Guild Wars 2

fony.5102:

didn’t they already say they plan to change them to account bound?(yes they did).

Source? I’m not sure how I feel either way on the subject but I’d love to see that source. Because at that point it won’t really matter since they’re doing it anyway.

Waffler.1257:

The GW2 player base isn’t mature enough to handle this idea.

This. I don’t want to have some kid whisper and whine at me because I killed him. I would never go into WvW if every time I killed and executed someone I’d hear “F-g!” or “Noob! You suck! GO OUTSIDE!” or other generic, 12 yr old remarks. I get enough of that in sPvP.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

you don’t get what I am saying. The chances of getting the legendary would be the equivalent of grinding one mob for 3 years.

This is a game you know? To be annoyed at something like this would mean that this isn’t a game to you, but a lifestyle which makes you hardcore. Casuals should be given the chance to get a legendary somehow other than grinding. The small chance I am talking about would be like winning the lottery.

And no, casuals should not be given chances for legendaries – and I only used the terms you used so don’t straw man me. If people are going to put forth the effort for these awesome weapons they deserver to stand out.

I agree, I would quit the game if they did this. And no, it’s not more than a game to me, and no I don’t have my legendary yet. I’m not spending nearly 300g on my precursor. That’s my choice.

hazzar.6509:

I don’t think you understand the word ‘Chance’. A person who has grinded mobs for 3 years will have as much chance to get a legendary then a person who just logged on and killed a single mob. The reason why the people above (and me) are saying it’s a bad idea is because the time and dedication spent making the legendary weapon was not forced upon by a person who walked into an event or killed the mob which took a few minutes.

This. It’s something you work for, not something that you happen to stumble on so you can make bank.

Fun combat not allowed? Not sure if we’re playing the same game. I loved GW1 but there’s give and take with everything and I much prefer this new system to the old.

deborah.2068:

Mkalafut.1273:

deborah.2068:

More or less they will probably handle it the same as most mmos you will level your character to 90 then you will have the same gear you just worked your toon thru only a 90 level tier masterwork rare exotic ascended then legendary

A little punctuation goes a long way. I’m having trouble reading what you posted, but if I’m understanding it correctly I think I agree. It makes no sense and goes against all of the unique features of this game by essentially adding a gear treadmill.

Idono about gear treadmill but usually most expansions new character level new gear for that level character at that level in those same tiers used before welcome to all the other mmos went thru bc wrath cata and now mop is out was hoping not to be in that boat anymore but good word plays in the ama their actually wont be intoducing a new tier just new item level

Once again I’d like to thank you for not using a single punctuation point. It really makes reading your posts easy. I think a lot of GW1 fans were disappointed to see the way loot was handled in Gw2 compared to GW1.

With GW1 expansions (I use the word loosely because it really only had 1 true expansion) all gear remained the same in power over the course of the game. New content? “Ok cool we get some new skins.” Never “Oh nice I get to farm some stronger gear!”

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Surbrus.6942:

Khados.8147:

I look at mounts from a monetization standpoint as another easy way to keep money rolling in for development. I find it mind-boggling that a cash shop game would launch without mount skins, housing items, and combat-wearable wardrobe clothes. Add ’em all. Seems like a gold mine to me, and a fair way to monetize without pay2win.

The thing is, the person at the head of the GW2 cash shop doesn’t understand that the consumer base for GW2 is different than the consumer base for Maple Story. Just because excessive gambling worked for one set of consumers, doesn’t mean that it is going to work for all consumers.

Short answer is that the cash shop isn’t working as it should, is due to incompetence.

Or the short answer is what’s been repeated several times across many many different parts of the forums:

“We’re not adding mounts. Period.”

It’s been almost the second most consistent thing they’ve said so far.

True. But he is right about the Maplestory garbage. That’s what we get for them putting her in charge of GW2 cash shop. Like cool stuff? Like having festive items for holidays? Buy keys and hope you get lucky! And if not, hey! You can always buy more keys!

rolls eyes

Gifts of exploration are account wide. Not to mention legendaries are not bind when picked up. You can make a legendary on any character and stick it in your bank for a different character or even mail it to someone.

deborah.2068:

More or less they will probably handle it the same as most mmos you will level your character to 90 then you will have the same gear you just worked your toon thru only a 90 level tier masterwork rare exotic ascended then legendary

A little punctuation goes a long way. I’m having trouble reading what you posted, but if I’m understanding it correctly I think I agree. It makes no sense and goes against all of the unique features of this game by essentially adding a gear treadmill.

Merthax.5172:

Would I? I have already…with full explanation of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Same with me, my friend. It’s good to see a fellow gamer who isn’t a mindless sheep.

reads thread title…..

Yes.

leaves

Eladriel.7295:

Mkalafut.1273:

Eladriel.7295:

Really? I sure can’t tell it.. Log out of your game and look at the world map and see all the high and full servers. Just about every server is either high pop or full.. I think you got your info wrong or you are wondering around with blinders on. I see lots of players in starting areas and many other areas.. Maybe you are playing at the wrong times. This game isn’t going down hill.

Server population means nothing. I play on a “Full” server and the only place with a living soul is Lion’s Arch and Orr. (bots in Orr and people who want to spam the first boss for cash – that’s all)

I have to disagree.. Server population means everything.. If the game was going down hill the populations would be low if players were leaving.

