Guild Wars 2

Hello i run a 250 + member guild and i have some issues with representing, i am trying to make a guild that has a strong community of active players that will be invested in our guild, however that is hard when anet made it so you can have 5 guild and not rep any of them while still technically be a part of it or 1 main and 4 extra. if you ask people for mandatory rep you are looked at as an kitten for demanding that but if you dont and have a guild full of people not repping or giving a kitten how can you grow the guild. This goes to anet developers fix your broken guild system and go back to how gw1 did it kitten have 1 guild and have that guild be in allience of other guilds you know like in gw1 !? that way you have cross guild chat there are no representing issues and everyone is happy.

also on a short note add a guild trading post merchant to guild halls its very annoying having to port outside to pick mats i need for scribing, and you cant asume everyone has mass stacks of black lion tp mechant summons or 2k gold to buy one (permanent).

i actually think it is better if you can get people to care about ur guild because they care about it and not because they mechanically have to (this guild or the highway buddy)
also i think if they take all the incentives of going to towns out of the game (i.e. trading post, crafting stations) that would end up being bad for the game
people would have less to no reason to go to towns, newbies would enter them and worry the game is dead and perhaps be turned off because of it

My guild is doing just fine, whether people are repping or not. I’m not sure why it’s so hard for your guild. If you make a guild fun, people will want to play with you.

Why do you care whether or not they rep at this point?

MarkoNS.3261:

if you ask people for mandatory rep you are looked at as an kitten for demanding that but if you dont and have a guild full of people not repping or giving a kitten how can you grow the guild.

You grow a guild by helping the members advance their playing skills. Teaching them new things inspires loyalty and the more loyal a member, the more likely they are to rep of their own free will. You can do that without demanding rep from someone.

If you want people to rep your guild, it’s up to you as a guild leader to make them want to rep, not up to ArenaNet. Offer them something to the table instead of “Hey, rep our guild so you can be our billboard”.

There will be a lot more anger if people were forced to choose only one guild because ArenaNet took four of them away. Take Roleplayers for example – some people have more than one RP character, for example, an Asura and a Seraph soldier. The Asura might be in a College-based guild, the Seraph in a Seraph-based guild. Making them have to choose would be a bad move.

Also – someone not repping your guild isn’t necessarily an inactive one.

So, the main issue you are having is core members and not really about repping.
Indeed, it isn’t very easy to obtain such thing as core members in this laid back game. Even those guilds that you see that appear successful are only successful because of the previous state where you have to represent to interact and thus, people tend to represent their “main” guild more.

However, at this state of the game, the representation don’t mean much technically other than its morale values where represent is to show respect to the guild and its people but honestly, people don’t really care about that either. For the current state of the game, it is very easy to encounter individuals who join guild for the sake of joining, I mean, you got 5 slots afterall, what stop them for doing that? Thus, it is a norm to see individuals joining your guild and does nothing, nothing at all.

Representing though is a symbol of respect for the guild, it also can be used as a convenient reason to remove non-contributive individuals without being called a tyrant, especially when you have your rules and expectations stated black and white.

Successful guilds are built on a very simple cycle, you help the people, you remove the inactives, you remove the troublemakers, you remove the people that don’t fit your policies and so on. You keep on filtering and filtering and filtering until you obtain ideal members. and even then, you will keep repeating since people come and go in a online game.

MarkoNS.3261:

Hello i run a 250 + member guild and i have some issues with representing, i am trying to make a guild that has a strong community of active players that will be invested in our guild, however that is hard when anet made it so you can have 5 guild and not rep any of them while still technically be a part of it or 1 main and 4 extra. if you ask people for mandatory rep you are looked at as an kitten for demanding that but if you dont and have a guild full of people not repping or giving a kitten how can you grow the guild. This goes to anet developers fix your broken guild system and go back to how gw1 did it kitten have 1 guild and have that guild be in allience of other guilds you know like in gw1 !? that way you have cross guild chat there are no representing issues and everyone is happy.

also on a short note add a guild trading post merchant to guild halls its very annoying having to port outside to pick mats i need for scribing, and you cant asume everyone has mass stacks of black lion tp mechant summons or 2k gold to buy one (permanent).

I agree with you. I’ve been saying from launch of the game i hate this guild system and my opinion hasn’t changed, if anything it has strengthened. The only people who enjoy this system are players who like to guild hop and see what they can get out of a particular guild. They can get into number of guilds so easily at any time, that if a guild leader asks or says anything they don’t even slightly like, they simply leave without a word. I’ve been in situations where i’ve spent lot of time helping a newbie member and once they picked your brains and got what they wanted, they simply leave without as much as thank you or an explanation why they’re leaving.

Furthermore, what makes this system awful, is that guild leaders have no tools to keep in touch with their members, especially those not representing. One of the most basic systems is missing from this game (the only game that doesn’t have it even compared to 10 yo games) is the mass mail out to your members. So i want to do a guild mission, i have to individually send email to each member or whisper them, can u imagine the time that takes? Sure i put in my very limited MotD that we run Guild Missions on such and such a day, but if a member isn’t representing your guild, he don’t see that message to remind him. He only sees MotD of the guild they’re representing.

