Guild Wars 2

So it just dawned on me, what if the guild halls require merit to unlock? This presents a huge issue for my guild as the whole premise for us is to be casual and just hang (for the most part). So having to focus on guild missions just to get a hall seems like it’ll cause some unwanted conflict for us. I can certainly imagine our guild failing to obtain recruits or activity if we don’t have a hall.

Is there any chance it’ll be like GW1 where we can just pay gold?

I hope one way to get one is actually using gold, cause lets face it, having gold in a guild Bank is kinda pointless when you almost have nothing to spend it on, unless it was a charity. Maybe a combination of Merits, Influence and Gold could make a great price for a Guild Hall.

You know that you will have to find them in the Maguuma jungle after HoT comes out, don’t you?

Finding them could still require unlocking them, and merits could be a bar to smaller guilds getting halls. I agree with the concern. My own guild, active since launch, has under 100 merits because we’ve gotten too small to do the bounties and frequently couldn’t manage them at our peak. We do have rushes unlocked and even there we can’t get as many as 10 people working on them. I’ve lost track of how long it’s been now, could be we haven’t earned a merit in the past year.

I’m sure we can get to the place where guild halls happen. I’m not sure we can pay for one once there. The blog on guild halls is one I’m most eagerly awaiting! And presumably there will later be a deep dive on the subject, with some real Q&A going on.

Blackmoon.6837:

This presents a huge issue for my guild as the whole premise for us is to be casual and just hang (for the most part).

don’t expect to get it for nothing even if it will be possible to build some basic guild hall with gold, it will be probably quite a lot gold, nothing you could make with hanging out with few guild mates imo

I hope it will be guild progression, it will challenge the guild and give the guild new purpose I really like how guild missions did it and I hope guild halls will be next step, but I’m not against low entry level for small guild to allow them to have a small guild hall

I would want to pay just gold for guild halls. Even if it is too much gold. people will be able to have guild halls even with real money, through gems.
But merits are only obteinable playing, and playing with enough people to surpass the hunter guild mission wall.

So i would request for 1 of this 2 (or both)
a) Guild halls adquisition and progress with gold
b) Guild missions change (first race or puzzle, then the others). As long as Hunter GM is the first one, a lot of small guilds cant advance.

Okay, so you’d rather have guild halls available for cash than through playing? As in, doing what you bought the game for? oO

I understand that smaller guilds might take some time to get the influence or merits or whatever might be needed, but essentially asking for the halls to be available for real money is a little overkill.
Maybe the HoT update will finally introduce “real” alliances, so smaller guilds can band together and earn guild currency that way. It’s certainly possible now, with the people doing the missions representing one of the allied guilds each week in rotation. Maybe try this to get some merits? Though I don’t know how small a guild could be to never successfully complete at the very least the bounty hunt or sprint. Those are some tiny, tiny guilds…

I understand the issue, but there has to be some kind of mechanic or currency that discourages individuals and extremely small groups from building guild halls just for the individual perks. Otherwise, they might as well just call it player housing.

How about this – what if they made building a guild hall a new category of one-time guild missions and tied it into what guilds and members are actually doing in game. After unlocking in the guild menu for a moderate influence fee (which can be bought with gold, remember) and finding the location, guilds get a special mission to clear out enemies (surely the guild hall location will be infested in the jungle) to get the foundation for their guild hall.

After that, weekly missions are made available for guilds to acquire building materials and gain prestigious items/room/features for their hall. This could then be augmented with features that do require varying levels of gold, influence and merits (for guilds that have built those up). This way, any guild putting in the effort gets a guild hall, and guilds can tailor their halls around what they actual do in game. This also ensure active guilds – those that do things together every week – are rewarded for that teamwork.

So, once the actual location is secured, guilds that wvw, pve or pvp will have ways to customize their halls. Guilds that do guild missions for merits can reflect that in the nature of their hall, just as guilds that WvW, do dungeons or PvP can gain hall features unique to those game modes.

Blaeys.3102:

I understand the issue, but there has to be some kind of mechanic or currency that discourages individuals and extremely small groups from building guild halls just for the individual perks.

Why? How does that hurt you?

Also, remember, that there may not be any individual perks – or at least no bigger than those guilds already offer. The biggest draw of guildhalls always was not in the perks, but in providing a social place for guild gatherings.

Yes, some people might use it as an ersatz of player housing. I see no harm in that.

Astralporing.1957:

Blaeys.3102:

I understand the issue, but there has to be some kind of mechanic or currency that discourages individuals and extremely small groups from building guild halls just for the individual perks.

Why? How does that hurt you?
…

The biggest draw of guildhalls always was not in the perks, but in providing a social place for guild gatherings.

If the point of a guild hall is to provide a place for social gatherings, what is the point of a guild hall for an individual player (unless you like talking to yourself)?