When nearly the enitre population sits in 1 area in the game, and the rest of the zones are plagued with rangers and bears running around, I would say there is a problem that needs to be addressed.

JERRIX.5390:

Eladriel.7295:

Prinny.4653:

I’ve noticed that the amount of players on higher maps have decreased to the point that anywhere from 50%-90% of points on the maps are constantly contested making it impossible in many cases for a solo player to complete maps. It’s gotten to a point that you are lucky to find 2 players in a group.

Basically since the new content, most higher level players don’t even bother with regular maps anymore. Players are looking at it this way, why do maps with poor drops when you can do other things that net you better items.

Needless to say, higher level maps from 70-80 need to have new content and and better drops added to bring players back to them.

As it stands now, this game is going down hill since newer player that want to complete maps and other things can’t, due to the lack of players to aid in certain areas. It’s going to get to the point where people are just going to give up, and when (not if) that happens, this game will die.

I’m not saying this because I’m low level, on the contrary, I have 3 characters all at level 80 and I have 100% map completion. I just see this as a growing problem that needs to be addressed. I like the game, but I see the player base dropping in these areas everyday.

Really? I sure can’t tell it.. Log out of your game and look at the world map and see all the high and full servers. Just about every server is either high pop or full.. I think you got your info wrong or you are wondering around with blinders on. I see lots of players in starting areas and many other areas.. Maybe you are playing at the wrong times. This game isn’t going down hill.

Zone population, not Server Population. Kthnxbye.

And I agree with the OP, I’ve been trying to level an alt, check out zones i didn’t hit with my other character. World is dead, cannot complete group (champion) events on my own with respawn rates. Its very discouraging.

This. I remember doing group events with champion bosses or large chains (also possibly with a champion as an end boss) early in the game’s life and now I can’t find more than maybe 2 or 3 people in any given map who do anything. Used to be someone called for an event and 20+ people would show up to do it, or at least say in chat that they’re on their way.

Now? You’ll be lucky to see someone trolling you in chat because you asked for a group. And that’s only if anybody’s even there.

Eladriel.7295:

Really? I sure can’t tell it.. Log out of your game and look at the world map and see all the high and full servers. Just about every server is either high pop or full.. I think you got your info wrong or you are wondering around with blinders on. I see lots of players in starting areas and many other areas.. Maybe you are playing at the wrong times. This game isn’t going down hill.

Server population means nothing. I play on a “Full” server and the only place with a living soul is Lion’s Arch and Orr. (bots in Orr and people who want to spam the first boss for cash – that’s all)

khefka.2804:

Mkalafut.1273:

khefka.2804:

Mkalafut.1273:

Way to throw words into my mouth. Not once did I say anything about grind. I said that it’d be another grind – because there are.

What?? That is very contradictory. Sure I’m only quoting a part of your post but I did read it all and words still have meaning.

Sorry, didn’t mean to sound hateful but I’m pretty sure I read that correctly. You explicitly said you are against increasing the level cap, and then said it would be a grind that nobody wants to do. That’s EXACTLY what you said!

I should have been more clear. Leveling is not grindy, but I fear if they go down the route of adding in more levels, more gear tiers, it will become one. The only thing I considered grindy in this game was pre-jug Karma acquisition. And obviously Legendary items but that’s a grind people choose to do – they aren’t forced to (I’m looking at you, increased level cap).

Hm you know what, I didn’t even consider that (more levels = higher stat gear). That’s how it works all the way up until 80, so if they increase cap it would only make sense for them to add gear along the way. Really not sure how I feel about it now myself, what have you done to me??

There’s another thread about that, and how this game is steering towards more traditional (WoW) MMO standards and leaving behind what made GW1 great. By adding more levels, more gear will be added as well – and by the sounds of it, not just better gear, but better gear tiers as well. These are bad things.

Terok.7315:

• Mounts trivialize a major aspect of the WvW death penalty.
• Mounts tend to shrink what would otherwise be considered massive areas.
• Mounts create undesirable latency issues.
• Mounts are unsightly in public/crowded areas.
• Mounts make speed buffs irrelevant.
• Mounts suck.

Also those. Mounts have no place in this game. Not sounding like a fanboy, because trust me I played WoW and Gw1 side-by-side since the launch of both games, but mounts simply have no place in Tyria.

I find it slightly irritating that these threads keep popping up. Please use the search and find the other 1,000,000 threads asking for mounts.

I won’t get my monthly PvP for the simple fact that the mists are dead and anybody solo queuing in tourneys gets rolled. Oh well, least I did my PvE monthly. Thanks for the heads up

Yeah I used to find them all the time in beta (go figure) but to this day I’ve not yet hakitteny drop for me. I have over 100 chests collecting dust in my bags.

Mounts have never been something Anet planned on including. I had the pleasure of talking to a Dev back in GW1 and granted some things have changed since then, they said if mounts are ever implemented they would do them correctly and they would not increase speed – be purely cosmetic.

I suggest if you’re having problems with traveling in WvW make sure people on your server set up waypoints at the camps, towers (etc) that they own so that people can travel easier.

Servanin.5021:

I don’t really see the point – Increasing the level cap will only make all your equipment redundant, and make the new equipment that everybody needs severely inflated.