ESO seems to have adopted gw2’s 5 guild system, but at least they have improved it by adding mass mail out system to members and also, members only show on the roster of the guild they choose to represent. I still hate the 5 guild system, but at least ESO made it bearable and more manageable.

Another problem here, is you don’t know if the members not representing your guild are actually monitoring your guild chat unless they actually choose to say something in ur guild chat. So you’re supposed to once again whisper them individually? This system sucks, i hate it and I’m getting to the point where i just want to disband my guild, which would really hurt since i created it at head start. But tbh, i’m tired of running a guild in gw2, it’s a pain and a headache and i’m completely losing interest in persisting with this convoluted system that only favors members and shafts the efforts of the guild leaders, not to mention, puts a huge additional amount of stress and workload on them due to lack of tools at their disposal.

When HoT came and with the announcement of Guild Halls, I had really hoped they would change and fix some of these issues, but nah, they’ve too busy coming up with the mind-numbing boring grind for massive numbers of mats and gold needed for guild hall upgrades. It is especially awful for small guilds, this whole system is a disgrace and i don’t know for the life of me why i stuck with it for so long. I guess i was hoping and waiting for things to change, but after HoT launched, I realise that will never happen.
I still remember Collin Johanson stating on twitch with his big smile, “Don’t worry, small guilds will not be left behind”. Yeah, right.

Goatjugsoup.8637:

i actually think it is better if you can get people to care about ur guild because they care about it and not because they mechanically have to (this guild or the highway buddy)

Yeah sounds great on paper, have u tried it?

Goatjugsoup.8637:

also i think if they take all the incentives of going to towns out of the game (i.e. trading post, crafting stations) that would end up being bad for the game
people would have less to no reason to go to towns, newbies would enter them and worry the game is dead and perhaps be turned off because of it

Really? You think that’s the reason behind it? You don’t think the only reason they don’t add those services to Guild Halls is b/c they want to sell their Airshp and Royal Terrace passes? I mean if u had those conveniences in Guild Hall, who would need those passes?

Had they added those services to Guild Halls, spending 10s of thousands of materials and gold may actually have some worth. As is, Guild Halls are basically useless, most ppl don’t even bother going there. The massive mats and gold sinks gets u virtually nothing for your efforts, it’s a meaningless system. Granted some bigger guilds who do have lots of members donating and maxing out the guild hall, may have some minor benefits but really, for most part, its a useless system benefiting no one, other than looking pretty.

Tiger Ashante.1792:

Really? You think that’s the reason behind it? You don’t think the only reason they don’t add those services to Guild Halls is b/c they want to sell their Airshp and Royal Terrace passes? I mean if u had those conveniences in Guild Hall, who would need those passes?

No one ever needs those passes. You’ve been able to go to Heart of the Mists for fast access to TP, bank, and vendor for a long time now. You’ve also been able to go to wvw to access crafting stations, TP, bank, laurel vendor, basic vendors, etc. forever; you can even access the Mystic Forge there sometimes. So, I don’t think your gem store conspiracy really applies in this case.

id love to join a guild buy i cant find one who speaks english

or that is willing to help train a new guy

guyver omega.9716:

or that is willing to help train a new guy

You might try the ‘Looking For…’ sub-forum.

Good luck.

The only reason people represent a guild is because the guild has a social environment that makes them want to represent the guild.
As a guild leader, it’s your responsibility to cultivate that environment through rules and limitations that create a space where people want to gather.
For example, if your main chat is a free-for-all that is often toxic, political (but I repeat myself), or polarizing, odds are you are going to wind up with people who rep other guilds unless they feel like getting into an online **** size contest.
Creating limits (such as a “no politics” rule), and then enforcing them, helps create a place where people can gather and not feel like it’s going to be an argument every time.
I’m sure there are guilds who will claim that they allow their members to talk about politics and everybody is just one big happy family. That’s fine. There are always exceptions. There are people who get precursors for drops too.

Bottom line, if people aren’t repping your guild, there’s a reason for it, and it’s up to the leader(s) to fix it, not the members. Requiring representation is a turn off for many.

Also, if your guild is thriving, and you see people who are constantly not repping. Boot them kindly. Kick them from the guild, send them a mail saying something to the effect of “Just doing maintenance of guild membership to trim people who don’t ever rep. Nothing personal, we’ve sent you an invite in case you want to be part of the guild still.” and let it go from there. If they really want to be part of your guild, they’ll accept the invite.

There is also the cultural thing. Depending on which regions, which country your members are based, their mentality can be vastly different and thus the way they treat guild will also be different. Then you need to determine the necessary rules and expectations to make things work for that members base.

You need to determine what works and not base on what other said because some ignorance people might say this is bad or that is bad in practice but in reality, it might be what you really need for your guild to move on. To give a analogy, what may work in america, may not work in china and likewise the other way round.

There are trials and error involved, I can tell you that all successful large guilds today had encounter at least one drama and drama is a good learning lesson on what you need to do to maintain a stable environment.

