Approved guilds?

[Prolix]

Well then why not have regular elections for government positions? Or have a corrupt appointments secretary for the octarchs? All I know is it sounds like a lot of oversight work for game officials. In a perfect world it is a great idea but I think the reality will leave a lot to be desired. Some players will work out masterfully but they will most likely be outnumbered by duds. Of course you can give those great players more roles but that will have diminishing returns.

It sort of sounds like you want to abandon the classless theory of character development and replace it with 'roles' to be played, unofficial roles as far as game mechanics go but will your priests know only cooking and no magic? Will your rat catchers know only blacksmithing? I do not think that would work.

You will need to develop skill requirements for the various positions you seek to fill. If you do not have these skills you cannot play that role. Perhaps that would be a first step: defined roles and the requirements to play them. Then if you want only player created guilds to run these positions you can look at the guild membership to see how well they fit the requirements you have developed. I still say it would be easier to start your approved guilds from scratch and do your recruitment carefully.

[Irgendwer]

I need someone to play the priesthood, actors, that would be around a lot of the time acting out their parts.

What you are looking for then are "Player NPC" and not approved guilds. Of course, PNPC of a certain type could still form an organisation, but regular guilds would/could not bicker for the prestigeous "approval tag".  It's still a bad idea, though.

Alone reading this thread should give anyone an idea what will happen, if approval is implemented on a "guild upgrade" basis. So far I have seen lot's of "Gimme, I want!" posts, even though there is not even a clear outline for the feature. Appearantly, the perceived prestige that comes along with approval is enough reason for people to want to have it. Problem with status symbols: They are only worth something, if they are rare (would you want a porsche, if everyone had one?).
People will always be jealous if someone else has status. More so, if they feel, that this status is not deserved. Ever listened to office talk? The kind of talk where a female co workers got their raise for raising something else? That is pretty much the type of badblood, that can be expected in PS, if regular guilds/players get approval.


The only way, I can remotely see, how this thing could fly would be if PNPC are alts and rolebound. This means, that the chars in question are created by the settings team with a fixed background and fitting stats. Maybe even with limited GM powers (being able to attack and be attacked without consent, teleporting out of the deathrealm, (spawning of items)). Those chars would reside on special and never on regular player accounts. Not playing the PNPC according to it's role would mean it gets reassigned.

[Mythryndel]

Xillix... It sounds from your last post, like you are describing a concept I have proposed in another thread. I called it jobs or careers. I suggested it for different reasons, but the end result is the same. You have Players that can make a life for their character as a miner, as a crafter, as a town guard, etc. They could apply for the post similar to the current quest system and would gain status as they complete tasks over time. I wholeheartedly agree that if there can be more Player involvement in the running of Yliakum that the game will feel more real to the Players. Eventually, it would be nice if there were NO npc generated weapons (barring drops from creatures). All weapons would be crafted by players and sold to new players directly or by merchants like Trasok.

EDIT: To think in terms of game mechanics, You could make some minor modifications to the trainer/quest mechanics to make an NPC able to determine a particular characters fitness for a job. For example, verify that you have a weapon and require you to bring them X rat hides to be a level 1 town guard. In order to be a level 2 guard you would return to the same NPC and bring better weapons and X tefusang hides, etc. For mining this could be done by asking for X Tin ore, then X Iron ore, then X silver, etc.

I tend to agree with some of what I read that this should be handled at the player level, not necessarily the guild level. It may well end up that if you have 20 priests, that they form a guild and coordinate who will take sermons on what days. This is a good thing, but doesn't keep a new priest from filling in just because he/she isn't part of the correct guild.

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

bah,

Go back to being bored.

[Dajoji]

Ever heard of Kada? I didn't get to meet her but I sure have spent a good amount of time in her pub. In a way, this would give players that same chance to make an impact in game content. I don't think it would necessarily work on a "Character Wanted" basis but more like if a guild is RPing something interesting the game can make room for them, even when that wasn't contemplated or specified in the settings. Be it a pub, a market place, a museum, a university, a court house, a prison, a temple, or a playground, it's the guilds initiative and how they approach the settings that inspires new and unexpected directions for the project.

[oningo]

Loving this thread read a lot of posts and loved them all. I particularly remember what Dajoji said on page 2 or 3 of this thread. the bulleted point form on how a guild can be approved. After reading so far i just wanted to post on something i didnt see . Maybe i didnt read one or 2 posts in the last 6 pages (afking a lot here while reading .. busy rl lol) .

I like this idea of approving guilds. However so far from what i have read, approval is based on keeping in line with settings. So the benifits of an approved guild could be in getting gm participation in making thier guild hosted events more fun  (spl effect support maybe).

I am hoping before guilds are approved the guild system mechanics are tweaked. In case the situation of a guild leader changes ( has real life issues and cant come online ... or suddenly the power and popularity changes his behaviour) then the guild should be able to have a internal council system that can allow the the guild to continue to function. Maybe a new concept of a guild council leading a guild rather than a singular leader. That may allow for guilds to allow to be active longer.

