Another question to stir up some conversation and thoughts on the subject.How do we balance gameplay versus roleplay. Granted most of us, especially in this commmunity, care far more for the roleplay than the gameplay. But our guilds are going to be made up with varying degrees of that. Some will game more than the roleplay, though they still roleplay. Some will roleplay more than they game, but still game. As the game moves on in the time it has been live a schism will emerge between the players of the same guild. Even if there is no schism starting out, what do we do about new members who have just found the game and the guild. How will all of us work toward building a cohesive environment for roleplay both in our community and our guilds?

Well firstly I have to agree with Naz.  I'm building the guild to include the game mechanics and environments. One of our chief goals OOC is to help one another with quests and such, which we will all roleplay doing. We plan to do the guild prestige quests and all that as well and take part in raids as a guild. This will take care of most people's desire to level and build their character while also maintaining RP during these events. I mean the game is there to be played, so we should play it.  Though we will also hopefully have RP events that will not have to worry about level to participate in.  Or perhaps run events for our low level players..and help them out with alts.  Though I will stress using open channels when we are around people to RP and use them to RP anytime we use them, it's likely that times when we are out and it's only us that we'll be more lax on the group chat, etc..and I had always planned on guild chat to be OOC. I think it's important as a guild and community to get to know one another in game as well as out of game..and let's face it, RP wise, there are very few RP reasons for why your entire guild can speak to each other over vast distances.  Yes you can make something up, but they are really kind of a stretch to me.

Also one thing I am doing that I think will help to not only make the guild closely knit but also keep most groups close together. Meaning we'll only ever have a max of 36 players. This works out to 6, six man teams and groups. So I hope that groups with commonalities like timezones and playtimes will get together and form more permanent groups within the guild.  Then those groups would do pretty much what they wished that their character needed to do, coming together for guild events, raids and working together in our groups to build guild prestige within the city.  All the while having the guild chat to keep in contact.  This certainly has the potential for spawning off a bunch of small groups, but the guild is being structured to take game mechanics into account..so the six man groups become kind of like cells within the city.  We can also form 4 man teams, since that's really the most you need for a good group, according to SOE. 1 of each archtype.

I think this small size will also help when new players join/old members leave, because we can always use alts to help this person along for a time to catch up to one of the groups. If the group that loses a person does this, all the better, because they can form a strong bond during the time...though a sidekick type system would be more ideal, but we'll have to see what SOE give us there. Assuming we won't have that, I don't see any way around alts if you want to allow new low level players into the guild. Though anyone in the guild can help with this player. It's all about what you want to do with your guild. I want my guild to be closeknit in and out of game.  Like a family in game and good friends out.  So I'd hope that my guildmates would want to help a new member along. I think another key to this would be to keep some very good low level items around for new players usage to help them get along easier. Though in a way I hope this system works well, I think larger guilds might be more uniquely suited to take on new players as they would likely have more of a range of levels.  It's hard to tell until the game starts though in my mind.

I don't know if this will work and help keep the balance between gameplay, roleplay, guild cohesion, all while being a friendly and easy place for new people to get started, but I hope it will.  In the end I think this will also make things easier, since SOE has said that optimum guild size in EQ2 is 12-48 members. For our members that want more total immersion they can choose to turn off guild chat, or simply not talk in it, but I only know a few people that RP that hard core.

So I think gearing and forming your guild around gameplay and perhaps limiting the size will go along way in helping what you've brought up. This way also makes it easy to fit non gameplay events..as they usually don't take much effort to get into character wise. I'll let you know in about six months if my vision of the guild actually works out well in game.

That's funny Sabine, that was just about what I was going to reply with but you beat me to it.I think it's important for us to be aware that while our RP guilds may be running smoothly and going along well that for us to have a truly dynamic environment we need to help foster those guilds smaller than ours, or even those individual players who either choose not to join or guild or just haven't found one yet. I appreciate the work that's gone into the union because it's a great starting point for all of us to be a part of. By alliances, the need for alts becomes less as there are other players whom guildmates can group with. Not an alternate solution but an additional solution. Community will be vital to keeping RP alive.

Good questions. I don't think that it's inevitable that a guild will have a schism over these issues as time goes on...it's actually the role of the leadership to have a clear vision, articulate that vision, and maintain standards that support the vision in order to prevent that kind of schism. Of course, if leadership doesn't do the job, then probably it will happen.

My guild is about roleplay primarily. I don't think of myself as that “hardcore,” but maybe I'm getting there  Because I *need* for roleplay to be happening, and I also need for it to not be 100% dependent on me and my skills making it happen. So I am creating a guild to work toward this intense RP experience that I personally desire.

As far as game mechanics go, though, I don't have a personal need or desire to have guild or group chat be IC. Generally those are OOC and I think they need to be for my group of players. Here's why: my characters are NOT me. But I still want and need to express me. So that's where those OOC channels come in. Most of my characters don't have my cutting, dry wit...and that's just got to GO someplace or I don't have as much fun, nor does anyone else  Generally /tells are OOC for me too, unless we are doing something specifically IC with them. I agree with Trastus on remote comm in a game like EQ2...unless you're an uber mage with a remote comm spell, it makes no sense really.

I plan to be IC in spatial/say/shout 100% when EQ2 goes live. I hope to be surrounded by RPers doing the same. I would like to see this standard maintained even on group hunts and such...I mean, you always have group chat to use for OOC. This 100% IC policy prevents accidentally breaking the immersion of other players, as well...and that feels like a very caring thing to do, to me.

Oh, we have also designed our guild concept around the idea of the guild prestige system. Ours is a House looking to raise its status, and members are required to help in that effort. So we should be able to RP around completing writs for the city and all that. So like others have done, that is another way to integrate game mechanics and RP.

I don't really see issues with integrating new players. I expect that those who are not RPers will not really be interested in joining my guild...we are kinda weird  But those who are intrigued by RP will be carried along in the flow. Having one or two noobs who are new to RP as well is not an issue if you have a strong group of RPers to show them the ropes. People conform