SkyShroud.2865:

So, the main issue you are having is core members and not really about repping.
Indeed, it isn’t very easy to obtain such thing as core members in this laid back game. Even those guilds that you see that appear successful are only successful because of the previous state where you have to represent to interact and thus, people tend to represent their “main” guild more.

However, at this state of the game, the representation don’t mean much technically other than its morale values where represent is to show respect to the guild and its people but honestly, people don’t really care about that either. For the current state of the game, it is very easy to encounter individuals who join guild for the sake of joining, I mean, you got 5 slots afterall, what stop them for doing that? Thus, it is a norm to see individuals joining your guild and does nothing, nothing at all.

Representing though is a symbol of respect for the guild, it also can be used as a convenient reason to remove non-contributive individuals without being called a tyrant, especially when you have your rules and expectations stated black and white.

Successful guilds are built on a very simple cycle, you help the people, you remove the inactives, you remove the troublemakers, you remove the people that don’t fit your policies and so on. You keep on filtering and filtering and filtering until you obtain ideal members. and even then, you will keep repeating since people come and go in a online game.

well said i actually agree with you, that is very rare.

Haha, I like how all people say it’s the guild leader’s fault.
No, it’s not. Not necessarily at least.

The guild I am in was a place full with nice people. I mean, really, really cool people that gave me laugh rushes and the chat was full with yellow. Suddenly, it changed, like within 3 days. When I check the members page, there are quite an amount of people online, but I am the only one with a full, green icon in front of it. What are they doing at the other ones? I don’t know.

It’s the combination of the player’s attitude.
First, people appear to have no loyality. When there’s something more shiny, they will drop what they have right now like a hot potatoe. Instead of helping to build it up or to sort things out, they just jump off. That is a terrible, cowardly way of living, but the easier one.

Second, people do not really care.
When I was in charge of a guild in Final Fantasy 14, we had to deal with similiar things. There was just one “FC” (Free Company) you could join at a time and even had a 24-hour penalty when leaving one, but they really did not care. There were race-specific places, linkshells (chat channels) and guilds and despite they changed their race, they stayed in. When I removed them, they turned mad. They just do not care. It’s maybe the cultural attitude mentioned by SkyShroud. For me as German, I am as loyal as I can get. My guild is 100% silent for 2 weeks straight, and I will be the last one that turns off the light… Sadly, the other pseudo guild members are not there.

On the other hand for me as casual player and quite chat active: I wish I could find a guild that also wants a loyal members. I am tired of changing. I want my place and I want the people to know me, my attitude and stuff. Fluctuation/Turnover of members is ALWAYS bad. Might it be in a video game or at work. But eventually you will find the gold nuggets you are looking for. I hope I will find that nugged, too..

Neural.1824:

Requiring representation is a turn off for many. (…)

Also, if your guild is thriving, and you see people who are constantly not repping. Boot them kindly. Kick them from the guild, send them a mail saying something to the effect of (…) If they really want to be part of your guild, they’ll accept the invite.

You are contradicting yourself. People want to get the best they can get the most easy way. They literally give a d..mn about the work it might take. That’s like wondering why people would rather live off welfare and foodstamps rather than working themselves – and blame the social welfare office in the end that they require their clients to work for something.

Tiger Ashante.1792:

Goatjugsoup.8637:

i actually think it is better if you can get people to care about ur guild because they care about it and not because they mechanically have to (this guild or the highway buddy)

Yeah sounds great on paper, have u tried it?

Goatjugsoup.8637:

also i think if they take all the incentives of going to towns out of the game (i.e. trading post, crafting stations) that would end up being bad for the game
people would have less to no reason to go to towns, newbies would enter them and worry the game is dead and perhaps be turned off because of it

Really? You think that’s the reason behind it? You don’t think the only reason they don’t add those services to Guild Halls is b/c they want to sell their Airshp and Royal Terrace passes? I mean if u had those conveniences in Guild Hall, who would need those passes?

Had they added those services to Guild Halls, spending 10s of thousands of materials and gold may actually have some worth. As is, Guild Halls are basically useless, most ppl don’t even bother going there. The massive mats and gold sinks gets u virtually nothing for your efforts, it’s a meaningless system. Granted some bigger guilds who do have lots of members donating and maxing out the guild hall, may have some minor benefits but really, for most part, its a useless system benefiting no one, other than looking pretty.

If the guild hall is useless, then don’t upgrade it. it being meaningless to you doesn’t mean it’s meaningless to others. I love my guild’s guild hall and decorating it. And I think we’re with only a dozen or so people working on it. (Donating materials at least, maybe not the decorating)

Then again, we don’t actively recruit, we don’t care about our guild size we’re just a bunch of friends playing together, and sometimes we get some more friends. Some rep some don’t.

I don’t see the point in players joining us if they don’t want to be there. I don’t see the point joining a guild if I at least don’t like 1 person in it.

I dunno what you expect, but to me it sounds like you want a prison to keep your members in, rather than a positive community of players playing together. Sounds like the worst guild to be in.

