Firstly as a long standing guild master I've seen wow develop and change over the years. From what i can see at the moment from a guild master perspecitve, is that the game feels anti-guild, especially in the aspect of raiding. Now i'd like to stress that i don't mean this in a blizzard policy way but more a combination of community opinion supplemented with blizzard implementing systems for convenience.
From what i have read over many forums on many sites, the player base generally view guilds in a negative light, which in a lot of instances the reasons for this negativity is completely unfounded. There are also players that try to play this MMO as if it was a single player experience, while this is fine I feel these player are missing out on the great things that guilds can bring to the table.
However, there are nearly no features in the game which cannot be done outside of guilds which makes them irrelevant in the eyes of many players. There are some other benefits of guilds like community and playing with friends etc, but with the new community features coming this will all be achievable without being in a guild. So the question is, what is the point of guilds moving forward?
Well in my experience, the most fun I've had while playing wow was while being part of a guild. Ultimately, i want everyone to experience the joys of wow as i have but the game needs some changes to make this possible.
So what would i like to see changed? Well some of these ideas might seem unpopular and might seem a little more anti-guild but the point of this post is target the reason for the communities perception as well as fantasy that many players have about what guilds are like. I have a number of suggestions so i have separated them so they can be discussed individual to limit confusion.
Reduce the maximum number of accounts that can join a guild.
The player cap for guilds should be say 300-400 accounts, now notice i said accounts and not characters? If guilds want to allow alts, that's fine but i see no point in a guild having more than 400 accounts, as the players just become a face in the crowd instead of something meaningful (which they should be). If guilds became smaller, then more guilds would pop up, with more options comes competition and with it the will to improve. If I'm honest i would like to see the cap even lower than this but i feel it is a happy medium. For guilds with more than this number, they should be restricted from inviting new players until their numbers drop.
In game Guild recruitment feature fixed.
I love the fact that blizzard implemented this but the manner of implementing it is terrible. Case in point, from a guildless alt think of guild that you know about, then using the guild finder feature try and find that guild. I would argue that in more instances that not, it will either take you a long time or be flat out impossible.
I believe there needs to be an overhaul of this feature to allow players better search capabilities as well as be able to see what the guild HAS done and not what they intend on doing. Maybe the ability to see/search via with access to the guild activity pages, calendar events, relevant guild achievements or number of members in the guild. Also guilds should have more options to advertise themselves such as what classes and spec they are looking for and not just tank, dps or healers.
Create cross server lockouts for the first few weeks of raid content.
This is already done in mythic and the time gating for LFR works in a similar fashion. I feel it should be extended to all raid content to give guilds a small window to get ahead. For example, normal and heroic from release can be cross server pugged after a few weeks, maybe heroic around the same time as the final wing of LFR or slightly sooner?
The immediate argument i will get is that people should have the choice to pug if they want and as i said before generally i agree with this sentiment. But if players needed to be in guilds for the first few weeks to take part in new tiers of content more would do so, bringing more people into these communities. Having been on both sides of the fence I fully believe that guilds are the best way to play and despite there being some bad guilds out there I feel that current perception is that guilds are bad. The best way to change this misconception is to make people see for themselves. Some would prefer to wait and this is fine also.
I think some guilds just need a little time to get through some content before they are made irrelevant and i believe it will lead to more guilds taking the step into harder content. From what i can tell, Blizzard might be making content harder to make heroic not puggable but i feel this will have a worse affect on these guilds.
Break guild recruiting addons. (make guilds have to communicate with players)
These addons are currently being used to mass invite entire server factions to a guild and are (in my opinion) an annoyance. How guilds can claim to be social when using a piece of software to communicate for them is beyond me but the biggest issue is that guilds that are using these pieces of software are swallowing up the player base.
In my experience many of these types of guilds don't engage with the recruited players and make guilds feel like a second trade chat. By removing these methods of inviting players, joining guilds would become a more meaningful experience which would be better for guilds, the player and servers as a whole.
From what i have read over many forums on many sites, the player base generally view guilds in a negative light, which in a lot of instances the reasons for this negativity is completely unfounded. There are also players that try to play this MMO as if it was a single player experience, while this is fine I feel these player are missing out on the great things that guilds can bring to the table.
However, there are nearly no features in the game which cannot be done outside of guilds which makes them irrelevant in the eyes of many players. There are some other benefits of guilds like community and playing with friends etc, but with the new community features coming this will all be achievable without being in a guild. So the question is, what is the point of guilds moving forward?
Well in my experience, the most fun I've had while playing wow was while being part of a guild. Ultimately, i want everyone to experience the joys of wow as i have but the game needs some changes to make this possible.
So what would i like to see changed? Well some of these ideas might seem unpopular and might seem a little more anti-guild but the point of this post is target the reason for the communities perception as well as fantasy that many players have about what guilds are like. I have a number of suggestions so i have separated them so they can be discussed individual to limit confusion.
Reduce the maximum number of accounts that can join a guild.
The player cap for guilds should be say 300-400 accounts, now notice i said accounts and not characters? If guilds want to allow alts, that's fine but i see no point in a guild having more than 400 accounts, as the players just become a face in the crowd instead of something meaningful (which they should be). If guilds became smaller, then more guilds would pop up, with more options comes competition and with it the will to improve. If I'm honest i would like to see the cap even lower than this but i feel it is a happy medium. For guilds with more than this number, they should be restricted from inviting new players until their numbers drop.
In game Guild recruitment feature fixed.
I love the fact that blizzard implemented this but the manner of implementing it is terrible. Case in point, from a guildless alt think of guild that you know about, then using the guild finder feature try and find that guild. I would argue that in more instances that not, it will either take you a long time or be flat out impossible.
I believe there needs to be an overhaul of this feature to allow players better search capabilities as well as be able to see what the guild HAS done and not what they intend on doing. Maybe the ability to see/search via with access to the guild activity pages, calendar events, relevant guild achievements or number of members in the guild. Also guilds should have more options to advertise themselves such as what classes and spec they are looking for and not just tank, dps or healers.
Create cross server lockouts for the first few weeks of raid content.
This is already done in mythic and the time gating for LFR works in a similar fashion. I feel it should be extended to all raid content to give guilds a small window to get ahead. For example, normal and heroic from release can be cross server pugged after a few weeks, maybe heroic around the same time as the final wing of LFR or slightly sooner?
The immediate argument i will get is that people should have the choice to pug if they want and as i said before generally i agree with this sentiment. But if players needed to be in guilds for the first few weeks to take part in new tiers of content more would do so, bringing more people into these communities. Having been on both sides of the fence I fully believe that guilds are the best way to play and despite there being some bad guilds out there I feel that current perception is that guilds are bad. The best way to change this misconception is to make people see for themselves. Some would prefer to wait and this is fine also.
I think some guilds just need a little time to get through some content before they are made irrelevant and i believe it will lead to more guilds taking the step into harder content. From what i can tell, Blizzard might be making content harder to make heroic not puggable but i feel this will have a worse affect on these guilds.
Break guild recruiting addons. (make guilds have to communicate with players)
These addons are currently being used to mass invite entire server factions to a guild and are (in my opinion) an annoyance. How guilds can claim to be social when using a piece of software to communicate for them is beyond me but the biggest issue is that guilds that are using these pieces of software are swallowing up the player base.
In my experience many of these types of guilds don't engage with the recruited players and make guilds feel like a second trade chat. By removing these methods of inviting players, joining guilds would become a more meaningful experience which would be better for guilds, the player and servers as a whole.
