Joining a guild

I would like to suggest a change to how and when players can join a guild.

We all know, on all servers, which guilds leap on new players as soon as they say one word on any of the chats. The new player asks for friends for a quest and they get flooded with guild invites. It is always the same group of guilds who do this and so smaller guilds (10 - 40 members shall we say) have no chance to grow, unless they want to join in on the spam inviting game. The guilds in question will doubtless say they whisper etc to the person before inviting but sorry that's not the experience of a friend of mine who logged in whilst I was offline. He asked for a friend for a quest, got 10 mails of which 4 were guild invites, with not a word said....... On Northisle it is now such a joke that we can run a behind the scenes sweepstake as to how long before the person vanishes into one of the 3/4 guilds.

I suspect this is costing BB players, and hence income, as these new players are absorbed into the huge guilds and then find many accounts are inactive. As a result there are less people playing to add to the chats on g-1 and less to buy gems. For the fun of it my friend joined one of the guilds who sent him an invite and found that of 90+ members less than half were active and only 5/6 people chatted on guild chat. In his case he decided the game wasn't for him anyway and quit, though 3 weeks later when he popped on he found he was still in the same guild, hence costing every active player in that guild 3 - 4 guild coins a day from guild quests.

So, what I would like to suggest is that players are not able to join a guild until they are say level 17. This gives them time to learn how the economy system works, to spend time chatting on g-1 and help to see who is who and to chat to a mix of players from a mix of guilds. I would also like to suggest that players should have to apply to join a guild instead of being invited in order that their application is more considered.

I would also like to suggest that on the guild list the guilds are listed by number of active players, not by number in the guild as at present. That way new players can see which guilds actually have players in who play. Could have Number active/Number in guild, as per another game I play? So a guild with 50 members but only 10 play could be listed as 10/50 etc. This is a side thought, main issue is how players join to begin with

I have discussed this several times on Northisle g-1 and many saw it as a positive step. Amusingly those who spoke against it were from those guilds which are the fastest to send random invites .... no shock there then.

I am not suggesting this for my own guilds purposes, but in order to try to find a way to spread the new players across a variety of guilds, not just 3/4.

This a million times.

It's getting a bit ridiculous when some players go days without knowing there is a special guildchat even. That's an example of how helpful some of those who like to spam invite are from just this past week. I'd say more but then they'll all throw a hissy fit about how good they are and how jealous everyone else is.

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Originally Posted by lordloocan

I would also like to suggest that on the guild list the guilds are listed by number of active players, not by number in the guild as at present. That way new players can see which guilds actually have players in who play. Could have Number active/Number in guild, as per another game I play? So a guild with 50 members but only 10 play could be listed as 10/50 etc. This is a side thought, main issue is how players join to begin with

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Absolutely, active members shown openly would help anyone with an interest in joining a guild.

+1 here

I previously agreed that the level for joining a guild should be 17. I now believe it should be at level 12 when they have a Trade Office. A lot leave before the end or at the end of the tutorial and I think a good guild stands a chance of turning this around.

Unsolicited guild invites I moaned a lot about a couple of years ago and I moaned about guilds assuming other guilds were doing such a thing. As you say it is only a few and yet new guilds that dare to enter Global can get teased and pre-judged. I think this really needs to be addressed by BB .

With regard to activity levels in Guilds I think it would be good to show a number of active members. Say all those that have not come on line in 14 days and over. But what is 'active', there are many different views on what this means. What does each guild expect and want? But activity levels can be given in the Guild Recruitment thread. I have done it in the past.

+1. I agree with the ideas by lordloocan. I really like the idea of having the number of active members in the guild list and not just the total members. Individual guilds already have information regarding member activity, I think that information should be made public. And who knows, the top guild may not be the top guild after all. Which could help new players decide which guild to join.

It is sad to say that new players do get spammed with invites before they even know how to play the game properly, they should be a level requirement before they can join a guild. That way they can work out whats what and who's who. I, myself came up with an idea to help new players and that is to have a chat tab for guild recruitment. Where new players could go to and chat to the various members of active guilds. As chatting about guilds in global is forbidden. So lets make spamming forbidden and introduce a chat tab just for new players to find good guilds.

Here is the post regarding my idea:- https://forum.thesettlersonline.com/...363#post334363

+1. This is a really good suggestion. By identifying the active members it would certainly help new players decide if they want to join or not. Dare I suggest that this figure would have to be automatically generated, and not left to the whim of guild leaders to keep it updated.

Another point to add weight is that there is a 24 hour lock-out when one leaves a guild and wants to go to another guild. This would save a lot of guild hopping if one knew in the first place that they were joining a positive and active group of players.

