Guild Wars 2

Just started playing the game and I’m sorta wondering what the point of guilds are. Its in the game title, so i figured it’d be kinda important. Anyone wanna give me a summary of what guilds are for plus maybe some lingo?

First of all, Guild wars 1 was made for PvP only and thats why is called guild wars, guilds are bands,group or waht else you want to call it, a guild is a group of ppl who share the same interest or just have friends in it… in GW2 you get some bonuses for beinig in a guild, i.e. when some upgrades are made you got +% karma, magic find loot ecc… + you get guild members who can help you, other players wehn you need help with something you type o guild chat and if is a good guild with good ppl somone will help you xD

rest in pieces

Guilds are a way to manage social contact – having friends online to group or talk with, ways to get questions answered right when you need them, having reliable people to do dungeons with (this is super important).

Examples: I’m in 3 guilds. One is a typical we-play-together guild, where we do jumping puzzles together, run dungeons together, etc. The other (I rep this the most) is a cross-server social guild. The purpose of that guild is to make sure that people always have somewhere and someone to talk to. We have a very lively guild chat so even when soloing I don’t feel alone, and also do a lot of dungeons and things together when people are on the same server. The 3rd guild is for reole-playing, where people get together and act out stories with their characters.

Guilds do give some mechanical benefits – boosts, guild bank. But they’re mostly a social thing to help you find a group of people you want to hang out in Tyria with.

I think I read somewhere that the game title “Guild Wars” has got something to do with the history of Tyria and game background, and have very little to do with the “Guild” system in-game.

The guild wars were a series of wars between three factions or guilds which were going on before the first game started. When the charr invaded the three factions stopped attacking each other and focused on the new threat.

Alfista has it right. Gold star.

The Guild Wars were the conflict between the 3 human factions, Kryta, Orr and Ascalon. Read the lore; it will fill in alot of blanks regarding names, races, locations.

As also said… guilds in GW2 provide social opportunities, boosts. gear access, added storage.
A single person can form a guild.

More specifically what a guild is for varies slightly between guilds.

Some are basically just a group of people to chat to while you’re playing, share spare items with via the bank and occasionally help you out with dungeons or other activities.

Others are still primarily social but more structured, they arrange events for their members or do scheduled dungeon runs and things. One is even arranging a multi-part event with prizes for their entire server.

Then there are ones focused around specific activities, like PVP guilds who are basically tournament teams. Or RP guilds for specific kind of characters.

It’s really up to each guild to decide what they want to do, and how to go about doing it and up to individual players to decide what they want from their guild/s.

Slalom.3174:

Read the lore; it will fill in alot of blanks regarding names, races, locations.

I’m a bit interested in this myself. Where is a good place to do this? I’d rather not read 300 pages of text (unless it’s a really good book) but I could muddle through 20-30 pages of whatever.

I keep coming across places, little oasis or tomb stones or what not. I’ll talk to the NPCs in the area and they’ll give me a brief description of who lies there, but it seems like it’s a nod to people who played GW1 or at least know the lore better, and I’m starting to feel a bit left out (not having played the first game and generally uninformed).

Thanks.

Check the wiki. That has a lot of lore in nice smallish chunks. Start at http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lore for world history, http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline for the first game and just read whatever grabs your interest.

Also, when you run across a tombstone or something interesting just search for it in the wiki. You can type /wiki searchterm in chat and that takes you straight to the wiki.

Gilosean.3805:

Check the wiki. That has a lot of lore in nice smallish chunks. Start at http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lore for world history, http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline for the first game and just read whatever grabs your interest.

Also, when you run across a tombstone or something interesting just search for it in the wiki. You can type /wiki searchterm in chat and that takes you straight to the wiki.

Excellent, thanks!

Guilds are excellent for pursuing WvWvW in an organized fashion: you can coordinate a time and map on which to meet, and set up an audio chat channel (RaidSpeak, Vent, whatever your guild uses.)

