Blog Carnival 2 | The Guild Wars 2 Guild System

The fans have weighed in, and it’s time to check out what the community is saying about what we know so far concerning the GW2 Guild system; specifically, the ability to join unlimited guilds. We got a whopping 28 submissions for this carnival… more than three times as much as our first! How awesome is that? Very!

There’s been a lot of debate and varying opinions on the issue, which is why I thought it’d be an excellent opportunity for an open discussion across the web. And have no fear, ArenaNet & friends! It would seem the reaction is overwhelmingly positive.

There are some amazing entries here from fans new and old. Even a few brand new blogs are making their debut here. Congrats, and welcome to the community!
And to the readers; be sure to show support for these fantastic guys and gals by leaving feedback on their respective blogs.

Without further ado, here are the entries in order of submission:

*Update*: Sorry for the mishap! The original published version was an incorrect autosave! This current version should be the correct & complete one. Apologies to the ladies and gents who’s articles were missing originally.
-Izzie 

The Multi-Guild System by Greibach, from Greibach’s Normal Form

 Looking at the GW2 style of guilds is extremely exciting for me. I run a very small guild of almost exclusively IRL friends; about 10-15 members. It’s extremely convenient to be able to have a place where I can chat with friends without using a cumbersome friends list to whisper everyone. At the same time, it’s nice to not have to deal with random guild drama that can occasionally accompany bigger groups. I know these people well enough to feel secure in a drama free zone….

[GW2] Guilds: My most Laboured Metaphor yet! by DistilledWill, from Distilled Will Power

In the new game the guild system is like going to a bar. Walk through the door and there could be any number of people milling about. It’s likely you’ve come here with a few friends and that’s great, but you know that there will be people in and out of this bar all night. You might choose to visit a few bars over the course of the evening, maybe jump from group to group and socialise with a number of different people. One night you might choose to spend the whole evening in a chill out bar, drinking ice cold vodka from frozen shot glasses…

The Guild System in Guild Wars 2: Social Dream or Community Nightmare?  by King_Dom, from Vanion.eu

Imagine you are in two guilds. One is focused on PvP and one on Pve, and since you like to do both it seems like a perfect solution.
But now imagine you are in 4 guilds. Two PvP and two PvE guilds. On first thought you just broadened your social circle. The problem lies in the chance of an arising conflict, and we all know that every guild has them from time to time.

So you have a heated argument with a few of your guild mates, that just does not seem to resolve itself. In a normal guild you would work hard to solve this conflict because you feel like a part of this, and only this, community. But with 4 guilds you have a back-up one in every situation. What is now motivating you to hold back your inner flame-monster?

GUILDS – GUIDELINES – FRIENDS by Angerina

“Beer!” Arja shouted, arms raised. “Who wants to join me? I’m heading for that bar we visited last time in Lion’s Arch. Great place to meet adventurous drinkers!”

“Drunks,” Nilla, an asura, corrected, pushing past the norn woman’s legs. In her opinion Arja took up way too much space of the room; space that could be used for greater things. “And wasn’t it a norn bar?”

“Come on, you’ll enjoy it!”

“To be stepped upon? No. Besides: alcohol slows your brain,” she tapped a silk-gloved finger at the side of her forehead, “which in your case doesn’t cause a lot of damage, but me? No, really, I’m in my prime.” Waving her hand as if to get rid of the topic, she left to dig through one of her over-sized racks.

A brief look into some guild mechanics in Guild Wars 2 by  Admin, from GW2PvPStrategy

This is a very controversial topic for some, and until people start using it and see where the chips fall it will probably feel alien to many players. One thing Guild Wars 2 does to encourage guild stability and incentive against flip-flopping are influence points, this is much like the guild level system in WoW & Warhammer Online where you gain influence for your guild and thus earn unlockables such as more guild storage, flags that can be placed on the ground and provide an EXP boost to players in it’s radius, etc…

Dissecting the Guild Mechanic: Will Guild Wars 2 measure up? by Arch8, from Kormir’s High Road

It was almost six years ago I jumped into ArenaNet’s aspiring CORPG (Cooperative Role-Playing Game), Guild Wars, and experienced a “MMOesque” world for the first time. Because of this, it was also my first time I came across guilds. In most games that have them, guilds traditionally function as a grouping feature that would cater to people with all kinds of interests and put them all “under one roof”, so to speak…

The Guildskipper’s Lament by Chronicler Redthorn, from The Priory Library

I follow every trickle of news regarding GW2 I can, hoping against hope that this will be the game that finally breaks me of my habit of constantly flitting about. So, when that droplet of news about the guild system fell out of the PAX pipeline, I just sat there for a few seconds. The ability to join several guilds on the same character is something I hadn’t even considered.

