I’m so glad I found this thread! I have been bashing my head against the wall in order to stave off a depression caused by having a guild system that actually encourages people to isolate themselves rather than make an effort to join in and be part of a community.
We are only a small guild (92 on the roster but probably only 20 or actively online regularly). So far, the current guild system has worked against us, as we are finding it increasingly difficult to get people to engage with the guild – whether its just looking at chat, reading the Message of the Day, or checking the roster to see who is online. It is such hard work trying to keep things going. It would really help if some of the features that have already been mentioned in this thread could be added or tweaked – all we want is to encourage our members to feel part of a community, engage in guild stuff or at least just take an interest in it, and for communication and information to be easily accessible.
I won’t go into the details, as they’ve already been covered in the various posts above (keep it up guys!). The system could use a lot of improvement, and I appreciate that improvements come with time – but I think that guilds are such an essential part of any MMO that they need to have good, usable features!
At the moment, our most desperate plea is to make the guild system more user friendly and encourage people to interact with it, eg.
1) (Name) log on/off notifications
2) Time player was last online
3) Player notes
4) Notification of achievements of individual players (eg. XYZ has gained 100% world map completion!)
5) Enable guild mass-mailing
6) Fix message of the day so it doesn’t wipe every time you try and change it – and make it more visible (eg. it could pop up when a member logs on, either in chat or on the screen)
7) Look at giving guilds rewards for doing stuff together, eg. completing a dungeon, or an event etc.
8) Guild PvP or WvW rewards or achievements that could be noted or listed on the guild panel, or encouraged
There are lots of other things we’d also like to see implemented, as people have already mentioned above. But for us, at this moment, we need things that will encourage people to take an interest / encourage engagement!
ArenaNet, you have built a wonderful, wonderful world in Tyria, and the game is just stunning. Its got everything an adventurer could want! Please (I’m begging here) could the guild system be looked at and some more time put into improving it – it would make our job as guild officers and leader so much easier, and add a much needed facet of interaction for communities. The game is so absorbing and immersive that without more interactive guild features, small communities like ours will really struggle to get people to engage no matter how hard we try to constantly be lively and have regular events – very ironic but so true!