Guild Perks in 5.10

[Kai-Del_Serromis]

What are our Goals for Guild Perks?

What we want to be able to do is to give your Guild the power to really focus in on what you enjoy! Perks give a mechanism where players can effectively say “We are a PvP focused Guild” and mean it in new ways. Now, not only are you like minded players, but you can focus perks, benefits, and additional rewards to your chosen playstyle.

 

I see a lot of love for PVE and PVP in conquesting. Are there any guild perks in the works for guilds that focus on role play, considering there are some very large ones with people that don't do conquest at all?

 

I don't particularly mind RP being left out, from a certain point of view I understand it, but with pve and pvp guilds getting all these new toys, it would be great if rp people could get something like a bunch of new emotes, more non-phased areas they can access for rp, or something along those lines.

 

RP guilds exist, too, and on Star Forge I would be willing to bet there are more of us than PVE or PVP guilds.

Edited November 10, 2018 by Kai-Del_Serromis

[Khaleg]

So where do I apply for my $70M rebate on the 2 guild ships (1 pub, 1 imp) I already bought?

 

:-)

 

I apply for a refund for 2 guilds as well hehe.

[Khaleg]

This seem to be interesting changes I am looking forward to try out. Only then you can really tell what their implications are.

I see one big problem though since you are going to release it AGAIN most likely in December, shortly before you guys disappear for several weeks. You just can't run an online game or any business like that. It's not like Daimler-Benz stops their production for 6+ weeks during that time - just to give an example. :-)

 

The reason is that I doubt you can realease this even remotely bug free, given all the changes, and we will again end up with annoying bugs for several weeks, like for instance the Yavin BG bug last year which resulted in resetting all achievements over and over once you have logged off, and that is only an example during that time and was fixed like 2 months later or something if I rememer correctly.

So, what happens this year since you guys fight for your right to do the same mistake every year. :-)

Edited November 12, 2018 by Khaleg

[omaan]

Since I am seeing it come up in the thread already I wanted to clarify. The intention is that all of the stat affecting perks do not impact players while they are in PvP.

 

-eric

 

be sure about that or you will face more unsubs

[Amantino]

And no, flashpoints and OPs aren't competitive. I am not racing against another guild in a flashpoint. It's also not random and it's a temporary to speed things up in flashpoints and OPs, as far as I see it.

I think this could turn out quite fun.

Please share what drugs you are on, because you must be trippin' hard to say something that dumb.

 

 

Never ever let guild perks affect stats in any form of group scenario, PvE or PvP. It'd be like having Carlsen start with one extra pawn against Caruana in the World Chess Championship, because he's from a richer country.

[Totemdancer]

Guild Flagships are required to use Perks. As a part of that requirement we understand that their cost can be prohibitive to some Guilds and so in GU 5.10 their cost will be lowered from 50,000,000 down to 15,000,000.

 

It’s good that the cost of the guild ship is lower, but for us super small guilds, 15,000,000 is still too expensive.

Our first guild died out when most people left as content dried up and one person hijacked the guild and took everything after they booted the rest of us.

The remaining 8 members made our own casual guild so our Alts could have a home, but most of them only play a few times a month and none of us have millions of credits to put towards a Guild ship.

Some of us would love to be able to participate in the small scale planetary invasions, but we can’t afford the ship and still won’t be able to at 15,000,000.

 

It would be great if you guys could reconsider that price so that the super small guilds with less active members can participate in the new activities.

900,000 would be great for us, but that might seem too low for you. We feel anything lower than 5,000,000 might be achievable within a month.

[fatheroftheyear]

I don't like the idea of these perks affecting endgame PVE. IMO things like the stat buffs should not apply to instanced PVE content which does not have bolster. (so HM/MM operations)

 

258 gear is already going to be a huge nerf to the effective difficulty of HM/MM operations, and some of the guild perks would only increase this effect.

