Approved guilds?

[Farren Kutter]

Perhaps 'approved guilds' may earn some special part in the settings themselves, such as being in a book in the library. If the guild dies, have it be, as suggested before, 'history' If the guild's ideas changed, have it written, "In recent times however, the guilds ideals have changed" blah blah blah. But If a guild is within settings parameters, and seems to be a fairly open guild (not secret or intended to be unpopular) or is an infamous guild (Thieves Guild anyone?) then perhaps some literature should include it. This might also help that guild with recruitment in a roleplayed way, for if there is books in the library, people may read about these guilds and wish to join them. Thenagain, that goes back to favoritism, but like Raken said, if it isn't, then there is no worries. The Developers are not playing favorites, they don't take their job lightly, so as long as they know they're not then we're fine. I'm fairly certain Xillix at least would not allow anyone to do something for a guild out of favoritism.

As a note, this would ALSO put these guilds under a certain scrutiny of the settings team and thus they'd have to watch where their history leads them and such.

[Tuxide]

NPCs knowing what the guild is? For example my guild is a merchant syndicate, thus I might expect Mikana Trading Company and maybe Ervin Fromaad to know the name of my company.

Also, perhaps joining an approved guild might affect your faction.  For example, joining an approved thieves guild might worsen your faction with guards.  In addition, being in a different guild that is allied with this thieves guild might also worsen your faction with guards.

Would this imply that a guild has to have its own thread on the forums?  Because there are many good guilds that refuse to have one here.

[Rayken]

A thread shouldn't be necessary strictly speaking, but it seems to me that it would certainly raise your chances of being qualified.  And NPCs knowing about your guild and it affecting faction points seem like good ideas to me.  I am against IG benefits, but these are not exactly benefits...

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

Part of the point would be to grant in game benefits though.

[neko kyouran]

To those that say if the guild dies, it should be written into the history of the game, I have one point to make:

Since, the game has yet to hit 1.0, time as it were, history wise is t a stand still.  Its the year 750, and next year, it will still be year 750.  Or do you suggest the settings team try to work out this issue?

[Duraza]

I say yes to approved guilds. I don't think it would show favortism in any way nor would it make more players drawn to the guild for OOC reasons. Why I feel so is because with your guild actually being approved by the settings then you'd have a much harder time. You'd have to be stricter as not to go out the settings and I doubt you would start to mass recruit because you'd need to keep quality members. People setting a bad example while under the banner of an approved guild would just mess things up for the whole guild and I'm sure the settings team won't let a guild they approved run around wildly.

Sure there will be benifits. Why shouldn't there be for the guilds who base what they do off of the settings. Of course there will be a lot more work for anyone running or in an approved guild so it balances out. They will have a reputation to keep so I'd assume you wouldn't see them mass recruiting. I'd actually think that from worry of possibly losing their 'approved sticky' they'd be a lot stricter on who they allow in the guild, making recruition a much slower process.

Edit:

Oh and I was thinking more about the fact that more players would be drawn to the guild for OOC reasons. Kinda bad but at the same time I think thats good. If more players are drawn to working for a guild that revolves around roleplaying a certain aspect of the settings I see no problem with it. Sure, the original reason is OOC, however if they stay I'm sure that will change. If they only end up wanting to be there because the guild has special privileges I doubt the guild leaders will let them stay for fear of losing such privileges.

[Prolix]

Coolio, I am going to start a guild of goujah jockeys just to reap whatever benefits may come from being approved. Surely a scheme like this cannot fail! I have at least 5 accounts and at least one of my characters  has the start-up money so it will never die unless there is a full wipe.

[zorbels]

What makes me wonder is if certain guilds get in game benefits, people may only join that guild because of the benefits. Not because of what the guild may stand for which is really why you should be joining that particular guild.  How could this be prevented if it was decided that there would be IG benefits? Should guilds who are appoved have a standard time a person has to be apart of a guild for them to recieve benefits? Or would you have to be a certain status in the guild ranks? How would it work?

[Siteri Kidachi]

Perhaps one of the criteria for approving a guild would be that they have a good screening method for people who want to join so they couldn't join just for the benefits, they'd have to belong.

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

it is just an idea right now

I remember most of the community supported the vespers of laanx

to the point of paying them enough so they could afford to train and rp their charity non stop.

I just want the pros and cons to come out and people to suggest ways to do this successfully or help weigh the pitfalls of this.

[Farren Kutter]

I remember giving all of my money to Vespers.... several times...

[NirAntae]

I think it's a good idea, but as has been said, a dangerous one.

I think all that 'approved' should imply is that the basis and idea and values behind a guild fall in line with the settings, and thus further the overall atmosphere.  That is a very 'low bar', thus it won't be hugely competitive, nor many accusations of favoritism possible.  No number requirements (or very low, at best, say five or something like that); no 'alignment' requirements (beyond the general no hatred spewing, etc.); and so on.

As for benefits, I like the 'part of history' idea...  there could even be a Guilds Records hall somewhere that keeps track of 'the famous guilds of Yliakum's past and present' or something like that.  And of course there's the boost to notoriety...  it isn't just some newbie who decided to 'make a guild!!!!111!!'

The big 'reward' for me, however, seems a case of simple logic.  Right now, guild halls are -very rare- and a major part of the setting.  An inappropriate guild somehow getting ahold of a guild hall would be a pretty big blow to the 'good' players.  Thus, if you're going to 'approve' guilds in any way as saying they fit with the settings, then it only makes sense that they be the only ones allowed access to a guild hall.  Not that this will cut down on the competition for them much, but that isn't really the idea, just a safeguard to make sure the still-precious guildhalls fall into responsible hands, without much in the way of accusation of favoritism.


I hope that all made sense to someone other than me...   

[Tuxide]

How about requiring approved guilds to give guild forum access to some settings members, for the purpose of giving advice on how they can be settings-compliant and whatnot?  I know I'm just throwing this into the discussion, but something like this might improve the overall quality of the guild.

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

Oooh splendid Idea.

[Zwenze]

How about requiring approved guilds to give guild forum access to some settings members, for the purpose of giving advice on how they can be settings-compliant and whatnot?  I know I'm just throwing this into the discussion, but something like this might improve the overall quality of the guild.

Hmm, do settings dev have that much time to read 10+ guild forums and give advices?