Im not against small guild halls – i think it is absolutely something that should be achievable. But there are ways to do it that by rewarding teamwork (even on the small guild scale) and discouraging the fragmentation of the community.

The damage single person guild halls does is subtle, but it is still there. If the cost isn’t carefully considered and the benefits for the single player are too great, then you will end up with 100,000 players splitting from their communities (primarily by splitting from their guild chat channels) to essentially play alone – not because they want to, but because they feel they have to in order to get access to what all the other individuals building one person guild halls are getting.

That is why I proposed the system I did in the post above – it allows for guilds of any size, but still requires at least a minimal level of investment/cooperation.

Blaeys.3102:

If the point of a guild hall is to provide a place for social gatherings, what is the point of a guild hall for an individual player (unless you like talking to yourself)?

None, of course – but it doesn’t hurt anyone either. And people that will try to get one for themselves will generally be people that play alone anyway. On the other hand, restricting guild halls from small guilds is far more likely to cause negative repercussions.

Guild missions and guild merits have already hurt small guilds (and, indirectly, some of the larger guilds as well). I’d rather not see a repeat of that.

Donari.5237:

~Snip~
The blog on guild halls is one I’m most eagerly awaiting! And presumably there will later be a deep dive on the subject, with some real Q&A going on.

Hmm, and here I thought the blog posts where the deep dives, seeing as I don’t expect them to give out any more information than they appear to be doing in the blog posts. More details, but still a lot of questions, which is what I expected…you don’t give out all the details before hand. Just enough to wet peoples appetites.

On topic though, I wouldn’t expect them to need Merits to acquire. Now using Merits to upgrade your Guild Hall, that I do expect(in addition to influence of course).

This is my concern too. I don’t want a huge, fancy palace. A small cottage would be fine for out guild home. But I do fear they will not be available except for the big guys.

The blogs are pretty darn shallow dives imo. My impression from their promises of deep dives was there would be plenty of details and requests for feedback, with that feedback having a real impact on the final shape of the game systems. (Minor irrelevant point, you whet an appetite, as in sharpen it. Not critiquing, just educating, as I love seeing people use language to its fullest ).

I do hope that it won’t take ghastly amounts of merits to get small upgrades. I also hope there will be small upgrades, and many options, to provide enough granularity for real customization. WoW’s garrisons continue to disappoint with their tiny set of building choices, all in the same architectural style, and no player-generated small decorative touches to personalize things.

But all I can do for now is hope, until we get the initial reveal, playtesting, and followup feedback and iterations.

Blaeys.3102:

I understand the issue, but there has to be some kind of mechanic or currency that discourages individuals and extremely small groups from building guild halls just for the individual perks. Otherwise, they might as well just call it player housing.

This was exactly the attitude / issue I had concerns about when the guild hall CDI came up.

This “belief” that a guild has to be some extreme number of people in order to be considered “special enough” to have a place of their own.

To be quite blunt, it’s bullkitten. A guild of 2 is no less a guild than one that has 100.

guild:
“an organization of persons with related interests, goals, etc.”
“an organization, club, or fellowship”

Nothing more, nothing less. Size should play no part here (except in perhaps the amount of time it takes to get things done)

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Blaeys.3102:

I understand the issue, but there has to be some kind of mechanic or currency that discourages individuals and extremely small groups from building guild halls just for the individual perks. Otherwise, they might as well just call it player housing.

To be quite blunt, it’s bullkitten. A guild of 2 is no less a guild than one that has 100.

I dont think you actually read what was posted, but chose to pull out just a small part. The post and the issues regards guilds of one person.

Even the definitions you cite use the plural “persons,” indicating more than a single member.

Once again, I agree that this is a feature that should be available to both small and big guilds, but at what point does a guild hall lose all meaning and just turn into player housing – which would do more to segment the community than it would to offer any sense of community (which is what guilds should be – communities).

This is why my suggestion above does not include using merits to unlock a guild hall. Let’s come up with a suggestions that allows for guilds of all sizes, but that still require some TINY bit of effort and cooperation between players in a guild to get started. If youre advocating they just give these to every single player for no effort, then what is the point of calling them guild halls.

I’m confident my guild will manage well.
We have over 1k Merits and over 1 Million influence.
I kinda hope they introduce a new currency for that stuff. Because going the way to let smaller guilds have smaller fees would be ridiculous. If they are not going for the max. member cap, guildies could just leave, the leader activates the building, and then reinvites. High fees evaded.

So, let’s hope for new currency, like Mursaat Token, Victory Token, Equipment Requistion, Trade Contracts or even Battle Commendation. Although the last would be a bit confusing ;D

But, you see where I want to go ;D

I don’t see what the problem with guild halls becoming player housings is, I doesn’t hurt the community in anyway, does it?

