be best tackled in a new thread.)

Nero! I hear good things about [Ankh]!

So, back on topic… Here are some things that may make it easier for you to cope with the “Not Representing” text, OP:

Spies and/or are people paying attention to my guild chat? I do not invite people to a guild if I think they are spies or I don’t welcome their presence in my channel. I always talk in public channels as if the people I’m talking about can hear me. If someone doesn’t respond to me and it’s important, I send them a whisper with the important information.

People who don’t rep really don’t care about the guild. Well, removing the text that notes they’re not repping won’t instantly make anyone care about your guild. If your members aren’t invested and that makes you unhappy, why are they still in your guild? Why not simply thank them for the good times and wish them well and find people more suited to what you’re looking for?

I hope this helps. I, personally, enjoy being able to have more than one guild. I love the ability to chat in all of them, and I love having a guild tag by my name. I think, perhaps, you are taking representation a bit personally, especially if you don’t have any rules in place about it.

Cross guild chat has brought our GW1 alliance much closer together. It’s like having Alliance chat again.