Roland Daemon

At PAX Prime, we were finally able to get some information about the guilds and how the guild system will work. If you need a refresher, You can watch this video (already set to the short talk about guilds) to get up to speed.

Youtube is being a pain, skip to 28:30 to watch the segment I wanted to show.


Arenanet took the conventional guild setup that most mmo's do and in a sense threw most of it out the window. While there are many similar systems that reminiscence of older games, they seem updated and more flexible than it is restricting.

Arenanet seems like they've gone above and beyond to make a guild system that is open to everyone with this amazing setup... or is it?

Playing MMO's since I was in 5th grade, I can see many, many advantages to this and many, many disadvantages. I've seen guild systems that with minor tweaks would of been fantastic and lasted many years than they did; I've seen guild systems with so much potential fail because the developers never finished/balanced what they were trying to do.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried about Guild Wars 2. Yes, the game is going to be fantastic. Everything we've been shown/have seen has been so phenomenal it still feels like a dream that this will be a game we will be able to play in a somewhat small time frame. I am worried about the guilds, mainly due to the lack of information that we haven't been able to get, but for now I'll work with what I've got.

The Guild Conundrum. "Should I stay or should I go?"

With the ability to join as many guilds as we want, this is no longer an issue. Being able to join every single guild on the server sounds like an awesome way to network, make friends and just have some good fun for the social butterflies that will be numerous on the server. This will actually encourage good co-operation between people and actually make a name for those that wish to have a name made. The ability to represent what you want to be doing via guilds is a really cool way to go about this conundrum. If I want to PvP with a PvP guild, I rep them. If I want to talk with friends, I'll join the guild that we created so we can talk. Sounds amazing, looks amazing, GREAT!

If you just look at it from that point of view. I have one big problem with this and everyone should be just a bit nervous, especially the guild leaders that try to make guilds that encompass everything. With the ability to switch guild at will to represent things, there will be two giant problems.

1. Loyalty
2. Activity

Yeah, these are two obscure things to worry about, but look at this way. The ability to join any guild you want (that will accept you) comes with many advantages, but for the people creating the guilds, this is something that can almost seem as if it was born of nightmares. Like I mentioned before, I've been playing MMO's since I was in 5th grade, starting with Everquest (I quickly stopped due to the fact I had no money and it was my brothers account). I've been in guilds with the activity of 1-2 people, I've been in guilds where there was over 200 people active at once. For the bigger guilds, this won't really be a problem seeing as how those guilds just blanket recruit to have people to talk to. These guilds have such a high turn-over rate of people that there's really no point in getting to know anyone because the next minute they could be gone because someone said something mean to them or told them something wrong. The Smaller guilds however will be a problem. Trying to get like-minded people with similar interests is hard enough, let alone keeping them in a guild where they are trying to get ahead.

My experiences with World of Warcraft have shown me how annoying it can be to be in a small guild. You and your buddies (4-5 of them) are ready to get to the next step of progression. You just need a few more to continue with raid's but you can't find people good enough to actually do the next step. You get discourage and just quit because you don't want to look for another guild where they have systems in place to screw you over for loot so the 'seniors' get it.

There are systems in place in GW2 to stop this, but this is a problem I can see in guild wars 2. There's something a small guild is trying to do, and needs more people, but can't find people to do it. It's hard, they give up and quit.

But. The more I sit here, writing this, the more my head turns and looks at things for different angles. For the point I had just made about progression is moot in GW2 because if you're working with people to do content, everyone is given loot and there is no problem. With not having enough people, you could simply change a guild real quick to find an active guild, ask for help from people within the guild and have them come to assist in what you're doing, then switch back.

While it may suck for smaller guilds, I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing to join multiple guilds. Like Arenanet said, a social network.

Maybe with this change, the guild system will be setup as the smaller guilds are focused in one area (particularly pvp) and the bigger guilds will be for WvWvW and general chats, mock-alliances will be made (if there isn't a system in place to MAKE alliances) and people will find what they want out of this.

Loyal and Activity though, may be a hard thing to do with the ability to change guilds on the fly. Who knows, maybe big guilds will be a thing of the past and smaller guilds will be the way to go. I don't know, but there's too much we don't know about other mechanics to determine this.

Speaking of other Mechanics.

Influencing the Masses...?

Influence -> Guild Currency/Exp from what i've gathered so far. We represent a guild and we earn influence to spend on items such as flags and equipment to help us defend keeps we earn in WvWvW...

But what else is there? Is there going to be a leveling system within the guild to unlock more items by overall influence earned? Will influence be set to each guild or will it be earned by the character or even the account? If we buy an item under one guild, and switch rep, will we be able to use those items to rep the other guild instead the one we bought it for?

This is the problem right now, the lack of information about THIS subject has me worried. If there is a guild exp/leveling system that ties into rep that has been earned for THAT guild, smaller guilds will be screwed if there are 'ability's/items' that are so rediculous compared to content you can earn your self that there will be no reason to join smaller guilds if they haven't unlocked it. If there isn't guild levels, however and everything is unlocked through your character/account, then it won't be so bad, especially if influence just means guild currency and you can buy/get what you want regardless of what guild you're currently representing.

This may be a great system, or one that fails from the get-go. The only way we'll know is when it's out and we're doing what we do best with this game, play it.

With everything else we've seen, most of my problems can be solved by systems that are in place to prevent people from being jerks to other people. This guild system looks very promising depending on how you want to play and I like knowing this one last little tidbit.

If you make yourself look a jerk by enough guilds, you may want to consider moving servers. Like social networks, one miss step into that territory and word will quickly spread that you are a jerk.

And at that point, you may well be screwed from the guild system. Something the average person shouldn't worry about, but for those that may be so inclined to act like this, be warned.

People will be watching, and with the ability to talk to any guild out there, you may screw your name over faster than you could ever believe.

Lastly: Don't Panic.

The Last thing I want to stress to everyone. It's too early to tell whether this system will be awesome or will fail. We don't have enough information, information that can change on Arenanet's whim if they find something off about it. I'm hoping the system they create will be amazing and show us something new that we have not seen before (and in a way, we've already seen that). We all have worries, but that is because in all honesty, we have NEVER seen a guild system setup like this and that precedent is making us nervous, but i'm sure that it's a sign that great things are to come.

~Roland Daemon of the Free Frag Network
You can follow me on twitter here -> Maxwell Brook (@RolandDaemon) on Twitter