Blaeys.3102:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Blaeys.3102:

I understand the issue, but there has to be some kind of mechanic or currency that discourages individuals and extremely small groups from building guild halls just for the individual perks. Otherwise, they might as well just call it player housing.

To be quite blunt, it’s bullkitten. A guild of 2 is no less a guild than one that has 100.

I dont think you actually read what was posted, but chose to pull out just a small part. The post and the issues regards guilds of one person.

Even the definitions you cite use the plural “persons,” indicating more than a single member.

Once again, I agree that this is a feature that should be available to both small and big guilds, but at what point does a guild hall lose all meaning and just turn into player housing – which would do more to segment the community than it would to offer any sense of community (which is what guilds should be – communities).

This is why my suggestion above does not include using merits to unlock a guild hall. Let’s come up with a suggestions that allows for guilds of all sizes, but that still require some TINY bit of effort and cooperation between players in a guild to get started.

Guild hall… player housing..nomenclature, all it is. It really makes no difference if a person wants to build it alone. Hell, if they succeed that should be a testament to them as a player. This doesn’t relegate halls to meaningless. It’s just one more option for that persons play style. And who knows maybe at some point, he might grow that guild and share it, or maybe he never does. Doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have the same opportunities as a bigger guild.

As for merits…yeah I can agree that I hope they aren’t required to unlock our guild halls, but somehow I just know they’ll play a part. Unfortunately my guild never got to the point of earning any (not that we haven’t tried), so I guess we’re just s.o.l. if that’s the case.

In the guild hall CDI some months ago there was a general consensus that guild halls should be easy to acquire and upgrade basic features. I will be totally disappointed if the progression system doesn’t scale to guild size. Just because you prefer a smaller, more tight knit community for your guild shouldn’t mean you miss out on amenities for longer because you are smaller. I hope ArenaNet takes this into consideration.

Guild halls shouldn’t be a “mine’s bigger than yours” kittening contest. They are instanced and should be for each guild to enjoy. There should game play involved to earn them, but bigger guilds shouldn’t have an advantage. Events scale, why shouldn’t guild hall acquisition scale to guild size as well?

Iason Evan.3806:

In the guild hall CDI some months ago there was a general consensus that guild halls should be easy to acquire and upgrade basic features. I will be totally disappointed if the progression system doesn’t scale to guild size. Just because you prefer a smaller, more tight knit community for your guild shouldn’t mean you miss out on amenities for longer because you are smaller. I hope ArenaNet takes this into consideration.

Guild halls shouldn’t be a “mine’s bigger than yours” kittening contest. They are instanced and should be for each guild to enjoy. There should game play involved to earn them, but bigger guilds shouldn’t have an advantage. Events scale, why shouldn’t guild hall acquisition scale to guild size as well?

+1

Here, have cookies…

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Blaeys.3102:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Blaeys.3102:

I understand the issue, but there has to be some kind of mechanic or currency that discourages individuals and extremely small groups from building guild halls just for the individual perks. Otherwise, they might as well just call it player housing.

To be quite blunt, it’s bullkitten. A guild of 2 is no less a guild than one that has 100.

I dont think you actually read what was posted, but chose to pull out just a small part. The post and the issues regards guilds of one person.

Even the definitions you cite use the plural “persons,” indicating more than a single member.

Once again, I agree that this is a feature that should be available to both small and big guilds, but at what point does a guild hall lose all meaning and just turn into player housing – which would do more to segment the community than it would to offer any sense of community (which is what guilds should be – communities).

This is why my suggestion above does not include using merits to unlock a guild hall. Let’s come up with a suggestions that allows for guilds of all sizes, but that still require some TINY bit of effort and cooperation between players in a guild to get started.

Guild hall… player housing..nomenclature, all it is. It really makes no difference if a person wants to build it alone. Hell, if they succeed that should be a testament to them as a player. This doesn’t relegate halls to meaningless. It’s just one more option for that persons play style. And who knows maybe at some point, he might grow that guild and share it, or maybe he never does. Doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have the same opportunities as a bigger guild.

As for merits…yeah I can agree that I hope they aren’t required to unlock our guild halls, but somehow I just know they’ll play a part. Unfortunately my guild never got to the point of earning any (not that we haven’t tried), so I guess we’re just s.o.l. if that’s the case.

Then they need to put in a mechanic for player housing or for expanding the home instances.

Individual “guilds” arent started by players (most of the time) because they want a guild of one person – they are built because that player wants access to specific features they feel they wouldnt get otherwise. They feel they HAVE TO do this in order to access features they see other individuals get.

The game should encourage players to play together, not apart. If there are things in a guild hall that individuals desire, then Anet needs to put those things into the player’s housing instance – and leave guild halls for the guild communities that players are building.

