My problem with guild stores... why does one person have all the power?

Thunder

Let's face it, trading guilds are nothing more than random invite guilds made up of strangers with zero intention of ever interacting with each other outside of trading, so why among 400 strangers does 1 person have all the power over the other 399 players?

Guild masters of trading guilds have a 500 slot bank storage all to themselves!

I just joined a trading guild for the first time to see what it's like. What it's like is more a storage system than an auction house. Blue items were ~1k each, purple items were several thousand a pop. All the vendor trash was priced in the hundreds.

Then I take a peek at the guild bank... where everyone has deposit rights, but only the guild master has withdraw rights. There are dozens of racial motifs in the guild bank, motifs that are listed on the store for 1k+. Motifs that can be bought from zone chat for less than 500.

I'm not fully aware of all the powers a guild master has beyond the obvious control of the guild bank and the membership of every person in the guild, but to me, that alone is too much power for a single individual in a random group of people. Spam random invites for a trading guild and receive a free 500 slot storage bank!

I know, if you don't like it, no one is forcing you to join a guild. That's true, and that's why I've not done so until now and promptly left after seeing how they operate. However, without a public AH, you can't really say that a person isn't at least somewhat compelled to join a trading guild.

I think a simple solution would be to assign ownership of guild bank slots to the individual members of the guild, with each individual having complete control over their slot.

Just an idea... and now I'll go back to pretending trading guilds don't even exist.

KariTR

It's up to the individual guild leader to set rights. You can always make your own guild and allow all members access to the bank. It's a bit risky though, as you may find out.

Willow

I have been able to get everything i wanted in zone chat . I think the whole guild store thing is ..welll...silly.

Greydog

I'd like to see the guild bank split up into five 100 slot tabs and then allow the leader to assign ranks permission per tab.

rawne1980b16_ESO

I don't know about anyone else but whenever i've had a guild to run I don't allow members access to the bank either.

In any game.

I assign officers I know I can trust with permission. If anybody wants something, they ask.

Allowing random strangers complete access is madness.

I know guilds that have done it and have had everything taken by one person who then left.

That aside, guildmasters usually DO have the power in a guild they make .... kinda how it works.

Eris

Because it's good to be the king!

Seriously, that is the way it has been with guilds from the beginning of time. The guild master controls guild storage (sometimes officers too) and gives out stuff based on whatever criteria is set.

fougerec99b16_ESO

The trading guild I'm with seems to be pretty decent. Some things are expensive, others not so much. The Bank is mainly the sort of stuff that's kinda useful but not worth selling (low level Provision mats, low level glyphs etc.) that everyone has access to.

Ashigaru

Dont think the issue is with whos got control. In a regular guild setting it wouldn't be an issue but in a trade guild it could be.

There should be a trade guild setup and a pve/pvp guild setup. Trade guilds would have a different internal structure. Just an idea.

nudel

As KariTR already said, the permissions are set upon guild creation and different guilds will operate differently. I am in 2 guilds currently which do not have completely private guild banks.

One is a social guild with full permissions for all members. However, their policy is that guild bank abuse (withdrawing 100 items and putting nothing in for example) will result in your bank privileges being revoked. This works for them primarily because it is a community of people who don't want to exploit the bank and risk losing access to that community.

The other is a large trading guild. At first, the guild bank was completely open much like the social guild I mentioned. However, the fact that the guild puts few if any restrictions on membership meant that many people abused this. After attempts to reign it in failed repeatedly, the guildmaster eventually set permissions to allow all members except new recruits withdraw. Most members remain recruits and must prove themselves as good citizens to get promoted. They have to earn guild bank privileges.

There really is no flaw to how either is operating. They're essentially both doing the same thing, trying to allow guild members to share items for free while protecting those free posts from bank raiders who sell their ill gotten gains often on the very guild they took them from.

Any problem with guilds (pricing, variety of stock, permissions, community) can be resolved by simply shopping for a guild that you mesh with. Not every guild will be a good fit, but you also don't have to be married to them either. If it's community you're after, put in a little research and find one you like. If it's trade, then ask around or try a couple out until you find a good one.

My point is that I wouldn't let one bad experience poison you on all guilds. Have I been invited to guilds where the guild leader just wanted to use me as a +1 towards a 500 slot private guild bank? Yes. Have I stayed with them? Of course not. I've also found a few really nice communities and active guild stores as well.

Thunder

The point everyone completely missed is a trading guild is not an actual guild, it just a group of strangers.

In an actual guild, you use the guild bank to bolster newer players in the guild. If I had 3 stacks of steel ingots for example, rather then just vendor them, I might throw them in the guild bank for someone else in the guild to make use of. A guild is a team, and anything that helps one member of the team strengthens the entire team as a whole.

This is not true of a trading guild, it's just a bunch of random strangers who never intend to interact with one another beyond trading. In fact, a trading guild is pretty much the opposite of a regular guild, in that giving someone a really good deal on something does not benefit you as they are a complete stranger to you and you'll likely never interact with them in game. Therefore it's in your best interest to ensure that your dealings with them benefit you as much as possible.

Therefore, the 500 slot guild bank in a trading guild is just free storage space for the guy who spammed random invite to 399 other people.

nudel

Actually a trading guild can have a sense of community as well. The large trading guild I'm in definitely does. People ask non-trade related questions and have off-topic conversations frequently. I don't mind it because I didn't come to the guild with a chip on my shoulder because the game didn't have an AH, so I didn't hide the chat. It also tends to be largely helpful and amusing, which is more than I can say of zone chat at times.

The point I made was that it's only free storage space if the guild leader sets permissions that way. If you don't like how permissions are set, you don't have to stay. There are trade guilds with more open banks. Even the ones I'm in that have closed banks will often pull something out of the bank for a member if he/she asks politely. Note: Whining for it nonstop in guild chat is not polite.

I still stand by my statement. Don't let one bad experience spoil the whole concept for you.

mips_winnt

Thunder wrote: »

. However, without a public AH, you can't really say that a person isn't at least somewhat compelled to join a trading guild.

No one is compelled in any way to join a trading guild, I don't belong to one nor have I yet seen a need to belong to one since I can get everything I want and need without buying it from another player. Give it a go you'll find that being self sufficient isn't very difficult in this game.

Lazarus_Long

I would recommend starting your own small guild. You don't need many people to have access to a bank. Once you have a few people you know you can trust (RL friends, co-workers, the guy that was part of your guild in The-Game-That-Must-Not-Be-Named, etc) you can make them officers and give them bank access and recruiting rights. After that you grow it up to 50 members and get a guild store.

Best of all, the person in charge will be someone you can trust. XD