 

I also share the concern that this will cause many smaller guilds to disband in favor of joining huge guilds. I think the best way to address this is to avoid creating generalized "must have" perks. If perks are specialized enough, it will better balance large and small guilds. The stat and crafting bonuses stand out at the most likely issues in this regard.

[LordTurin]

It’s good that the cost of the guild ship is lower, but for us super small guilds, 15,000,000 is still too expensive.

You can get a couple million in a day doing heroics. 15 million is more than reasonable.

Edited November 11, 2018 by LordTurin

[casirabit]

It’s good that the cost of the guild ship is lower, but for us super small guilds, 15,000,000 is still too expensive.

Our first guild died out when most people left as content dried up and one person hijacked the guild and took everything after they booted the rest of us.

The remaining 8 members made our own casual guild so our Alts could have a home, but most of them only play a few times a month and none of us have millions of credits to put towards a Guild ship.

Some of us would love to be able to participate in the small scale planetary invasions, but we can’t afford the ship and still won’t be able to at 15,000,000.

 

It would be great if you guys could reconsider that price so that the super small guilds with less active members can participate in the new activities.

900,000 would be great for us, but that might seem too low for you. We feel anything lower than 5,000,000 might be achievable within a month.

 

We have a small guild and 15m would not be that difficult for use. We were able to save for the Rishi stronghold so I imagine 15m for a guild ship we will be able to do.

[Airforcecoplapd]

I am not sure if this has been asked yet or not but the price change of the Guild Flagships caught my attention. Specifically, it was stated:

 

"As a part of that requirement we understand that their cost can be prohibitive to some Guilds and so in GU 5.10 their cost will be lowered from 50,000,000 down to 15,000,000."

 

Now, for all the Guilds who were already well established before these changes were made, or even since before the conquest system itself was even designed, we did not have endless funds for our guild members or for guild activities. So, when we motivated our guild members to work hard and chip in so that we could purchase them a $50 million (even though most of the money came out of the personal banks of the leadership and myself), we struggled greatly to finally make that ship a reality. Now, you are lowering the price so that struggling guilds, which mine was at the time we were attempting to save up 50 mil cred's, can purchase their ships in order to participate. Because of this, I feel that all guilds with pre-existing guild ships should have the difference in credits refunded back to their guilds due to the obviously unfair pricing that you created just so people can "participate". Like so many other things in this world, rather than setting a standard for people to meet or earn, standards are lowered so that others can participate with little to no effort involved which is going to create animosity between guilds.

 

So, since the newer guilds are getting their "participation-trophy" priced guild ship while the rest of us earned a guild ship the right way, I believe we should all be treated the same and all guilds who paid full price for their guild ships should have the difference in price (35,000,000 Credits) refunded to us. I know for a fact that there are multiple other guild masters out there who are going to have the same concerns that I have now and if you are so overly concerned with treating everyone equally, it goes both ways.

 

Thank you for your consideration,

 

The Weyland-Yutani Legacy, Guildmaster of Aura of Valor & Aura of Deceit

The Tzar Legacy, Guildmaster of Aura of Valor & Aura of Deceit

[Eloi_BG]

So I did consider the idea of these effectively being a time-gated nerf to the new op. It sorta makes sense if GFTM NiM end bosses are tuned to 258s. Historically Nightmare modes in this game have been tuned to the HM dropped tier and the NiM loot tier has served as a slight nerf as you get that gear. So this is all well and good as a substitute to getting that extra tier. But even then some of these stat boosts are extremely big and this would be a pretty huge tuning nerf. Furthermore, consider the impact of these perks in any potential future raid tiers. You'll have finished your grinding by then and have access to these upon launch.

 

While I completely agree that those boosts are huge, so is the boost you get from a Nightmare crystal. Does that mean everyone is using crystals now? Not at all. Pretty much everyone that is progging for real isn't using them, and they are mostly tools for sale runs. If the ops are tuned not taking those buffs into account, then I don't see how it will change or force people to grind and get them.

