Guild System Is Still Outdated Because of One Thing...

[SerraShar]

I don't even see a point to guilds on SWTOR.

 

Back when I joined, the Guild were useful to get more xp while Parked . Also, you get help with datacron and Heroic+ 4 .

 

And....you meet new peoples , I guess ? was never one for guild lol since I rather play alone then group with peoples .

 

I count myself fortunate that the people I've empowered in our guild take enough heart in being part of something that they feel is worth selflessly giving their time and attention to. I've very proud and humbled at the same time. They're caring, respectful, and dedicated. I couldn't ask for a better crew, even the ones bent on murdering me during ops (here's looking at you, Denise! LOL)

 

That sound nice, and alot of work as well lol

[Transcendent]

The rules about transferring guild leadership should be stated more clearly. It happens too often that people lose control of their guild because they weren't aware of the rules. An automatic e-mail might suffice.

 

I agree, it should be more apparent when creating a guild that this will happen to inactive guild "leaders". An email upon creation explaining this clearly (or in-game tutorial), as well as an automatic email to remind guild leaders to log in.

 

However with that said, as others have pointed out, if a guild leader goes afk and doesn't leave in place some manner of ensuring at the very least guild invasions (or whatever) happen weekly, then they're not leading the guild. Honestly if any newer members were not aware of the plans of the guild "leader" and were given leadership in this time by the system, it should be theirs to do with as they wish. They're not going to know if the guild "leader" is just on a break or going to return and may want to find something more active (or run the guild as they see fit).

 

While I'll admit that the OP has learned the hard way in this instance, I also have to question if they were a suitable guild leader in the first place if they didn't at the very least check in or create some MOTD making members aware. That said it doesn't detract from BioWare perhaps adding in some form of protection for guilds or making them more aware.

 

From the other perspective, if someone found themselves as a lone active member of an inactive guild, it wouldn't be that great for them to be placed in that scenario by the guild leader. Perhaps they thought it was completely dead so wasn't going to really have an effect on anyone? How are they meant to know if it hasn't been communicated to them? Visitation by force ghost?

[DarkTergon]

 

OP quit though, so I guess all this wisdom is going to waste in this thread.

 

others have quit, but still seem to be stalking these forums, at least till their cookies run out

[Phaedruss]

To address what other people have been saying...

 

1.) WoW transfers leadership after 90 days. - This only happens when "They are guild rank 2, or 3, and logged in within the last week. To see your numeric guild rank, find your guild on the World of Warcraft community site and view the Roster. Higher rank characters get higher priority for notifications." - so the guild needs to be leveled and it is not just automatically transferred, a players has to activate it. It also uses rank as priority and players are notified.

 

2.) Our guild was not leveled at all. The only people in it were friends in game that had been in the guild for years and a couple random low level players we helped here and there - basically just helping them out with xp and rep bonuses and would run them through stuff when asked. This was not some top tier guild and it was made clear that the guild wasn't too active anymore because of the content drought. Upon having to take a hiatus for work, I did change the MoTD explaining such - I didn't just up and leave.

 

3.) I do understand that just ditching an active guild with lots of members, that is leveled up, and has players investing in it is abandoning it. This was not the case.

 

4.) The guild leader should be able to set privileges - such as letting officers or members start conquest, etc...

Claiming I'm a bad leader because such features are missing is dumb. There is no reason only 1 person in the guild should be the only person that can do so. Many of the problems mentioned on here could be fixed by just allowing the guild leader to give privileges.

 

5.) Should I have just removed everyone from the guild upon taking my leave? Possibly. For one I didn't know. I had been decently active the entire time I owned the guild and since its creation so this was never an issue. And in hind sight it just seems wrong that I have to remove all my members to keep my guild. It didnt dawn on me that I should transfer leadership to someone trusted - nor did I know that everyone else would take a break that was high rank. So no protection for those that just don't know?

 

6.) I didn't quit the game namely because of this forum post. The guild members came to a consensus that none of us would be returning for the expansion. Rebuilding just seems like too much work to put in when we don't know how good this expansion is going to be. For all we know it could be new planets with only an hour worth of content like Ossus and we don't want to put in work only to have another content drought leading to this happening again . And It just seems like this system and others on this post expect the guild leader to devote their life to this game, if they dont they deserve to lose all they have worked for - I just don't see myself supporting this - I have a life outside this game and working in the oil field sometimes have to be away for months or weeks at a time. I understand some of you see this as me being a bad guild leader - but it worked for us, that's what mattered. I don't have to meet your standards - for us it worked. The fact that some people on here are taking pride in me quitting shows how toxic you are - if it boosts your ego though, yes you contributed. I wasn't looking for sympathy... but also wasn't expecting to be lambasted and repeatedly told I'm a bad guild leader - you don't know me, you dont know how I ran my guild, you dont know my members. To just assume I'm a bad guild leader for taking a small break and repeatedly say that I deserved this really opened my eyes to how much I don't need to play this game. I'm glad you are the best guild leaders out there and have none stop time to throw at it - claiming I deserved this and that I'm bad guild leader because I needed to take a break IS toxic no matter how much you say it's not.

