Is any game in the 2011 MMO crop going to break guild serial monogamy? A Tale in the Desert launched with the ability to join multiple guilds in 2003, and guild membership there meant a LOT more than just a chat channel and a tabard. 8 years later, games whose launch parties have larger catering budgets than the entire development of ATitD, and we still have games that are having trouble getting as far as alliance chat? Surely in this age of social media, someone in MMO land must have noticed that even we the introverts engage multiple social groups.
I have nothing meaningful to add to my post from almost two years ago. I am just perplexed that the situation has not changed at all, zero progress, not even an experiment.
: Zubon
FFXI let you join multiple guilds although only one could be equipped at a time. However most people wound up just sticking with one anyways. It’s a matter of time: multiple guilds mean multiple responsibilities if they are anything more than chat channel analogues.
Sort of like real polyamory, splitting up social connections makes them much weaker, not stronger, and usually if you feel the need to bounce between multiple guilds, none of them meets your needs much.
Indeed. What’s up with that? Personally I prefer it, but do I really know what the alternative is? I guess not.
Devil’s (developer’s) advocate are private passworded chat channels not good enough, especially if they get their own chat tab?
More context is required to assimilate this data point. Meaning you are being a devil’s advocate and referring to password-protected global chat channels? Those do cover a lot of distance.
Lol, that’s what I get for typing while holding a baby in my lap as soon as I wake up…
I mean, if I play devil’s advocate, (comma), are private passworded chat channels not good enough to replace most functionality of non-primary guilds?
When guilds start having more function than a chat channel, perhaps this will be an issue. Most games stop at the chat channel though, or have good reasons (EVE) to keep you in just one.
DF has clans + alliances, which have actual strategic value (city bonuses, portal networks, system msg, etc). Being able to multi-clan would not work, and alliances are somewhat messy already with just names/alignment re-colors.
Eve supports multiple arbitrary chat channels, though it also has potentially more serious consequences for typing in the wrong one (giving away secrets rather than just non-sequiteurs). These channels can be “permanent” and joinable, or just ad-hoc (adding other players to a 2-player chat).
I miss this in GW. If I have a group of friends in one guild, and a group in another, there’s no way to carry on bulk chat to both groups. Sure, I can “whisper” to friends in the second group, but that’s significantly more awkward.
Something I DO like about GW chat is that the output of all channels is aggregated, though colour-tagged and filterable. In Eve, it’s annoying to need to keep flicking chat windows to see what everyone is talking about. And doubly annoying that important mission status info turns up in the “local” (everyone in current star system) channel, but that’s otherwise the channel I care least about.
The problem I can see with formal multi-guilding is that you might end up with the same set of people in each guild, which defeats the purpose. It also depends on whether “guilding” is merely chatting, or affects game mechanics.
Example: In Eve, corporation is very important, since it’s the basic unit of semi-consensual PvP, and also acts as a filter to many services. In GW, guilding mainly affects grouping rules for certain high-end PvP arenas.