The Evolution of the Gaiscioch Guild Wars 2 Guild System

With the current challenge we face I thought I'd put together a list of the things we've tried and the results we found. As you probibly can see there is no perfect solution. We continue to find the least abrasive approach. We've tried everyrhing we can possibly think of and so far we havent found a format that allows us our natural lifestyle we're accustomed to.

Plan #1: Pre-Launch Guild Wars 2 (Limited to 500 Members)

5 Themed Rooms

• Gaiscioch - casual gaming
• Gaiscioch na Rall - wvw
• Gaiscioch na Anu - pve/raiding
• Gaiscioch na Ogham - roleplay
• Gaiscioch na Goibniu - crafting

History: Created with understanding Alliance System would launch shortly after game goes live. Abandoned this plan after filling 2 rooms within 12 hours of going live.

Plan #2: 3 Main Rooms, 2 Specialty Rooms for Veteran Members (Limited to 1500 Members)

• Gaiscioch - Main Room
• Gaiscíoch - Main Room
• Gaiscioch na Morrigan - Main Room
• Gaiscioch na Rall - WvW
• Gaiscioch na Anu - PvE

History: Having members segrigated based on Family rank separated our veterans from our new players which prevented new members from learning the Gaiscioch way. Population suffered because of this and we disbanned it a dew months after launch.

Plan #3: 45-day website afk for specialty rooms.

History: Much like plan 2 we opened Rall and Anu to all ranks using a 45-day website AFK policy. As population began to thin out thw illusion of "dead guild" reared its ugly head. We eventually closed Anu and Regular I Gaiscioch and migrated everyone into Morrigan, Rall, and Gaiscíoch. This plan would soon dwindle even further as players from different timezones were unable to communicate. 

Plan #4: grouping by playtime

History: we attempted to get all players who play in off peak hours in the same room together. This however created a bit of a lopsided appearance and split family members away from their friends.

Plan #5: 1 Main Room w/ 7-Day Website AFK Policy + 2 Failsafe / Vault rooms

• Gaiscioch na Rall - Main Room
• Gaiscioch na Morrigan - Vault & Failsafe
• Gaiscíoch - Vault & Failsafe

This worked well but continued to create animosity,  hurt feelings, isolation, and a wealth of headaches for our members and elders. This worked well for a few months but as player population increased we end up having a waiting list to get in.

Plan #6: 1 Main Room w/14-Day Activity AFK Policy + 2 Failsafe / Vault Rooms

• Gaiscioch na Rall - Main Room
• Gaiscioch na Morrigan - Vault & Failsafe
• Gaiscíoch - Vault & Failsafe

Members will have to Claim Participation, Use the Marketplace, Lead an Event, Click the link in the reminder email, or Click "Yes" I'm Still Playing Guild Wars 2 every 14 days to maintain their spot in the roster. We will be doing away with the 7-Day website login and running completely off the Last Activity timestamp. Members will be removed in order of longest to shortest afk. Members will be invited most recent to distant participation. It's our hopes that we can milk a couple more months off this system and avoid going to the Worst Case Scenario.

Plan #7: 2 Main Rooms, 1 Event Room (Worst Case Scenario)

• Gaiscíoch - Main Room 
• Gaiscíoch na Morrigan - Main Room
• Gaiscioch na Rall - Family Event Room (invites at start, removed after completion)

Members can change Main Room in their profile. This would remove the 7day last login requirement which so many of us hate.

This all said I know theres more that we tried and scrubbed. Im sure Izzy remembers them all as Ive traumatized her withy cobstant changing of things. If you have any ideas for ways we could beat this limited guild system please feel free to share.

I  might be wrong here,  but since I have been part of the familly I've seen mostly the same  group of ppl log on a regular basis,  would the thought of creating a guild for ppl who know they play more casual or even play here and there and don't really mingle with the other members for lack of online time....  this could always be given as a choice to them,  this would still have them in a familly tag.. I imagine this has been thought of before and is probably not very easy to separate who goes where, guess this is where ppl would have to step in and make a choice.. 

"had a few to many beer so if this doesn't make any sens don't be afraid to delet my post"

The problem with thatbis again the new people would be isolated from the people who know us best. Its hard to pass on tradition and etiquette without human contact. If we stick the most active together all the new people will asume were a dead lifeless guild.

So my guess is that if we end up going with option #6, certain people will have access to Rall to do invites for major events like Club nights and Tyrian Adventure yes? So for the rest of us who run events would we just run them under whatever guild we'd be placed in and force people to party up/hit up RC so we can communicate with each other? I guess map chat is also an option...

Just curious.

Our commanders already have access to all 3 rooms were using. They would promote their events in the main rooms then invite people to rall for their event then be in charge of removing everyone after the event.

