Economics and Guild Cronyism in ESO

Elsonso · September 2014

DigitalHype wrote: »

hiyde wrote: »

Lots..and Lots..of choices. Pick the type that works for you.

That is my point. New "investors" pick one, and make the wrong choice, because they don't know the reputation of the guild. And the reputation is too transient. Not a big deal or major loss for the individual. But, as a whole, this model is an opportunity for bad actors to take advantage, with little to no repercussions. The folks that get burned, quickly learn, and leave that guild. But, it doesn't create a disincentive for the people gaming the system, and taking advantage of the next guy.

I do agree with Hiyde. I think that the problem being discussed about the game does not match how often it is happening in the game.

The "losses" for the individual player should not be an issue. If payment is voluntary, like with donations or a raffle, and the player does not want to pay it, then the player loses nothing if the guild leadership runs off with a bucket of gold.

If the payment is not voluntary, or the player wishes to donate, then a cost-benefit is needed to determine if the player's prior sales from the guild make such a donation a good use of gold. Such a donation should be based on prior performance, not future expectations. If the guild leadership runs off with the pot, the player may lose the future benefit of the guild bank cash reserve, but the payments were made based on stuff that has already happened.

xaraan · September 2014

On guild's exploiting members: I've made a ton of gold having the opportunity to sell at the location our trade guild has. The raffles they do are voluntary and have a ton of winners every week. I personally don't care if the officers are pocketing the rest or not, they run the guild and everything involved, all I have to do is post good stuff for good prices and rake in the money. No problem here.

Nestor · September 2014

gamerlucretiusb14_ESO wrote: »

It's not the sales, it's these "fund raising events" that a lot of trade guilds are using to raise gold to bid on guild trader locations. Generally they never report to the guild how much they ended up paying, and then just pocket the excess.

The simple solution is to not join a Guild that requires fees to maintain membership. However, for some people, this is OK as it is a cost of doing business.

But with me, as soon as any leader of a guild I am in wants me to give them money or they will kick me out, I will clear out my listings in the guild store and save them the effort.

hiyde · September 2014

@slurg

I believe this refers to seeing *bids* prior to the actual transaction. Seeing as they created a whole separate menu button to click for "Guild Trader", I don't believe the ability to see the price paid is going away.

I'm indifferent to bids being removed. While I don't think there's anywhere near the amount of 'spying' going on that some believe, I'm sure it happens and really, how does it help the average guildmate to know what the bids are?

The most important thing is how much was paid, not what was bid.

Dont Shoot · September 2014

Jeebus. i tried to read this but then I realized I play ESO to get away from homework not to start it.

AlnilamE · September 2014

Interesting post. I have to disagree with some of our points, though.

Eliminate Ranks

There should be no need for any administrative activities in a Trading Guild that would require guild leaders and officers. The automatic machinations of a Trading Guild should be fully automated.

I think to an extent, a trading guild actually requires more management than a non-trading guild. If you have an inactive policy of say 10 days, it could theoretically be automated, but then it would also remove people who are inactive for a valid reason and had informed guild leadership in advance.

Differentiate between Trading Guilds and Other Guilds

Trading guilds have a very narrow purpose, and shouldn't function the same as traditional guilds. The advantage of having a trading guild has already been explained as broadening your potential customer base when you sell things on a market. Traditional guilds focused on PvE and PvP advancement should be limited to ~50 players (maybe 100?) and have features like the guild bank unlocked. The explicit difference between these two guilds as a new recruit is that you're granting your sanction to the guild leadership to do what needs to be done for progress. As a new recruit in a trading guild you've got very little opportunity to break into the inner circle (often composed of a group of friends).

What about guilds that are not "trading guilds" per se, but who'd still like to do a fair amount of trading and retain a guild trader?

Also, 50-100 players is fairly small for a guild if they are on the casual/social side and people don't necessarily log on at the same times.

Personally, I am in two "social/PvX" guilds and two "trading" guilds and they all have stores, though one is internal only. I really don't care about getting to the "inner circle" of the trading guilds. I'll be happy just helping folks out in chat if needed.