 

That being said, you can be against both those things, but I don't think they will really change how raiding serious raiding guilds work, or even the NiM raiding scene in general.

[Avuras]

I find this Guild Perk concept to be intriguing, to say the least, and I also see a considerable amount of potential if implemented well.

 

However, perks granting direct stat bonuses to characters come off as being redundant when compared to stats from gear and datacrons, alongside all the other arguments against their inclusion already posted here in this thread, and perks increasing the duration of adrenals and stimpacks are similarly not a good idea (the former especially for content balance reasons). From what I can foresee here, Quality-of-Life and indirect perk bonuses would work best for this type of system, with some unique ones thrown in where they can fit (the Group Resurrection perk is an excellent example of this). I would also extend this approach to perk sets, with set bonuses being much more broad and generic in scope with a lesser impact, as well as being arranged based on general play style. Finally, I would remove any restrictions related to where any specific perk can be applied on a Guild Flagship, for easier management and more freedom to customize a guild.

 

Looking at the current tentative list in the original post, I would adjust that and recommend something along the lines of the following (ignoring active ability cooldowns and perk durations for the moment):

 

PvE

Set Bonuses:

• 2 Perks - All XP, CXP, and Rep gained in Flashpoints, Uprisings, Operations, and on planets increased by 2%.
  
• 4 Perks - All XP, CXP, and Rep gained in Flashpoints, Uprisings, Operations, and on planets increased by an additional 3%.
  

 

Perks:

Ossus Daily Quest - Adds Reinforced Components as rewards for Ossus repeatable quests.

Increased Ops Crafting Drops - 5/10/15% chance for crafting kit to drop from bosses while in a guild group.

PvE Conquest Objectives - Adds additional conquest objectives guaranteed to be related to planetary daily quests, Flashpoints, Uprisings, and Operations. This always adds daily objectives for completing an Operation or random Flashpoints using Group Finder.

Daily Guild Flashpoint Reward - Adds a daily Reinforcement Components/Guild Commendations reward for completing a random Flashpoint using Group Finder for both Veteran and Master difficulties, with Master granting a larger reward.

Daily Guild Operation Reward - Adds a daily Reinforcement Components/Guild Commendations reward for completing an Operation using Group Finder.

 

PvP

Set Bonuses:

• 2 Perks - All XP, CXP, Rep, Valor, and Ship/Fleet Requisition gained in Warzones, Arenas, and GSF increased by 2% (4% for Valor).
  
• 4 Perks - All XP, CXP, Rep, Valor, and Ship/Fleet Requisition gained in Warzones, Arenas, and GSF increased by an additional 3% (6% for Valor).
  

 

Perks:

Daily Guild PvP Reward - Adds a daily Reinforcement Components/Guild Commendations and Valor reward for completing two Warzones (wins count x2), as well as a daily larger reward for completing two Ranked PvP matches (wins count x2).

Daily Guild GSF Reward - Adds a daily Reinforcement Components/Guild Commendations and Ship/Fleet Requisition reward for completing two GSF matches (wins count x2).

Daily PvP Challenges - Adds a selection of randomly chosen daily "challenges" to complete during a Warzone or Ranked PvP match, granting a minor Reinforcement Components/Guild Commendations, Valor, and Conquest Points reward for each. These challenges involve things such as earning certain medals during a PvP match.

Daily GSF Challenges - Adds a selection of randomly chosen daily "challenges" to complete during a GSF match, granting a minor Reinforcement Components/Guild Commendations, Ship/Fleet Requisition, and Conquest Points reward for each. These challenges involve things such as earning certain medals during a GSF match.

PvP Conquest Objectives - Adds additional conquest objectives guaranteed to be related to Warzones, Ranked PvP matches, and GSF matches.

Warzone Vendor Discount - Adds a 50% discount when buying items from Warzone vendors. This does not include Ranked PvP vendors.

 

Crafting

Set Bonuses:

• 2 Perks - All Crew Skill and crafting mission critical chances increased by 2%.
  