People keep saying “what will it hurt to allow individuals to build guild halls?” What it hurts is the ability to hang out and communicate with larger groups (even groups as big as 2 people) if that is what you want in the game. Players shouldn’t feel like they have to cut (even temporarily) their primary form of large group communication just to get specific game features (and, invariably, they will feel they have to).

So, if youre asking if every player should have access to the same resources in game – the answer is, of course they should.

What we should be asking is, what unique resources can the game offer to those wanting to build actual communities (of any size)? Community tools and resources should be built with the needs of communities in mind – offering groups of friends something unique. That can, and should, be done without diminishing the importance or the role of the individual.

I would be all for the idea of introducing expanded player housing side by side with the introduction of guild halls, but having to unrep your actual guild to build your personal “guild hall” makes no sense to me.

I think that guild hall will be quite easily obtainable by any guild, but probably some upgrades will be only available by guild merits and that is what will make a guild stand out from other.

Most player who play by themselves do it of their own free will, if they want to get good conversation or player communities they can just join a guild. I like to play by myself and my friends when they get on, which is almost never. We have a guild and I would love a guild hall, but I am the only active member. I don’t want to have to join some fancy guild just to get a guild hall. It doesn’t hurt anything or ruin player communities at all the way I see it.

Belzebu.3912:

I think that guild hall will be quite easily obtainable by any guild, but probably some upgrades will be only available by guild merits and that is what will make a guild stand out from other.

But there is no need to have one guild hall stand out over another guild’s guild hall because the guild halls are instanced. There is no contest to be had in who’s is prettier. It’s instanced so it should be for enjoyment of the members purely. If we had open-world guild halls, I could see that as a way to attract members, but I also feel like guild upgrades were so much easier for larger guilds to acquire and it was based on guild size alone which goes against the whole ethos of GW2. Smaller guilds were punished and are still punished by longer time gates in order to earn upgrades for their guilds. It’s never even been addressed.

Iason Evan.3806:

But there is no need to have one guild hall stand out over another guild’s guild hall because the guild halls are instanced.

I know, I mean some utilities inside the guild hall and maybe even something that you can show outside the GH, like an icon, a different guild tag, a back-piece or something.
Also, in GW1 you could visit the guild hall of others, can’t remember if only players of the same alliance or if invited players can also visit … anyway, “shiny” things is always shiny

I’m in the same boat as the OP. I too have a casual guild where we still try to follow the game’s original tagline of “play how you want”.

Sadly, GW2 is moving farther and farther away from casual play. I barely log on anymore because with each update while I used to be able to log in, play and have fun and be rewarded for it (see old dailies and old trait system), now the game has become a job. I have to run half way across Tyria for one specific event, location, or what have you in order to get the same reward.

I don’t play games that feel like work. =/

I do hope we do not have to use Guild Merits either. We are a very small guild (10 members) that came from GW1. We have never been able to do the guild rushes or any of those events because we are so small. If it requires those, we will not be able to get a guild hall.

Most of the time, we miss each other when we sign in. We all have families and work so it isn’t often we get to play together. Usually influence is gained in small doses or bought by guild members.

I’m not complaining about being small, I really like it. We are a great “family”! I just hope that they do not make Merits a requirement.

I personally would not have a problem with paying real world money for a guild halls threw the gem store guild halls are more or less cosmetic and just adds a convenience to guilds. With that said if guild hall are perchanced with gems then they need to be customizable please no cookie cutter guild hall. Seeing the HoT trailer and the guild hall being built block by block leads me to hope that we get to build them our selves that would be awesome.

i learned a long time ago that GW2 was not a friendly system for small guilds. There just seems to be a feeling that small guilds just have to be happy with whatever they can manage in GW2 and larger guilds will simply get all the perks. No way around that. If that also means guild halls then so be it. Or at least that is the feeling i get being the leader of a small casual guild. Basically do the content or peter out. :/

i really hope they can be gained by simply buying it, i don’t even have anything to get merits because my guild doesn’t focus on PvP (thank Anet for that mistake, forcing PvP crap for PvE stuff)
in GW1 you could just buy a guild sigil and choose your guild hall, no bull crap, simply buy and be done with it.

Back in the CDI, I repeatedly stressed the need for any Guild Hall system to also made to adjust for Player Housing. That way Guild Halls could be more group oriented, and everyone could have their own personal house as well.

I’m sad to see no sign of this happening.

In a guild, only a few select people will be able to make the final calls on any decisions about a Guild Hall. If you’re not one of those few and want to play around with the systems, then you either need personal housing, or a guild hall of your very own. The problem is that while you may be able to build up a guild’s guild hall while also working on your personal housing, you can’t build towards two different guild halls at the same time. (Or so I would assume, given how guilds work.)