FrizzFreston.5290:

I don’t see the point in players joining us if they don’t want to be there. I don’t see the point joining a guild if I at least don’t like 1 person in it.

I dunno what you expect, but to me it sounds like you want a prison to keep your members in, rather than a positive community of players playing together. Sounds like the worst guild to be in.

To the first paragraph: How can I know the people before joining?

The second part is wrong. To me it reads like he has problems that people just switch guilds like crazy (as in: represent the one that has currenlty the most shiny to offer). Consider with the current system, there are always FOUR guilds that are not represented. That system is stupid and makes no real sense to me. As if you have 5 girlfriends and you are with one for the evening because she makes good Lasagna. In the night you dance out with another one, and in the morning you switch to girlfriend #4. Do you think the other girlfriends would like this? Of course they want the guy for themselves. Instead of learning how to make Lasagna AND dance, they do not want to work that out. Why if they don’t have to?

If the system would require people to finally decide, the problem would not exist. People would leave by themselves instead of be pseudo-members. People would stay to build up things instead of enjoying the nice guild hall of guild #2, while playing with guys from guild #1 becaus guild #2 has only idiots (in the view of that particular player) in it. Guild #3 does nice dungeon runs, but has no guildhall etc. etc.

You are a small guild; he has a 250+ members one.

People will take the opportunity of cherry picking as long as it’s possible. And that’s what this thread is about. Not the guild leader is to blame, it’s the players that are allowed too much freedom (and I do not see the point in the multi-guild system).

If you’re going to say that all people are able to pick their relation to other players if allowed then I say that’s good. That means players have more freedom to be with the players they want to play with. They can switch between people they like easier without feeling bind to and signed up for life with one guild.

I stuck to my guild for years, and I know it felt cramped at times, and now I can check out other guilds easily, talk to them, be a part of them if I wish to do so. And I did, and I could easily still keep track of both guilds. At some point I stuck wit the one guild while keeping in contact with guilds of good friends of mine.

Similarly, we have members who don’t rep and still feel part of our guild regardless. Our guild is much bigger than the small core group of members. We’re just very laid back about the non-repping part. And that works for us.

For some reason if I see people making a big drama about what other people do in their guild, then that just makes people scare away. If you’re relaxed and respect their decisions you’re going to have a much better time.

It’s just the same in real life if you have two families (your own and your spouse’s) and then your friends (or maybe more than one group even) and maybe then also colleagues to juggle your attention with. And you really don’t want to decide that you can only have one of those groups to be a part of, that doesn’t work.

Representing was only important when it was necessary for Influence and chat. Neither of those are true anymore.

Does a <insert your favorite sports team> fan stop being a fan of that team simply because they aren’t wearing a hat with that team’s logo? Does the member of a union stop being a member unless they walk around carrying a sign announcing their membership to everyone they meet?

Considering how a previous discussion of this topic a month ago had statements about non repping members “spying” on guild chat and about how guild leaders have “lost control,” maybe this type of discussion by guild leaders is more about controlling their members than whether or not players should be able to rep different guilds so they can easily play with different people.

I prefer not to be controlled, thanks. I’ll rep the guilds that interest me most and listen to the chat of all my guilds.

MarkoNS.3261:

i am trying to make a guild that has a strong community of active players that will be invested in our guild,

You can’t force people to be active, you can’t force them to be invested in their guild, and you can’t “make” a strong community by requiring participation. That’s how telecom companies try to retain customers: they force us to sign long-term contracts and penalize us when our situation changes and we need to update our plan.

Instead,

• Figure out what sort of guild you want
• Carefully add people who want that
• Start doing things which build that sort of guild.

If you want to be a guild that helps newbies, then look for people who are already helping newbies. Best source: /map chat; see who is already mentoring.

If you want to be a speed-clearing team, then find folks who are already speed clearing. Best source: LFG tool. You can even “audition” people each time you run a dungeon with only 4 of your guildies.

Regardless of how you start, it’s really, really difficult to maintain a good guild. You need to be on the look out constantly for new blood and ensure that you have plenty of co-leaders or assistants to help keep things organized and running seamless (so the members have no idea what a pain it is).

PS don’t require representation unless that’s fundamental to your guild’s goals; there are only a few situations where that will be true, notably for specialized WvW guilds and even then, mostly during WvW raids.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Considering how a previous discussion of this topic a month ago had statements about non repping members “spying” on guild chat and about how guild leaders have “lost control,” maybe this type of discussion by guild leaders is more about controlling their members than whether or not players should be able to rep different guilds so they can easily play with different people.

I prefer not to be controlled, thanks. I’ll rep the guilds that interest me most and listen to the chat of all my guilds.

Outrage is also great for people who do not like to be controlled.

What does repping buy the guild post HoT? Repping gives the player access to GH services and bonuses but right now it’s favor from doing guild missions and material support for upgrades are what’s important to the guild. Or am I missing something?

Nope. That’s pretty much the most important these days. Its definitely possible to help out more than one guild much easier with materials and doing guild missions.

My guild you get benefits for consistently repping. That’s imo better than forcing people to rep. And for the first time in my mmo gaming I actually want to rep the guild, with or without benefits.

