Guild Management System (GMS)

[UurlockYgmeov]

Haven't seen a thread on this topic in over a year... in fact IIRC all discussions about this were included in more pressing concerns (like Renown Decay).

So here goes. Kindly stay positive.

Guild Management System

Needs to be comprehensive tool, something that helps guilds from birth through death; from the player seeking to join, to joining, to being a good guildmate, to leaving the guild; to competing against other guilds.

Currently we have only a partially completed, fragmented system. Currently there is no in game way to look for a guild; no way for a guild to advert for more recruits; no way to easily or effectively track and manage a guild. This has to change in order for the game to survive and thrive.

Having a GMS would promote the health of the game because it would make finding, joining, and running a guild manageable, far less stressful and all achievable / done in game.

We cannot expect a GMS to be added overnight, rather would expect it first half of '16, which allows the Dev team to get through all the fun juicy bits they already have planned. (Say after the Cannith Crafting Pass) (So around U30 or U31) but before DDO's 10th Anniversary.

Why before the 10th Anniversary? Because that event will generate so much self-marketing that there will be a big surge of new and returning players. In order to KEEP them playing - they need to easily and readily find guilds that match their expectations.

WIIFM (So how does Turbine benefit)?? Guilds spend real money. Cost for a fully tricked out Kraken? 10,000 Astral Shards+++. Guilds help to keep players happy and Guilds tutor, mentor. and promote play. More play means more real money goes to Turbine.

Players Council Members - current and former : kindly lobby for this.

In order for a GMS to be considered successful the following needs have to be met:

1. Adverting / Recruitment / Researching / Pledging
2. Guild Life
   
   1. News
      
      1. activity log, it registers the guild events (creation, join, promotion, leveling, reincarnation etc)
      2. log of the guild vault (Guild AD / Plat bank events - guild chest adds/removes)
      
      
   2. Calendar
   3. Anniversaries
   4. Special Events
   5. Guild Mail
   6. Forums (pipe dream – but at least allow a space to list url)
   
   
3. Guild Management
   
   1. Roster
   2. Permissions
   3. Ranks
   4. Information
   5. MotD (Message of the Day) (more than the 128 or 256 characters now)
   
   
4. Statistics

[UurlockYgmeov]

A player needs to be able to easily find a guild. In doing so they need to be able to make an informed decision.


Neverwinter Nights Online (NWO) has a great way of doing this. It is on their social panel.

It should be relatively easy to add a 'FIND GUILD" tab to the existing social panel.

Should be able to search for guild by name, or using criteria like language, play style, social group, gender, race, time zone. All of these criteria the guild leaders should be able to set, including the ability to NOT appear on the 'find guild' list.

Example from NWO:



Once a search is executed, a player (even one in a guild) should be able to pull up a details popup which needs to include:
A recruitment / information statement, a listing of the criteria tags, and a listing of guild members on who may invite (Anonymous users would appear as anonymous - but a tell still would go through (???)).

[UurlockYgmeov]

A guild needs to be aware of its members, hence the need for a news feed.

News feed in two parts:

First part is the Member Activity Log: who joined, who left, who leveled, who's been promoted, who's been demoted, who's reincarnated.

Second Part is the Guild Vault Log: shows who added, or removed (or used) platinum, astral shards and items from the guild vault.

[UurlockYgmeov]

Most guilds want to do things together. Most guilds want to be able to offer teaching raids/get togethers etc. Facilitating this is part of a GMS.

A Full blown calendar is a pipe-dream - but at least include the ability to schedule events and track anniversaries. Anniversaries like when someone joined the guild and when the guild was formed.

[UurlockYgmeov]

Guilds need to communicate. Some guilds would like to publish a weekly mail-blast or newsletter. Some guilds have members who scour the forums and like to share news.

I would like to see two levels: an ALL MEMBER mail and an Officer mail only.

[UurlockYgmeov]

Forums.

Yes this is a pipe dream, but at least have a spot to list a url to a guild website / page.

Same goes for Skype / Vent / Teamspeak.

Make it easier to communicate / coordinate as a guild.

[UurlockYgmeov]

Currently Guild Management is a massive PITA. The more members you have, the more you devote to just keeping things straight.

Currently our existing roster is great, except for a couple of missing things:

1. no way of grouping / sorting by ACCOUNT
2. no way of hiding offline players
3. no way of player edited memo line (player edited not guild edited)

[UurlockYgmeov]

One of the long standing unfinished parts of the existing GMS is Guild Ranks. Yes there was a valid reason to disable the ability to add ranks and change rank names back in the day.

Now NWO has 7 ranks in its guild management system. Do we need 7? well why not, but at least more than the 3 we have now (member, officer, leader).

Now of course it has different things one can do - but still, what NWO presents is a very well executed GMS.

For the Kobold Konsortium™ we would like to have the lowest rank be pledge or recruit, the next retired or long term vacation, and the next be member.

Yes, I would have the lowest setting NOT able to remove anything from guild storage (Pledge level).

NWO Permission Settings page (editing lowest rank)



NWO Permission Settings page (editing Guild Leader rank) - only thing editable is the rank name.

[UurlockYgmeov]

Guild Management : Information and the MotD

Now this allows you to edit and set things like the Guild Message of the Day (MotD) (please allow more than what space we are allowed now)

Recruiting Message which is what players see when they do a guild search and ask for this guild details.

