Guild

Guild Overview

On most servers, the new player will be greeted by a gaggle of veteran recruiters in the Mos Eisley spawn area inviting you to join their guild. In SWG guild membership is usually part of the development of player designed cities, mayorship of these cities, and the ability to wage war with other guilds. Joining a guild is not a decision to make lightly, although if you find yourself in a guild you don't like, it's easy to cut your losses and join another one. To leave your current guild, simply enter the command: /guildremove self

Player Associations (also known as Guilds) are formal, permanent group of players. A Player Association (PA) has at least 5 members, one of which is the PA Leader. A Guild Hall was once needed to create and manage the PA, but upgrades have since been installed that have removed this need.

To create a guild you just need a "Player Association Galactic Registry" (for now a nickname of PAGR) from a level 82 Structures Trader and you simply radial the PAGR and select the option Create a Guild. You specify the name and the abbreviation and then you are done.

Reasons for forming a Player Association

What exactly is the reason for forming player associations (or guilds as they are often called)? There is no single explanation. It could include a combination of any of the following:

1) To start an organization that consists of a closely knitted group of real life friends and/or family. Usually, these guilds are small in membership but can be very effective. A closely knitted group of friends or family can take part in run of the mill hunts or events, but cannot match to the larger scale activities a major guild can live up to. Similar to the latter, one may choose to instead have a closely knitted group of in-game friends.

2) To achieve a goal that cannot be executed alone. For example, a difficult quest or large scale battle in the Galactic Civil War. To achieve a specific goal, specific standards need to be put in place for recruits. These can be profession/faction/experience.

3) To found a city. While cities can be formed without guilds, an organized group of members would make founding a city more easy and efficient. Cities gives a guild a sense of accomplishment and a place to call home. Guild meetings and events can be held in player cities. The only con is this may result in isolationism, where a guild is only concerned about their own existence and not that of other organizations or cities.

4) To lead a group of people. This doesn't necessarily mean the leader is power hungry. Leading a guild can bring a sense of accomplishment. Being respected, and helping other players is what leading an organization may be about. Leaders may also enjoy setting up a council or a certain "government" structure to their organization.

5) To gain fame. Many organizations want to be "famous" so to speak, being mentioned often on game forums or the like. Guilds may enjoy holding a private "empire" status. While strong pride in ones guild is positive, this can lead to increasing the ego of both the leader and its members, and result in "outsiders" in growing weary of the organization.

6) To form a crafting company. Some guild-companies specialize in one area of trader specialization (Domestics, Structure, Engineering, Munitions), while other guild-companies may recruit all specializations of traders. Guild-companies usually have a mall where the guild puts its vendors. Guild-companies may also be founded because crafters want to share a highly concentrated resource area with some other players. Some guild companies recruit combat classes to harvest resources from animals, destroy monster lairs that spawn near the company's town, or to wage war with rival guild-companies.

Pros and Cons of Guilds

The type and quality of guilds vary greatly. Some guilds are made of real life friends, other guilds are international in membership. Some guilds do just one thing, for example, are made up of just pilots. Other guilds have members that craft, fight, fly, pvp, etc. Many of the larger guilds on many servers use teamspeak or ventrilo to communicate effectively; this is certainly a huge advantage in pvp groups where battlefield communication is often the difference between an organized assault and an impotent attack.

Guilds offer many advantages, but the same problems that mark human organizations also creep up in guilds. The advantages usually include; discounted crafted goods (armor, weapons, etc.) for guild members, easier access to larger groups needed for high end ground and space, the development of friendships between guild members, the opportunity to become a mayor of a city (voted on by city members, who are usually guild members), a convenient place to locate your personal home, the chance at participating in the larger Galactic Civil War through alliances with other guilds, and of course, the possibility of infiltrating an enemy guild and gaining access to information and possibly an internal insurrection (more on this later). Disadvantages in a good guild with good leadership are few. However, often in guilds players share storage and vendor space; these infrequently leads to theft or conflict. Also, some guilds contain members who consistently attempt to use other guild members for their own uses, do not have a developed sense of teamwork, and can not organize around a guild leader. Fortunately, these guilds usually don't last and are usually not effective; the better members of the guild will leave to find better groups.

The ill fated guilds could fall for a number of reasons. This could include mutiny so to speak, where a large number of members dissaproves of the leader; either because of his decisions or lack of online activity. Most likely there would be other members defending the leader, causing a serious internal conflict.

Guilds may fall due to lack of morale. If an opposing guild constantly harasses or kills them in conflict, the member may grow ashamed of being in his/her guild. Likewise, if an opposing guild constantly attacks and defeats their guild in a war for example, the member of the defeated guild may wish to join the enemy organization in hopes of becoming the stronger one. This could also result in a chain reaction, in which members leave because another one is. Speaking of chain reactions, if a well liked member leaves an organization, a large number of other members will follow him/her. Some members hold more respect towards other members than the leader himself.

Favoritism is a major issue which plagues almost every organization. A leader especially, may favor a member who assists greatly in guild events and leadership. When the said favored member does something at fault withen the organization... for example, insulting another member, he or she is pardoned. When a non-favored member commits the said "crime," he or she is immediately punished. While this is a major problem, it doesn't often result in a failure of an organization. Members of a guild often favor the same members the leader does... resulting in special treatment for some, but punishment for others.

Guild Types

• Role Playing

Common since the beginning of SWG, some guilds are go into the Star Wars universe through role playing. The level of strictness varies from guild to guild.

• Factional

Membership in an aligned guild requires that you earn the faction points to become either Imperial or Rebel. Usually if you are a new player and express interest in either the recruiter will help you acquire the points so you can join, although it's easy enough to locate a faction terminal and get them yourself.

• Crafting

Crafting guilds work together to harvest resources, develop malls, and supply each other with subcomponents that can be your own schematics (for example, armorsmiths need tailors to make synth cloth).

• Pilot

The advantages of a pilot guild include; it facilitates the exchange of raw space loot for Re-Engineering purposes, members can gain skill by dueling each other, difficult missions are easier tasked by organized groups.

• Entertainer

Entertainer guilds seem to be popular, and seem to be great ways to socialize and meet people.

• Language

Some guild are created for users who speak a specific language other than English. The reason for forming such guilds is often to provide a framework for players who don't feel comfortable using English.

• Nationality

National guilds are very similar to language-based guilds except membership of national guilds is restricted to players of a certain nationality.

• PvP

PvP or Player vs. Player guilds are typically faction-aligned guilds that are particularly organized in PvP combat.