Don’t know how many guilds I’ve been in through the years , but this the first that is actually social, no matter what was advertised. An inherent issue is that everyone can try to build a guild , but few will succeed. It’s hard to keep a guild interested. It requires alot of effort and an instinct for what people are looking for I think. When in doubt go with activities that play to peoples greed. Seems to work pretty well.

I also think that with HoT, Anet started catering more to established guilds rather than startup. People had way to many mats in inventory and they needed ways to dump alot of it ( and would you feel more comfortable dumping mats into an established guild or a risky startup). Side effect of this was that previously rich guilds leveled quicker and became more attractive

p.s I was a gleader for a time and failed miserably. It’s not for everyone.

Well, here is how I roll, I’ll let you guild leaders sort this.

I have a guild I am in For PvP, another for PvE, and another for WvW. When I am in that game mode, I rep that guild.

I have tried that “Oh we are a PvX Guild” and.. thanks, but, no thanks.

I joined a WvW guild, because I know everyone in that guild likes WvW, I know guild chat is going to be about WvW, and if I need advice on WvW stuff, I know I can turn them for insight, as ALL of them are involved in WvW, and while they all might also like to do other things, they all enjoy WvW.

Same hold true for my sPvP guild, I know everyone in that guild likes themselves some sPvP. While they may all like and do other things, everyone of them, enjoys sPvP. If I need insight on sPvP, those are the lovable crazies I turn to.

Same with my PvE guild, yah, they may all do some WvW, or sPvP, or whatever, but everyone of them likes PvE, so when I have questions about PvE, whatever it may be, those are the people I depend to provide.

With the ability to read all the chat, it’s pretty easy see who is saying what, and chat back and forth among them, to see what is going on, one way or another.

Now, if any one of them demanded that I leave my other guilds… that would be awkward, and it’s not because I don’t love those loons, but it’s simple that each of those guilds fills a position in my game life that none of them could really fill totally.

Now, if you are a guild leader reading that, take that into consideration, if they are not representing your guild, it’s up to you to find out why before you make any demands.

And yes, in the end, it comes down to what you provide, as a guild leader, you need to really ask, what does your guild offer the people that join it, what do you a leader provide, what do your officers provide?

Do you have Guild Missions? Do you lead them?
Do you Lead a Raid Night with your Guild?
Do you teach Jumping Puzzles?
Do you run Daily Fractals with your Guild?
Do you do WvW? Do you Command?
Do you have Legendary Workshops?

You see, you need to have something someone wants for them to want to be a part of what you have.

In my case, each guild I am in, is very involved in their specific game mode, so I feel inspired to do that game mode with them.

Behellagh.1468:

What does repping buy the guild post HoT? Repping gives the player access to GH services and bonuses but right now it’s favor from doing guild missions and material support for upgrades are what’s important to the guild. Or am I missing something?

I think it’s more about repping for longer periods, compared to repping here and there. For example, before HoT, the guild you repped would get influence for the events you do, the PvP kills you do etc as long as you repped for that guild.

Now, you only have to rep for a few minutes at the most for the services you’re pointing out, meaning you can equally help more than one guild each day now.

leftyboy.9358:

My guild you get benefits for consistently repping. That’s imo better than forcing people to rep. And for the first time in my mmo gaming I actually want to rep the guild, with or without benefits.

Don’t know how many guilds I’ve been in through the years , but this the first that is actually social, no matter what was advertised. An inherent issue is that everyone can try to build a guild , but few will succeed. It’s hard to keep a guild interested. It requires alot of effort and an instinct for what people are looking for I think. When in doubt go with activities that play to peoples greed. Seems to work pretty well.

I also think that with HoT, Anet started catering more to established guilds rather than startup. People had way to many mats in inventory and they needed ways to dump alot of it ( and would you feel more comfortable dumping mats into an established guild or a risky startup). Side effect of this was that previously rich guilds leveled quicker and became more attractive

p.s I was a gleader for a time and failed miserably. It’s not for everyone.

How strange. We must have played different games. In all my traditional mmorpg (most are pvpish), every guild I am part of either as member or as vice leader or as leader, we are solid in social and really united compare to many guilds out there, to the point that even other guilds recognize that.

But when I come to this game, other than during launch, at this stage of the game, after 3 long years, most people I’ve encounter now are pretty much so casual to the point that they don’t interact or not social or don’t participate or don’t contribute or some are rather demanding (without contributions) or simply being a leech. Basically, a random useless name on the roster. Maybe is the timezone.

A few things i’ve noticed over the years of playing Gw2 and Guilds..

5 guilds access is bad (this is a core GW2 mechanic that never should have been added), my reasons are a player can never really give 5 guilds their full attention.. 2 maybe if you can multitask well but 5 no way.. poor mechanics which ruin the attendance of 3-4 other guilds..

As i said above a few things that make a happy guild..

Chat (make sure everyone enjoys each others company and allow freedom to be friendly in chat) nothing kills a guild in seconds when a chatty player gets told off for being friendly.. Dead chat = dead guilds

Aholes, if you have trolls in your guild remove them asap, they are actually pushing you guildies away or into silence..

