Officers' Quarters: Cataclysm's benefits for guild organization
by Scott Andrews 
Jan 9th 2012 at 9:00AM
As I predicted back in the summer of 2009, Cataclysm changed WoW's guilds and the guild experience more than any other expansion in the game's history. Many of these changes were a boon to officers, but even the positive changes sometimes had unfortunate drawbacks. Other changes were not as welcome. Let's look back and see how each of these shifts in game and guild design have affected us as officers over the past year and how Blizzard could improve them in the future.
What we didn't get
Every expansion has its list of announced features that don't make the cut. Two guild features that eventually got the axe were guild talents and guild currency.
Despite arguing in favor of guild talents, replacing them with universal perks was probably the right move for Blizzard at the time. With all the other upheaval that guilds had to endure during Cataclysm, choosing talents would have been one more unwelcome source of stress for officers. However, I still believe that providing us with more in-game ways to distinguish one guild from another is desirable and good.
Forcing officers to choose between PvE and PvP talents isn't the right way to do it. Guilds should be able to support all gameplay preferences equally if they so choose.
If guild talents are ever reconsidered, they should be more fun and less functional. For example, give us a talent tier that lends our guild's support to a faction leader. Choosing Sylvanas lets us summon val'kyrs once a day to deal damage, rez you, or drop your opponent off the side of a really high tower. Make it completely overpowered -- and unusable anywhere but in the open world.
The demise of guild currency
Guild currency was a clunky idea from the beginning. The original concept allowed guilds to unlock the banners, pets, mounts, and so forth that we earn through reputation and achievements today. The currency would have allowed us to purchase certain crafting materials, as well as guild heirlooms that could be given out to members. The heirloom item would default to the guild bank if the player left the guild.
Tying rewards to rep/achievements and letting players buy their own heirlooms are better solutions. Even so, it would have be pretty nice right now to trade currency for feast materials that always seem to be in short supply.
Where I'd eventually like to see this currency idea reappear is for guild housing or guild airships. Allow guilds to earn currency and use that currency to upgrade their stuff. Gold is too easy to obtain, and begging your players for contributions would be awkward. Thus, a form of guild currency would make sense for housing or vehicle upgrades.
Puzzling reputation design
Blizzard's replacement for the scuttled currency system is guild reputation. It's so bizarre to me that this is essentially a solo rep grind, similar to any other NPC rep in the game. I get that doing solo stuff also helps to level your guild, but this system could have been so much more. The current implementation is a huge missed opportunity to reward players for actively supporting guilds.
Leveling and Achievements: A mixed bag
When Cataclysm first released, leveling your guild and earning achievements was a fresh and exciting experience. Guildmates cheered as their organization dinged, providing everyone with handy perks. Earning achievements to unlock mounts, pets, and crucial raiding recipes like cauldrons and feasts brought guilds together toward a common purpose. The nerfs to certain achievement requirements early in the expansion were a welcome change, especially for smaller communities.
Game-supported methods of investing time and energy to improve our guilds lends additional value to our communities. Knowing what it takes to max out a guild means that guild leaders will hesitate to disband them when things go sour. That is healthy for both guilds and the game.
However, these improvements were not completely positive for guilds. Newer guilds have had a more difficult time getting off the ground than they otherwise might. Players in max-level guilds have been spoiled by a cornucopia of quality of life improvements. Foregoing those to take a chance on a brand new community is daunting.
To combat this, I would like to see newly formed guilds have their own set of temporary perks that last for a month or two after the charter is completed. They don't have to mirror what a max-rank guild would have by any means, but right now the complete absence of perks contrasts too starkly.
Finally, finally -- UI improvements
I complained about the horrible old guild UI for at least three years. Before Cataclysm it had not changed since the launch of the game in November 2004. The new UI could stand a few improvements, such as identifying alts within the roster window, but overall the interface has been massively improved. It's a welcome change for guild leaders and officers everywhere, and I hope that Blizzard continues to refine it.