• 4 Perks - All Crew Skill and crafting mission critical chances increased by an additional 3%.
  

 

Perks:

Harvesting Yield - Adds minor chance to gain Reinforced Components while harvesting nodes.

Reduced Harvesting Time - Reduces time to harvest nodes in the world by 15/30/45%.

Crew Skill Efficiency - Increases efficiency for gathering/mission/crafting crew skills by 3/5/7%.

Crew Skill Mission Discount - Adds a 5/10/15% discount for Crew Skill missions.

Crafting Conquest Objectives - Adds additional conquest objectives guaranteed to be related to Crafting.

Daily Crafting Quests - Adds a selection of randomly chosen daily crafting quests, granting a minor Reinforcement Components/Guild Commendations and Conquest Points reward for each. These involve depositing specific resources and crafted items where the perk is currently applied on the Guild Flagship.

 

 

Suitable perks and set bonuses related to social situations and roleplaying are a bit unclear at the moment, but others posting here in this thread would likely have good suggestions for those.

 

Aside from actual set bonuses, there's a lot of room for "generic" Quality-of-Life perks which either do not have set bonuses or have ones not tied to character progression, such as the previously mentioned Group Resurrection perk. Other ones such as mount and sprint speed (so long as it only works outside of Warzones), increased AoE loot range, Guild Bank summon, decreased Quick Travel cooldown, and so on would fit in this category.

 

If changes like these were to be made to the Guild Perk system before it reaches Live, I think it would be well-received overall.

[Totemdancer]

You can get a couple million in a day doing heroics. 15 million is more than reasonable.

 

I’ve yet to get a couple of million in a few hours of doing heroics. It’s usually around 800-900k.

 

Regardless, I’m asking Bioware anyway because my guild feels the 15 mil is still to high for us little guys.

Edited November 11, 2018 by Totemdancer

[Totemdancer]

We have a small guild and 15m would not be that difficult for use. We were able to save for the Rishi stronghold so I imagine 15m for a guild ship we will be able to do.

 

Each person has different circumstances. What works for you doesn’t work for us.

[AlrikFassbauer]

I see one big problem though since you are going to release it AGAIN most likely in December, shortly before you guys disappear for several weeks.

 

Very important point. December should not be a month of bugfixing. It is rather a month of love. At least in the Christian religion.

 

You can get a couple million in a day doing heroics. 15 million is more than reasonable.

 

As a no-lifer, sure.

 

For those like me who have only a window of ca. 4 hours of private life, only a few Heroics are doable per day - and still we would love to do something else than only doing Heroics.

Edited November 11, 2018 by AlrikFassbauer

[TSCYoda]

Also here: well planned!

 

I think this Perks do well....but for tiny Guilds the costs might be a bit high...time will tell the answers

 

General i see you guys had a lot of thoughts the last time and having goood ideas for the future!

 

 

 

Greetings

Markus

[menofhorror]

Honestly, small guilds have a low chance of surviving for a long already. If for example the requirements are smaller for small guilds then tell me people, what is the motivtion to recruit more people or expand your guild if that means higher costs and time for guild perks?

[Totemdancer]

Honestly, small guilds have a low chance of surviving for a long already. If for example the requirements are smaller for small guilds then tell me people, what is the motivtion to recruit more people or expand your guild if that means higher costs and time for guild perks?

 

The problem is people are continually leaving the game in vast numbers. All the guilds I’ve been in have died because of everyone leaving the game. Most of the guys in my guild have “guild burnout”. We use our small guild as a place to meet and do stuff (if we are online at the same time) and mainly to park all our Alts. But we dont organise or recruit anymore because we’ve done that for 6 years and everyone we know has continued to leave the game.

If the population was stable and players/subscribers didn’t have a 2-6 week revolving door, then it wouldn’t be so bad, Even the guys in my guild disappear for weeks or months at a time.

