Guild Wars 2

This game….besides the title….was NOT developed with guilds in mind. Anet went through many many struggles figuring out a platform/blueprint on how to deliver content, while not submitting to the copy/paste methods of 95% of all MMOs. They did such a good job, that even WoW started copying Anet’s methods of content. This being said, not even loyal PVPers were able to stick around throughout this harsh period of Anet’s history….simply because many aspects of the game werent getting the development/adjustments needed to please the masses. PVP is now finally being perfected and built upon, but guilds havent. Nowadays guilds are just a means of socializing with other players, and to find an easier method of locating things to do. There is no such thing as having one guild. you will be heavily disappointed if you try to dedicate yourself to one guild. There are small and personal guilds, but for the majority of the time, ITS HARD to find ANYONE willing to help you do anything that you want to do. Whether its fractals, WVW, SPVP, dungeons, you name it. Everyone is doing their own thing or doing guild missions. Maybe in the near future developers will try to make guilds a more personal experience, and more relevant. At the moment many other aspects of the game are being worked on right now….the most latest being SPVP.

I don’t agree with most of this, although Guilds do need some basic functionality additions like improved UI, notifications, guild mail etc.

You don’t actually state what you mean by making it more personal or more relevant, nor are there any suggestions to improve the system. What is it precisely you are looking for?

Randulf.7614:

I don’t agree with most of this, although Guilds do need some basic functionality additions like improved UI, notifications, guild mail etc.

You don’t actually state what you mean by making it more personal or more relevant, nor are there any suggestions to improve the system. What is it precisely you are looking for?

Ive seen much disappointment in players towards guilds. I have attempted to join all sorts of guilds and every time i have also been disappointed. I am not looking for anything. This is a post informing players about what guilds mean in this game. Which would be a social network for whatever you would like. Kind of how people talk in map chat, well guilds is just another version of that with minor perks.

I think your thread would be a lot better if you described what other games do different with guilds that addresses what you don’t like, and would also work in this game.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I think your thread would be a lot better if you described what other games do different with guilds that addresses what you don’t like, and would also work in this game.

Other games are more narrow than GW2. Meaning; less options and less things to do so people can usually meet with a common goal more often. We are speaking of a completely different species.

Adry.7512:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I think your thread would be a lot better if you described what other games do different with guilds that addresses what you don’t like, and would also work in this game.

Other games are more narrow than GW2. Meaning; less options and less things to do so people can usually meet with a common goal more often. We are speaking of a completely different species.

Yep.

But your thread still has only vague complaints that you somehow want the devs to fix without you giving any examples.

First you complain that guilds are only a means to socialize. What’s your alternative that would work in this game?

Then
" if you try to dedicate yourself to one guild. There are small and personal guilds, but for the majority of the time, ITS HARD to find ANYONE willing to help you do anything that you want to do. Whether its fractals, WVW, SPVP, dungeons, you name it"
- how about you making sure you volunteer frequently. By volunteering a lot, this increases the chances that others will remember you and help you out when it’s your turn.

“Everyone is doing their own thing or doing guild missions.”
Yep. Happens in an mmo. What would you suggest be done differently? Are you suggesting that people no longer do their own thing but be required to do content as a group?

" Maybe in the near future developers will try to make guilds a more personal experience, and more relevant"
And your suggestion as to exactly how devs do this and how specifically to do this in this game? You must have some idea as to how devs can make guilds more personal and relevant since obviously you’re familiar with other games and can compare and contrast the different types of guilds.

Adry.7512:

Randulf.7614:

I don’t agree with most of this, although Guilds do need some basic functionality additions like improved UI, notifications, guild mail etc.

You don’t actually state what you mean by making it more personal or more relevant, nor are there any suggestions to improve the system. What is it precisely you are looking for?

Ive seen much disappointment in players towards guilds. I have attempted to join all sorts of guilds and every time i have also been disappointed. I am not looking for anything. This is a post informing players about what guilds mean in this game. Which would be a social network for whatever you would like. Kind of how people talk in map chat, well guilds is just another version of that with minor perks.