Guilds are also very neat for organizing dungeon raids, and for getting map completion.

It gives you a pool of good people for dungeons or personal stories. Makes lfg a thing of the past. Lets you get to know people from all over the world and all types of backgrounds. WvW, guild voice = fun. Dungeons with guildies = fun. DE’s with guildies = fun.

So its social…and practical.

I don’t multi-guild though. Guess I’m too old fashioned for that. Not a big fan of the mechanic, but its a part of this game…so no biggie.

notebene.3190:

Slalom.3174:

Read the lore; it will fill in alot of blanks regarding names, races, locations.

I’m a bit interested in this myself. Where is a good place to do this? I’d rather not read 300 pages of text (unless it’s a really good book) but I could muddle through 20-30 pages of whatever.

One of my favorite sources for Tyria Lore was Wooden Potatoes’ YouTube videos. They are accurate, informative and hilarious.

Here is a link to the lore playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL00553A085339802C

Martin.6378:

First of all, Guild wars 1 was made for PvP only and thats why is called guild wars

I know this isn’t what the topic is about, but Guild Wars 1 wasn’t made for PvP only. There is an absolute ton of PvE content in the first Guild Wars.

Guilds much like factions, clans, etc. from other games are basically social containers that are intended to help facilitate group play. As others have said, the individual guild philosophies vary, but they help bring people with similar interests together. Think of it like joining a club or some kind of special organization such as a football team or the army.

Another link, there’s a small amount of info about the ‘guild wars’ as referred to in GW1.

Stuff to know about guilds in GW2… you join with an account not a character (so all your characters are in any guild you join automatically), you can be in more than one at a time, and choose to represent one of your guilds when you play. Whichever you represent, you earn influence for them while you play and you can access their guild chat.

Guilds are good for finding people to play with, co-ordinating dungeons and WvW and such, making friends… basically making your game more social. Different groups will focus on different things, and you may even like to join multiple for different occasions.

Gilosean.3805:

Guilds are a way to manage social contact – having friends online to group or talk with, ways to get questions answered right when you need them, having reliable people to do dungeons with (this is super important).

Examples: I’m in 3 guilds. One is a typical we-play-together guild, where we do jumping puzzles together, run dungeons together, etc. The other (I rep this the most) is a cross-server social guild. The purpose of that guild is to make sure that people always have somewhere and someone to talk to. We have a very lively guild chat so even when soloing I don’t feel alone, and also do a lot of dungeons and things together when people are on the same server. The 3rd guild is for reole-playing, where people get together and act out stories with their characters.

Guilds do give some mechanical benefits – boosts, guild bank. But they’re mostly a social thing to help you find a group of people you want to hang out in Tyria with.

So is there a good way to discover these types of social guilds. I’m just dipping my toes back into this game and would love a lively guild chat to be part of.

Also seems odd to me that in guildwars (no matter what the provenance of the name) the guild plays such a small and insignificant part.
I’m a member of what I consider to be a good guild and we work together, chat and share ideas and gossip but that plays a far smaller part of the game than similar ‘guild’ chat in any other mmo or mud I’ve played.

I’ve love to see a guild castle instance built into the game, with daily & monthly quests both personal and party to be undertaken to build the castle or something similar with eyecandy builds, boons, and convenience (e.g. choose where to site guild tp bank and sellers) to give some sense of having common objectives and having something to work together towards (lets all see the progress we’re making towards being able to build a guild food buff seller).

Instead atm I earn guild influence, somehow, I’ve no idea how, or where to look to see how much I’ve earned or other members of my guild have earned and have no sense of achieving anything for my guild as I progress. Boons from the guild appear on the guild screen but I dont feel any difference at all from them. As for guild banners well I see others plant them but where I’d get one from … no idea.

I want to be an active guild member but its actually quite hard to work out how to do this other than informally through chat help. As said very odd for a game marketed as guildwars.