Guild Wars 2

When I started my first own guild, slowly but steadily recruiting new members, I notice something that I personally think cripples the social aspects of guilds: The Represent button.

If I for example wish to announce something or talk to several people at once via the /guild chat, planning events and such, it’s nearly impossible in a small-sized guild when 80% of the players for one reason or another have their account representing another guild than your own. It’s starting to feel infuriating how void the guild feels when people can just freely communicate with another guild at the same time, muting your own guild’s chat in the process. Me, as a guild leader, feel powerless to such issue which could’ve solved so easily if this system was without.

I personally cannot see the point of guild representation being account-based instead of character-based, since it has worked so well in other MMOs. Why not simply having a choice of being in a guild or not, instead of making a middle-road which tears the guild’s local community apart, especially to small-sized guilds?

What do you guys think?

I have to admit I haven’t experienced problems like this myself because I’m only in 1 guild, but couldn’t you just put announcements you want to make in the message of the day? That way they can see it on the guild panel whether they’re represting or not.

Admittedly some people won’t look at it, but that would be balanced out by the fact that people who aren’t online at the same time as you can read it, whereas if you’re just putting it in guild chat if they’re offline (or just not looking) they’ll never even know there was anything to see.

As for planning events why not whisper the officers, or whoever it is you want to help plan, and ask them to switch to your guild for a bit while you plan it.

As much as there are ways to work around this, I still feel the current guild communication system is still flawed compared to other MMOs. I still want to be able to chat and announce at the same time, to be fully ensured the information gets through. And having to keep whisper each officer all the time when I need to talk to several at the same time is also abit annoying when I might have to step down to /party in order to do so, when they could’ve just made an /officer chat or similiar?

I hate to be one of those guys but… Just look at what World of Warcraft did in this matter.

If people aren’t representing the issue lays closer to home IMHO. I am co-leader of a small guild of about 50 and we have 100% representation. If your guild chat is worth being a part of then they’ll be a part of it. People represent the guilds that help them find groups and provide entertaining discussion.

Instead of looking to anet for your guilds inability to inspire some loyalty you should look at your guild. One free tip: Officers who are too bored with you to represent will never inspire a regular member to stick around.

I’m not saying you should whisper each thing to each person individually.

I’m suggesting you whisper each of them and say “Hey, can you guys switch to our guild for a minute so we can plan <whatever>?” Then when they’re in guild chat you can all talk as normal.

Alternatively you could get a forum. There’s lots of options for completely free ones out there which are incredibly easy to set up. It requires a bit more commitment because people need to go to the site, but if they’re helping you plan guild events I don’t think it’s unrealistic to expect that they would take a couple of minutes out of their day to check a forum.

Kick them

15char

Get rid of multi-guilding and put in GW1 alliance system. And don’t tell us it can’t be done cause of the code.

For a game called GUILD WARS the guild aspect is seriously broken.

Representing multiple guilds is a stupid idea. Whoever thought of that needs to be fired.

1: Everytime a player makes a new character they start out NOT representing, even when only a member of 1 guild. Most players do not know this.

2: Guild rrepresenting is crippling smaller guilds. The same way the guild system in WoW did.

3: Guild message of the day is not a decent source of communication. It does not automatically show when a user logs on. They actually have to check the guild tab to see it.

There is more but it is 4am and i am tired. Overall the guild system is very poorly designed.

@ Flumburken. Dont listen to the trolls. The guild system is broken and very poorly designed. Unfortunately for you and countless others GW2 is a terrible game to start a new guild in. The guild system is bad enough but once you throw in all the bugs, lack of communication from Anet and all the people leaving already due to this horribly broken game, you are fighting a losing battle.

@ Jiverooster. If you are going to insult the OP at least spell properly. MoP is released, now run along child.

I’m a little confused here. You say the multiple guild system plus represent system is crippling smaller guilds, but imagine what would happen if it wasn’t there. All the people who aren’t representing you would leave and you wouldn’t have a guild at all.

There could be mechanics to support this better but the fundamental idea seems sound.

I personally love this new system.
1. Communication:
*personal communication among different groups of friends is so much easier. If you’ve played MMOs for awhile, you’re bound to have friends who are in their own guilds to start with. You can easily check who’s online and pop in to say hi or recruit people to group with
*official communication: very valuable tool for alliances. It really helps the smaller guilds that don’t have officers on 24/7. Say several smaller guilds WvW together. Instead of having to PM officers until you find one that’s on, you can pop into their guild chat and ask hey, anyone want to join us?

2. Represent: Need to be active to have active representation
*Abuse prevention: I’ve been plenty of guild abuse/neglect. Guild leaders that never bother logging on while members are ignored. Guild leaders that aggressively recruit new players and demand donations or membership payments. Because they’re pigeonholed into one guild and never seen anything else. You’d be amazed how long people willing to be taken advantage of.

*Guild leaders now have to actively work to keep the loyalty of their members. Wait wait, you mean I can’t just invite someone, expect them to stay in the guild, and that’s it? Well yes. People will represent you if there are plenty of guild activities and officers/leaders who are willing to help. If your members are not representing you need to ask yourself the below questions:
a) Do you know them? As officers/leaders did you make an effort to group w/ these guildies instead of staying w/ your core group? Do you know their name, take the time to say hi, ask them what they need? If it’s someone you took the time to know, then a conversation about representing will go over much smoother.

b) What’s your policy? Some guild do not allow multi rep. Or if they did, they have a policy to represent that guild for a majority of the time. Exceptions for allies. Otherwise, you kick them. So you have to decide for yourself, do you want to have friends of friends in the guild that aren’t representing but might drop in onceawhile to find groups or say hi? One thing to keep in mind is that your guild numbers are inflated. If not enough people rep, you might need to just invite more people. Just have tougher policies once you hit the members cap.

c) What are you doing to strengthen a guild? Slapping a tag on someone just isn’t enough to cut it in gw2. Do you have guild activities? Guild dungeon groups? WvW events? Hide and seek? Do you have a guild leader that’s sociable? Do you have a vent where you actively invite your members to hangout and chat?

d. Are you building the right guild bonuses that makes your members want that tag? Your members will be much less inclined to switch out if they’re missing out on the 10% MF, 10% gather 10% karma bonuses.

Summary: Running a guild no longer stops at /invite, it needs to function like a guild. Guild functions: active guild leadership, active guild activity, a fun place to hang out.

The guild system in GW2 is awesome. I’m in my friend’s guild, my OTHER friend’s guild, and will join my cousin’s guild if he transfers over to my server like I told him to.

I rep whatever guild i’m running with at the time, bouncing between guilds to find the one with people online.

Love it! Great approach!!

Flumburken.6217:

As much as there are ways to work around this, I still feel the current guild communication system is still flawed compared to other MMOs. I still want to be able to chat and announce at the same time, to be fully ensured the information gets through. And having to keep whisper each officer all the time when I need to talk to several at the same time is also abit annoying when I might have to step down to /party in order to do so, when they could’ve just made an /officer chat or similiar?

I hate to be one of those guys but… Just look at what World of Warcraft did in this matter.

To be honest, as a prior guild leader. Making sure your officers talk to people in your guild about your announcements is the only sure way of getting thru to people. Not everyone pays attention to the chat. It’s just a fact. Often times in guilds I’ve run, I’ve simply had a filter down system, I Talk to my officers, my officers in turn have their group of assigned people to message/talk to. Makes life a lot simpler.

Suggestion: Setup a VOIP mumble. People will be able to join and talk etc. Be much easier communication wise as well. Plus mumble is free… you’ll just need to find a server to host it on. It doesn’t take much bandwidth usage either.