The Importance of Guilds in Guild Wars 2

[Crescendo Forte.4821]

I've been one of the [more vocal ](https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Guild-Missions-and-Commendations-again/first#post6653043 "more vocal ") people on the state of guilds in the game. I have been so disappointed with how Anet has handled guilds. Guild Wars 2 relies on having a large open community, yes, but communities need niches where people can express their individuality and make long-lasting friends. That's, for the most part, guilds. Guilds keep people coming back long after they've run out of content. Guilds make content far more repeatable. Guilds should not be reduced to glorified chat rooms. I am disappointed.

[Carighan.6758]

> @Hesacon.8735 said:

> They have a standing team for raids, fractals, living world, world vs. world, structured pvp, and expansions. They have to drop the ball somewhere and those 6 content types see most of the GW2 play time.

 

And frankly when you have an sPvP team but not a guild team, you know that you should have gone for a MOBA not a MMORPG. :disappointed:

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> @Blaeys.3102 said:

> This is probably the most shortsighted decision ArenaNet has ever made. Guilds are the backbone of this game. Without them, I believe there would be no meaningful world vs world, there would be very little open world coordination/leadership efforts for things like meta events, early world boss successes, boss trains and much more.

 

It's hard to take the rest of the comments in the OP's post as seriously as they deserve when the thread opens with this comment. Surely there are all sorts of shortsighted decisions that ANet has made that can compete for the title of "worst". And at what point has ANet **ever** prioritized guilds in the first place?

 

Guilds are definitely important, but they aren't the "backbone" of the game. We managed without g-mish and without useful tools for years and the game (and its guilds) did just fine. Season 1 successes were almost always the work of individuals organizing ad hoc, not a specific guild (as we've seen with Triple Trouble). Similarly, many of the early successes with Tequatl, most of Silverwastes, most of early Dry Top, boss trains, and all sorts of other content was done without a guild at the forefront.

 

I'd love to see guilds get more attention. I'd love to see new and improved guild missions. But since there are a limited amount of people to assign to teams, it might be the smarter business decision to de-emphasize guilds in favor of, well, everything else that we see. It takes the same effort to create a guild challenge as it does to create an open world chain event, but the first only appeals to a subset of the community while the other is always available for everyone.

 

Guilds have never gotten all that much attention from ANet, so I don't think any of us should be surprised that they don't get their own team. That doesn't preclude ANet from developing new stuff for guilds, it just means we won't see it happen regularly.

[Vilyo.3650]

one up on guild needing more content, its such a great system they made... shouldnt be abbandoned, guild halls have so much more potential too

[Elear.8459]

/shrug

 

In most games, guilds boil down to "semi-permanent group of people with their own chat", which is pretty basic thing. Any guild activities are to be created entirely by people themselves, and GW2 is only slightly different here, providing few guid-only opportunities to spend your time, but in general, people are not losing out much if they do not play in huge active guild (not counting slight benefits of fully decked-out GH), and this is good. Artifical guild content that is just doing regular content in guild group is not needed, because frankly, it sucks. You want to do bounty runs in guild group? By all means, do so, whether you have guild mission for it or not. If lack of mission makes it pointless, then apparently you care more about rewards than actual experience. Whish is fine, I suppose, but in that case at least be honest about your motivations.

 

Guild Wars 2 does have good potential for actual 'guild content' (in form of Guild Halls) where one could progress their guild trough content dedicated to doing so, but ANet went and kittened up this chance by turning GH into nothing but massive gold sink. At this point, providing proper guild content while leaving GH with their current gold sink status would be bad, and reworking again entire system would take too much resources, so yeah, I say leave it as it is, least you make it even worse with half-assed effort.

[Menadena.7482]

> @Blaeys.3102 said:

> In last week’s AMA, we learned that they no longer have a guild content team at Arenanet – and, even more importantly, that they have no plans to implement/improve/etc guild related content in the foreseeable future.

 

I was perplexed by that. First, do they even realize the name of their game? Second, does this mean this was the last guild hall? If so, it is a pretty poor finale to that idea.

[Menadena.7482]

> @Brimstone.3807 said:

> I've been playing Gw2 for years, and have never felt a need to engage in guilds at all. I am just saying that there are lots of different folks with different habits. Arenanet obviously sees their internal metrics and develops to them. Just as a general thought, guild participation is down in a lot of MMOs in general. Habits are changing. I personally would not be impacted if guilds didn't exist. A friends list does the trick just fine.

