Of Clans, Guilds, and Societies...

[Jangang]

In most games there are Clans, or Guilds which are player ran... And npc societies such as the Mage Guild which are NPC organizations used primarily to train, or get quests, etc...

Both are great, but I think we can move beyond this...

What if there were player organizations beyond just your typical Guild, or Clan... Or what if a Guild, and a Clan were not different names for the same thing?


What if a Clan was what they are typically in such games... A group of players who play together, bound to the clan for communications, ease of doing things, and pride...

But a guild was a separate thing entirely, more akin to guilds in medieval Europe... "The Corrupt Blacksmiths" guild for example might be a group of players from across a continent who work together to excersize control over the blacksmith trade and fix prices, limit supply in order to increase demand, etc... This would be a player run organization outside of a Clan... (Though I suggest nothing that would stop a Clan from influencing, or controlling a Guild, nor visa versa...) There might be competing blacksmith guilds even...

Take the concept and apply it to Mage Guilds...

The players could create the guild, name it, and give it any purpose they want... So maybe a firemage guild comes about, they name themselves "The Order of Big Fire Bangs" (Everyone give me props for my awesome naming abilities...) This group is determined to search out knowledge of Fire Magic, be it tomes, new reagents, etc... Another mage guild, the "The Eternal Swimmers of Fire is Bad" are a Water Mage guild... But unlike the "The Order of Big Fire Bangs" they aren't in existence to seek knowledge of their own magic, but rather to impair users of fire magic.... Where another Mage guild is a basic all in compassing dubbed "Wielders of Fate" who's purpose is to help players in all aspects of magehood...

All this stuff is cool in its own regards, but lets move it a step further, and get to the real point of the post...

A player should be able to be in a Clan, as well as a guild... Or even more then one guild...

So your new player "Joncroft The Wicked" starts his game... In playing he meets a great group of guys in a Clan called "Primal Carnage" who let him know they will be founding a kingdom on the mainland shortly. Joncroft joins the clan and together they found a city, and later a kingdom.

Unknown to the clan Johncroft also met "Broggin" the founder of the "The Order of Big Fire Bangs" and joined. Often Johncroft is given an assignment by the guild which he endevoures to complete. Sometimes the interests of the Clan and Guild coincide, sometimes they don't...

Johncroft is also a member of Wielders of Fate, but being around mostly to help mage players of all ilks they don't tend to ask much of him.

Now so far there isn't a lot of conflict... But then take into account that "Primal Carnage" the Clan Johncroft is a part of likely has other mages, maybe even members of "The Eternal Swimmers of Fire is Bad"...

Now, Johncroft is loyal to "Primal Carnage", but he is also a loyal member of "The Order of Big Fire Bangs"... There are going to be times when Johncroft might need to choose between loyalty to his Clan, and his guild...

Which brings us to Secret Societies... Which I'd define as Guilds that are not public ally knowns...

If a guild such as "The Order of Big Fire Bangs" doesn't want a lot of attention, or wants its members to be seen as unattached, etc... They might not advertise they exist...

Yada yada yada, I started rambling, but yeah... Think of the possibilities.

Back to the blacksmithing guild, being overt they would want to be seen as on the up and up... They'd want people to trust them... But a secret society doesn't have such concerns... They can more easily do things to limit supply without causing a backlash... Maybe a secret society is created just to do the work they don't want public, etc...

Wars might be encouraged and brought forth for no other reason then to cut off the supply of Iron to a region... If the two nations that mine iron are at war, the supply might dwindle...



Maybe a member of a secret society of blacksmiths encourages his Clan to engage another in war... He does this for the good of his blacksmith society, but does it in a way that nobody is the wiser...

He might conveniently get pk'd by the guild the society wants weakened for example...

[Sorjak]

I completely agree that we should have something that distinguishes between a clan and a guild. The word guild has been perverted by MMOs, and since MO is doing things differently, why not bring back the real meaning of the word? Guilds are, as the OP said, supposed to have a specific goal, or be a group of people that share one thing in common. Clans, on the other hand, are people who fight, live, and play together, but don't necessarily have anything to do with each other.

A blacksmithing guild could regulate prices of goods in certain towns, and even betwen towns, for example

[F0rd]

Assuming quality of items can change depending on the quality of materials, a Guild could also be in charge of markets and quality control. If a player doesn't have items up to par, they aren't allowed to sell them with Guild approval. An assurance of quality through player organizations.

EDIT: Or perhaps a guild can force prices to be higher on higher quality items and lower on lower quality items, to ensure that the lower-quality blacksmiths aren't under-bid by players with greater access to materials.

[OMGPIE]

I think this is a good idea, 1. to bring back the real meaning of the words clan and guild, and 2 you could be a part of a guild for your profession and part of your clan for raiding cities and whatnot.

[Shinzon]

I have to disagree there, if you split it like that, you split the player base, and instead of a concentrated force you have a diluted mess...

Sure the original meaning is not representative of what they are in MMO's but good languages are able to change and adapt, words lose their old meaning and gain new ones.

I see a "Guild" "Clan" "Corporation" "Cult" as all the exact same thing, just because you slap a different discriptive name on it, doesn't limit or change anything. A "Guild" can still praticipate in combat, a clan can still be responsible for a major chunck of an economy.

Arguing about the original meaning doesn't really do anything...