They don’t need to raise the level cap to add more skills or anything – People already have excess amounts of skill points after having everything and you only get any kind of character progression at all on every 5th level.

On every level inbetween you scale slower than mobs until your next equipment upgrade at which point you are proportionately where you started.

Another good point I didn’t even think of. For those of us who are comfortable with our characters. Level 80, awesome looking gear (cultural, primeval, whatever) who now have to do that all over again (VERTICLE PROGRESSION / GEAR TREADMILL “HELLO ANET?”) this is a huge disappointment.

As I said, I really hope this doesn’t become a trend because one bad move can easily lead to more. And I fear for this game’s longevity, I really do.

Phantasmal.5631:

Until they introduced the Fractal of the Mists and vertical progression with Ascended gear. It’s more like a Fractured community now and no longer revolutionary as it’s copying WoW. Dynamic event zones are ghost towns thanks to everyone being in LA spamming LFG FoTM lvl 10 to 32! Speed runs and experienced players only!!! Way to go!

Well put. As soon as I saw the ascended gear I was like “seriously?”. Now you can’t find people doing anything except fractals. The rest of the world is literally dead.

That would actually be really cool if they did. I get a lot of Salvage kits, trader expresses and that sort of thing, but no I have not seen how they even function yet and I’ve definitely not gotten one from a daily reward.

Snix Spoonman.3871:

I don’t care about ascended gear, or should i say I don’t care about becoming a grind monkey to achieve it.

What I do care about is the future of the game I have waited for a few years for and the impact ascended gear is having on it.
Forget all the arguments about how much of a stat increase there is, the fact is, this is having an impact on other aspects of the game as a whole, whether you personally experiencing now or not, because eventually you will.

The community is fractured and segregated due to it. I haven’t experienced an overflow anywhere other than LA since Lost Shores, unlike getting overflow on a daily basis prior to ascended being introduced in majority of places i went.

I, like some didn’t rush through content in the first week and complete everything then whined about there being nothing to do, which now Anet seem to be appeasing to this playerbase. Meaning I and other casual players face a lot of empty zones, which ok most are soloable, but when you take into consideration that some people cannot even get their “personal story” finished because there is noone around to do the DE’s to get Arah opened, noone around that is interested in Arah it seems, so noone around to get a group going for the story mode.

This is just a small example of the impact occuring, and its hasn’t even been 2 weeks since FotM and ascended was introduced.

So no, I don’t care about ascended gear as such, I care about the detrimental effect its having on aspects of the game and where this may lead in respects to the future success of the game.

I however have faith in Anet (based on the good stuff they did in GW1, but this won’t hold forever), so I am hoping they are aware of the different impacts and will come up with some solution to keep everyone happy.

Well spoken. I agree with you, it does feel like the only players in Anet’s sights are the ones that clear everything the second it comes out and then cry for more. I seriously see people with an ascended item in each of the currently available slots already. People that have completed Fractal level 50 and higher.

They sit in LA all day complaining how there’s nothing to do and that the game sucks and scream for more content or they’re uninstalling. I agree, it’s a huge problem, and I agree most will shrug it off until it comes back later in a way that hurts everybody.

khefka.2804:

Mkalafut.1273:

Way to throw words into my mouth. Not once did I say anything about grind. I said that it’d be another grind – because there are.

What?? That is very contradictory. Sure I’m only quoting a part of your post but I did read it all and words still have meaning.

Sorry, didn’t mean to sound hateful but I’m pretty sure I read that correctly. You explicitly said you are against increasing the level cap, and then said it would be a grind that nobody wants to do. That’s EXACTLY what you said!

I should have been more clear. Leveling is not grindy, but I fear if they go down the route of adding in more levels, more gear tiers, it will become one. The only thing I considered grindy in this game was pre-jug Karma acquisition. And obviously Legendary items but that’s a grind people choose to do – they aren’t forced to (I’m looking at you, increased level cap).

Surbrus.6942:

Arbitrarily increasing the grind to level and gear up is just going to kill people’s plans for making more alts, more builds, and pursuing aesthetics for their existing characters.

The introduction of Ascended gear already killed a lot of people’s spirit and plans for pursuing alts/builds/aesthetics.

What would be the reason for introducing yet more power creep?… other than trying to piss off competitive players and placing more restrictions on people’s self appointed goals (for alts/builds/aesthetics).

There is no subscription fee, therefore there is no reason for needless time sinks in this game. Unless they plan on introducing a subscription fee, or taking on a more P2W model, then I understand why they would need such time sinks.

I agree completely. Someone isn’t doing too well in the thinking dept. over there because they went and f—-ed with something that worked in GW1. Why do they have to add gear and level increases? To appease the “hardcore 1337 xxX420XxxN0Sc0p3Xxx” crowd who go through and clear everything (or hit level cap) day 1 and say “This game sucks there’s no content.”

Honestly, if you want any sort of fun out of this game you need to find yourself a good guild. My server (Full population) is dead on nearly every map. People are already upwards of level 50 on Fractals, no dungeon groups form, Heart of the Mists is a ghost-town.