The Guild Finder fails
Much like Blizzard's in-game voice chat, the Guild Finder tool is essentially a nonfeature. I haven't heard about too many guilds using it successfully. I've tried to encourage guilds to make use of it, since recruiting is such a perennial problem. However, I really don't blame people for ignoring this option. It's simply too limited in its current form, particularly when it comes to touching base with the recruit in question.
I'd like to see Blizzard offer more and better options to support recruitment in the future. Using the official Guild Recruitment forum is an unorganized nightmare for both officers and recruits alike. Blizzard continues to improve matchmaking for dungeon and raid groups -- maybe some day you'll be able to click on some preferences, hit a button, and the game will find the perfect guild for you while you grind out your dailies.
Next week in part 2, I'll move on to the big game-changers for raiding guilds in Cataclysm -- the controversial new loot and lockout systems and the Raid Finder.
/salute
Recently, Officers' Quarters has examined how strong new leadership can create a guild turnaround, the pitfalls of promising more than you can deliver, and lessons learned from Scott's own guild demise. Send your own guild-related questions and suggestions to scott@wowinsider.com.
Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
jdryner Jan 9th 2012 9:36AM
The bad thing about guild rep/guild gold is that after you bust your hump to get exalted with your guild or a nice amount of gold for expenses, sometimes the gm/raid leaders decide that they are burned out from raiding, and refuse to help other guildies when they are just getting into it. Ultimately, this forced me and several others to leave....oh the GM? He started a horde guild and rededicated himself to PVP; I am still wating for him to empty the guild bank and transfer it all to the hordeside.
-Finneous
cromus00 Jan 9th 2012 9:36AM
I am loving the increased leveling speed, extra mats, faster dead running (which I use more than I would like to), and all the other little perks they have put in the game. This has really helped to motivate me to level us some alts and actually go through the Cataclysm 0-60 content.
The officers use the guild notes to update who is an alt of who. This really helps keep things clean. Are you suggesting it almost like the realid system where you just show one name like Main(alt)? This wouldn't be too bad.
divinite Jan 9th 2012 2:55PM
That's what I would like. Since they're adding account wide ignore in the next patch hopefully this is coming too. It would also be nice because then alts joining a guild could be bumped up to a normal member rank without having to wait three days for their authenticator to come through. It would also open up guild notes to other things and isn't dependent on someone actually remembering to write who's alt it was in the note! I know we're pretty bad about that in my guild.
mswope Jan 9th 2012 9:52AM
The guild perks were the last straw for our small, social guild. We lost half our active members to guilds that had more perks sooner than we could get them.
vocenoctum Jan 9th 2012 11:39AM
I was in a level 25 social guild, quite large, and it was a non-stop stream of idiots that wanted to join for the perks, get help leveling and do nothing at all otherwise. So yeah, the systems not "perfect" at all.
Katherine Jan 9th 2012 4:15PM
We're a small raiding guild that just hit 13 or 14 (can't remember which), and recruitment and retaining people hasn't been an issue for us, though it has been slow. We are finally fielding a full raid team instead of mostly pugs, though many of our team are people that have joined our guild after raiding with us for ages. It is mildly irritating that we can't mass res or mass summon though.
Gimmlette Jan 9th 2012 9:53AM
My guild enjoyed the excitement that comes with pushing toward each new level and the perks it got us. We've done most of the grinding ones so now we look over what's undone and decide, as a guild, what we're going to work on next. You don't have to participate in that push, but I find that the excitement grows as we near an achievement and people want to participate in pushing us over.
The Guild Finder is essentially useless. We do find a few people that way, but there is no way to distinguish yourself from any other guild. Do we run PvP? We sure do, but we're not a PvP guild. We're not hard core. We feel we have a unique profile, but the Guild Finder does not give guilds much of a way to sell themselves. There should be space for your guild web site, if you have one, and way more space to define who you are and what kinds of players might like your brand of WOW.
I need more ranks. Right now, the ranks, as we have them set up, delineate who does and does not have an authenticator and whether their toon is an alt or a main. I have no room to promote hard working guild members or those who have been around a long time. As bank access is tied to whether you have an authenticator or not, people get into a rank and that's where they will stay because I have no flexibility to move them up. Not every guild would take advantage of all available ranks but I certainly would.