Sharing, be friendly to newbs even if you don’t know them and have potential thefts (it happens) nothing helps a guild more than everyone sharing their stuff to each other, Dyes, cheap minipets, low armors and materials all make great impressions on newbs..

Our guild has friendly dye giveaways.. and fluffy backpack giveaways.

Guild hall mechanics, really as it stands guild halls are a huge gold sink for nothing (this again is a GW2 mechanic issue) they need to give players a reason to go to guild halls.. I have in previous threads popped ideas about farms where guilds can grow nodes of different tiers where players can farm them and help create them as a group..

Help all guildies, do not have your Raid groups and Fractals groups that ignore the rest of the content, help in pve help in pvp wvw… if new players get ignored they leave.. or stop repping.

Languages try to keep everyone in the same language (if possible)..

Voice chat is BAD…
Most of the guilds players do not or can’t use voice chats, these make the core voice users of the guild ignore chat and that turns into dead chat.. I understand voice chat is awesome for some but it can cause dramas to people who don’t use it or have no clue its there, no one chatting in guild is again dead guild..

Try to keep voice chat to team stuff like dungeons raids and fractals, pvp etc..

I hope this helps someone.. I know a lot is basic but common sense isn’t so common.

Dante.1508:

5 guilds access is bad..my reasons are a player can never really give 5 guilds their full attention..

You don’t need to give guilds your full attention. Guild chat shows up all guilds. If one guild is busy soloing stuff and just making casual conversation and another suddenly announces a TT run or an AB farm or whatever.. you see all that and can do all things. Why would you need to give anything in this game your full attention?

Dante.1508:

Chat

My main guild keeps it PG-13. That annoys some people but suits me, you will be told to keep it down when it gets out of hand. If all you had was one guild you could never let off steam in, you might take offence. With 5 guilds you can go be offensive (or funny.. ymmv) in the grown-up one, doesn’t matter if one guild is quiet when you have a chat channel you can see ALL your guilds in. This is another vote for multiple guilds.

Dante.1508:

Sharing

There can’t be thefts if you set your bank up properly. My main guild is set so that you can deposit and then you have to ask a higher level to remove it for you. We have a “you can have anything you can see” tab and a “for scribes” tab and a “for guild rewards” tab. Guild rewards are for guild fun events like hide and seek, quizzes, lottery etc. I’m also impressed when I see some of the stuff in there, it does go a long way to setting the tone of a guild.

Dante.1508:

Guild hall mechanics

You do know you can have nodes in your guild hall, right? We have several in my main guild. We also have a tavern offering free buffs and the scribe table acts as a bank and the various NPCs offer other stuff you can take advantage of.

Dante.1508:

Help

The point here isn’t to keep everyone happy. That doesn’t do you any favours. You are a guild, you exist. People will join because you advertised and stay because you turn out to be what they wanted. If they want to leave.. let them. My main has a website which clearly sets out what we offer and when in terms of guild missions and raiding (training and clearing). If someone wants to spend a week not talking doing achievements.. let them. If they spend a week PvP’ing in another guild, so what. You don’t need to involve them in everything, the guild life will carry on around them and they can join in when they want to or leave to PvP full time.

Dante.1508:

Voice chat is BAD…

I doubt guilds are using voice chat outside of organised activity. One or two people might be but generally guilds offer voice chat for raids/missions/etc and guild chat is a typed activity.

General Health.9678:

Dante.1508:

5 guilds access is bad..my reasons are a player can never really give 5 guilds their full attention..

You don’t need to give guilds your full attention. Guild chat shows up all guilds. If one guild is busy soloing stuff and just making casual conversation and another suddenly announces a TT run or an AB farm or whatever.. you see all that and can do all things. Why would you need to give anything in this game your full attention?

Dante.1508:

Chat

My main guild keeps it PG-13. That annoys some people but suits me, you will be told to keep it down when it gets out of hand. If all you had was one guild you could never let off steam in, you might take offence. With 5 guilds you can go be offensive (or funny.. ymmv) in the grown-up one, doesn’t matter if one guild is quiet when you have a chat channel you can see ALL your guilds in. This is another vote for multiple guilds.

Dante.1508:

Sharing

There can’t be thefts if you set your bank up properly. My main guild is set so that you can deposit and then you have to ask a higher level to remove it for you. We have a “you can have anything you can see” tab and a “for scribes” tab and a “for guild rewards” tab. Guild rewards are for guild fun events like hide and seek, quizzes, lottery etc. I’m also impressed when I see some of the stuff in there, it does go a long way to setting the tone of a guild.

Dante.1508:

Guild hall mechanics

You do know you can have nodes in your guild hall, right? We have several in my main guild. We also have a tavern offering free buffs and the scribe table acts as a bank and the various NPCs offer other stuff you can take advantage of.