The whole game just feels empty to me. But really I have what I need with my guild. If you plan on actually taking part in any organized activity that isn’t a Fractal run being formed in LA, you should probably search for a good guild to call home and play with people who share common interests because otherwise this game will not be too much fun for you in its current state.

khefka.2804:

Mkalafut.1273:

It’d just be another grind that nobody wants to do once expansions are released

What is with the term ‘grind’ being thrown out for every single activity in the game? Did you really feel like going through the various zones in the game to level up was a grind? I cannot understand why some players put themselves through activities they don’t find fun in.

Way to throw words into my mouth. Not once did I say anything about grind. I said that it’d be another grind – because there are. Before Fractals you had to grind events to get Obby shards for a legendary. I’m not complaining about the game – or at any aspect of it at all.

I’m simply saying if they keep adding gear tiers it will become a grind and I won’t have any part of it and I know a ton of people who feel the same. We loved GW1 because there was no gear treadmill, no requirement to continuously get new and better gear once you had good stuff.

I love this game and not once have felt like anything I did was a grind (I didn’t farm CoF when the rewards were bugged nor did I event spam in Orr to get Karma – I’m in no hurry for 1mil Karma).

That’s all I’m saying. Please read the entire post, not just Ctrl + f the word “grind” and call me a hater.

Raine.1394:

You don’t care because you don’t understand the issues at hand. There are resources on the net that will bring you up to speed. Google “game design” +"power creep" to get started. Vertical progression, power creep, gear grind, whatever you want to call it will affect, negatively, everyone playing the game.

Also this, and I really do hope they don’t get in the habit of adding more gear tiers for the sake of doing it. Once again, like I said in my previous post, I would be very put off of this game if every time I logged in I felt “well kitten I’m behind in gear, gotta go grind”.

Yeah I was kind of surprised when I heard about another gear tier being added. I get it, I really do, I just hope they don’t go down a road they can’t turn back on. Game is under 3 months old and already we’re getting higher gear tiers.

I just hope we don’t see a trend and having this game turn into a gear grindfest. That’s why I quit WoW – I don’t want to do all that over again in GW2.

I keep doing this, and will keep doing this, but let me point you over to GW1 – they had several rarities:
White: common items without any upgrades or modifiers.
Blue: common items with low-range modifications.
Purple: uncommon items with mid-range upgrades.
Gold: rare items with maximum or near-max improvements.
Green: unique items; with very few exceptions, these have perfect stats and modifiers and they drop from dungeon chests, bosses, or as a special reward.

Each piece of gear at any rarity had a stat plateu. No sword could ever be more than 15-22 damage, for example. But even at the end game stuff in GW1, the best items (in appearance and otherwise) were always rares that you got from dungeons or other feats.

I’d love to go more in-depth on the system that loot had in GW1 but that’d take forever. Basically long story short, all the top end items – be it unique, rare, uncommon, whatever – all had the same stats and allowed for customization (minus uniques) but were always the best you could have.

I will be very put off if they continue adding gear tiers every couple of months and will not be arsed to farm new gear every 3 months. I just won’t bother at that point.

My $0.02

I’m against increasing the level cap. In GW1 you got to max level quickly and got to play all the content – and it was a challenge. Getting level 20 was achieved ~half way through the story, and by the time you were at the end of the story in normal mode you were fighting level 28 bosses with level 24 foes (max level of your group was always 20).

It’d just be another grind that nobody wants to do once expansions are released, and mind you, even in the GW1 expansions the max level stayed the same. With the departure of stand alone games, and more traditional expansions (Eye of the North style) I’m wondering how they’ll handle it considering even in Eye of the North max level remained the same but the game just got harder.

I’d love it if they left max level at 80 and just kept increasing difficulty like they did in GW1, but I won’t be whining if they go another route. Just my 2 cents.

Cinic.6184:

The multi guild system serves more for larger guilds to be able to organize large amounts of players or even mergers of smaller guilds so this way you can have guildies to party with. Restricting it to one guild can limit your gaming experience things such as being a part of an inactive guild or a guild where only the same people group up not leaving much room for participation.

Also your first point really is a bad argument. how cna someone not know who you are when u create and alt? your character has a tag that follows you with what ever guild you have and u can choose to rep your guild right off the bat, where as games such as wow for example your alts would never be displayed to ur current guilds and you would have to whisper for an invite. your other points with members not representing, why would you keep them in your guild anyways if they are not going ot be team players? and your next point with the rude comments once again why would you keep them in your guild or even want to do group events with them if they have a bad attitude. Your multi guild argument seems more of a personal detest for the feature then an actual flaw for the game.

Some things that could work to help keep members loyal is that when they represent their “rank”( some kind of feature that represents individual player activity in a guild) will go up and give access to exclusive guild feature and services, such as discount repairs, discount merchants, heck maybe even an internal guild trader like the black lion which gives the ability for people to sell soulbound items to other guild members. Maybe things such as guild armor, basically custom armor designed by the guild leader and officers and voted upon by guild members and this way it makes the guild more distinctive. As your rank goes up with the guild this allows you to access these, but if you choose rank up with another guild your standing with other guilds will go down since you dont represent your guild.

Not sure if you read the whole thread to this point, and I’m not going to address issues I’ve already gone over, but thank you for your opinion. I feel as though the system is intended for that purpose as well as the “Friend guild, pvp guild, pve guild” aspect.

However that’s not necessarily how it’s used or if it is maybe it’s not used well by all players. In any case, thank you for your reply.

