something i posted on the wow general forums but since they are more interested in complaining and trolling then actual suggestions and improvements i figured id come here and see what players who want to talk about the game think
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Instead of posting half a dozen threads each with a different idea im just going to consolidate them all to a single thread, ill separate each idea so when commenting please mention which youre talking about.
Ive been a guild leader for over 4 years now, and once for a short stint prior to founding this one. Anyone who has lead a guild, not just owned but truly lead, can tell you its a full time job although it can be quite fulfilling at times. Unfortunately there are a number of issues that make it harder then it has to be, issues that many can work around with the use of 3rd party websites and addons. Whereas these 3rd pary sites and addons are a great option they should not be the only way to handle issues, they should just be another option.
Communication
Message of the day
The message of the day is cited to be one of our main avenues in getting information to our members, however its rather useless in any practical sense. First off anyone using more then 3 addons will never see the message of the day upon logging in if they are using the standard sized chat frame. Secondly the amount of characters available in the message of the day (approx 129 characters) is far too few, barely half of what is permitted in a single (approx 155 characters) and is hardly enough to give any message let alone pass on important information. If you doubt me try to write an important message using only 129 characters including spaces
This is a fairly simple fix.
First off make it so that every 15-60 minutes (choose able by the guildmaster) the message of the day is shown to anyone online at the time, same as if it had just been edited.
Secondly double the amount of characters permitted in the message of the day, make it the same as a standard limit for sending a chat message.
These two simple changes will make this a far more valuable and useful tool for guild masters and officers.
Guild Newsletters
Prior to the mail throttle added in the middle of Wrath it was common for guilds to use an addon that allowed them to send out detailed messages to all guild members, this was invaluable in making up for the severe communication issues that have always plagued guildmasters. Unfortunately due to the throttle such addons no longer function and once more we are stuck in the dark ages as far as communication goes.
The fix is rather simple in this case, an improved version of the addons made standard in game, a.k.a. Guild newsletters. Add a 3rd tab to the mailbox specifically for Guild Newsletters that way they are not there taking up precious space in an individuals mailbox.
-The typical 50 message limit for this tab would be reasonable.
-The ability to remove a copy of the newsletter may be a good idea although not completely necessary, some guild masters may not want their newsletters getting passed around.
-Each guild newsletter would have a 90 day duration
-Players could choose to delete the guild newsletter after reading it
-When a new guild newsletter has arrived an icon will appear on the minimap underneath where the typical mail icon is with the image of a letter with your guild crest centered on it
-Guild newsletters would have 3 times the space permitted in a standard letter to allow for clear and concise messages without spamming multiple guild newsletters to pass along all needed information.
-The ability to send guild newsletters would be a privileged that guildmasters could assign to specific ranks.
This would more or less eliminate the requirement so many guildmasters have to not only use a website to pass on information to members and then go through the headache of getting all members to actually use it, it wont spam up a members mailbox, and is large enough to allow for a complete message with a duration long enough so that any members who have taken a break will still be in the loop when they return.
Ranking structure and Permissions
Ranks
Although more of a nuisance to a few guild masters the current rank limit can be improved upon. For some of us, not all by any means, we try to have well rounded guilds for those who enjoy pve content and those that enjoy pvp content. For obvious reasons these individuals have different needs within a guild, such as bank access for supplies they need, repair money, etc. Also anyone leading either kind of event needs separate permissions of their own and the easiest method of that is to have their own rank. Then you have officers, their alts, new recruits, their alts the list goes on yet we have to try and squeeze everyone into 9 ranks. Its doable but tricky and difficult at best.
The rather simple fix would be to add in a few more ranks, personally i would suggest 5... mainly because i personally would only need 2-3 more and would struggle to try to figure out 5 more ranks and believe it would be more then sufficient for all guild masters.
Individual Bank Permissions
With the limited ranking structure and the fact that blizzard will not enforce any guilds bank policy no matter the fact that many of us keep the bank rules written and unchanged for months/years at a time, it makes it tedious most of the time to deal with bank matters. Many guilds are regulated to removing all but minimal permission for general members and forcing officers to withdraw for people as needed, which gets rather old rather quickly in larger guilds.
The solution is the ability to create individual bank permissions for players within the guild structure. Say for example i have a newer member at basic rank and a older member at the same rank, the older member doesnt raid with a team so is not at the next rank but they have earned enough trust for more bank access, i could go in and select them off the roster, select their individual permissions and increase their repair limit and withdraw limit just for them. So now my older member has the access hes earned the trust for where as the bank is still safe from any thieves that may have recently joined.
