Re: Guild Entry

[Eowul]

Greetings,

From what I can see there's two types of groups that complain
that they cannot join a guild, the first group is the powerplayers
that do not want to invest the time and energy needed for a role-
playing guild, and the second group that does invest that energy
but either runs into rediculous joining requirements or due to
inaccessibility of the current guild members (either due to time-
zone differences, or to inactivity).

Personally I don't mind powerplayers to not be able to join those
roleplaying guilds. The whole rebalancing of the guilds should make
all guilds somewhat equal in size/abilities, so it's not like the
roleplaying guild will have more power as one that can be joined by
anyone. If they don't want to invest the time, then there should be
sufficient free-for-all guilds available to cater their needs.

It's the second group that does need attention. While I can
understand the motivations behind opening up guilds for everyone,
it's the "exclusiveness" of the guild that, at least to me, was
the main reason for me wanting to join, and the main reason that
I enjoyed investing time in the entrance, apprentice and full
member tasks, and the reward in the roleplaying experience as well
as the friends made within the guild was more than worth it. Removing
those joining requirements by letting everyone join, is going to be
detrimental to the quality of the roleplay and the guild itself.
Even if they are just minor members of a guild, ability wise, they
will be associated with it, and their actions will affect the full
members.

The issue of inactivity, timezone issues and rediculous joining
requirements is something that does need addressing. Inactivity is
something that can be monitored for council members, causing them
to be removed from their position if they become to inactive,
allowing for others to take their place. The other two though, are
somewhat more difficult, as there's no automatic way of governing
those. Armitace's suggestion for an entity that functions as 'court
of appeal' seems to be a step in the right direction, as it will
force guilds to at least deal with all applicants/apprentices somewhat
equally, and properly motivate any deviation from that.

Having played both a mud without mortal leadership in guilds, and
Genesis, where a few years ago I was able to join the rangers as
well as the mages without the need for this policy, I'd seriously
hate to see this 'exclusiveness' go, for it was the best part of
this MUD, and the sole reason I played here instead of any of the
other muds. And while things may have changed here over the years,
people still want to play with others, and removing the need to
interact with others seems to be completely opposite to that.

Eowul