Last month the monthly gave me, on my level 80, 52 copper. The issue isn’t daily gold (as you get what, 3 silver?) it’s monthly gold reward. Or rather, monthly copper reward.

Just wanted to remind people to please stay on topic and not attack each other – that won’t solve a thing. And to those who come in late and accuse me of whining or otherwise, just know that this is, once again, not about my guild specifically or any one guild.

Everything I’ve brought up has either been an issue discussed with other guild leaders, guild members, and ex guild members of my guild among several other guilds doing their own thing.

In the original post I expressed how I felt about it and how I feel that it’s a bad idea and basically making guilds pointless and meaningless (it’s part of it – I also realize there’s little incentive to be in a guild including but not limited to the multi-guild system and lack of activities that really require or encourage guild membership).

The original post also stated that I am looking to hear from people who like the system as well as hate it, but please keep the discussions civil. You know my stance on it – I hate it. But I’d love to see why there are those who enjoy it aside from the typical guild hopper type and aside from the obvious benefit of being in 3 separate guilds for friends, pvp, and pve.

Thank you.

Johnson I really appreciate the time and effort you took into making your post. You pointed out a lot of good things and I appreciate your comment about threads like this potentially causing some good change.

I’m sorry I can’t address every aspect of your post as I’m about to head to bed (Long day, very tired!) but I just wanted to commend you for your feedback and experience on the subject.

I do hope you stay active in this thread and see it develope over time. In less than 24 hours it’s gotten a lot more attention than I thought it would and I’d love to have more discussion with you when I’m not about to fall asleep.

See you all tomorrow, and thanks again to everyone for the feedback and discussion today!

Riel.2160:

first let me correct some people here > guild wars is not named after guild vs guild feature in GW1 but after lore

now I agree with OP I used to be officer raid leader in WoW l2 GW1 SWTOR now for you OP ( you have hard name ^^ ) problem isn’t multi guild system Actually if you are not in guild that is focused on everything this is really great thing

—what can anet do to improve this situation —

1)More guild tools this means > add note system to member list next to achievements and profession add influence points earned for this guild by player

2)Better ranks / rework Banner / Buff system – nerf banners to the ground yep… make them more visual less buff station let people use them for recruitment not for buffs

create guild tree like Lineage 2 got for example member will have access to 5% xp buff but lets say veteran will got previous buff + 5% karma bonus and so on
also limit on how many people can have rank so people will think twice about joining guild with 400 members or leeching buffs from guilds for free…
I know this system can be abused but its better than what we have now

3) More guild activities … Guild vs Guild, city siege by guilds / ally, guild specific dungeons, guild events like if you want 15% bonus karma you need kill this random world boss with at least 5 or so guildies and turn some guild badge for upgrade?

4) guild halls something that start simple but based on how well your guild do with IP / pvp ranking you can expand and add features + guild hall siege mod

let me give example from IP you could buy vendors or decoration from pvp you could build fortification etc …

this would make guild halls great community hubs with something like small version of WvWvW mode.

5) once more more guild specific or guild prestige activies … that makes you care what guild are you in

actually I would pay 60euro just for these features … because for me
mmo = community and that seems to be mostly dead here : /

btw LF EU english guild >.> with both pvp and pve that deserve my IP tho I am only 65 because without guild i somehow lost will to play

I agree. I am hoping Guild Halls make a return and that in the future there are more reasons to be in a guild down the road. More features and activities = more incentive to play together = a good thing.

Although my guild is recruiting, we are US. Sorry!

RaZaC.1963:

I dont know what your guild policy is on invites. But if you have multiple people inviting people in your guild, then not everyone is going to know who you are. The guild i’m in requires to sign-up on our guild offical forums, this allows for everyone who joins to be know by the guild.

I’ve gone over that more than enough times in this thread already and won’t go over it again, sorry. But yes we are the same way and require website registration and getting to know people via the website before they can even get in the guild in the game.

Esya.3427:

Mkalafut.1273:

As soon as Anet updates the guild interface and we can see the inactive members and days since login I’d be more than happy to. I can only enforce the rules so far without kicking someone who may have just logged in on irregular times.

I use server resets for this. When a server restart rolls out all info is wiped from the guild roster and everyone becomes “unknown”. Then after a few weeks you can see who did still not log in and have those removed.

I was not aware of that, thank you.

Toezen, yes, he was kicked instantly. I’ve been doing this almost a decade, something like that doesn’t fly with me, nor will it ever. I’m glad you found a guild you like. We also require representation and have a structure that we expect to be followed and for the most part we have good retention because of it and we aren’t just out there to take people in and lose them a week later.

And Beren, once again yes I kicked him instantly and no I don’t allow people to treat me or other guildies that way. That wasn’t what the thread was about but more of an example of the symptoms the huge problem shows.

Also, who said that I don’t do anything in the guild or do events? We do daily dungeon runs as a guild, we used to do a ton of tPvP (countless gold chests), live stream activities members can partake in as well as other games. We have a guild Minecraft server as well as play Steam games together.

Hell I just gave away 3 copies of Firefall Beta and Dota 2 for guildies to play with me. We do WvW when the queues allow for it, which isn’t often on our server. I’m not sure why you would have been lead to believe otherwise about me. If I was just being lazy and not doing anything I wouldn’t have made a thread about it.