Guilds are their very essence were always meant to be a social network though. As for minor perks, that doesn’t really make a lot of sense. Guilds offer a great deal of perks for those who want it. Sure, not every Guild is right for every player, but fundamentally they do offer a lot for ppl.

- Make WvW grouping a lot easier
- Guild Missions, which reward both Guild and player
- A customisable Guild Hall, which Guild depending, anyone can chip and help build and design
- Make it easier to find groups for raids and fractals. And for completing objectives. They are fundamental to how many ppl learn new mechanics and solve each new instance or open world boss. It’s Guilds who often take the responsibility to train others in raids and help the community with things like Wurm. I believe it was Guilds who led/commanded the first TEquatl kills.

For every person who complains about Guilds (and the number is quite small), the vast majority are probably just getting on successfully with Guild life. There are always improvements that can be made to Guilds, whether it is better functionality, improved UI or even more Guild Missions, but ultimately you paint a rather bleak picture of Guilds which I find unrecognisable to the reality of what is in this game.

For PvE, it is mainly used as a glorified LFG.

World Event guilds, you could use LFG but people find using guild to group up likemind players are way easier and convenient than using LFG.

Raid Guilds, you could use LFG but people find using guild to filter the players is better than LFG unfiltered spam.

Guild Missions? It is a convenient excuse for people to claim guild still has its use but it also easy for anyone to create a guild missions only guild and open it to everyone to join on ad-hoc basis.

Social. This is the only usage that still has humanity feels in it. Yet, the above 3 outshine this social thingy. Only the minority cares about social while majority is simply convenience and rewards. Even this social thing don’t last long, especially if the guild is only involve in PvE.

For WvW
Honor and glory, camaraderie of long hours, a legit expression of guild pride. Sadly, only in WvW, guilds retain its traditional feels simply duet to nature of the game play.

For PvP
Glorified PvP team of 5 person, sometimes 2 – 3 teams.

SkyShroud.2865:

For PvE, it is mainly used as a glorified LFG.

World Event guilds, you could use LFG but people find using guild to group up likemind players are way easier and convenient than using LFG.

Raid Guilds, you could use LFG but people find using guild to filter the players is better than LFG unfiltered spam.

Guild Missions? It is a convenient excuse for people to claim guild still has its use but it also easy for anyone to create a guild missions only guild and open it to everyone to join on ad-hoc basis.

Social. This is the only usage that still has humanity feels in it. Yet, the above 3 outshine this social thingy. Only the minority cares about social while majority is simply convenience and rewards. Even this social thing don’t last long, especially if the guild is only involve in PvE.

For WvW
Honor and glory, camaraderie of long hours, a legit expression of guild pride. Sadly, only in WvW, guilds retain its traditional feels simply duet to nature of the game play.

For PvP
Glorified PvP team of 5 person, sometimes 2 – 3 teams.

Very good. Personally i retired from PVP a while ago when i became a casual player. In the PVP side of thing, idk how useful guilds are. I will become pvp oriented once i acquired the desired skins.

Adry.7512:

Nowadays guilds are just a means of socializing with other players, and to find an easier method of locating things to do.

What are you talking about? Guilds have always been a social tool. It falls into the category as LFG, map chat, friends/followers. Most of your first paragraph touch on content which isn’t the primary function of the guild system. In fact, with the introduction of guild halls, guilds have actually received some content, and more gets added as decoration are expanded. In the pre-expansion game, guilds were almost non-existant in terms of content, and a purer tool.

Adry.7512:

There is no such thing as having one guild. you will be heavily disappointed if you try to dedicate yourself to one guild.

Why is having just one guild a good thing? You can still dedicate most of your attention to one guild while being part of others.

Adry.7512:

There are small and personal guilds, but for the majority of the time, ITS HARD to find ANYONE willing to help you do anything that you want to do. Whether its fractals, WVW, SPVP, dungeons, you name it. Everyone is doing their own thing or doing guild missions. Maybe in the near future developers will try to make guilds a more personal experience, and more relevant. At the moment many other aspects of the game are being worked on right now….the most latest being SPVP.