 

The thing is a lot of us interact with guildmates much more often than people on our friends list. Our guilds are just another chat tab that is already open, our friends involve at least a whisper or email.

[TheOrlyFactor.8341]

> @Menadena.7482 said:

> > @Brimstone.3807 said:

> > I've been playing Gw2 for years, and have never felt a need to engage in guilds at all. I am just saying that there are lots of different folks with different habits. Arenanet obviously sees their internal metrics and develops to them. Just as a general thought, guild participation is down in a lot of MMOs in general. Habits are changing. I personally would not be impacted if guilds didn't exist. A friends list does the trick just fine.

>

> The thing is a lot of us interact with guildmates much more often than people on our friends list. Our guilds are just another chat tab that is already open, our friends involve at least a whisper or email.

 

And the whisper system in GW2 is...terribad, especially if you're trying to whisper more than one person at a time. D:

[Aeon.6397]

Honestly, i support this, as a solo/small guild type of player

in the first gw most of my time was spent maintaining my guild and alliance, i have roughly 950 people under my leadership

i had very little time to do things i wanted to do and more time doing guild and alliance focused things

 

I think MOST people would rather brand new content in the game rather than repeatable old content

 

[Lithril Ashwalker.6230]

> @"Crescendo Forte.4821" said:

> I've been one of the [more vocal ](https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Guild-Missions-and-Commendations-again/first#post6653043 "more vocal ") people on the state of guilds in the game. I have been so disappointed with how Anet has handled guilds. Guild Wars 2 relies on having a large open community, yes, but communities need niches where people can express their individuality and make long-lasting friends. That's, for the most part, guilds. Guilds keep people coming back long after they've run out of content. Guilds make content far more repeatable. Guilds should not be reduced to glorified chat rooms. I am disappointed.

 

not to mention the old guild wars 1 alliance system...if we had that in the game rather than specified guild chats, we could do SOOO much more., alliance battles, 5 guilds vs 5 guilds, 2 from each guild could join with 2 others in the other guilds etc. so 10v10 REAL GVG with options for spvp setup or wvw setup.

 

a change of game mechanics and style and we STILL have neanderthal-ish means of recruitment....that hasnt changed for ages when it should. spamming in map chat, pms, and copy pasting on forums...this has got to go...we have a lfg tool for gods sakes, add a guild recruitment section for KITTEN sake (i literally typed kitten, nothing else)

[AussieHino.3940]

I have read a lot of replies on this thread, but not all of them. With that being said, I apologize if someone else has pointed this out.

 

To me, it's really not that hard to get a group of guildies together to do the PoF bounties. In fact, I did this a few weeks ago and we all had a blast. If you really wanna do guild content in PoF then gather people from your guild and go do it, whether it's bounties, events, collections, or even races. You don't need to have guild missions aimed at the new PoF area to bring your guild in as a group to do things there. If you ask in guild and no one wants to do it, then no one wants to do it. Getting one guild commendation isn't going to sway those guildies either.

 

It's been pointed out before; some people may not even own PoF in the guild your in and may wanna do guild missions. if PoF became a part of guild missions, someone who may be there constantly for guild missions (that doesn't own PoF) will suddenly be unable to help. That issue can turn from one person into many and then you're down to having only a hand full of people helping with guild missions.

 

I'd also like to point out that PoF bounties are hard enough, especially for small guilds, like my own. We had about 15 to 20 people and had a KITTEN of a time taking out some of the bounties.

[SkyShroud.2865]

My guild had 60+ doing guild hall capture for the new guild hall the other day while we also have a squad doing bounties and what's not during our pve schedule. The issue isn't that guild cannot organise things, organising things is duty of a guild but the issue is anet is neglecting the guild such that there isn't any new contents made particularly for them. Just take the new guild hall for example, why it doesn't has any guild hall weapons? It is like they made the guild hall just so they to claim "we did something for the guild". Sloppy and insincere. The missions isn't updated for yearS. Old guild hall that we thought will have some kind of guild hall activities because of that size is well, poof, along with the guild team. Basically, anet made a framework only to abandon it because they suddenly decided that guild is not important and pour all the resources into openworld pve because short term money over gameplay and sustainable income.