Another point, as I’ve stated multiple times, this isn’t a thread specifically about any single problem for any single guild – it’s a combined effort from experiences I’ve had as well as members and leaders of other guilds.

Zahld.4956:

OP and others, you are the guild leader. It’s time to start culling the inactive members and un-abiding guildies. Make rules and enforce them. Though multi-guilding does sound like it could use some rules and regulations or options like ‘no multi-guilding allowed’ or other thing like that. More development, refining and fine-tuning looks in order.

As soon as Anet updates the guild interface and we can see the inactive members and days since login I’d be more than happy to. I can only enforce the rules so far without kicking someone who may have just logged in on irregular times.

MrsAngelD.6971:

Mkalafut.1273:

MrsAngelD.6971:

It’s a small application in which I ask a few basic questions and they must agree to our code of conduct. But if they can’t be bothered with filling out our application then I probably don’t want them in the guild anyway.

I feel so strongly about the text I quoted. You’d be surprised (or maybe you won’t be.) at the response I get sometimes when I tell people they need to go to a website and fill out a Q/A / Application and read rules before they join.

What? I have to go to a WEBSITE to join your guild? I have to read? I have to apply? Screw that, too much work I’m not looking for a job. <—responses I get.

Oh I’m not surprised at all. I’ve received lot’s of responses like that, but for me the trade off is worth it. The people who have filled out applications have been great and I’ve met a lot of good folks.

Agreed. Delayed gratification > instant. I’d much rather have someone go through the proper protocals and actually show the initial effort than someone who won’t bother taking 5 minutes out of his life to do so.

MrsAngelD.6971:

It’s a small application in which I ask a few basic questions and they must agree to our code of conduct. But if they can’t be bothered with filling out our application then I probably don’t want them in the guild anyway.

I feel so strongly about the text I quoted. You’d be surprised (or maybe you won’t be.) at the response I get sometimes when I tell people they need to go to a website and fill out a Q/A / Application and read rules before they join.

What? I have to go to a WEBSITE to join your guild? I have to read? I have to apply? Screw that, too much work I’m not looking for a job. <—responses I get.

Jorn Wolfgang.3712:

I got to agree with a lot of the talk on here. I am not really a leader or a member becuase of zerg guild recruitment spamming. I miss the camaraderie of previous games but with guilds running wild like this it is just a headache I do not need.
Unlike the casuals I can remember the importants. I do not want to be a member of the faceless horde. I created my own guild of one just so the messages would stop.

EQ – Solemne – Twilight of Gods – Povar – Leader: Blackfists and later Flarin
BF1942 – BrownDirtCowboy – HSDWG – Leader: Bandit
BF1942 – BrownDirtCowboy – status hanger on of clan General Mayhem
BF1942 – CowboyCrash – AOW (Administrators of War – formerly General Mayhem) Leader: Black Otto and Mrs Otto
GW – Jorn Wolfgang – 4 man guild – Leader: Sorrow Dragon
EQ2 – Fantasay – Dirty Deeds – AB – (WoW’s release destroyed us along with a full class restructuring and I no longer remember the importants)
EQ2 – Fantasay Tanica – Exiles of Lowca – Crushbone – Leader: Rexornal then Whyllo
AOC – Laerith – Kings Guard (Game imploded and I no longer remember the importants)
SWTOR – Deekan – Exiles of Lowca (under another name) Leader: Rexornal until F2P and no one caring killed us
GW2 – Bebe Le Strange – Dead Man Floating – Me, myself and I

I still remember the majority of the people I played with in the games above. But in all those guilds/clans I either applied or was referred by a member. We may not have been the biggest but those people had my respect and friendship. I just do not feel that call in recruiting messages I see now. I can less care about the perks to be honest.

I agree with you and thank you for sharing your experiences. As far as I’m conerned I’m like you – I’d rather have a small guild of friends who actually do something than lead a horde of nameless faceless peons that never do anything together.

MrsAngelD.6971:

Mkalafut.1273:

ZoiN.4280:

I made a smilar thread quite about a month ago or so – Being a guild leader my self as well I found it extremely frustrating seeing people not representing as it doesnt really contribute to the guild you are trying to hold together with as much effort as you possibly can dish out, where as even setting up guild events seems to be futile in several ways – and yeah ive tried several times, having to force people onto your guild website to have the otherwise sign up there is extremely ineffecient compared to having an ingame calendar to setup events in, and secondly, actually having people showing up at all, because there’s not really anything they can’t do on their own with just random people anyway, unless ofcourse we are talking dungeons, though these are for 5 man only, and not everyone needs the same items from those dungeons, though that’s an entirely different discussion.

Guild seems extremely pointless at this time, besides the buffs they provide – though I can’t really see why a guy who’s soloing anyway, would want to be part of a small guild, and not just one huge one which has all the upgrades, and could possibly have all the buffs going 24/7 :/

I am going through literally everything you mentioned. Trying to schedule events, trying to enforce representing and website activity. Just seems, as you said, futile in this game so far. I hope things start looking better in your guild beacuse it seems like we share a lot of the same woes.

MrsAngelD.6971:

Sorry I only read the first page of the thread (it’s a lot to read!..lol).