 

To Lhancelot - Thank you for your suggestions, I was not trying to be 'petulant' - was more just frustrated by the lack of empathy for my issue. I was instantly labeled as a bad guild leader and told I deserved this by others, I was not trying claim you specifically were toxic, was directed to the people that were being toxic - until you were.

 

Not going to be following this post anymore. As some have stated though, hopefully this info helps others not have this problem. As I said before, it seems to me with the lack of criteria for the guild leader transfer it destroys more guilds than it keeps together - Most of the time is seems the guilds are simply stolen and sold - I don't see how this helps anyone other than the person lucky enough to log into a dead guild first, at that point screw the guild if they decide to return right? They deserved it.

Edited October 3, 2019 by Phaedruss

[Lhancelot]

To Lhancelot - Thank you for your suggestions, I was not trying to be 'petulant' Not going to be following this post anymore.

 

Well. Things usually are more complicated than what is on the surface and so in the beginning I give you the benefit of the doubt and try to help you. But when you felt attacked by others, you responded poorly let's say, and so once emotions were involved it just snowballed. I mean this thread turning to crap.

 

But who cares, like you said what we think doesn't matter anyway! That's the important part.

 

Hopefully you find something fun to do if you don't stay with SWTOR, just not sure what's out there tbh! Maybe Camelot Unchained or Pantheon will be out soon heh. I agree they could make the guild control issue better, but knowing it and understanding it, I guess I kind of have grown used to it and see the pros of it now in a better light, and the cons which do exist are not so bad I'd quit or w/e. Anyway good luck!

[Transcendent]

4.) The guild leader should be able to set privileges - such as letting officers or members start conquest, etc...

Claiming I'm a bad leader because such features are missing is dumb. There is no reason only 1 person in the guild should be the only person that can do so. Many of the problems mentioned on here could be fixed by just allowing the guild leader to give privileges.

 

The guild leader can set privileges for some of these scenarios, conquest is just an example however not the exhaustive list. I agree that a majority of things like buying guild tabs etc should also be able to be delegated to whomever is trusted and has the correct rank.

 

Bad leader? How can you be a bad leader if you're not leading? Obviously your leadership style didn't sit well with everyone in your guild, otherwise you wouldn't find yourself in this particular scenario. I'm not judging either way.

[Starknaga]

This automatic leadership transfer system is an absolute rubbish.

I was a subscriber since I started to play, but at some stage I changed my paypal details and did not update them on SWTOR.

I play this game every day. So I logged in on Wednesday and saw welcoming screen saying that I run out of sub and I'm now a preffered player. I thought - OK I will do some heroics and then quit game and renew subscription.

So I logged in and saw that my guild was taken away from me and given to some random dude from my guild. He is not active since over 3 weeks and I can't even ask him to give my guild back to me.

 

So I wrote to CS, but got response that they can't control their own game, and everything is automatic.

 

I’ve replied to your ticket in-game, you’ll find the answer below too.

 

Would like to tell you that the guild management is fully automatic and cannot be controlled by us. Please refer to this link to know about the Guild and leadership management.

 

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/star-wars/star-wars-the-old-republic/swtor-guild-management/

 

If your Guild Leader has not logged in to Star Wars: The Old Republic on their Guild Leader character for an extended period of time (4 weeks or more), the system will automatically remove them as Guild Leader and pass their leadership on to the highest ranking member who is a subscriber and has logged in within four weeks. If there were no active subscribers in the guild over the last four weeks, the highest ranking Preferred or Free-to-Play member who logged in within four weeks is promoted.

 

If the member who is promoted to Guild Leader does not wish to act as leader, they can pass leadership on to another officer using the /gabdicate command.

 

So... even if he was active I have to ask him to pass the leadership back to me, and he does not have to agree

 

I can understand, community... inactive GM... blah blah blah... but I paid for everything in this guild, for all the unlocks etc, and It's my. I built it for myself not for some random dudes that come and leave my guild every single day.

