The Guild Menu

Some of this HAS been touched on as individual points before, but I think the Guild menu overall needs discussion to be revisited in the future.

It's no secret I really like GW, but as a very long time 'net gamer, I do have a couple of observations on things that are just plain "lacking:..

One is the "community" tools and no where more noticible than in the "Alliance" concepts.
For instance, how many in our alliance know the other Guild Leaders by In Game Name (IGN)?

Here's a couple of thing's I think would help. Most shouldn't be hard to add, others may be a bit harder, and some are "pipe dreams"; some can be greatly expounded on, but I'll keep this to a bulleted list:

In the Guild Member Window
- See how much faction each member has contributed (BKR isnt FF, but many guilds are)
- See where they are in the game (region, or city)
- Allow Alliance Chat priveledges.. OR not
- Assign ranks other than GL, Officer, Member (Too limited)
- Allow away and dnd in Guild menu (as seen only in Friends Menu" currently)
* Allow a short note to be attached to AWAY and DND status (Cooking dinner, Be back later, etc)
- Allow a message to be left by other members to/for away or offline members
* Many uses, but one comes to mind for those dismissed for inactivity...

In the Guest Menu
- Options for guests:
* Allow them to see member List
* Allow them to talk on Guild Chat (or not)

In Alliance Menu
- Show Guild Leader name and status (online, etc) next to their guild
- Show number of members
- Show number of members online

Added 23 OCT from reader feedback below:
Copy and Pastable: Guild Vent, TS info block
Hyperlinkable guild/alliance website block

These are just a few things, and with more thought, Im sure there are many more, but these are the ones I feel are most likely to help Alliance growth and greater interactivity very quickly.

I "Think" this stands a a new thread after looking through the index & search and as it is about the Guild Menu and not just the "Member List" discussed in length elsewhere, and apologize if I missed one earlier.

In the Guild Member Window
I would like this option available for the guild leader or officers to see but maybe not every member.
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Absolutely. I have a couple of members that are so not mature enough to be on the alliance tab. I have had to talk to them about going out there at all.
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I could see this being useful for letting members doing gvg when no officers or leader are on, but not much else. I guess it might also be nice to include priviledges for officers. Some of mine are great recruiters and there are other's who I don't want recruit at all.
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I could see this being abused but the idea is nice.
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I would love to have this feature, especially for officers. I do think it would be nice if I could send a note to people that I've pruned for inactivity as well. I can get ahold of most of my officers on our forum but not all of our members use the forum.
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Indifferent. I'm not sure if it's a good idea for a guest to see the names on the member list but how about they can see how many are online and activity level with some kind of generic name. The reason I say no real user names is because I have seen some deviant/aggressive recruiting strategies from other guilds when trying to "steal" members from other large guilds.
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I like all of these ideas.
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How about a guild leader tab as well, so just the leaders can talk about stuff? We have a website with a private forum for all of our guild leaders, but again, not everyone is very forum oriented but we are all in the game a lot.

I would also like to be able to run stats on my members, how many hours of game play, average hours per week, how much faction donated, etc.

I like a lot of these ideas. I would also suggest an expanded Guild Message field with clickable links. Or maybe just add specific categories:

Vent/TS Server: (ALL members can highlight+copy this)

Guild Website: (with a clickable link)

Alliance Website: (with a clickable link)

I think making this info clickable and cut and paste are great ideas. I wonder if theres a security concern in GW about such things though?
Anyway, BKR has outgrown 100 members and now is actually 2 BKRs in the alliance and 8 other allies...
The Menu limitations are REALLY showing.

Its my own post but...

/signed !!!

A lot of good ideas, and this would indeed help the guild experience in general.

However: seeing how much a particular person faction farms would only encourage fairly bad guild behaviour. And i don't think allowing a note for someone being away is necessary.

How about allowing guests to see alliance chat, and the alliance menu?

/signed

Every one of these features is needed. The Guild menu is too simplistic. Guild War's interface is a tad too simplistic though, which may be the fundamental problem. I want to be able to set my status to "appear offline" at startup - sometimes I just want to do my own thing and not be bugged. I'd like to be able to set notes or comments about people on my friends list, so I can remember where the hell I met "DeAtH mAcHiNe" and why the hell he's on my contact list in the first place - In fact, I don't think it's too reasonable to have "request authorization" toggle for your buddy list, so that people have to have your consent to be added.