Name / Airship Name (yes - can put a TP or AS price on this)

Guild Description

Guild Web site URL

Search Tag settings

[UurlockYgmeov]

Guild Statistics (both public and private information)

Active member size


And fun stats or information.

Maybe have posted on the Founder's Fountain (which is still not working)?

[UurlockYgmeov]

^^^^^ above is a work in progress and will add / edit as this thread evolves.

---

What do you think?

I have only one concern about this thread -- that since there are only a few that manage guilds and feel the pain of the amount of work it is, there will be only a few that are interested in seeing this go live.

This is sad because a well (or poorly) executed guild management system affects and effects everyone - from Dev's to players.

[Ambitious]

Back in the day, when we still had myDDO, you could use that to search for guilds. Every guild had a homepage that could be accessed over the game. On this page they could inform potential members what the guild was about. I liked it very much. As, you said, finding guilds easy is an important step to make new players stay in the game.

I am also in favor of more guild ranks. something like:

• Trial
• Inactive
• Member
• Officer
• Guild Admin
• Guild Leader

To be honest, I like all of the proposed changes. It would take alot of time to develop it, but I really think, it would be worth it.

[UurlockYgmeov]

Back in the day, when we still had myDDO, you could use that to search for guilds. Every guild had a homepage that could be accessed over the game. On this page they could inform potential members what the guild was about. I liked it very much. As, you said, finding guilds easy is an important step to make new players stay in the game.

I am also in favor of more guild ranks. something like:

• Trial
• Inactive
• Member
• Officer
• Guild Admin
• Guild Leader

To be honest, I like all of the proposed changes. It would take alot of time to develop it, but I really think, it would be worth it.

I remember myddo. was a great resource - but it was not in game, which was its biggest drawback. Why a drawback, because those that needed the information the most (the new players and the other folk looking for a good guild) didn't know where to look.

As far as the ranks - being able to rename the ranks is good; would also prefer a way to label long term inactive / vacationing members through an officer comment or rank as we both suggested.

[The_Human_Cypher]

/signed. Thank you for your detailed exposition of a new GMS. I agree that a feature like this would greatly enhance game play and also help retain new players. Neverwinter Online, whatever its demerits as an MMO, does have a very user friendly GMS which makes it easy to find a suitable Guild immediately. I played Neverwinter for awhile and I was able to use its GMS to quickly find a Guild composed of other adults, instead of the 12 year olds that seem to comprise the majority of its player base.

[UurlockYgmeov]

/signed. Thank you for your detailed exposition of a new GMS. I agree that a feature like this would greatly enhance game play and also help retain new players. Neverwinter Online, whatever its demerits as an MMO, does have a very user friendly GMS which makes it easy to find a suitable Guild immediately. I played Neverwinter for awhile and I was able to use its GMS to quickly find a Guild composed of other adults, instead of the 12 year olds that seem to comprise the majority of its player base.

+1 Yes, NWO did that one thing right. Thank you for your support.

[UurlockYgmeov]

wow - I am very surprised at the lack of comments (or even wise cracks) at this thread.

[kilagan800]

A well detailed and easy to use interface to manage your guild. Even though I like and agree with all the ideas you presented, the one that stands out the most, at least for me, is the "Find Guild" tab. It makes it easier to describe your guild if you wish to add more members, and makes it easier for members, especially new members, to pick and chose which kind of guild they are looking for or what appeals most.

This will also end the need for the "blind invite", spamming in general chat, and the act of annoying new and veteran players. Constantly. This way, guilds can freely and efficiently advertise themselves as intended.

As a whole, this new system is smart, clean and brings an exciting user-friendly service for all players that will surely bring a positive atmosphere to the game.

/signed

+1

[Stoner81]

+1 OP very well thought out.

The guild roster would greatly benefit from allowing guild leaders to make notes so they can assign names to characters and similar things, searching by account would also help a lot too.

Stoner81.

[Windaar]

+1 For this idea.

I think this would be a great idea. As a guild leader on Kyber (Sacred Order of the Shaolin Temple), I have wished more than once for a way to promote the guild. We used to do the random invites to any player not in a guild or quest between levels 1-20, but we were losing members faster than we were getting them; this method was canned about a year ago. The idea of a Find Guild tab where you can find out information about a guild and it's expectations is long past due. Maybe it can even be a list that you can access through the Founder's Fountain in the Harbor? I have noticed that the list of founders does not show up any more, and using the statue only shows a "Error 404 - Webpage not Found" window. That fountain is in a perfect location, as every new player who comes through the harbor will be doing low level quests right beside it (Durk's Got a Secret, Garrison's Missing Pack, Home Sweet Sewer, etc.). If using the fountain could access a Find Guild function, it would be perfect.

As for the other ideas proposed by the OP, I see no problems with it. This would be a great addition to the game, and would make running a guild and recruiting a lot easier, and it would be more reliable than the method of posting/spamming in general chat in the Harbor/Marketplace.

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Aerriss - Guild Leader of Sacred Order of the Shaolin Temple on Kyber.

[The_Human_Cypher]

I would really like to see this feature implemented. I suspect that the devs are loathe to invest this kind of programming in a 10 year old game, but these kinds of features help retain new players and are worth revenue to Turbine. The present Guild system is very informal, so adding a GMS would make finding a Guild potentially as easy as joining an LFM.