[Blaeys.3102]

> @Aeon.6397 said:

> Honestly, i support this, as a solo/small guild type of player

> in the first gw most of my time was spent maintaining my guild and alliance, i have roughly 950 people under my leadership

> i had very little time to do things i wanted to do and more time doing guild and alliance focused things

>

> I think MOST people would rather brand new content in the game rather than repeatable old content

>

 

Thanks.

 

I do think a system like this would not only make it easier to incorporate new guild activities and revitalize maps, it would solve the problem small guilds have with the mission system as well. All they would need to do is provide the organizational spark for events - using map chat and LFG to build from that.

 

 

[holodoc.5748]

Guild missions - that "thing" that everyone wants but nobody likes.

[dusanyu.4057]

It's on your guild to stay active. To use as an example my guildcwe have event s every night like shattered Saturday when we host a guild spawn shattered guild missions three times a week to get people commendations pof bounty train on Mondays relaxed (training) raid nights. Map completion zergs for example. Threir is plenty for guilds in this game you just need to be creative.

Only thing we are missing is guild battles.

 

[maddoctor.2738]

Why does your guild need to get guild-rewards to do content with each other? Isn't the point of your guild to have fun together?

 

>Do four bounties in Domain of Vabbi in less than 30 minutes. At least three guild members need to participate.

>Achieve level 4 in Dry Top with at least 3 members present

>Capture or defend a settlement in Lake Doric with three members present

>Accrue 20,000 cumulative experience points in Frostgorge

>Complete the Skimmer race in the desolation with at least three members present

 

Aside from the time limit for bounties, and possibly the experience in Frostgorge, you can organize all of the above and do them as a guild event with your guild members. Why do you need extra guild-specific rewards for doing those? Why do you want to get guild commendations (the guild mission reward) for doing bounties with your guild members? Just organize guild bounty runs.

[maddoctor.2738]

> @Aeon.6397 said:

> Honestly, i support this, as a solo/small guild type of player

> in the first gw most of my time was spent maintaining my guild and alliance, i have roughly 950 people under my leadership

> i had very little time to do things i wanted to do and more time doing guild and alliance focused things

>

> I think MOST people would rather brand new content in the game rather than repeatable old content

>

 

I don't recall GW1 having any kind of guild reward from doing content with your guild members (outside GvG)

So any other content you did with your guild members in GW1 was done with the common rewards of that content and not with an extra incentive to do it.

What's so different in GW2?

[TheNecrosanct.4028]

Some people have used the argument that metrics would show that people don't do much guild content, so that's why ANet decided to scrap the Guild dev team. I can only speak for my own guild when it comes to this content, but the reason we're no longer doing guild missions (to my regret) has to do with age old content and few rewards. The existing guild content has been in game for about 5 years now. Everything you can get has already been got and the rewards aren't enough to stimulate people to keep doing the same old content over and over again.

 

If you'd put 2 incarnations of GW2 next to each other, one with only old guild content and no more guild dev team and one with newer guild content and an active guild dev team, I wonder how those metrics would differ from each other. Add in new rewards that make it feel worth it to do guild missions, because everyone apparently wants their shinies, and to be honest that's what will keep people playing the same old content over and over again. I'd argue that even keeping the existing guild content but adding new rewards in the form of skins, gold or ascended drops would make more people play the content again. Add in actual new guild missions and I wouldn't be surprised if even more people go back to it.

 

Disbanding the guild dev team because metrics might show that not enough people do the content anymore is a reactionary measure, nothing more. Instead of removing the proverbial boulder on the road they just go around it and leave the obstacle where it is, forever. At this point I would argue why the game is even called Guild Wars anymore. Yes, I know it's a part of the history of Tyria. But it's like calling The Lord of the Rings the Silmarillion Part 2. It has nothing to do with silmarils anymore, but it alludes to events from the past so we're going to keep calling it that.

[Vayne.8563]

Okay I run a pretty big guild and I really enjoy doing guild missions. Yet, we do other stuff as well. We do everything from open world exploration together, to story achievements, to hero points runs. I don't really require the game to spoon feed me specific guild content.

 

And not having a guild team doesn't mean guild content will never come out. It means there's no team dedicated to making guild content. In theory, every expansion will come out with a guild hall as an example Doesn't require a dedicated guild team to do that.