The idea of joining another new guild this late in the games life and have it collapse again in a few months is depressing.

What my guild would like is the ability to still participate at our own pace with the guild XP and with the planetary conquest. We haven’t been able to do the planetary conquest because the GS was too expensive for us. Even at 15,000.000 it will be too much for us.

What will end up happening is smaller guilds will fold because their members will leave to get bonuses and you’ll have large toxic guilds kicking people once they get their credits or they don’t login for a week, especially with the low member cap (is that ever going to be raised?).

Edited November 11, 2018 by Totemdancer

[casirabit]

Honestly, small guilds have a low chance of surviving for a long already. If for example the requirements are smaller for small guilds then tell me people, what is the motivtion to recruit more people or expand your guild if that means higher costs and time for guild perks?

 

We been here since launch and while we do recruit if the person is what our guild is looking for. We tend to be a roleplaying guild and drama free, we really haven't had problems raising the funds (like purchasing the Rishi stronghold for our guild) we need but then again it might be our members. We tend to help one another. We been in large guilds before coming to SWTOR and for most of us we find that it is not for us. As stated before, we will recruit but not just for the sake of recruiting. They need to be the type of person that fits our guild and not everyone is a fit for all guilds. And while some will say small guilds will fold, maybe some, but I don't see that happening to ours.

Edited November 11, 2018 by casirabit

[menofhorror]

The problem is people are continually leaving the game in vast numbers. All the guilds I’ve been in have died because of everyone leaving the game. Most of the guys in my guild have “guild burnout”. We use our small guild as a place to meet and do stuff (if we are online at the same time) and mainly to park all our Alts. But we dont organise or recruit anymore because we’ve done that for 6 years and everyone we know has continued to leave the game.

If the population was stable and players/subscribers didn’t have a 2-6 week revolving door, then it wouldn’t be so bad, Even the guys in my guild disappear for weeks or months at a time.

The idea of joining another new guild this late in the games life and have it collapse again in a few months is depressing.

What my guild would like is the ability to still participate at our own pace with the guild XP and with the planetary conquest. We haven’t been able to do the planetary conquest because the GS was too expensive for us. Even at 15,000.000 it will be too much for us.

What will end up happening is smaller guilds will fold because their members will leave to get bonuses and you’ll have large toxic guilds kicking people once they get their credits or they don’t login for a week, especially with the low member cap (is that ever going to be raised?).

 

While your concerns are fair and you bring up good points in my eyes people will always leave an MMO after some time. Nobody can play the same game forever though. I say smaller guilds have a much higher chance of disbanding. Small guild equals small number of people which equals less interaction and a smaller community and less motivation to stay in a guild. You also said you recruited for 6 years which is quite a long time and perhaps it was just time to have a break and move on.

 

You say that smaller guilds will fold even faster and big toxic guilds kicking people but in my eyes favouring smaller guilds will be even worse: Big guilds will only take selected members who actively participate in conquest because with each new member the costs for new guild levels and perks will increase so why take another member when he/she is not going to do anything to contribute?

People overall I feel want to be part of a big community, with more people to talk to and interact. Small guilds are in my opnion a niche group.

 

We been here since launch and while we do recruit if the person is what our guild is looking for. We tend to be a roleplaying guild and drama free, we really haven't had problems raising the funds (like purchasing the Rishi stronghold for our guild) we need but then again it might be our members. We tend to help one another. We been in large guilds before coming to SWTOR and for most of us we find that it is not for us. As stated before, we will recruit but not just for the sake of recruiting. They need to be the type of person that fits our guild and not everyone is a fit for all guilds. And while some will say small guilds will fold, maybe some, but I don't see that happening to ours.

 

That's completely fair and totally ok. In my opinion bigger guilds are less likely to disband and fold than smaller guilds. I think the more people the better and since there is a guild cap, eventually new guilds will have to form and recruit and get bigger. I say giving smaller guilds the advantage (by lowering the amount for reaching the guild levels and perks) will even faster make big guilds disband into smaller ones, all of whom have a much higher chance of disbanding.