To reduce new 20- member guilds from cropping up maybe only 50+ member guilds(and soem other benchmarks like minimum 5 people online at any time), can get the council system. well soemthing like that. What concerns me is that an entire guild depending on one leader who for unforseen reasons cant function as a leader may lead to an approved guilds death. If soem game mechanic tweaks are made .. it may help improve longetivity of guilds, reduce numerous seasonal guilds that are formed and die in less than 6 months. This may help the guilds creating a richer rp history of themselves and a rich tapestery of inter guild politics and dynamics. Keeping in mind that most of them will eventually try to be in-tune with settings would make approving of guilds easier.Also if certain changes are brought into guild administration, it could reduce the number of 'seasonal guilds' and bring in more concreate rp-goal-based, longer living guilds.

I love the ideas so far. But i feel if these things are addressed before implemntaion of apporval of guilds. Once we see a consolidation of guilds and the advent of new towns, maybe a "home-town'. Please note the exmaple ebing told now is a future end goal idea.. which could be achieved eventually.

The Example-- Hydlaa can host 2 caravan(merchant + martial rp goal type) guilds due to the winch + 1 religious guild(due to temple)+ 2 maigc guild (magic shop, magic garden)+ 1 scholarly guild (cos of library)+2 martial guilds (cos of arena and winch near it) + 1 profession guild(having weapon and armor repair,alchemists, herbalist, enchanters mostly )... while.. Oja can host 2 caravan (due to merchant district) + 1 religion (due to temple yet to come)+ 1 profession guilds( cos it has lots of shops) +1 crafting guild (crafters and miners due to forge and mines nearby).

The example is just an idea how the game can limit guilds in game in the future when we do a wipe and stuff.. and also to promote active guilds by setting preconditions for being allowed by one of the cities (in future ) to host them. If certains conditions are not met over time like members reduce below the minimum needed or number of people online and number of hrs online lower than minimum neededcould lead to a one month probation by the city to allow the guiolds to fix themselves thru merging, recruiting or playing more. This would help merge settings and inter guild rps better.. eventually leading to a more riccher rp and in game 'immerssive' experience. well just an idea of the possibility. it may take a long time as many small steps needed on the way.

[Orgonwukh]

A lot of constructive ideas 

Mine is rather simple:
Introduce approved guilds/players who respect the settings. Don't give any rewards.

A very annoying and frustrating task to sort out players who I can roleplay with and those who don't respect the settings (yet). I already once proposed to introduce a roleplay fraction which shows up in the description and makes it easier to find good roleplayers. Approved guilds and players would make this easier. To know that you are an approved player and to recognise other approved players should be reward enough in my opinion.

[Sangwa]

I like the idea of approved guilds only in the extent that these serve to tell people the guilds are approved as being setting compliant. No benefits should be brought about, other than maybe the participation in GM oriented quests.

In short, giving rewards for no apparent reason makes no sense game-wise (since the benefits would make favouritism an issue) or roleplay wise (rewards don't rain from the sky.)

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

Heh, what if I took a guild that was approved by

the players

the gms

the dev team

and told that guild they were officially sanctioned to run the faith of laanx

then I gave them:

A guildhouse

A monthly performance based stipend for guild operation.

Money doesn't have to rain from the sky, Settings governs the Octarchy, the religions, the guards, and in short, the SETTINGS.

[Prolix]

A guildhouse? no, effectively the same thing behind the closed door in the current temple? sure.
Performance stipend? with what specific measures or at this point even generic qualifiers for the stipend? Not a big problem IN THEORY.

It kind of seems to me that any such officially sanctioned guild would need representation for a majority of around the clock. What good is it if Laanxites can only expect services from 3-5 pm GMT for example? What does that say to the rest of the players. What happens if two or three players from the same time zone qualify to run the majority of the sanctioned guilds?

If you decide to go this route you will need to be very careful.

[Tuxide]

No, you people misunderstand.  What XilliX is saying is that if there isn't enough community support for his idea (which there isn't) then he's just going to force every guild to do a mandatory name change until every guild name is settings-compliant.  This may include Dark Empire since we don't know if imperialism exists.  This means no more silly names for powerlevelling guilds and no more kingdoms from faraway, unheard of places.  I can live with either reality since RP will be improved anyways.

[Shaman]

That sounds like a good idea to me, actually.

[Under the moon]

* Under the moon chuckles.

So instead of approving guilds, you just make every guild meet PS standards, thus having all guilds approved and equal. Brilliant!

[Orgonwukh]

* Under the moon chuckles.

So instead of approving guilds, you just make every guild meet PS standards, thus having all guilds approved and equal. Brilliant!

Is that possible? And what standard?

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

It would be no more difficult than enforcing naming standards is today.