That’s a complaint against your guildies, Anet can’t develop to account for that. These people are supposed to be your friends, not be providers of services to fulfill your agenda. That’s a very selfish way to view a friendship. And with most good friendship, it’s a 2-way street… you get what you give.

If I were in your shoes, I’d take a long hard look at myself and ask: Who is the dead weight in this relationship? My guildies or me? If it’s the former, find a guild/players you do get along with (using your ability to join multiple guilds if you don’t want to lose track of your current one). If it’s the latter… well, only you can change that.

Take your complaint about your guild being useless in helping you get your Ad Infinitum collection thread and turn the question around… have you helped any of them when they needed it?

when the game first came out guilds meant something . but after that got changed well

now they mean noting at all other than the fact for some they offer a chat and free

farming nodes at the very best other wise guilds now are useless

I don’t feel there’s any problems with GW2 Guilds that don’t exist elsewhere. Most guilds are pretty much the same in every game. They’re full of random people that interact with each other very little. Each guild will have a small group of friends that group together and then everyone else just exists to take part in whatever perks the guild might have to offer while they largely end up PUGing most content. People frequently come and go and there’s little cohesion and almost never any true leadership.

I’m sure there are rare exceptions but I haven’t been fortunate enough to be a part of any of those. In GW2 I’ve been guildless since launch and there really isn’t that much of a difference since I would end up having to solo content anyways. I wouldn’t blame the game so much as just as I would the people that participate in it (as with any other game).

WARIORSCHARGEING.2637:

when the game first came out guilds meant something . but after that got changed well

now they mean noting at all other than the fact for some they offer a chat and free

farming nodes at the very best other wise guilds now are useless

I disagree; guilds mean just as much now (if not more) than they did at launch. They are tools for organizing groups of people: in good hands, they are easier to utilize; under less skilled management, they aren’t any worse.

I think you’re right that guilds are basically just social groups, but that’s what I like about them. There’s some tools provided to facilitate cooperation (like a shared bank, chat channel, guild roster etc.) and a few pointers towards certain types of content like guild missions and WvW, but mostly it’s left very open so each guild can decide for themselves what they want to do and how they want to function.

To me that’s a very good thing because it means guilds can choose what to specialise in, or not to specialise at all and then players can find a guild that’s right for them. If it was more structured and all guilds had to work a certain way only people who like that would be happy with the system.

I’m currently in two active guilds and even though the main focus for both is simply having people to chat to while playing they’re quite different. If I want to ask for help with a build 1 guild will give me 15 variations on “it doesn’t matter, do whatever you want”, a handful of silly comments and then someone will change the subject to talk about whether ring doughnuts are better than ones with jam in or something. The other guild will give me practical suggestions, but often they’ll be a bit too focused on “Well this is the meta so that’s what you have to do” for my tastes.

I’ll do dungeons with either of them, but I only do guild missions with 1 because the other is a bit too strict and rushed for my tastes (as in you have to do exactly what they say and if you don’t do it quickly enough, oh well, you’ve missed out for this week). I’m planning to join the casual raiding team for one, I wouldn’t have a hope of getting into the team for the other, but I will do PvP with them…and so on.

And this is also why I like being able to be in more than 1 guild. In GW1 I never did find a guild that was perfect for me. In GW2 I don’t need to because I can be in different guilds for different reasons.

There definitely needs to be done more for guilds, making them more relevant than just being means to socialize and farm the GH nodes each day. Seriously, there should be guild-based PvP and more.

In short: I agree with the OP, although I must say it is not true that nobody is helping you — you just need to find a good guild where helping is part of the social experience.

Gee, I thought this would be about the history of the guild wars that happened ages ago and how it should be brought back. Things that would be neat to add would be guild dungeons where you would have a 5, 10 even 15 man guild dungeon where you fight a giant boss or split up and each group fights a mini boss and all have to finish at a certain time. Maybe even add leaderboards for it. Maybe you get this dungeon by leveling up your guild as we do now.
An easier thing would be adding guild events to holiday seasons and such that we have now to get items and such or even opening up mini dungeons (like that Layer of the snowmen dugeon from GW1).