[Ashen.2907]

> @Vayne.8563 said:

> Okay I run a pretty big guild and I really enjoy doing guild missions. Yet, we do other stuff as well. We do everything from open world exploration together, to story achievements, to hero points runs. I don't really require the game to spoon feed me specific guild content.

>

> And not having a guild team doesn't mean guild content will never come out. It means there's no team dedicated to making guild content. In theory, every expansion will come out with a guild hall as an example Doesn't require a dedicated guild team to do that.

 

This.

 

If your guild needs outside motivation to do things together then it might not be a real guild.

[Blaeys.3102]

Yes, guilds should - and do - remain active together regardless of the reward. that isn't really the point. The idea is to (very slightly) reward and incentivize those guilds that help keep the maps alive and interesting for everyone.

 

As an example - there is another very active thread right now about the Serpent of Ire event in Domain of Vabbi. If guilds were incentivized (even with something as simple as a mission reward) to complete that event, then you would see more guilds organizing said event in LFG and across the game. The same is true of historic events, both large and small, like Dragon Stand, the island bosses in Draconic Mons, the Temple of Balthazar and much much more.

 

Right now, guild missions work very differently in PVE and WvW than they do in PVE. By mirroring those systems, it would make it easier to add in new missions that both give guilds directed goals on top of what they already do while helping support open world events (both new and old) at the same time.

 

 

[TheNecrosanct.4028]

> @Ashen.2907 said:

> > @Vayne.8563 said:

> > Okay I run a pretty big guild and I really enjoy doing guild missions. Yet, we do other stuff as well. We do everything from open world exploration together, to story achievements, to hero points runs. I don't really require the game to spoon feed me specific guild content.

> >

> > And not having a guild team doesn't mean guild content will never come out. It means there's no team dedicated to making guild content. In theory, every expansion will come out with a guild hall as an example Doesn't require a dedicated guild team to do that.

>

> This.

>

> If your guild needs outside motivation to do things together then it might not be a real guild.

 

Missing the point. Guilds don't need outside motivation to do things together. The topic was Guild Missions. That's hardly the only thing guilds can do together. Fractals, Raids, Dungeons, World Bosses, Story Instances, all things guilds can and will do together. Sure, not all guilds, but it's never an all or nothing thing. My guild does things together, but Guild Missions not anymore. And that is because it is years old content with the same rewards that everybody who has played Guild Missions since introduction already has or isn't interested in. If this game, or any game, doesn't add new content, people will get bored with the same old thing over and over again. That's just human nature. And it's not so much outside motivation. Would you still be playing this game if we only had the core maps, core story, base specializations and no elites, no new skins? Maybe. But I'm guessing new content keeps you motivated to keep playing this game, or plays at least a role in that. Yes, people need motivations to do things. That even goes for you. Loot might not be your motivation, but something is, and that something doesn't have to be purely the content. It's the interactions with friends/guild members that makes it more enjoyable for one (at least, that's my experience when comparing pug runs to guild runs, to name an example), and there can be many other reasons. But saying that guilds who need outside motivation might not be real guilds is kind of a reductive statement, in my honest opinion.

[SkyShroud.2865]

> @Ashen.2907 said:

> > @Vayne.8563 said:

> > Okay I run a pretty big guild and I really enjoy doing guild missions. Yet, we do other stuff as well. We do everything from open world exploration together, to story achievements, to hero points runs. I don't really require the game to spoon feed me specific guild content.

> >

> > And not having a guild team doesn't mean guild content will never come out. It means there's no team dedicated to making guild content. In theory, every expansion will come out with a guild hall as an example Doesn't require a dedicated guild team to do that.

>

> This.

>

> If your guild needs outside motivation to do things together then it might not be a real guild.

 

Then....there are tons of guilds out there are not real guild. LOL.

 

Great majority of the guild require outside motivation. Raid guild won't exist without raid. WvW guild won't exist without WvW. World boss guild won't exist without world boss. RP guild won't exist without lore to base on. Generic guild won't exist without pve contents. Tell me, what guild doesn't require "outside" motivations? Argh, this comment is triggering my brain cells.

[Majic.4801]

Good guilds don't need guild-only content to be good, and guild-only content won't make bad guilds good.

 

Guilds are important, but *guild-only* content isn't as important as content everyone can enjoy.

[FrizzFreston.5290]

I honestly don't care whether there is a guild team or not. I do like guild oriented content. Whether its needed for guilds or not.