I have not been inactive, I was punished and robbed for not extending my subscription in time, that's how I see it now.

 

I can understand that the system is automatic - then it needs to be fixed ASAP. Instead CS tells me to go away, and community here on the forum tells me that it is my fault, because I didn't know.

 

Instead saying something like - Yes you are right, we will fix it, sorry for all the stress, after all you paid lots of credits and spent months building your guild" - they just tell me it's automatic, nothing had happened, and they removed my posts from other thread about this issue

I feel like dealing with one of these online shops where ordered goods go missing and nobody cares.

 

Have a nice weekend guys, I guess it is a lesson for me to never again invest real money into in-game things.

Edited October 5, 2019 by Starknaga

[xordevoreaux]

I can understand, community... inactive GM... blah blah blah... but I paid for everything in this guild, for all the unlocks etc, and It's my. I built it for myself not for some random dudes that come and leave my guild every single day.

 

Then you should have kept it to yourself.

 

Once you open up a guild to others, you're sharing the guild with others, not renting out member slots like a permanent slum lord. Once you've more than yourself in your guild, it's no longer YOUR guild. It's the members' guild, all of them.

Edited October 5, 2019 by xordevoreaux

[DeannaVoyager]

This automatic leadership transfer system is an absolute rubbish.

I was a subscriber since I started to play, but at some stage I changed my paypal details and did not update them on SWTOR.

I play this game every day. So I logged in on Wednesday and saw welcoming screen saying that I run out of sub and I'm now a preffered player. I thought - OK I will do some heroics and then quit game and renew subscription.

So I logged in and saw that my guild was taken away from me and given to some random dude from my guild. He is not active since over 3 weeks and I can't even ask him to give my guild back to me.

 

So I wrote to CS, but got response that they can't control their own game, and everything is automatic.

 

That can easily happen with credit cards too, as they are renewed every 2-3 years. It really puzzles me why they don't have an automatic e-mail going to subscribers who's sub is about to expire. If I am about to run out of any any other long term service, like newspaper, they contact me in advance and ask if I want to renew my subscription to make sure they don't lose a customer. Seems like BW doesn't care if they have people subbing or not, because they do not provide a reminder.

[DarkTergon]

Seems like BW doesn't care if they have people subbing or not, because they do not provide a reminder.

 

The probably think people are smarter than they really are. Or maybe they think people actually use their heads.../shrug. Who knows what the overloards at BW really think.......:rolleyes:

Edited October 7, 2019 by DarkTergon

[Starknaga]

That can easily happen with credit cards too, as they are renewed every 2-3 years. It really puzzles me why they don't have an automatic e-mail going to subscribers who's sub is about to expire. If I am about to run out of any any other long term service, like newspaper, they contact me in advance and ask if I want to renew my subscription to make sure they don't lose a customer. Seems like BW doesn't care if they have people subbing or not, because they do not provide a reminder.

 

Another odd decision. They have almost empty servers, but sure, this must be people who are wrong

I was quite upset when it happened, but today I don't care about swtor anymore.

They do what they want, they have a stalker list which they call friends list, and they refuse to delete your account when you ask for it. As I said yesterday I will write to my EU representative this Monday. I believe this kind of privacy issues can't be legal in the EU.

[JediQuaker]

If I am about to run out of any any other long term service, like newspaper, they contact me in advance and ask if I want to renew my subscription to make sure they don't lose a customer.

Well, that must depend upon where you are. For me, services like, newspapers, heating oil, cable & internet, etc, are all just billed monthly and auto-withdrawn from a bank account. The only time they contact me is to try to sell me upgraded services, or inform me of billing amounts. Those "subscriptions" never run out, as such, unless I cancel them.

Similarly, SWTOR auto-renews on my credit card every 6 months. There's no need to contact me about my subscription "running out" - it never runs out.

It would only be those who sign up for a non-recurring sub that would need a "reminder", but those "subs" are all short term, and you should obviously be self-aware of when they'll run out.

[Starknaga]

Guys, let's quit these philosophical discussions - it's simply BS to take a guild away from someone just because he did not renew his subscription in time. Also they don't listen, and this attitude drives people away from this game. This forum is overrun by "yes-man" type of fanboys. It's sad because it does not make this game better... Edited October 6, 2019 by Starknaga

[Darev]

Guys, let's quit these philosophical discussions - it's simply BS to take a guild away from someone just because he did not renew his subscription in time. Also they don't listen, and this attitude drives people away from this game. This forum is overrun by "yes-man" type of fanboys. It's sad because it does not make this game better...