There needs to be more room in the player comments for people to list their professions or their main or something else. There's not enough room in the officer's comments for us to note date joined (for promotion purposes) and whose alt this is, if that's applicable.
The Guild Message of the Day is a joke and has been for years. It's the first thing that loads but it's immediately obscured by messages from Blizzard. Either make that the last thing that loads in the chat window or give me a bulletin board in major cities where I can post announcements.
From my perspective, I don't see the lack of perks as a detriment to guild hopping or to guild creation. It's tough to go from a guild that's level 25 to one that's level 12, but people still do it and people still create guilds and spam Trade and General chat with recruiting announcements. If people aren't happy, they will go elsewhere, even if that means they don't have access to instant mail between guild members.
I think this was a good first step in improving the guild experience. Guilds are what the members make of them. Blizzard provided tools to help us define ourselves better. I'm interested to see where they take them in MoP.
Rhüarc Jan 9th 2012 11:01AM
I would definitely be happy if blizz took a page from SWTOR's book when it comes to the guild MOTD. when you log in, the MOTD appears in a small pop up box in the middle of your screen that you can x out of. This would ensure that my guildies see the message without it being scrolled offscreen by bliss's system messages or addon messages.
DarkWalker Jan 9th 2012 1:20PM
"""
From my perspective, I don't see the lack of perks as a detriment to guild hopping or to guild creation. It's tough to go from a guild that's level 25 to one that's level 12, but people still do it and people still create guilds and spam Trade and General chat with recruiting announcements. If people aren't happy, they will go elsewhere, even if that means they don't have access to instant mail between guild members.
"""
You should be seeing more guild spam - it takes much more effort, and thus much more spamming the trade channel, for lower level guilds to recruit players now. Prospective members often just take a look at the guild's level and walk away.
Meanwhile, the already big guilds get a constant stream of players that want to join just for the perks.
Gimmlette Jan 9th 2012 1:50PM
@ Darkwalker
You'd think that would be true. I don't have Trade open on any toon except the bank alts and I don't see what I would consider to be more "Please join" spam than what I have in the past. Guilds are still being created with the average of 1 per week. Part of me wonders if these are bank guilds, although my server has seen a recent flurry of PvP-oriented guilds created.
I'm not sure about the application to the level 25 guilds. They recruit as much as they used to, but they aren't standing around in the major cities spamming their message. They seem to use the WOW forums to fill specific slots in their raiding groups.
We're a level 25 guild and our recent membership flurry is due to word of mouth. I do wonder what the hardcore raiding guilds think about the guild perks.
Joshua Jan 9th 2012 10:23AM
the biggest issue i had with the guildfinder is that when igo to invoite soemoen they are never on. an option for the invite to go to the person once they log on would be great.
divinite Jan 9th 2012 3:00PM
I'd add to that the ability to send them a message via mail. Currently the only option is to message them, but that only works if they are online as well. Since a good number of the apps we've had in the past have had obnoxious special characters and you can't copy names they end up getting no response.
I'd also like to see a check box if they had been contacted (XX officer contacted on date) so we don't end up having multiple people contact them.
wow Jan 9th 2012 10:15AM
My only real complaint for the Guild System, is that it seems to punish non-raiding guilds. I run a very small (30-50 members of mostly alts) social RP guild and the Guild level is sllooowwwwww, We've been stuck on L.2 now for most of 2011. I just wish they'd find a way for small guilds like mine to level a wee bit quicker at lower levels.
Other than this small issue. I enjoy the perks you can earn. One day we will get there. :)
Shinanji
Leland Ford Jan 9th 2012 10:15AM
I have to agree the guild UI is much improved and very usefull especially when I need to know about another guild members professions and whether they can craft that all important item of gear/mount/potion One thing I would like to see though would be to integrate the guild roster into the social UI Once Real-ID showed up it was a good way to clean up the seemingly endless collection of Alts and In-active player on my friends list. But I would like a way to show online guild member on the social panel to make group invites that much easier.
