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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsOfficers' 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 2 of 2)
omedon666 Jan 9th 2012 11:14AM
The "XP hit" from completing a dungeon in LFD needs to count as a quest for guild rep (and by the way, that hit needs to remain consistent, there's no reason to cut your XP when you're done earning dungeon currency for the week). Leveling through the dungeon finder, indeed using it at the level cap is pointless on the guild rep front, and that's really sad, since it's a popular alt approach for players that are sick of the questlines.
The one bit of guild customization I've found myself wanting very often is the ability to trade in our BG and raid guild challenge for more 5-man challenges weekly. We're capped by wednesday due to the interests and size of our guild, and have never (nor will we ever likely) benefitted from the other two sources. We're active, we're enthusiastic, we just like 5-man content, and we'd trade in all that other "missed" potential to keep advancing in a way we like.
Honestly, in a way, I'm glad looking for guild failed. Guilds need to be an organic, personal, human decision, and with the game leaning even more into the "independent funtractor"
direction (you won't need to group or be/know a tank/healer to progress your character via VPs in MoP) there is less "need" and more "want" for personable communities, not conglomerates with cold checkboxes on the application form. The raid finder also opens up "the reason I need a guild" to once again be for personal, "real" reasons, and that's a step forward, less "need these people" and more "want these people" is a good thing!
omedon666 Jan 9th 2012 11:15AM
I should point out that my lamentations about using the dungeon finder for guild rep refer to solo undertakings.
Also... the XP hit appears to be modified by guild and heirloom bonuses... I'd like them to go all the way and count it as a "Quest" on the guild rep front.
The Dewd Jan 9th 2012 11:23AM
I was worried about this stuff initially. My guild is small and social and while we have close to 100 accounts, the regular, active members is a much smaller list. I was very pleased to see that the guild achievements we "need" were either accessible or were nerfed (like the 10-man cauldron). With all the alt-itis we have in our guild, we leveled up fairly quickly.
The Guild Finder has helped us a little bit - but we don't actively recruit. I don't think enough folks even bother to check it and most who do don't put any info into their "application". No one is going to invite a random level 10 character or a level 56 DK. The Guild Finder system needs some way to leave feedback/comments and also tag a person with a pending invite so if you do see a good match, they can just be queued up for an invite the next time they log in.
The biggest guild functionality I'd like to see is something to help me manage the bank. Seeing which items sat in the bank for more than a set amount of time (30 days?) without being touched, moved, re-stacked, etc, would be nice. The search ability is nice for combining stacks - if you know there are multiples. I'd also like to see a way to turn on tracking for guild-based achievements so folks know what we're working on without having to put it into the MOTD and re-spam the message all the time.
loli.gigis Jan 9th 2012 12:31PM
While the perks are nice, it really hinders recruitment for low level guilds. When we started our guild fresh it was so hard to get people to join, once you got to about level 4 it started to get a lot easier. People just didn't want to leave their perks. Now we are 25 and honestly I don't even think about it anymore, past the leveling experience the perks are almost negligible. There are a few that we rely on (mass summon, guild bank, mass rez, money generator) but others we forget they are even there.
D Jan 9th 2012 12:43PM
I think the perks are broken. They really do hurt smaller guilds. The guild xp required to level should scale with the number of members.
Anyway, I was an officer that left a level 21 guild after it was decided we should mass recruit for the push to 25. I ended up joining a much smaller level 5 guild. By the time my first guild hit 25 my new guild was at 23 almost 24. It is a great group. The first guild all but died after the GM spot was passed around quite a bit, the guild was given to a server transfer.
It is a nice system but it could definitely use some improvements.
Jason Jan 9th 2012 1:21PM
Want to fix the Guild Recruitment panel? Add a button which allows a GM to send (from anywhere) a mail message to a guild recruit, and threw option of whether to attach a "Join Now" button - or better yet, an item with a "Use to Join" on-use, which is BoA and malamute to same-faction alts. With a 2hr countdown to disappearance. "This Goblin-made guild button will self-restrict..."
Swifteye Jan 9th 2012 1:58PM
"The current implementation is a huge missed opportunity to reward players for actively supporting guilds"
*sigh*... I hate to be a Whiny McWhinus, but I agree.
I'm ashamed to admit that I'm *still* not Exalted with my guild... because I do not keep the same waking schedule as most of them, I hardly ever find myself online when enough people are on and want to do guild runs. And because I do not do daily quests; when not running dungeons, I prefer to make my money via farming.
Oh, how I wish my preference for farming would let me have rep... considering I did a HUGE portion of the guild's "Skinnin' For A Livin'", "That's a Lot of Bait", "Mix Master" AND "Bushels and Bushels" achievements. Considering the thousands upon thousands of those fish, leathers, flasks and herbs that I gave freely to guildies and the bank. Considering the many epics I've crafted with my own mats and handed over to guildies as a "Congrats on 85; now catch up to our gear so you can do stuff with us!" gift.
Meh. Someday... SOMEDAY I'll have my scorpion and purple phoenix..........
terph Jan 9th 2012 6:52PM
I have sympathy. I hate dailies. And when I moved from my old FF guild to a raiding guild, I went from exalted to neutral...and the new guild had 3 pets and 2 mounts that I wanted.
So I just sucked it up and did those horrible dailies. Turned out it wasn't bad at all. And with the 100% honored tabard that I brought from my original guild, it only took a few weeks to do the entire rep climb. It was much faster than I thought it would be, and I didn't even have to do the dailies every day...I'd hit the weekly cap before the end of the week easily. If you're at revered, it really won't take you as long as it seems. A level 25 guild has a lot of built in rep perks, and you can also try and do it during holidays like Thanksgiving where there's an additional buff.
Make sure you stick to Tol Barad and Firelands, they have the best rep. And if you go into the Molten Front area, you need to make sure you unequip and re-equip the tabard. That bug still exists. Before you know it, you'll get your scorpion and phoenix and you can leave dailies behind forever.
DaSandman Jan 9th 2012 4:39PM
The speed at which you earn guild rep at lower levels is STUPIDLY small, its not even worth thinking about it when its 0-1 rep for a quest! I'm not saying you should get the same rep at level 10 than you do at level 85, but it shouldnt be THAT different.
Also at 85 once you are done levelling and dailies how are you supposed to get guild rep! My alts were in a IRL friend's guild and he eventually convinced me to move my main over (who was Exalted with my old level 25 guild). Lost loads of perks (which are slowly being caught up on now, think we're 17 or 18 now) and rep was reset to nothing. Since this char was fully levelled and geared and had finished all the MF dailies he's barely getting any rep now, think I'm still only at Friendly :( (New guild rocks btw, dont regret moving at all:))
Make guild rep easier to get, both for lower levels and through other methods at level 85 (I like someone's idea of LFD/LFR runs giving rep)(and not just 7 a week).
Palurien Jan 9th 2012 7:11PM
A thought occurred to me when I read your desire for alts to be identified in the guild roster (something I'd love to see as well, and which is currently 99% of the guild notes in my guild) - given the implementation of a battle-net nickname, it could avoid the issue of identifying a main character. It seems like alt identification would be an easier thing to implement with the nickname thing.