Assuming that the alliance I belong to transfers to GW2, they will give me a nice home base to return to whenever I decide I want to play. It also means that I get to socialise with groups that satisfy my various interests, be it a crafting-focussed guild, a guild that specialises in dungeon runs or even somewhere I can chat about game lore….

Looking for Guild by Belzan, from Blog of the Vagabond

And that’s why I’m furious. Just when I finished the blueprints for the most amazing guild hall, I have to put the project on hold. I mean, this guild hall was going to be A.W.E.S.O.M.E. It was going to have lots of keeps, a waterfall, huge trees, and the main keep was going to smell of rich mahogany! OOH! I’m so mad!

I had to scrap the project because people started leaving the guild! My totally loyal followers who told me they would only join my guild started joining others! I was like “Excuse me! It’s written in the guild by-laws that we are an exclusive guild!” But they were like “But we want to join other guilds with our human and asura friends.”

Guildsystem 2: WarGuilds by Machio

Art by Machio

Anyway, in guildwars1 I played with a few friends I knew from outside GW1, we made out own little guild with a sweet cape.

After a while when other members started playing a bit less I wanted to try some other guilds, see some of the more coordinated stuff GW could offer. I ran into the following problem:…

Guilds Strike Back! by Verene, from Under the Pale Tree

Personally, I’m one of the ones that loves it. I’m in a guild in GW1. It is a small guild, consisting of under 10 people. We’re not a speedclear or PvP guild or anything like that; more that it’s nice to be able to see when someone’s on if we want to go do a mission together, or try and tackle an elite mission or HM dungeon or something like that together…

Guild Wars 2: Power shift and server pride with the new guild system by Paeroka, From Nerdy Bookah’s and Their Travel Guide

Bookahnerk and I have had our share of discussions about this new system. In general: I’m more skeptical than he is. But we both see good and potentially negative points. The “TL;DR”-version would be: We will have to see how the players adapt to this system and how the guild environment changes to see if it’s a change for the better or not…

Love and Hate in Guild Wars 2  by Hunter, from Hunters Insight

What if you don’t really want to join a billion guilds? How do you say no to an old friend who is inviting you to join their really annoying guild? How do you explain that you’re leaving a guild when you can belong to so many? How do you not get offended when someone leaves even though there is no reason to leave? What if the same irritating guy is in all your guilds? What if you get kicked out of one guild because of what you said in another?

Multiple Guild Membership in GW2: What’s the big Deal? by BubbaFenix

Over the course of time I’ve had three distinct groups I’ve played with: close/local friends whose skill level could be called “casual” at best, co-workers who widely vary in skill, and a tight group of hardcore gamers who can quote the best builds for any situation at any time without having to refer to notes.
It’s never made sense for these groups to overlap. They don’t really know each other and, frankly, trying to meld these groups would dilute the waters, if you will…

[GW2] Stereotypical Guilds in Five Acts by Ravious, from Kill Ten Rats

I, Norman the Wary, have cataloged some of the many guilds of Tyria in interviewing so many of the races. I have done my best to transcribe the, shall we say, intricacies of each race as I learned and sought to find a guild of my own.

The Charr
My guild, meat? Are you looking to join us? Well you can’t. Plain and simple. My guild is my warband, and my warband is my guild…

The State of the Guilds. (Guild Wars 2) by Roland Daemon, from Free Frag

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…

Guild System by Varyn, from Guardians of Tyria

 I am not going to lie; I am very excited about this information.  I believe it to be an amazing example of Arenanet’s design philosophy.  They told us they were making a game for the players, right?  Why not let players socialize whenever and with whomever they want to? It sounds good to me.  There are some that believe that this is a negative direction for the guild system. ..

Guilds as a Social Networking Platform in Guild Wars 2 by Sardu, from NecroBator

In GW1 you have severely limited options when it comes to joining guilds. If you choose to join one, it will link your entire account to that guild. Your only recourse if you’d like to create alt characters outside of that guild is to purchase another copy of the game to create a wholly separate account. This even extends to your in-game friend’s list where you might ‘friend’ someone on one character, only to have each of the characters you create on that same account associated with that exact same friends list…

On The Subject of Guild Loyalty by Izari, from Talk Tyria

The point, in the long run, is commitment. If we compare a guild to relationships, it becomes easier to understand. A couple bound by marriage and common shared properties is more likely to work through problems and issues and come out stronger than a couple that is simply dating or not even living together who have the option to “opt out” pretty much whenever they want.
Likewise, if you’re bound to a guild, you’re more likely to work through issues and suffer the bad with the good rather than skip out when things are tough for a more favorable situation…

Multiple Guilds and You: The Roleplayer’s Paradise by Amidwx, from First Watch Irregulars

Picture this, if you will, a gamer that finds him or herself straddling between one or more groups. Imagine you’re an MMO roleplayer (probably not difficult if you’re reading this), but perhaps your other gamer friends that you met elsewhere are not roleplayers at all.  In previous games, the choice has always before been a painful and awkward one:  do I snub my existing friends in pursuit of a guild that’s going to help me facilitate roleplay, or do I join up with my friends’ guild and relegate myself to only occasional, non-committal tavern talk?