Dante.1508:

Help

The point here isn’t to keep everyone happy. That doesn’t do you any favours. You are a guild, you exist. People will join because you advertised and stay because you turn out to be what they wanted. If they want to leave.. let them. My main has a website which clearly sets out what we offer and when in terms of guild missions and raiding (training and clearing). If someone wants to spend a week not talking doing achievements.. let them. If they spend a week PvP’ing in another guild, so what. You don’t need to involve them in everything, the guild life will carry on around them and they can join in when they want to or leave to PvP full time.

Dante.1508:

Voice chat is BAD…

I doubt guilds are using voice chat outside of organised activity. One or two people might be but generally guilds offer voice chat for raids/missions/etc and guild chat is a typed activity.

Yes sure your opinion vs mine, cool..

All the guilds i’ve joined 80% of what i’ve stated there doesn’t happen.. You use the guild bank as hoard, thats fine..

I know nodes are in the Guild hall but it adds zero to do as a guild.. Arenas, very few likes PvP.. Portals big deal.. npcs in guilds whats the point when lions arch and Divinity have the same..

Guild events punish more than they help guilds.. don’t even give rewards anymore so why do them..

Voice chat has very much been an issue in multiple guilds i’ve joined, the core leaders use it daily, never chat in guild chat and ignore their guildies typing, guildies give up and move on, then Guild leaders wonder why no one stays in their guild.

Sharing is caring.. helping is paramount.. You want a functioning guild you need both.

Many guild leaders never even login, for weeks..

Guild events give rewards.. you get commendations you can spend.

You only need to join 1 good one, do your homework instead of just joining random, awful guilds.

Depends what kind of guild you’re in. Also guild events give 70 to 80 silver and two rares and 1 to 2 commendations. Which is pretty nice considering how effortless they can be done.

Guild is just a guild title.

Also, as my experience told me so far all those “100% represent” guild proved to be such a waste of my precious gold with people turning around their own circles. So yeah, if you want to people to stick to your guild – work with them, there is nothing wrong with the system itself if people just secretly don’t like the guild where very few know what’s going (let’s face it, many people don’t like saying things straight thanks to mentality of avoiding problems and drama). Hell, even if they brought the guild system like you suggest people would just eventually leave for a better place, the way it is now kinda allows players to tell you “well, I don’t think it worked out pretty well, but at least I don’t completely leave your guild hoping for a better future and things to change”.
IMHO

I’ve read the OP’s post and I think I may understand the main cause of the problem.

General Health.9678:

My main guild is set so that you can deposit and then you have to ask a higher level to remove it for you. We have a “you can have anything you can see” tab and a “for scribes” tab and a “for guild rewards” tab. Guild rewards are for guild fun events like hide and seek, quizzes, lottery etc. I’m also impressed when I see some of the stuff in there, it does go a long way to setting the tone of a guild.

Now showing this post to one of my officers who crammed 11 Impalers in the raffle tab because ’It’s been a while since we had any in there’… At least it wasn’t clam cakes this time.

The voice chat issues only arise if you have a leadership that totally ignores guild chat. In my main guild, all 3 leaders and both co-leaders use voice chat on a daily basis. Sometimes to chill, sometimes to do content, sometimes to do organised content. None of us ignore guild chat without being in raids/ranked, in which case someone else is on keeping an eye on guild chat. Members help each other out too as they’re aware that’s what we’re looking for in members and that ranks are tied to helpfulness as well as any positive attributes you might have. So yeah, I guess we have the social aspect of TS there with it only being required for raids/missions to listen in on what we’re doing when it gets too sticky to type, especially if you’re a new player. I see that as beneficial for both sides.

My guild’s been around for almost 11 years total, we’ve had our ups and downs, but it’s how you learn and adapt that makes a guild last. A lot of it is down to leadership, but the more you want your guild to succeed, the more work you need to put into it. It’s perfectly possible without any rep requirement, although I’m sad they’ve made repping do so little now in comparison. On the other hand, it’s taken pressure off people to stay in guilds they weren’t 100% happy with.

General Health.9678:

You only need to join 1 good one, do your homework instead of just joining random, awful guilds.

Amen. Don’t forget you can even check on the guilds you see recruiting in map chat with Google if they have a site like they claimed in their ad. Just remember that just as not everyone uses these forums, not everyone in a guild necessarily uses their forums either and it could be they’re a lot more active in game than their website might make them appear.

penelopehannibal.8947:

Behellagh.1468:

What does repping buy the guild post HoT? Repping gives the player access to GH services and bonuses but right now it’s favor from doing guild missions and material support for upgrades are what’s important to the guild. Or am I missing something?

I think it’s more about repping for longer periods, compared to repping here and there. For example, before HoT, the guild you repped would get influence for the events you do, the PvP kills you do etc as long as you repped for that guild.

Now, you only have to rep for a few minutes at the most for the services you’re pointing out, meaning you can equally help more than one guild each day now.

That’s what I’m getting at. Before guilds may have demanded 100% rep because influence from the masses was their primary currency for upgrading and buying guild wide bonuses. But now that isn’t a thing anymore. Any guild that demands 100% rep are dinosaurs who don’t accept the new guild paradigm. Members aren’t a resource the guild mines daily any longer. Guilds are resources for their members.

