Ergo wrote:
I was informed that there is a "clique" of friends who hold council positions in certain "elite guilds" (I did not mention any of names) and allow only their friends and friends of friends, but pile problems in front of "unknown" persons. As I said - the community of the game is an asset, you are great and helpful regardless the character's alignment (Ergo received help from both sides), but the community is also a "gossiping" one
as I was told who is who, who plays whom, why certain characters are logged simultaneously and are only active while the other one is active too, who hold strings in few major guilds there. The rest is easily tracked/confirmed by an open sources like FB for example. Friends are friends and I understand that they want to tag along even in your game
I understand what you're saying, and yes, the Genesis community can definitely be "gossipy", which for many also is a fun aspect of the game too. During my long time as a player of this game I've been exposed to, and involved in as well I guess, a lot of gossip and rumours. The fun thing though, which I noticed when I became a wizard (developer) and actually started to get first hand information about things, is how completely wrong much of this gossip is. One player can be totally certain about something, another can be completely sure it's the total opposite way, and once you learn how it really is, you realize both are completely wrong. Many new players, understandably, take everything old players say as the truth. But old players often have built up very strong feelings against certain people or groups of people etc, and their opinion are often very biased. They can also be wrongly informed about something themselves, but have for years assumed their truth is the correct one and are sure it is. I am not really sure how to "combat" this, the best is probably to try to encourage new players to see the world with their own eyes, listen to old players advice about technical aspects of the game, but don't listen too much to rumours old players opinions. They are just that, opinions.
But no, as far as I know there is no guild in Genesis who only let's friends join. Maybe there are some councils of friends, who's "taken over" one or two guilds, but as far as I have seen they are also very open to new members outside their group of friends. Just because some people know each other in real life, it does not have to mean they also exclude others. And I know of no guild that does. No even close really. So whoever said that I think is someone who has a lot of biased feelings against that guild, and the people in it, for one reason or an other. Maybe some old grudge...
Ergo wrote:
I do not have anything against "RPlaying your way into the guild" but as I was informed such RPlaying in one of the "elite guilds" meant for example : to pick up and bring 5k herbs in a certain set of time (day/2 days) - and now we get back to one of my points - how much time does a standard person spend sitting in front of PC playing a game - 2 hrs/daily - max, and now imagine that you have a newcomer to the game, who would like to commit her/him self and RPlay as a member of that guild, and is tasked with such task - impossible to be done (the info went from a person whom I met in game, while looking for a place for Ergo).
Yes, this can be true. However, what you forget is when testing new applicants guild councils very often adapt the tasks to the applicant. If you hear about people needing to get 5K herbs in a day, then you can probably assume these tasks are given to people who the council know can handle this. For an old experienced player who knows how and where to herb, and have created scripts for this, 5K herbs is not that big of a deal, and can probably be done in a few hours - since they know exactly how to do it. A new player would most likely not be given such a task, but something more suitable to that player's experience level. So again, I think it's a matter of hearing things and drawing conclusions. Understandable - but the risk is you also draw incorrect conclusions. If you have actually experienced this task as a new player, then I would believe you.
But do you really know for a fact purely new players have been given similar tasks? If so, this would be pretty lousy job by the guild council, and I doubt it happens, if so rarely.
Councils generally WANT people to join their guilds, and do their best to give the applicant a good experience while teaching them about the guild. Being an applicant is supposed to be a fun period for the player. And I can definitely say many of my best experiences as a player has been as an applicant.
I do not think opening all guilds to be walk up and join would improve things for new players. On the contrary, they would perhaps instead rarely be exposed to other members of the guild, and they would perhaps not know how to RP their guild, what they stand for, or anything. I think our current setup is good. Many guilds ARE walk up and join, for those who want that, in many others you can join as a follower, servant, apprentice, etc, just by signing up, and then you need to RO with other members of the guild to advance further and become a full member. And finally, there are a few guilds around that require a longer process. But these are actually few these days. Most do have a quick way to join up, either as a full member immediately, or as an apprentice member of some sort.
So, while I agree with several of your comments. I do not agree with these. But a world very everyone agrees would be boring!:)