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

WARIORSCHARGEING.2637:

when the game first came out guilds meant something . but after that got changed well

now they mean noting at all other than the fact for some they offer a chat and free

farming nodes at the very best other wise guilds now are useless

I disagree; guilds mean just as much now (if not more) than they did at launch. They are tools for organizing groups of people: in good hands, they are easier to utilize; under less skilled management, they aren’t any worse.

coming from you unlike some that post a lot i can respect that and get it. sigh but

honestly truth be told here .from my point of view i just honestly can not see it at all

and think that is where anet went super wrong on the dungeon concepts fully . and

giving how guilds are now all to me at best the only use for guilds these days if is that

is easy farming nodes found in the guild halls themselves . otherwise guilds are just

plan worthless

WARIORSCHARGEING.2637:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

WARIORSCHARGEING.2637:

when the game first came out guilds meant something . but after that got changed well

now they mean noting at all other than the fact for some they offer a chat and free

farming nodes at the very best other wise guilds now are useless

I disagree; guilds mean just as much now (if not more) than they did at launch. They are tools for organizing groups of people: in good hands, they are easier to utilize; under less skilled management, they aren’t any worse.

coming from you unlike some that post a lot i can respect that and get it. sigh but

honestly truth be told here .from my point of view i just honestly can not see it at all

and think that is where anet went super wrong on the dungeon concepts fully . and

giving how guilds are now all to me at best the only use for guilds these days if is that

is easy farming nodes found in the guild halls themselves . otherwise guilds are just

plan worthless

I’m sorry you haven’t found a good group of people to hang with. I know it makes a huge difference for me, as to how much I enjoy the game.

One thing that seems to be true in every game is that guilds and potential members have trouble finding each other. I haven’t seen any service (or even seen a theoretically one designed) that would address this substantially. Guild Hosting sites try to do it, server-specific forums have tried, some games have tried.

But in the end, no amount of software/mail/forums can handle the fundamental requirement: to find a guild that suits you requires trying a lot of guilds; like dating, only the luckiest among us end up wanting to spend the rest of our (gaming) life with the first one we find.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

WARIORSCHARGEING.2637:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

WARIORSCHARGEING.2637:

when the game first came out guilds meant something . but after that got changed well

now they mean noting at all other than the fact for some they offer a chat and free

farming nodes at the very best other wise guilds now are useless

I disagree; guilds mean just as much now (if not more) than they did at launch. They are tools for organizing groups of people: in good hands, they are easier to utilize; under less skilled management, they aren’t any worse.

coming from you unlike some that post a lot i can respect that and get it. sigh but

honestly truth be told here .from my point of view i just honestly can not see it at all

and think that is where anet went super wrong on the dungeon concepts fully . and

giving how guilds are now all to me at best the only use for guilds these days if is that

is easy farming nodes found in the guild halls themselves . otherwise guilds are just

plan worthless

I’m sorry you haven’t found a good group of people to hang with. I know it makes a huge difference for me, as to how much I enjoy the game.

One thing that seems to be true in every game is that guilds and potential members have trouble finding each other. I haven’t seen any service (or even seen a theoretically one designed) that would address this substantially. Guild Hosting sites try to do it, server-specific forums have tried, some games have tried.

But in the end, no amount of software/mail/forums can handle the fundamental requirement: to find a guild that suits you requires trying a lot of guilds; like dating, only the luckiest among us end up wanting to spend the rest of our (gaming) life with the first one we find.

see Illconceived Was Na this is my whole point all together on this fully ok A. i am not

one to have any one with me at all. unless it is a dungeon or something of that nature

and giving how dungeon and fracs and wvw in this are . well that is out for me . i am

not a wall hacking hugger !! sigh so thus i still do not have the need to have or

be bothered at all with people . as i play pve more like the pve content in Guild Wars.