Guild Wars 2 – Guilds: Can Quantity Equal Quality? by Nym, from The Shy Gamer

As I see it, it does not prevent guilds to demand people to only be member of their guild. In many games it is still possible to join multiple guilds with different characters, and some guilds forbid this. There is still the option to make guild specific rules, plus many more options, by removing restrictions in the game design and adding player control…

Changing Alliances – A Guild Review for GuildMags Blog Carnival by Dilum 

At first, the concept didn’t seem to bad to me. You could join multiple guilds and enjoy all the aspects of the game. You could join a PvE – dynamic event oriented guild, but also a casual PvP and an organized PvP guild, and decide which guild you want to be part of that day.  If you want to do some casual PvP, go to guild B, but in the afternoon, your sick of the occasional interference of noobs, and you decided to go to the organized PvP guild to do some hardcore, challenging PvP battles…

The Ties That Bind: The Guild System [GW2] by Tramell, from Gamer BC

People will stay around if you treat them right and keep your end of the bargain. If your operating a progression guild make sure you have well-defined rules and expectations, make sure the people coming aboard know what’s expected of them. If you’re creating social guild let people know the language rating of your guild chat, what type of people are in the guild, and what kind of activities the guild members take part in. As long as you’re up front and they agree, there really shouldn’t be a problem.

How The Guild System Works and Our Thoughts by Redean, from GW2Community

Firstly I have mixed feeling on the multiple guild system. It’s good to see that multiple guilds are now allowed per account rather than a single guild for your entire account which was the case in Guild Wars 1. This annoyed me in Guild Wars 1 because if I had a pre-sear character and I wanted to join a pre-sear guild all my characters had to join that guild as well. The up side to this was that you didn’t have to switch over every single alt when you changed guild and people still knew who you were if you were playing an alt (although you could get these features easily with some smart UI)…

Guilds in Guild Wars 2: If You Make It, They Will Come by Tasha Dark, from Attached to Keyboard

The biggest bone of contention around is the decision to let one account join multiple guilds, and the most common objection is that as guilds won’t have the full attention of a player, there won’t be a sense of loyalty and cohesion amongst its members.  However looking at other games in the MMO genre, its common to find a single character to single guild relationship.  In these games (WoW, Rift, Aion to highlight a few), guilds fare just fine.  Some of them are massive, some small, some loosely coherent, some tightly knit.  So why the concern?

Guild Wars 2 Guild System – Daring And Innovative By Wyzim, from Guild Wars 2 Universe

GW2 Guild System(GW2GS from here on) destroys the close bonds that are shared by members when they can join only one guild.
Words like guild pride, loyalty, commitment are thrown around when raising this concern. It is not totally without the merit but let us try to think about it with a clear mind. There is nothing stopping me from making a guild that is built on the foundation of strong kinship and I can make it clear in my guild description…

Corporate Guilds: the Sub-Guild Story by Shongaqu, from Tyrian Stories

The first place I’d like to look at is the way Role Players can use this system to enhance their RP organization. Having out of character guilds that are used for organization and policing of events can be extremely helpful as it allows everyone in a RP community to be in the same managing guild. Having individuals who may be in “warring” guilds have access to a common guild allows for free flow of ideas in game that usually requires forum surfing. ..

Breaking Boundaries – Guilds in GW2 by Vendkoma

One of the hallmark traits of MMOs that keeps such a wide variety of people hooked for so long is the multi-faceted gameplay. There’s almost always something you can do within the game to suit your mood. Need to relieve some stress by smashing in the faces of your fellow man (or Charr)? Queue up for some PvP. Want to kick back after a hard day and have a relaxing chat with a few of your dearest pals? That’s a big part of why games have inns, bars, and cantinas….

Social Paradigm Shift  by Naum, from Priorat von Durmand

In general, a developer will, by the means of communication they offer the player, influence to a large extent the community that forms itself using those tools, and how the members of this community communicate. In traditional MMORPGs as well as Guild Wars 2, one could join exactly one guild per character or even just per account — which already shows to a great extent, which community subgroups the developers had planned…