Klion D'Gar

A fantasy name in a fantasy game, uncanny

Aeribian IV

No one else find this post extremely ironic when talking about setting up a guild called Devil's Advocat!

I think you should call it The Devils Advocaat, and experience visions through egg-based liquers!!

Or The Gaurdsmen Millitia

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Henry Winter

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Crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women!

Kaelith

How many guilds there are is only part of the problem. I think the main problem is the organisation of the guilds, there are too many random, "crazy", high fantasy guilds which may have been around for years, or just a few months but survive off just a few hardcore players and never grow and really don't need to be a seperate entity.

I know its been said in the past, but the only guilds you really need in a well organised RP community is a few town guilds (Vesper, DoT, BoC and Grd who are basically Yew), 1 or at most 2 bandit/merc guilds, a couple of knightly orders and a misc stone for wanders.

From that basic set of guilds you can form bands of mercenaries, religious groups, trading guilds (guilds in the real sense, not game sense). It is essentially what the RP community is based around and the big active guilds that existed when i was still about were basically these guilds. but if all the players in the random other guild disbanded and joined these town guilds it would help to consolidate everything a lot better.

Another problem though is leadership, there are a precious few GMs who have really done something special, there are a few more GMs who are dedicated and keep things ticking a long ok but the majority of GMs sholdn't be GMs. I was always of the opinion that if you have the urge to GM a guild just do it so you can get it off your chest, but you got to know when to just say, "ok, this isn't going to work, i'm going back to a town guild".

as henry said, if we had 10 guilds with more people in that would be better. Because with few guilds you can make more definite factions and a more exciting and workable political structure without the complexities of a million different guilds and self proclaimed "leaders". you can have larger scale wars with better organised armies and cults and weird fantasy stuff can thrive inside the confines of a large, well organised town guild.

the only people outside this would be the knightly orders and bandits who are the guilds that essentially lie in the neutral ground or in the case of the knightly orders, are governed by a higher purpose.

It was knightly guilds where i specialised and put most of my effort and i said it then and i'll say it now, there are too many tiny, unnecessary knightly orders who all have "long" histories but have really just become part of town guilds but don't actually join the town just so someone can keep their "grandmaster" status.


I should note that there are always exceptions, the shadow court has always been a fantastic guild and kaldor has always been one of the large outlandish guilds who have been fun. and even thuogh i'd say good luck to some forming a new guild and maybe help, i'd still prefer to see less.

callumf

Kaelith - I couldn't agree with you more.

It was always my dream to have a small structured number of guilds which would be able to accomodate all playstyles with a minimum number of guild leaders to co-ordinate things in a limited playing area with a fixed war-ring. [aka CoY]

I would however have allowed the high-fantasy element on the fringes - much as the Shadow Court still does now - to create new lore and new exciting events and incidents and to create things which arent "run of the mill".

I was looking back at the Shadow Court and all it has achieved over the years and I am damn proud to have been part of one of the most innovative guilds in UO - we have made more history and lore in our own quiet way and now it has become a part of our history.

But yes - less guilds , less leaders more co-operation =)

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sigged by Firebird of Stratics! Thanks!

Aeribian IV

Haha, I only said somethign because technically he was playing Devils Advocat to a post about a guild called Devils Advocat

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Floria

I think the problem isn't really one of joining existing guilds, but making sure your new founded guild doesn't end up as one-person-guild from the start. So it's important to gather players first - for example while being on the CoRE independent stone - and THEN starting your guild. I think it gives you much more freedom to experiment and find your place if you have dedication and know what you're doing.
But for the rest, the people who just wanna be GM to brag, we used to call their guilds "vanity stones" on Cats

Griinshar

Unless ofcourse, In an extreme case i'm saying, That these leaders become dictators as such. Having many a guild leader shows a good spread in the community rather than a bunch of power-hungry maniacs that sit around a table inside a volcano (It happened in Austin Powers, It Can Happen Here!).

Achenar

I'd risk it rather than having 10000 one man guilds. :]

And tbh, looks like you're a 'power-hungry maniac' if you just can't join already excisting thug guild or whatever.

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Life is ugly, beautiful and dear, rich, ramshackle, but it's mine

Kaelith

A good dictator is better than any democracy! they are just a hell of a gamble and a lot harder to acquire

But if the community was run by a handful of dictators who kept everything quiet from everyone else it would make the RP a hell of a lot better and the atmosphere would be far more immersive and real.

Griinshar

Sure I can't talk about not being a crazy hungered physco. But, Everyone sees dictatorship (Communism) as a good thing at first. Everything being shared out equally and no-one complaining or winging. But that's rarely the case and in no time these/this selected leader will ofcourse, Like many dictators before become power-crazed. And feed from the game (Country in IRL terms!).

Kaelith

communism is the complete opposite to a dictatorship, but ironically is usually controlled by a hypocritical dictatorship.

communism is what we try to achieve in our community, everyone gets a fair shot, everyone has a say, everyone is equal. we don't normally vote on things, they are discussed until a decision becomes evident.

a dictatorship is where one guy just says what goes and people can like it or lump it. Oman has a dictator who builds tons of schools and amazing public services and no one complains, no one argues, it just happens and the country flourishes. this is a rare case. but my comment stands. if the community had a good dictator it would be awesome. take good to mean what you like, but i mean it in the sense of someone who is well organised, decisive, charismatic and fair.

Griinshar

Well why don't we vote on things if we want a fair decision? This is why lots of people want to make a new guild so they can be a Gm and get their say in. Without being a guild master, And not having acess to the all holy GM Board people are feeling that their's no way to get their view across. Maybe this is no longer a case of power but more of a case of wanting to get their talk across. The current order of power stands as so:

1. CoRe GM's
2. CoRe Guild GM's
3. Roleplayers

And so by the time it gets to the roleplayer's themselve they generally get ignored as they're not important enough and especially in big guilds are just seen as a number. Now of course, To have one person make all our difficult decisions would be great, In some cases. But what if we want to get our point across, What happens once we've trusted this leader to make the right decisions and then suddenly he makes a decision we all disagree with. But as we've put him in charge, And no-one can make their point he is of course in his own power and can do what he likes. This is why we need a democracy of some kind rather than a dictator. Of course, I don't even play Ultima Online anymore so it's not really within my rights to moan, But you lot know me, I love to moan.

James

Devlin

Errr, communism is where everyone works for the State, not themselves, and it can be a dictatorship. Stalin ran a communist dictatorship!

And I don't think we're trying to be commie swines in our community =P

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Lann'Al

All leaders are powerhungry madmen(why else would they be leaders) rest of the players are jsut as powerhungry, just more lazy

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