 

I agree with you. They took a valid complaint from before the game launched and made a one size fits all solution.

Clearly, at least to me, that was the wrong approach. They should have spent some more time on it for a more flexible solution, or even made a 1-2 week grace period for billing issues.

[Darev]

Well, that must depend upon where you are. For me, services like, newspapers, heating oil, cable & internet, etc, are all just billed monthly and auto-withdrawn from a bank account. The only time they contact me is to try to sell me upgraded services, or inform me of billing amounts. Those "subscriptions" never run out, as such, unless I cancel them.

Similarly, SWTOR auto-renews on my credit card every 6 months. There's no need to contact me about my subscription "running out" - it never runs out.

It would only be those who sign up for a non-recurring sub that would need a "reminder", but those "subs" are all short term, and you should obviously be self-aware of when they'll run out.

 

I actually get an e-mail from bioware before they auto charge my account now. It's new within the last year or so.

[Darev]

Then you should have kept it to yourself.

 

Once you open up a guild to others, you're sharing the guild with others, not renting out member slots like a permanent slum lord. Once you've more than yourself in your guild, it's no longer YOUR guild. It's the members' guild, all of them.

 

That's not how I see it at all.

 

If I put over a billion credits into the guild that I created with some real life friends...and those friends don't play anymore, the guild is mine as I'm the only one that logs in.

If I choose to invite other players into the guild, and all they want is the extra xp and/or conquest participation...the fact that the guild is mine doesn't change.

 

Due to this system and how it works, yes, they're all getting booted before I unsub...if I do.

The few that log in several times a week, I'll offer to pay for a new guild ship if they want to make their own new guild...but what's mine is mine...unless my original buddies come back.

[Ardrossan]

Guys, let's quit these philosophical discussions - it's simply BS to take a guild away from someone just because he did not renew his subscription in time. Also they don't listen, and this attitude drives people away from this game. This forum is overrun by "yes-man" type of fanboys. It's sad because it does not make this game better...

 

Funny how the whole forum becomes yes-men when you can't find anyone to agree with you.

 

GL writing your EU rep to put a stop to BW tyranny, lolol.

[JoeeyyMagzz]

I dont see how giving a guild to a random person, whoever logs in first when the guild is taking a break, would help a guild thrive. Thats not how leadership works... Just because some is appointed guild leader by the game, doesn't mean anything. Not to mention, after talking to some people, it seems like 9/10 this is what happens: Noobie gets a guild because he logged in, everyone in guild is removed, noobie has a guild!

 

The entire "leadership" of a guild disappearing for more than 30 days isn't how leadership works either. /shrug

 

It takes a total of 2 minutes to login to the game on your guild GM toon. You, nor ANY of the officers, could find 2 minutes in >30 days, and then you want everyone to feel bad that you lost your guild? It sucks that your time investment is gone, but it's your own fault. Maybe next time the entire leadership of a guild wants to take a break, all at the same time, you guys will just remove every single non-officer from the guild.

[SteveTheCynic]

I feel bad for the OP. I don't have a problem with the guild leadership policy, but I do think it shouldn't be possible to found a guild (or come into leadership of it via transfer) without being explicitly told the criteria for automatic leadership transfer. Yes, this information is easily available if you search, but if someone doesn't know there's something to search for - has no idea there's an automatic transfer system at all - then they're not going to search. Perhaps an in-game mail from Bioware could help, sent out automatically to any character that becomes leader of a guild.

These forums feature occasional posts from people who claim to have "accidentally" deleted a character(1) or jumped forward to the Jedi Under Siege / Ossus story. I therefore put "send an email or pop up a warning" in the category of "proposal that is in fact even less useful than useless".

 

(1) No, I don't mean "deleted this character when I meant to delete that character", but "I accidentally deleted a character".

[denavin]

The system was designed to prevent Dead Beat Guild Leaders. You should have known the rules and how Guilds work in SWToR.

 

Sorry to say but the fault is all YOURS. Regardless of the circumstances you abandoned your guild. It only takes 5 minuets to log into your guild leader every couple of weeks to keep your Guild Leadership so long as you kept your subscription active. That is YOUR responsibility as Guild Leader. If you knew that you were going to be unable to do your duties as Guild Leader then it was YOUR responsibility to transfer Guild Leadership to a Trusted member, but you did not, so the fault is still yours.

 

There have been many people coming on to the forums to complain about their failure to maintain guild leadership and thus blame the game for their failing to server their guild, as Guild Leader.