Edited November 11, 2018 by menofhorror

[Toraak]

While your concerns are fair and you bring up good points in my eyes people will always leave an MMO after some time. Nobody can play the same game forever though. I say smaller guilds have a much higher chance of disbanding. Small guild equals small number of people which equals less interaction and a smaller community and less motivation to stay in a guild. You also said you recruited for 6 years which is quite a long time and perhaps it was just time to have a break and move on.

 

You say that smaller guilds will fold even faster and big toxic guilds kicking people but in my eyes favouring smaller guilds will be even worse: Big guilds will only take selected members who actively participate in conquest because with each new member the costs for new guild levels and perks will increase so why take another member when he/she is not going to do anything to contribute?

People overall I feel want to be part of a big community, with more people to talk to and interact. Small guilds are in my opnion a niche group.

 

 

 

That's completely fair and totally ok. In my opinion bigger guilds are less likely to disband and fold than smaller guilds. I think the more people the better and since there is a guild cap, eventually new guilds will have to form and recruit and get bigger. I say giving smaller guilds the advantage (by lowering the amount for reaching the guild levels and perks) will even faster make big guilds disband into smaller ones, all of whom have a much higher chance of disbanding.

 

I'd also add that not everyone wants to be in Large guilds. The couple of times I've put an alt in a larger guild I honestly felt like a number instead of a person. There are people that would rather be in a smaller guild that has a sense of community.

Edited November 11, 2018 by Toraak

[menofhorror]

I'd also add that not everyone wants to be in Large guilds. The couple of times I've put an alt in a larger guild I honestly felt like a number instead of a person. There are people that would rather be in a smaller guild that has a sense of community.

 

That's fair enough, different preferences and that's all good.

I personally prefer larger guilds since most of the small guilds I've been in through the game's lifes disbanded or became inactive quite quickly.

In my eyes you can't have a sense of community if a guild has no people in it. With more people you can have more talks, more groups, overall more going on. I don't really understand the argument about being a number though.

 

Edit: But of course these are only my thoughts and I don't think one can say that he/she is right or wrong. I think it's just hard to really balance things and no matter how you design something, one side will always slightly benefit. I think focusing too much on balance can also destroy the fun aspect.

Edited November 11, 2018 by menofhorror

[shyroman]

These perks being enabled for nim ops is a mistake. You disabled them for pvp due to the competitive aspect (I'm guessing) and although nim ops aren't directly competitive like pvp, when a new nim op comes out, there is a competitive aspect between groups to kill it first. I expect the timed run achievement to be a real race between groups, and guilds that grind for stat boosts will have a definite edge over guilds that do not grind conquest. This edge will be even greater for future nim ops and guilds that don't grind conquest or new guilds will be left behind. This also punishes groups that aren't composed of members all in the same guild. The nim community is already small enough and stuff like this will hurt one of the big incentives for groups trying hard to complete the ops as quickly as possible.

[Andryah]

In my opinion bigger guilds are less likely to disband and fold than smaller guilds. I think the more people the better and since there is a guild cap, eventually new guilds will have to form and recruit and get bigger. I say giving smaller guilds the advantage (by lowering the amount for reaching the guild levels and perks) will even faster make big guilds disband into smaller ones, all of whom have a much higher chance of disbanding.

Such a blanket assumption is doomed to be false in many cases. Why? Because this very much depends on the nature and practices of the guild much more so then it's size in member numbers.

 

I've seen very large guilds implode out of nowhere in MMOs, and I have seen small guilds continue to be stable and thrive over time in MMOs. AND vice versa. What makes the most difference here? ---> How the guild recruits and administers it's operations. When a guild (large of small) has wide open recruiting, with very little actual evaluation of the players, and peddles itself as a guild for the perks (which many do) .. they are destined to suffer ongoing attrition issues and struggle to maintain. Whereas guilds with members who actually know, respect, and work collectively for guild benefit generally are very picky with their recruiting, and also very attentive to administration of the guild and as such build a more stable guild over time.