Behellagh.1468:

penelopehannibal.8947:

Behellagh.1468:

What does repping buy the guild post HoT? Repping gives the player access to GH services and bonuses but right now it’s favor from doing guild missions and material support for upgrades are what’s important to the guild. Or am I missing something?

I think it’s more about repping for longer periods, compared to repping here and there. For example, before HoT, the guild you repped would get influence for the events you do, the PvP kills you do etc as long as you repped for that guild.

Now, you only have to rep for a few minutes at the most for the services you’re pointing out, meaning you can equally help more than one guild each day now.

That’s what I’m getting at. Before guilds may have demanded 100% rep because influence from the masses was their primary currency for upgrading and buying guild wide bonuses. But now that isn’t a thing anymore. Any guild that demands 100% rep are dinosaurs who don’t accept the new guild paradigm. Members aren’t a resource the guild mines daily any longer. Guilds are resources for their members.

How rude and narrow minded. My guild had vast amount of influence before we even enforce rep rule, we simply enforce it because of our size to maximize our space. Even before we enforce the rep rule, only a handful of people are not repping and not a single person oppose to it in the meeting. Just because a lot of guilds are doing that for influence, doesn’t mean all the guilds are doing that. Just because a lot of guilds are struggling for certain reasons, doesn’t mean all guilds are. Every single guild out there has different reasons for enforcing their policies. Just because they are not align with your (not referring to you, figure of speech) ideals doesn’t mean they are evil.

Also, regarding the resources part, that is so subjective to debate. A guild is nothing and is equivalent to a empty house, building or structures. Where does all those so-called resources come from? It is from the members. Everything happening in the guild occur in a very simplistic cycle, someone contribute, someone benefit and then contribute, and then benefit and keep on repeating. I guess your first “resource” is referring to influence but not too sure what your second “resource” referring to, that second reminds me of leechers.

I don’t understand what you get out of people repping now.

Before repping was needed to build influence so the guild can purchase upgrades.
Repping before was also the only way to see guild chat.

Now: You can see all of your guild chats regardless of who you’re representing. The guild doesn’t need players to rep to build currency.

If the problem is people now showing up for guild events, then maybe they shouldn’t be in your guild. Guild members SHOULD be repping during scheduled guild events, but if people aren’t showing up then either it’s a problem with the events the guild is putting on or the people in the guild.

There are good reasons to have 100% rep, but none that apply to most guilds.

• As SkyShroud says, guilds nearing max membership need “fair” policies to determine who leaves to make room for others.
• For niche-specific guilds, representation is part of how the guild makes its presence known. A WvW-focused guild can reasonably ask its members to rep while in WvW.

There are a few narrow cases I can think of besides these two main ones and I’m sure there others that I haven’t thought of.

Of course, none of this applies to the vast majority of guilds. For most, there’s no value to 100% rep (neither to the guild nor to the individual members).

The system isn’t broken, you are just recruiting the wrong people and the image upon you pitching your guild on might be not what you are wanting your guild to be. It has to be handled much much differently than it does in other games, you have to be competitive with other guilds and even have high standards for membership.

From what I found being a guild leader, if you are trying to build a community guild where nearly everyone reps almost all the time, it takes a very strict and focused strategy. In my experience over half the ppl that inquire will not fit the bill. You don’t want people on your roster there to mooch upgrades, use u as an alt guild, or as just an extended LFG list. Just because influence is not a thing anymore doesn’t mean rep isnt important to a community guild. It shows people are committed, people that are looking for a main guild won’t have a problem repping. If you are building a community, why even have members if they aren’t committed?

I lead a guild I keep capped at 200 members. I seek out people that will treat us as a main guild, and yes, that means “majority” (not to be confused with 100%) representation, while we strongly incentivise 100% rep. If they can’t they don’t get in, if they don’t after the fact they get kicked. Currently, we have 200 members with about 50-60 online every night. There is hardly ever a situation where more than 5 are not repping, mostly everyone reps.

So how to you go about getting people to commit?

Well first of all you need to get rid of people that are not committed and not repping. Nothing will kill your activity and dedication faster than these people. Think about it from the flip side. You are a new member, you see that the roster of the guild you just entered are filled with people not representing or contributing to the guild. Why should you? Why should anyone if there is no standards for membership? This is an impression that will hurt you more than not having those people there.

Your recruitment should focus on people looking for a community and a main guild. You will want to kind of give people an informal interview. Find out what they are looking for in a guild, get to know them a bit, learn their name. Make sure they understand and accept what you expect from them to be a members of your guild, as well as being able to provide what they are looking. If they do not, or can’t, don’t be afraid to decline entry. When you do recruit them make sure you follow through. Being able to retain members is much much more effective than having a revolving door.

All that being said. It is important for you to have goals that can be reached together. It can really be anything as long as they can be reached as a guild and be celebrated upon when you reach milestones of these goals.

Really, the system isn’t broken. Infact it can be used to your advantage. The multi guild system lets people try you out and have otherwise dedicated members that may have a small interest outside of what you are able to provide. I can’t tell you how many people dedicated to dying guilds I converted that would never tried us if it was a single guild system.