I am a guild leader, My guild currently has 83 members. Of those 83 members myself & my husband are the leaders and we have 5 officers. We didn’t pick our officers lightly. In order to join our guild our members MUST fill out our small application on the website.

Our website is fairly active, I utilize all the tools available through it’s interface including, calender, news(I personally write articles about the events our guild holds), and forums. I’ve also setup a Facebook page, twitter account, and Google + page for our guild. My officers have each picked one activity a month which they organize and run, we have a monthly screenshot contest in which our members have a chance to win 1 gold, 50 silver or 25 silver. One Saturday a month one of the officers has a trivia contest with prizes, on another Saturday another officer organized a jumping puzzle race with prizes(even a prize just for showing up), and on even another Saturday we do a type of scavenger hunt with prizes where we pick one area of the game and the officers hide and give clues to their locations and must be found, whoever finds and officer wins a chance to pick 3 items from the guild stash portion of our guild bank. We also just started doing an official WvW night which is coordinated with another guild in our alliance it was a great success and for the first time since launch our mumble server had 29 people logged in and what a great time we had. My guild is active, fun and friendly.

I am not against multi-guilding in fact a good portion of my members are also members of other guilds. That being said I think it’s really up to the leadership to make the guild a place members want to be an participate in. Your title comes with more than just a title it’s you taking on the responsibility of making sure that all your members have a good time and enjoy their experience in game.

I personally started my guild with the attitude that I want to make friends, and by that I don’t mean just some people who share a guild name with me, I mean making lasting friends with the people I come in contact with. So far since headstart it’s been a great experience.

I quoted my own post to maybe give you some ideas on better ways to get your guildies active & attentive.

Thanks. We’ve been fine for almost 10 years now and it’s not so much a matter of not having active or attentive members, it’s just the steady amount of gaining and losing members is mostly the problem with my specific case.

What I meant in my response to the other user was that I see that day in and day out – for a while in my own guild and to this day in others. It’s really unfortunate and couple that with the fact that for some reason everyone wants to be in a zerg guild, it could get bad for some.

ZoiN.4280:

I made a smilar thread quite about a month ago or so – Being a guild leader my self as well I found it extremely frustrating seeing people not representing as it doesnt really contribute to the guild you are trying to hold together with as much effort as you possibly can dish out, where as even setting up guild events seems to be futile in several ways – and yeah ive tried several times, having to force people onto your guild website to have the otherwise sign up there is extremely ineffecient compared to having an ingame calendar to setup events in, and secondly, actually having people showing up at all, because there’s not really anything they can’t do on their own with just random people anyway, unless ofcourse we are talking dungeons, though these are for 5 man only, and not everyone needs the same items from those dungeons, though that’s an entirely different discussion.

Guild seems extremely pointless at this time, besides the buffs they provide – though I can’t really see why a guy who’s soloing anyway, would want to be part of a small guild, and not just one huge one which has all the upgrades, and could possibly have all the buffs going 24/7 :/

I am going through literally everything you mentioned. Trying to schedule events, trying to enforce representing and website activity. Just seems, as you said, futile in this game so far. I hope things start looking better in your guild beacuse it seems like we share a lot of the same woes.

Even if they made it cost a small fee (10c – I feel that’s equal to 10g from GW1) to acquire a costume or something on another character that’d still be better than keeping it all in the bank taking up space.

Rukia.4802:

I’ve been in the same guild for months, still don’t know who the leader is lmao.

Thank you for that post. You’re exactly what we’ve been talking about. And the fact that you “lmao” just shows how a ton of other players with a similar mind set think as well.

Jezath.7395:

Mkalafut I have to say I fully and whole heartedly agree with you absolutley 100~% .
I have gotten extremley frustrated with this aspect of the game also, i agree that the issues are inherant in the design. IE the way it stands at the moment encourages you to play selfishly whereas guild are concerned.

I was 2nd in charge of a guild on an EU server and we were at about 280 members with maybe 30-40 active on a weekend night. Every single day I would be rolling down thru the roster whispering guild members about the requirements of the guild membership being that they must represent and must sign up to the website.

It was hell…. Ive never had an issue like this in any guild ive ran since the early 90’s in asherons call. Never… That to me says that this system is not working as intended or is just not a good system. Its ok i mean they cant do everything perfect but they should remove this imho.

I also would get rude replys with people saying hell i dont care stop bothering me etc etc. These people i kicked from the guild immediatley as It was stated plainly in the guild rules and also it shows a massive lack of commitment in my eyes to the guild if you just cant be ~~~~ed to represent or sign up to website.

You see a guild to me is a community that you become a part of and then that community helps you expand your game beyond what has been designed content wise.. For instance guild run events.. For myself in most mmo I have played I have only stayed because of the community and because of the fun times I have within my guild. It extends the lifespan of a game for me by years sometimes. This is not happening in guild wars and I have also been very worried about it.