 

Also, guilds that are almost soley focused on one niche of game play (like a PvP only guild, or an OPs only guild, one faction only, RP only, etc) tend to be more vulnerable to implosions..... as they lack the diversity of play and players to weather any change to the game that may cause inflamed protest to even simple things like class adjustments. "One Trick Pony" guilds are always vulnerable to implosion at any given time, regardless of size, due to a lack of diversity in players and play.

 

TL;DR: Guild size has little real meaning in terms of longevity and success on it's own. Guild recruiting practices, administration practices, and attention to detail in guild activity planning have a much larger effect on guild stability in MMOs. Yes.. in some cases large guilds have more margin for error in recruiting and maintaining memberships.. but the reality is that the ones to watch are the small-2-medium sized guilds that are diversified in their activities together as a guild and who carefully recruit like minded players who demonstrate actual maturity of behavior and a willingness to play together in a supportive manner.

 

On the topic of adding guild perks, a great move by the studio in my view, and long over due. But again... the success of these with any given guild is going to be centered around guild administration practices more so then the perks themselves.

Edited November 11, 2018 by Andryah

[menofhorror]

Such a blanket assumption is doomed to be false in many cases. Why? Because this very much depends on the nature and practices of the guild much more so then it's size in member numbers.

 

I've seen very large guilds implode out of nowhere in MMOs, and I have seen small guilds continue to be stable and thrive over time in MMOs. AND vice versa. What makes the most difference here? ---> How the guild recruits and administers it's operations. When a guild (large of small) has wide open recruiting, with very little actual evaluation of the players, and peddles itself as a guild for the perks (which many do) .. they are destined to suffer ongoing attrition issues and struggle to maintain. Whereas guilds with members who actually know, respect, and work collectively for guild benefit generally are very picky with their recruiting, and also very attentive to administration of the guild and as such build a more stable guild over time.

 

Also, guilds that are almost soley focused on one niche of game play (like a PvP only guild, or an OPs only guild, one faction only, RP only, etc) tend to be more vulnerable to implosions..... as they lack the diversity of play and players to weather any change to the game that may cause inflamed protest to even simple things like class adjustments. "One Trick Pony" guilds are always vulnerable to implosion at any given time, regardless of size, due to a lack of diversity in players and play.

 

TL;DR: Guild size has little real meaning in terms of longevity and success on it's own. Guild recruiting practices, administration practices, and attention to detail in guild activity planning have a much larger effect on guild stability in MMOs. Yes.. in some cases large guilds have more margin for error in recruiting and maintaining memberships.. but the reality is that the ones to watch are the small-2-medium sized guilds that are diversified in their activities together as a guild and who carefully recruit like minded players who demonstrate actual maturity of behavior and a willingness to play together in a supportive manner.

 

On the topic of adding guild perks, a great move by the studio in my view, and long over due. But again... the success of these with any given guild is going to be centered around guild administration practices more so then the perks themselves.

 

"I've seen very large guilds implode out of nowhere in MMOs, and I have seen small guilds continue to be stable and thrive over time in MMOs." Of course this may happen but I am talking about probabilties and tell me, how many times have you seen "large guilds implode out of nowhere". I doubt you experienced and saw that often than the amount of smaller guilds fading into inactivity because there is simply not enough people to do stuff with.

 

Of course like you said it depends on the nature and practises of the guilds but overall the probability for smaller guilds to fade into inactivity is higher so I still stand by my statement from before. Guild recruiting practices, administration practices, and attention to detai are all of course factors that play into wheter a guild keeps existing. But I say, most people don't treat the guild that seriously as you describe. Most people just want to be in a large group and have many people around to feel a sense of community. Guilds that focus on one profession only like you menntioned, pvp, OPs etc. are in my eyes a minority.