Namssob Jan 9th 2012 10:20AM
Grimmlette - good points, especially about the MOTD and space in notes. But I have some tips for Officer Notes that might help you....
We also keep join date and alt names in Officer notes. We came up with a notation that keeps the space maximized. For date, use YYMMDD ,, etc. You can usually get 3 alt names in before you run out of space. Then in ach alt, we put the Main's name. It's not perfect, but it has helped. One other tip on alts names - the Prat "chat" addon is fantastic for this, as is Guild Extender. I use Prat because it's simpler to use, but you can mark alts easily with both.
One change that was overlooked that would be VERY helpful for GM's would be to separate Repair gold from Withdrawal gold. I don't mean the checkbox we currently have, but there should be TWO gold amounts. My guild provides unlimited repairs to anyone that is a Member and above. But I don't want to provide unlimited gold withdrawal to Officers. With the current system, I can't open up one without opening up the other.
An "instanced" guild hall seems to be the thing we've all been asking for for years. Make some of these perks or guild currency spendable in the guild hall, and based on the guild level. It's nice to have a place to hang out, but if you put perks inside the guild hall (like Void Storage, mount vendor, guild bank tabs, etc), it would increase guild member interaction.
Gimmlette Jan 9th 2012 2:02PM
We do use MMDDYY. So Gimmlette joins 1-9-12. She brings her alt in so the Officer note read's Gimm's alt 1-9-12. Gimm's daughter joins. She's 8 and officers need to know this. "Gimm's daug, age 8, 1-9-12". Gimm's daughter brings an alt in. Quickly, the information officers need to know gets filled because there's not enough allowed space to type and that's even if we agree on what abbreviations to use. Come on Blizz. Give me 50 spaces. I'll look into those add-ons for my use.
A number of people who still refuse to go to Altoholics Anonymous use "Identity". So, when Gimm is on an alt, their chat reads "Grimm (Gimmlette)", which is a tremendous help to new people and to me, to get to know who goes with whom.
DarkWalker Jan 9th 2012 10:51AM
I really think quality of life improvements, usable while solo, should never have been granted as guild perks. Also, the guild leveling should have been made progressively faster with time - to the point a new guild with 10-20 active players could actually get to max level in a month or two, in order to balance out the fact they are starting late.
Another idea would been to track guild XP, and guild achievement progression for the grindy achievements, on individual players instead of the guild itself; the total guild XP, then, would be found by adding the XP from the 10-20 most progressed players, and the achievements from adding the progression of every player. This way, players would actually be important to guilds - if the GL entered into a conflict with the rest of the guild, those players could just leave the guild and found another, taking their guild XP and achievement progression with them, and potentially leaving the GL with an empty, low level guild.
omedon666 Jan 9th 2012 11:17AM
"I really think quality of life improvements, usable while solo, should never have been granted as guild perks."
Guilds (indeed, the game) are built one person at a time. Less co-dependency and more individual benefit is a good thing. Form your guilds for the community, not as a marriage to live together. That's how I see it anyway.
DarkWalker Jan 9th 2012 1:14PM
Perks that are mainly solo bonuses are one of the reasons I'm not that interested in WoW anymore. All those guild perks makes me feel like characters without a guild - and a high level guild, at that - are second class characters.
Given that I take my sweet time choosing a guild, and won't ever get in a guild just for a few perks and a shot at game content - I will only join a guild if I can legitimately think about most of it's members as actual friends - all this makes me feel like Blizzard simply does not care about players like me, for whom guilds should never be just a convenience thing, but instead a group of like minded players that are care about each other and want to face the game together.
Not to mention that the current guild leveling system puts too much power into the big guilds, and more specifically in the hands of guild masters. As said before in the article, starting a new guild, something that was already hard before Cataclysm, became even harder. Worse yet, what is to prevent an unscrupulous guild master that is leaving the game from just kicking everyone else from the guild and selling control of it? I believe a lv25 guild would fetch a pretty penny.
Twill Jan 9th 2012 10:54AM
The last artice I wasnt an officer. Now I am. yay!