and not in Guild Wars 2!! B. when it comes to Guild Hosting sites and server-specific

forums and software/mail/forums and voice chats . it make me sound super cold

when i tell you this BUT i got no need of any of that stuff at all and means noting to

me at all even . its just a big waste of time for noting fully . as i play Guild Wars 2 more

like Guild Wars . which for me is good long as i do not have to be forced to deal with

stupid meta events taken over the whole maps and so forth . or be bothered at all

with people fighting these so called world bosses on pve maps which for me is just

another useless thing and messing up the pve maps for me fully forcing me to leave the

said maps .and if i can not do that then i got to stop playing altogether . as the fun for

me is taken out of it with all this meta world boss map junk

I’m glad to see a lot of other players share similar views on the lack of depth in Anet’s Guild system. What honestly worries me the most is that Xpac 2 might NOT have a big focus on expanding guild relevance in the game. The reason being is that Xpac 1 tried this with guild halls….which was a complete failure as it involves a huge money sink. What might happen with xpac 2 is that they will probably fix guild hall issues and add to it, but i doubt any big new thing will be added. I could be wrong.

But, again, what sort of relevance are you after? Until that is laid out, it’s difficult to know how Anet can implement anything of value to those unhappy with the system.

Randulf.7614:

But, again, what sort of relevance are you after? Until that is laid out, it’s difficult to know how Anet can implement anything of value to those unhappy with the system.

Well more implementation into the overall world of Guild Wars 2. Everything I stated is basically its current relevance to the game, which to be honest it isnt much. Therefore, the possibilities are almost endless. There could be more relevance of guilds in WVW, in which the top tier guild that racks the most points has big rewards, and lower tax payments, etc etc. Just an example, because honestly the possibilities are endless since our current system is lacking so much, you can come up with almost anything. Create alliances between servers….or in-server guild alliances. Add options within guilds that allow us to have permanent sub-division teams with a captain and vice-captain (Bleach inspired), which would give more customization to guilds. The leader could assign each team a specialization in certain areas. Honestly I could go on because there is literally no depth in guilds, which allows me to come up with almost any possibilities.

There could be more relevance of guilds in WVW, in which the top tier guild that racks the most points has big rewards, and lower tax payments,

And wouldn’t this sort of thing promote big guilds at the expense of small guilds? Wouldn’t it cause strife in WvW if a guild routinely gets rewarded for being top tier in something and then another guild muscles in on “their territory”? Wouldn’t guilds competing for top tiers lead to a breakdown in communication and cross guild helping if communication and helping means your guild loses the rewards?

I think this type of suggestion is the reason why it’s so hard to find reasons for guilds to have a role. It’s the law of unintended consequences that hit where you don’t expect it to.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

There could be more relevance of guilds in WVW, in which the top tier guild that racks the most points has big rewards, and lower tax payments,

And wouldn’t this sort of thing promote big guilds at the expense of small guilds? Wouldn’t it cause strife in WvW if a guild routinely gets rewarded for being top tier in something and then another guild muscles in on “their territory”? Wouldn’t guilds competing for top tiers lead to a breakdown in communication and cross guild helping if communication and helping means your guild loses the rewards?

I think this type of suggestion is the reason why it’s so hard to find reasons for guilds to have a role. It’s the law of unintended consequences that hit where you don’t expect it to.

I guess I worded that wrong. If a server wins WVW then tax reductions would be applied server-wide.

In GW guilds have served a few main purposes:

Social collective. A place for like minded individuals to meet, chat, hang out, etc.

A place where one can find advice and in game assistance from known individuals.

A place to recruit/organize for group PVE content without all of the hassles of true PUGing.

A place to form/organize PvP groups.

You can do all of that with GW2’s guild system.

i agree on 1 thing. ‘guild wars’ is a very unfitting name.
gvg was the closest thing to ‘guild wars’ but anet saw that as a threat to wvw and pretty much kill it.
now there isnt anything that really justifies the name ‘guild wars’.

I think a big part of the problem is that the last new guild mission content added to the game was on May 28, 2013.

There just isn’t enough organized PVE content for guilds to do together in the game right now – and hasn’t been for a REALLY long time.

Blaeys.3102:

I think a big part of the problem is that the last new guild mission content added to the game was on May 28, 2013.

There just isn’t enough organized PVE content for guilds to do together in the game right now – and hasn’t been for a REALLY long time.

^ I agree entirely.