For grouping people will need to hook up on raidcall or on the site for cross guild groups. As I said theres no easy fix until we can convince arenanet to give us a bridge. Were either going to have communication barrier or a waiting list to get in. Either way it sucks.

I'm going to try to better explain what I was talking about yesterday, hopefully it will be understood a bit better in a less spammy and laggy environment.  Dragon events and guild chat convos do not go well together.

I recently went AFK from GW2 for about 3 months.  I had no intentions of saying anything or clicking anything, so all of my signups and joins would have remained intact.  No one, especially not the AFK system, would have known that I was no longer playing GW2.

In place at the time, were two AFK checks, similar to what we currently have, just slightly longer:  

First: was the website login: Since I logged in a few times a week, it would *never* have flagged me as AFK.

Second: (and what would have caught my AFK from GW2) was the 45 day Participation Claim check.  That system would have caught my AFK... but not until AFTER almost 7 weeks had passed.

So for 7 weeks, I would have been counted active in GW2, even though I'd uninstalled GW2 and was playing other games.  That was 7 weeks that I would have been taking up a spot that might have been needed by someone waiting on a guild invite to the Rall room.

(note: I realized this and took steps to avoid causing that problem, but that's not part of my point)

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My point here is that anyone who is no longer playing GW2, but still logging into the website on a weekly basis, will not have their AFK caught until the Claim Participation check catches them.  Currently that check is at 40 days.  That's 6 weeks that an AFK player can take up a spot on the roster, before the system catches their AFK.

Yes, there is a Join button to click, but how many folks are going to actually bother to click it when they decide to stop playing GW2?  Most haven't even filled out their Profile, updated characters, etc. and arms have to be twisted to get some to even log in to the website.

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That's my analysis based on my personal experience with taking an extended AFK and what I had to be mindful of in making sure I was considerate to my fellow guildies.

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My suggestion is this:  Drop the Claim Participation AFK check to 21 days.  I think this will grab a lot of "true AFKs" and weed down that Roster number.  

If that works out well, then remove the 7 day Website Login AFK check that everyone hates so much.  I feel that the Participation Claim check is a lot less offensive than the Website Login, because most members should want to use the Participation system so they can gain ranks and start to feel like a contributing member of the family.

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Now I know that this whole thing isn't supposed to be what the Family is about, don't want to alienate players and all that, but ... its the best suggestion that I have to offer.  The options get worse from here, ie. 100% Rep or splitting into several rooms, etc.  (Split is the better of those evils.)

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So, to sum up: Cut the current Claim Participation check in half to 21 days, keep the 7 day website login check.  If the new 21 day Claim works out well, drop the website login check altogther, see if numbers stay stable.  

Most people *hate* that website login requirement.  Its exactly what I've always had huge problems with in the past, have even had members leave just because I required it.  I have a feeling that they'll accept the lower Claim AFK check a lot easier if it means removing the 7 day "whoops, I forgot to log in to the website" removal.  Its a hassle for some folks that they resent.  >_>

In all honesty Sek the 21 days will still have over 900 names on the list. 45 days has over 1200. The 7 day login check was 720. For me to get those numbers in that range we need it would have to be set around 14 days and that doesnt allow us to grow much. Splitting into 2 with an events room would allow us to grow and keep the inconveniance to a minimum.

I just want to note that with #6 it will be harder for leaders just starting out, those starting spontaneous events and those who hold events that aren't commanders to advertise said event to the entire guild at the time the event starts. That usually helps get a few more people, and helps start building up a reputation for a regular event. When we were split into three rooms I could ask someone in another room to advertise for me, so I could definitely try doing that again. I wish I could come up with some helpful ideas for a solution but I think you guys have pretty much covered/tried it all.

I think we might try a variant of Sek's idea first. If we can coast just long enough for ArenaNet to do something or the Launch of ESO we might be able to keep it in 1 room focus. It's going to be a little more annoying for members as you'll have to either claim participation, use the marketplace, or respond to the email you get in advance by clicking the magic link saying Yes I'm Still playing! Downside is that for this to be effective the afk timeout needs to be set at 14 days. So expect to get a reminder message in your in-site mail and in your email at 10 days. This might hold us over until a better system can be added to the game or membership balances out again. I'm not sure how long this will work but we can try it for as long as we can manage it.

With ESO approaching (Spring 2014?), I hope there will be contingency with GW2.  When everyone left Rift, some of us still stuck around and played Rift quite frequently.  However, it was near impossible to get a guild invite since everyone else had 'migrated' away from the game. When ESO comes out, I won't abandon GW2, and hope there will be leadership to do guild invites, etc. :)

Invites will work as they always have, they appear on the website and we log in to give them. ;)

In regards to Rift, I leveled two toons to max level before I got a guild invite.  Glad it will be different with GW2.

Gary, at the time you wanted your rift invite we had already been long gone. Were not leaving gw2. Its an entirely different story.