 

A Guild Leader is more than someone that pays for everything, a figurehead or simply the one at the top of the Guild Roster. You have a responsibility to your Guild and to its Members. It was YOUR responsibility to make sure that Guild Leadership was maintained and not simply ASSUMED that you were king and could not be easily replaced.

 

I know from what I say as I have inherited 2 guilds from Dead Beat Guild Leaders, besides the one I started. I log into my guild leaders EVERY WEEK no mater were in the world I happen to be working. To log into my 3 Guild Leaders takes a whole 5 minutes. I don't need to play the game just log into them check on my Guilds as a Guild Leader should then log out. 4 years and counting I have been doing that.

 

You could have too.....

Edited October 8, 2019 by denavin

[Estelindis]

These forums feature occasional posts from people who claim to have "accidentally" deleted a character(1) or jumped forward to the Jedi Under Siege / Ossus story. I therefore put "send an email or pop up a warning" in the category of "proposal that is in fact even less useful than useless".

 

(1) No, I don't mean "deleted this character when I meant to delete that character", but "I accidentally deleted a character".

I think it's not reasonable to categorize this proposal as useless. The fact that pop-ups don't have a 100% rate of successfully stopping mistakes doesn't mean that they stop no mistakes. "I saw the pop-up and changed my course of action" isn't really something anyone's going to post to the forum, is it? Not something to complain about, and not an interesting story. So we won't hear about most of the times when pop-ups work.

Edited October 8, 2019 by Estelindis

[black_pyros]

I dont see how giving a guild to a random person, whoever logs in first when the guild is taking a break, would help a guild thrive. Thats not how leadership works... Just because some is appointed guild leader by the game, doesn't mean anything. Not to mention, after talking to some people, it seems like 9/10 this is what happens: Noobie gets a guild because he logged in, everyone in guild is removed, noobie has a guild!

 

There are no random persons in guilds. Every member of the guild had to be invited by either GM him/herself or by anyone with rank that recieved the right to invite to guild, which can also be set only by GM him/herself.

[denavin]

I dont see how giving a guild to a random person, whoever logs in first when the guild is taking a break, would help a guild thrive. Thats not how leadership works... Just because some is appointed guild leader by the game, doesn't mean anything. Not to mention, after talking to some people, it seems like 9/10 this is what happens: Noobie gets a guild because he logged in, everyone in guild is removed, noobie has a guild!

 

Here let me redefine this statement for you so that it make more sence.

 

I dont see how giving a guild to a random person, whoever logs in first when the guild Leader Abandons the Guild, would help a guild thrive

It makes a Guild Thrive by having an ACTIVE Guild Leader instead of a Dead Beat Guild Leader

 

when the guild Leader Abandons the Guild, that's not how guild leadership works

At least you got that right... Your no leader when you Abandon your Guild to as you say "Take A BREAK"

 

As far as:

everyone in guild is removed

Funny but Guild Leaders can do that (which you are no longer)... Guess you should not have Abandon your Guild.

 

Nothing else you say here means ANYTHING. You ABANDON YOUR GUILD end of story. Taking a BREAK is synonymous with ABANDONING YOUR GUILD.

As Guild leader it is your responsibility to make sure that YOUR guild is maintained and has an ACTIVE leader that does not "Take Breaks" Abandoning the guild.

[MK-ULTRA]

The best is when the guild bank is filled with diamonds.

[Cerixy]

If you do not plan on being active you should not be running a guild that has active members, its as simple as that. The system was put in place to give guilds a chance to continue with new leaders so the right thing happend to you, just accept it and move on. I actually find those people that hold on to an active guild by logging in once within the 28 days worse, they are the deadbeats that won't let go.

 

I was in what used to be a large guild on Darth Malgus for 4 years, most of that time I ran it as a senior officer, then for 4 months as GM before drama and stress got me so I decided to pass it back to the origional creator and leave... looking back that was a mistake but thats on me, she passed leadership to a guy who could not run a bath nevermind a guild (he's probably reading this but I don't care) and his great plan involves being inactive until 6.0 apart from logging in once a week and standing around doing nothing because the game is dead at the moment and people are not joining guilds...... which any recruiter would tell you is bulls&%~, thats been the state of the guild for over a month and its killed it, a top conquest guild of 50+ active members every night while I had it to 5-8 hangers on who believe in his plan to revive the guild in 6.0.... even though it didn't need reviving until he killed it. I would love a system that would allow us to remove people like that from leadership but I also know that its inpossible to have such a system as it would be open to abuse.