Forum Post of the Day: Guild halls
by Elizabeth Harper 
Nov 29th 2006 at 5:30PM
Though many MMOs do have some type of guild housing available, World of Warcraft doesn't have any such option, nor are there (to my knowledge) any officially acknowledged plans to create them. However, there are players out there who would very much like to see some sort of guild housing in the game -- and some of them have hit up the suggestion forums with incredibly detailed proposals. Poster Kinn presents us with an in-depth (too in-depth to be succinctly summarized) look at what guild halls could be like, and the thread has garnered over 20 pages of mostly positive responses. So what do you think? Would such a system benefit the game? Would another type of system be better? Or is guild housing a silly idea in the first place?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Shakina Nov 29th 2006 5:42PM
The first rule of Fight Club...
Freehugz Nov 29th 2006 6:20PM
I didn't read any of the posts, but any sort of place for guilds to gather would be terrible for server queue lines. It would only encourage people to just idle on the server just to chat.
Hammer Nov 29th 2006 6:28PM
Guild Halls are a godawaful idea. Just look at what happened with the player created houses and Guild Towns in SWG.
Not to mention, what the hell do you actually need them for?
Ryan D. Nov 29th 2006 7:28PM
Doing this in an instanced fashion would be great.
Look at the current solution for something like a guild bank - Guilds have a genuine need for a collective bank, and it doesn't really make the developers look good that the solution for this rather fundamental function is to have a guild leader or office have an alt, that is invariably level 1, and is named 'guild name + bank'...
That.. is kinda clunky.
Freehugz Nov 29th 2006 10:47PM
well its pretty obvious why they don't make a guild bank feature, they don't want to deal with all the drama that comes from it.
Matt Nov 29th 2006 9:54PM
Guild Bank: yes
Guild Hall: meh
Kaziel Nov 29th 2006 9:21PM
If the do it akin to how FFXI did housing (a zone that leads to an instanced room you can decorate and stuff) it would be great. Just have an instance portal in one town for each faction (Org and IF for example), that leads to the "Guildhall area of town". At that point you immediately zone into your guild hall. And maybe others can be invited into the guild hall for a limited amount of time. :)
Plus they could give item rewards for beating bosses (not just raid bosses, but any bosses) that can be put up as "proof" of your conquests. :D
Itai Nov 29th 2006 9:20PM
The whole idea of a guild hall doesn't seem to address the issues of guild management and communication that WOW in it's current iteration seems to lack. Guild halls seem to be an overly complex solution to some simple problems.
Ryan D's post on an improvement to the guild banking system is right on. I also would like to see some type of guild banking system created. This could be tied to the guild charter. Blizzard could associate the banking privileges to the Guild Master and the guild master could allow access to the bank based on guild member's rank (definable by the guild master).
One other area that could use improvement would be the ability to send a guild wide mail message. Right now, the mail system only allows you to send messages to individual players. The only way for a guild master to get the word out to ALL guild members is via a website. Not all guilds want or need to maintain a website. Nor do all members check a website. Most will read their in game mail. My suggestion is to give GM's (and members, based on rank) the ability to send guild wide messages easily in game.
A guild hall isn't necessarily the only way to resolve these issues. I agree with Hammer in regards to how bad guild halls and houses were in SWG. They were an eyesore on the game. No reason to repeat that mistake in WOW.
Some other ideas for guild management improvement:
- Raid/Battleground Signup Tool
- In game DKP system
Ngnsewa Nov 29th 2006 10:36PM
The whole thing seems very overly complicated (bloated) to me. I would be happy with and instanced room that guild members can zone into and access a raid/guild bank.
All players having permissions to drop stuff off, and only officers/GM access to get things out. Anything past that is gravy. What this guy is suggesting is like a whole other game (Or perhaps he is in the wrong one Lineage 2/DaoC maybe?? its not World of Buildcraft)
Luka Nov 30th 2006 12:58AM
I am quite surprised nobody here acknowledges there were plans at one point to do it in an instantiated way. Let's say it will happen the patch just before the hero classes ;)
Tip: look for a portal in Stormwind. No, not the jail :)
Tigor Dec 3rd 2006 9:32PM
I think it's a great idea. Now we guildies have a place to meet for events, and officers have a place for office meetings.
/confirm
Heymish Nov 30th 2006 10:06AM
#10- Deeprun Tram you mean? Guild Halls would also be a great time sink to give players something else to do. There have been a few times when I have been playing, and couldn't decide what to do next. At least I would have a place to go instead of wandering around aimlessly. You all have been there at least once before right? Also the team accomplishment aspect would give guildies a heightened sense of pride and comradery.
Zalman Jan 2nd 2007 1:10PM
Anyone on the Gorfeind server that is lvl 10-30 and would like to join a very new and cool guild that will be helping eachother out PST Reconzach or myself for invite