The irony is that the game is called Guild Wars - you'd think a robust guild menu would be the first priority in a game that's centered around guild interaction... but oh well. I mean, when you look at WoW interface modifications like Cosmos.... GW just seems so simplistic it's not even funny. More features are desperately needed for the interface in general, the guild menu especially.

/signed
I've been wanting these things =D

Kinda sums it up and the reason I posted this. I have been seriously astonished by the lack of "community" tools and it was even commented on in a few review of the game on release and again with Factions by the game magazines.

/signed

I was 1/2 expecting a few ppl to say "use a website" as an argument. Personally Im glad I have only seen posts like yours. We've had the same problems, though regsitering on the site is mandatory, that doesnt mean ppl USE it every day.

I could on on, but those of us who have tried to use third party solutions (websites, etc) to help alleviate this issue I think all know it only accentuates the point of this suggestion.

/signed for most ideas. I won't say which I don't agree with, because if all were implemented, then any bugs would be worked out(therefore negating any problems I might have)
If you want to let guests into guild chat, why not have it automatically mark them as Guest IGN: instead of just by their normal name?
Also I would like to thank you for these splendid ideas, most of which need to be added to the friends menu as well. Somebody already beat me to saying that Guild wars is about the Guilds, but thats what we really need to get back to.
The only thing I have a large problem with (as I continue to think) is knowing where any person is at any given time. Guild leader should be the only person able to see stats, while officers could be included in the location knowledge. Designating special ranks to certain officers would make it easier to designate who gets what knowledge access. Other than these few quirks, a splendid, well-thought out idea.

But thats just my two cents

Sli Ander..

The location may be a pipe dream suggestion anyway, but its not supposed to be a "big brother" thing for paranoia LOL

Its more with this thought..
Im on, and bored...
Where is everyone?
Ahh, think I'll bop over there...

OR

"I need help"
members look at menu...
"BRT"

Yeah, simplifying, but you get the idea

Just playing devil's advocate, cause anything Anet puts in the game, somebody will figure out how to abuse. But even with that, all you'd have to do is put the whole "do not disturb' type tabs on things. Most problems have simple solutions.

I guess Im not following your line of thought at all and am even more confused by that last comment. Sorry, I have no idea what you are talking about LOL

IF you are just offering ways for a member to use these things to avoid participation... then they should not be in a guild to begin with 8)
i guess I dont see that as "abuse" I see that as a member to kick' :lol:

I love this. Even if they were all copy-paste and not hyperlinked, it would be FABULOUS. Maybe even encourage those who are tentative about TS...

/signed, cool idea

I'm offering a way to avoid harassment. Sometimes people just feel like soloing something, or not playing with guildies. Sometimes you get that jerk(that's going to get kicked for being a jerk) who just won't leave you alone. If you put a way in for people to find you, then you should put something in for when you don't want to be found.
Whenever you put something into a game you can't just think of the wonderful use you'll get out of it. You have to think of the most paranoid abuse which could be instigated by it.
While I agree if its used to avoid participation altogether then that person probably doesn't need to be in a guild, there's a limit to how much I can stand certain people. Sometimes I like it to be just me and the henchies. If I want to play with someone(as it is now) I simply ask them where they are. For larger groups or guilds, maybe your suggestion would make it easier to assemble a group quickly and avoid misunderstanding.

Anyway, hope that clears up my standpoint. If it doesn't I don't know what else to say.
That's just my two cents.

Oof you beat me, I was just gonna suggest about saying how many alliance members are online.

I doudt it they have more important things to take care of.

Hehe...
Im sorry Age, but thats a terrible post. Anyone could make that announcement on behalf of the developers sort of comment in response to any suggestion.
It doesn't contribute anything except apathy.

/signed
this sugestions would help a lot on organizin and makin guild a better enviroment expecially the chat allowance and restrictions, the player location would rock to, and those are not ruff to imput on code, hope we get heard, or read.

Great ideas. Much better than the other ideas that people had...strongly support you

I really don't know how hard some if this may be. It seems most would be fairly ez, but Im sure not all. It will be interesting to see at what point community / guild development becomes a priority in the game development in the expansions

/signed

sounds like some good idea's

Added to OP Post 23 OCT from reader feedback:
- Copy and Pastable: Guild Vent, TS info block
- Hyperlinkable guild/alliance website block

/sign
I'm all for that :P not saying that because I'm an officer in both of the BKR guilds, but because those would be very useful tools to better the guild.

Vixen