People dont seem to care anymore about the guildmembers, guild chat, or anything guild related unless they are asking you to put a boost on or a banner up… I have recently left the guild I was in 2nd command of due to the fact that players just were not respecting the time and dedication that I had put into the guild. This system is extremley shallow and something really must be done…

Either implement something along the lines of meeting an influence threshold before you gain boons or can use banners. Or maybe a penatly for leaving and joining another guild perhaps with no buffs or boons on that charcter then for a week at least. I’m just bandying round ideas here that may solve this issue or at least work towards resolving it.. hmmm.. It really is a hard one to solve and i think the only reasonable thing to do would be to place a limit of maybe 3 guilds for starters, implement a /who for guilds, Implement ingame advertisaing for guilds, Add the ability for custom channels and put a timer on representing once you stand down. For instance if you stand down from a guild then you have a 24 hour timer before you can represent again. Unless you are of a certain rank in the guilds mentioned. the guild leader can then tick that box on whateveer ranks he wants to safegaurd in a way his community that he has worked so hard to create.

As has been said previously It doesent matter if you state at the beggining that you require this and require that because it seems that these young people nowadays will just lie there way in and not bother with representing or attending guild events or signing up to website etc etc etc etc..

Failing those ideas just get rid of it :P

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Thank you for your post, and I agree it is really frustrating. It seems that you and I share common woes that are caused by the lack of giving a kitten by the majority of the players today.

Hycinthus.6483:

After reading the other pages, I think the quickest and short term solution that the OP can do and within his control is to better vet the recruiting process. The OP cannot control that GW2 has few activities that require a guild to be successful run, none of us can change that overnight. But perhaps be very clear about the your requirements during recruitment. Have the applicants submit applications from your website, and have them answer a Yes/No questions “Are you willing to represent?”, and in turn, what benefits can you offer, etc.

I know that you probably are doing this already, but in the end, you can’t control the Human Element that will eventually arise again. People will hop, people will quit, people will move on. Unfortunately, by making your recruitment process strict, you run the risk of losing quality members to the mega, giga corporation guilds who are chomping up every other person out there.

Scroll up a little bit on this page (page 4) and you will see my process of quality control. I’ve explained it a few times but I figured the most recent post should explain a bit. I’m not a lazy recruiter and I don’t just coast by and let the guild run itself, I’m an active part of it.

I agree though 100% with your last part. The zerg guilds that already take in everybody don’t care whether or not everyone represents because they usually have 70+ online at any given time. I joined a 500 member guild for research purposes (I was invited in WvW so I figured I’d see it) and I found that despite the full roster, nearly 10% represents at any given time. The rest aren’t all even on the same server.

However because of their recruitment methods and lack of requirements or standards, they continue to grow.

Nay of the Ether.8913:

As a guild leader for nearly 10 years myself I can say I don’t like the multi-guild system for the sole point you mentioned, people will spread themselves so thin they forget which guild is which and are just floating in the etherverse, sucking up resources freely with no contribution being put back in. But my philosophy is, if you’re gonna be in my guild and hardly ever represent it, don’t expect to move up in rank, ever, and don’t expect any special privelages including bank access, banners dropped when you want them, ect. If they wanna be in my guild to just hang out and have people to occasionally party with when their 600+ member guild is ignoring them, thats fine I have no problem with that. My point is, guilds need to be stricter with permissions and that would encourage more loyalty to a single guild. But its not gonna happen, and people aren’t gonna stop floating around the guilds with no anchor. But one thing you can’t forget is: more people will always come, and not all will be floaters or leavers. We’re coming up on 150 members now with about 75 logging in most days but out of those 75, only about 25 are loyal to the guild consistently and that’s ok. The loyal base grows bigger slowly over time. Eventually those floaters will notice the same names always on in your guild and hang around more and more and eventually set roots in your guild. You know the old addage: can lead a horse to water but not make him drink? Kinda the same thing here, they’ll drink when they’re ready and yes people may leave over it too, but more will come. That’s the burden of being a guild leader, amongst many others.

I can 100% relate to your story here. It’s really a shame that after so long of leading a guild we get something like this and see everything we know and love about running a community crumble before us.

Ender.3814:

My recruitment threads are barely getting any attention, and I hardly ever get a response when I advertise in the game. And then I see these zerg guilds running around with hundreds of members, and they feel the need to grow even more.

I’m all for capitalism, but I’m very much against monopolies. I adore this game, but not as much as I should. Clanning in an online game has become something of a custom for me, as I’ve done it for so long. So either I’m going the way of the dinosaur with my old school, close-knit clan mentality, or it’s the fact that I didn’t start out with a jumbo-sized big mac of a clan, and thus I’ll never reach my goal of 40 members.

That said, the members I do have are extremely close, and we are not members of any other guild. We’re making do with what we have, and perhaps over time we’ll reach that magic number of 40 we yearn for. But I definitely agree with the Op.

It’s kind of amusing. I sort of assumed a game with the title of “Guild Wars” would put an emphasis on having hundreds of guilds competing against each other, rather than a few over-sized guilds eating up all of the potential representatives.

I can’t emphasize what you just said enough. It’s horrifying seeing guilds running around with 100s of members and literally spamming global channels for more members where guilds of people like you (you sound friendly and caring about your guild from what I gathered from your post) struggle to keep even a few.

It’s unfortunate and that’s a good part of the problem here with the multi guilding. The second someone in chat sees “we have 400+ members!” you can bet most new players or typical “I don’t care” players will flock to those,

I don’t believe that it’s gone the way of the dinosaur as I refuse to adapt to a system where community means nothing and people are just numbers rather than names. I’ve seen guilds with member cap, every upgrade, and nearly a million influence recruiting. I just don’t get it.