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Originally Posted by SnowBlizz

This a million times.

It's getting a bit ridiculous when some players go days without knowing there is a special guildchat even. That's an example of how helpful some of those who like to spam invite are from just this past week. I'd say more but then they'll all throw a hissy fit about how good they are and how jealous everyone else is.

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hate to say it, but snow is absolutely right!

i think lordy is assuming a lot about other guilds but i do agree with his notion and his suggested solutions. also i think lvl12 may be a better starting point for joining a guild considering the reasons given previously :)

+10
I like your suggestions. I also think more information is needed. I just changed guild and as I am level 69 I know what I wanted, but the information in description does not cover what I was looking for. I could discard all guilds that have requirements to do GQ every day. Every guild is different and it would be great if players had a chance to find a guild that match them- not just having to try it out and see if they get lucky. It can mean the difference in liking the game or leaving it completely again. I am not suggestion longer descriptions but some kind of table where guild put most important facts.

I haven't changed guilds since I first joined and probably won't (just being strangely loyal that way) but +1 to the idea that more information for players would be a good idea. Not only number active but also perhaps % completion of quests on average or anything that would help guide players depending if guild coins is what they are really after, or more of a social situation, or a combination of both.

To pretty much any subject I lean toward more information is better.

I also noticed the unsolicited guild invites when I first started playing - is there any way of stopping this? Could it work if there was a 24 hour friend rule like with trading, so you at least have to have some contact before an invite is sent? I know many people would then just send unsolicited friend requests and then a guild request 24 hours later, but it might reduce the number of instant adds to guilds when some poor new player dare venture into a chat channel.

I also had some invitations from people who took the time to talk to me first - I have no problem with these, as at least they explained a bit about what a guild was instead of just ambushing¬

I think as a collective we should focus on giving sound advice when newbies start, and think guild recruitment shouldnt be until at least lvl 20 imo.
You can get to level 15-18 in a day or two and, at this point, few understand hardly anything about the game. I genuinely believe recruitment at this stage can be very counter productive and overly confusing, when they are trying to understand the guild mechanic/system as well as the games.
Advice and help, and even some small amounts of resource are the main reasons they join at that stage, and tbh i think its not that hard for us to give them that without a guild.
Spamming invites is bad 100%. I know cos i do my best to be annoying, and ive been here a year and a half, and even i had to make a guild just for me to stop the spamming!
The amount of newbies that join guilds with no idea what a guild is, what it offers and then proceed to beg for help and basic advice is kinda embarrassing.
Im not interested in recruitment at all tbh but this is exactly the reason would only ever add a handful of people to my guild, no matter what.
As the game gets older, and numbers continue dropping, i think there is a conflict between guilds/players that give players space and time to get settled and then look for a guild, and those that start and want free stuff to build faster and accept the first invites they get with no understanding of the implications.
Unfort the only effective way to recruit right now is as soon as they appear, as you know others will be doing the same.
I think raising the level cap to join would help prevent this

One thing that crossed my mind is that perhaps an invite should be proactive instead of reactive. In other words, you send a join request to the guild and they need to accept instead of the other way around. It won't stop other forms of spam but it would at least improve the invite situation. And then the guild has complete control of levels accepted and so forth.

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Originally Posted by Xibor

One thing that crossed my mind is that perhaps an invite should be proactive instead of reactive. In other words, you send a join request to the guild and they need to accept instead of the other way around. It won't stop other forms of spam but it would at least improve the invite situation. And then the guild has complete control of levels accepted and so forth.

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+1 I think this is a great idea.

A lot seem to think the Guild Recruitment Thread does not work but looking at the viewing figures I would say it is not the system at fault so is it the way we present ourselves? or is the attraction of being in a guild being part of a good community not enough?

indeed ☺

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Originally Posted by Mortallicus

+1 I think this is a great idea.

A lot seem to think the Guild Recruitment Thread does not work but looking at the viewing figures I would say it is not the system at fault so is it the way we present ourselves? or is the attraction of being in a guild being part of a good community not enough?

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We look in many different things in a guild. Some want a guild with people who speak the same language - some like me wants it to be as mixed international as it can be. Some wants a big guild with many that does guild quests and thereby get many GC. They might want a guild where you must do guild quest every day.
Some want a very chatty guild with lots going on. Some wants a dedicated guild who are very focused on the game.
Most new players dont even know what a guild is - and there is not much information to get, you cant give any in the official chats. But you are spammed with invitations.
For me relevant information would be:
Guild quest mandatory yes no
Any other strict rules.
International or national guild
hours GMT when most people in guild are online (it is not so much fun to be the only one online when rest is sleeping :))
helpful chatty guild- or serious dedicated guild
....
others might have more suggestions