How it would look is simple,
-When selecting a player on the roster there would be a arrow, similar to the way the raid frame works, that would open a bump out menu when clicked, in this menu would be the same as the bank permission window in the guild control menus.
-These individual permissions would override the standard rank permissions.
-However they would reset to the default rank permissions if a individual was promoted or demoted.
-This can only be set by a Guild master.
A simple and safe method of granting bank permissions to those deserving and avoid theft.
Muting
Every now and then someone in a guild will get into an argument with another person in the guild, as the old saying goes as long as there are 2 people together drama will happen at some point, and when you have adults the inclusion of alcohol can make that possibility into a certainty that sooner or later it will happen.
Although guild masters can remove the ability for a rank to talk it just isnt enough to handle situations like this, worse yet it punishes all others at that rank. The usual solution ive found, and heard others use, is to have a rank that functions as a 'time out' or 'cool down' rank where individuals cant tank while they are there, this allows officers to handle issues when a guild master is not on without punishing an entire rank. The problem with this is it takes up an entire rank for one purpose that may not happen often, and with only 9 ranks to work with that can be rater inconvenient.
The solution, the ability to mute players within the guild.
-The ability to Mute a player would be granted by the guild master in the guild control menus.
-A muted players name would show as red in the guild roster.
-A muted player could still see guildchat but will be unable to speak in it.
-The option to mute would appear on the window that opens when clicking a name on the guild roster.
Quick, simple, and easy solution to give people time to cool their heads instead of outright booting them.
Trouble Prevention
Banning
Possibly the most important of the ideas posted here, the ability to ban a player from the guild on an account wide basis.
-Above the "Remove" option there would be a "Ban" option.
-Selecting Ban would add the players account (listed by name of toon banned) to a Ban list.
-Any player on the Ban list would not be able to be invited by any member.
-If a member attempted to invite a banned player they would get an error message "Cannot invite players on the ban list."
-Upon banning a player a message box would appear allowing you to leave a note as to why the individual was banned.
-The Ban list would be in the guild info tab, to the right of the requests tab for all guild members to see who was banned and why.
-A guild master can remove a ban if they so choose.
-Only guild masters can ban players.
Weve all had that one guy who keeps getting back in somehow, whether its someone who keeps inviting them back when our backs are turned, or a pair with invite/leave macros that sit there spamming gchat with it to troll. Measures like this should have been available from the start, however its not too late to add them to resolve the long standing problem.
Account Kicking
When you kick someone from your guild, often you want them gone completely yet sometimes they will have alts unknown to you in the guild. A fairly easy, and common sense approach to solve this would be a prompt when you select 'remove' from the roster asking if you want to remove just that toon or all toons on that account. This of course would not work if you were to say, try to kick all payers on an account when one toon was above you in rank (i.e. kicking a guildmasters alt wont allow you to kick the guildmaster )
Miscellaneous
Guild Halls
This has been asked for time and time again over the years, even in my early days in BC i heard it asked for. You more then have the technology to create these with the instancing technology alone. I mean lets face it if a 2 bit game like runescape can have them why cant the worlds top MMO?
some suggestions for guild halls:
-Message board for guildees to read.
-Holograms showing highest raid bosses killed to date, and when they were killed (similar to the holograms in dragonblight at wintergarde keep displaying bosses in naxx).
-placeable guild crests around the guild hall.
-weapon plaques showing replicas of legendaries obtained by the guild.
the list goes on, there is alot that could be done with these to make it the single greatest addition to the guild system since guilds themselves.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are quite a few suggestions here, all of them are written as individual although all together would make the greatest guild overhaul since the changes in cata.
When deciding if you want to implement any/all of these remember that without guild masters the majority of your playerbase would not see the inside of any raid, any rbg, any kind of group content. Its the leaders, those who take a game they enjoy and make it into another job, that put the work and effort into getting the majority of your playerbase into group content, without us you would have millions of people wanting to do things and no one willing to organize them and take the reins. Would it not make logical sense to make our jobs easier? After all the easier our job is the more players we can get into content, the more happy player you have and the more secure subscriptions you have.
I hope to see these changes in the near future, they would all be an invaluable asset to any guild master.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
post on the forums http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/9572779221 if anyone wants to try and sticky it or otherwise support it in hopes of it actually happening... more importantly im interested in hearing your thoughts and opinions on these suggested changes.