Forums » Suggestions
Guild Structure
I actually may have posted this before but since the search function is completely useless, I'll risk a double post.
There really ought to be some options for the structure of a guild. Currently of course we have...
One Commander.
Two Lieutenants.
Ten Council Members.
Random number of members.
Now, that works fine if you want a Democratic or Republic based guild but, what if you want something else? A brief list of examples and explanations:
Oligarchy/Plutocracy:
An oligarchy government is one in which a select few people have the power to make the decisions for the region. Generally, the select few are the people who are the wealthiest within the country, causing them to be the most powerful. Oligarchies are not run by a constitution or charter, and the rules are made up by the elite and they see fit.
In an oligarchy, decisions can be made easily and quickly, and there is power sharing involved because there is not one absolute ruler. Problems with this type of government involve not getting the people’s input when making decisions. The general public does not even get to decide the people in power because they are chosen by the other wealthy and elite people.
Autocracy:
This type of government involves having one absolute ruler who has complete power regarding making legislative and executive decisions. This person either has complete control of the laws, or must confer with their parliament before enacting any rules or laws. Autocracies need some type of structure in order to rule their people properly, such as the military or their nobles.
There are different types of autocratic governments that branch off the general term of autocracy. Monarchies are ruled by a king or queen, and this person stays in power until death or abdication. When this happens, the next person in line in the family will take over. Totalitarianism involves this ruler having total control over everything, including having power of public and private life. Dictatorship is similar to a monarchy except without the family lineage. Often, dictatorships will be military based and the dictator will abuse the amount of personal power that they possess.
Autocracies are efficient because they don’t rely on a consensus, and so decisions get made easily. One of the biggest problems is not getting input from the people, and the people are often upset and do not agree with the decision that their ruler makes. The person in the power can sometimes become very power hungry and create several problems for their country.
Democracy:
This form of government is considered to be the most fair, and is based on involving the people in making decisions for the bettering of the country. Unlike the previous two types of government, democracy allows for the people to vote on laws to gather their input and decide what will be best for the country as a whole. The decision that gets the highest number of votes ultimately wins and is enacted.
Although it is the fairest option, there are some problems with it. As the democracy gets larger, it is harder to get mostly everyone to agree on the issue and also keep everyone informed of all of the information. Also, by taking the most popular vote, the minority gets ignored and exploited. Sometimes the most popular decision is not exactly the right one, and it takes an even longer process to go about changing it and/or informing people of new information.
Dictatorship:
Rule by a single leader who has not been elected and may use force to keep control. In a military dictatorship, the army is in control. Usually, there is little or no attention to public opinion or individual rights. Rule by a single political party.
People are forced to do what the government tells them and may also be prevented from leaving the country.
Totalitarian:
Rule by a single political party.
People are forced to do what the government tells them and may also be prevented from leaving.
Theocracy:
A form of government where the rulers claim to be ruling on behalf of a set of religious ideas, or as direct agents of a deity.
Monarchy:
A monarchy has a king or queen, who sometimes has absolute power. Power is passed along through the family
Parliamentary:
A parliamentary system is led by representatives of the people. Each is chosen as a member of a political party and remains in power as long as his/her party does
Republic:
A republic is led by representatives of the voters. Each is individually chosen for a set period of time. Alternatively, a republic can be ruled over bu a father (calm, wise and doesn't put up with crap!) son (drunken, womanizing ex-cop who is going through a messy divorce) team of private detectives from St. Johns, Newfoundland.
Anarchy:
Perhaps the most misunderstood of the lot. In an anarchistic society the guiding ideal is that the average person knows that it is wrong to steal, murder and rape while setting fire to an orphanage filled with baby seals and further, that the people of the society have no need of a police force to make sure they do not steal, murder and rape while setting fire to an orphanage filled with baby seals.
Democracy:
In a democracy, the government is elected by the people. Everyone who is eligible to vote - which is a majority of the population - has a chance to have their say over who runs the country.
Anarcho-Syndicalist ommune: We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week. But all the decision of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting. By a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs,but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more--
Capitalist:
In a capitalist or free-market driven government, people own their own businesses and property and must buy services for private use, such as healthcare.
Socialism:
Socialist governments own many of the larger industries and provide education, health and welfare services while allowing citizens some economic choices.
Communism:
In a communist country, the government owns all businesses and farms and provides its people's healthcare, education and welfare.
It would also be cool to be able to create your own rank systems:
President/High Priest(ess)/Grand Nagus/Chief/Architect= Commander
Viseer/Auditor/Technician/Overseer= Lieutenant
Crew/Yeoman/Assistant/disciple/Neophyte/Red Shirt= Member
There really ought to be some options for the structure of a guild. Currently of course we have...
One Commander.
Two Lieutenants.
Ten Council Members.
Random number of members.
Now, that works fine if you want a Democratic or Republic based guild but, what if you want something else? A brief list of examples and explanations:
Oligarchy/Plutocracy:
An oligarchy government is one in which a select few people have the power to make the decisions for the region. Generally, the select few are the people who are the wealthiest within the country, causing them to be the most powerful. Oligarchies are not run by a constitution or charter, and the rules are made up by the elite and they see fit.
In an oligarchy, decisions can be made easily and quickly, and there is power sharing involved because there is not one absolute ruler. Problems with this type of government involve not getting the people’s input when making decisions. The general public does not even get to decide the people in power because they are chosen by the other wealthy and elite people.
Autocracy:
This type of government involves having one absolute ruler who has complete power regarding making legislative and executive decisions. This person either has complete control of the laws, or must confer with their parliament before enacting any rules or laws. Autocracies need some type of structure in order to rule their people properly, such as the military or their nobles.
There are different types of autocratic governments that branch off the general term of autocracy. Monarchies are ruled by a king or queen, and this person stays in power until death or abdication. When this happens, the next person in line in the family will take over. Totalitarianism involves this ruler having total control over everything, including having power of public and private life. Dictatorship is similar to a monarchy except without the family lineage. Often, dictatorships will be military based and the dictator will abuse the amount of personal power that they possess.
Autocracies are efficient because they don’t rely on a consensus, and so decisions get made easily. One of the biggest problems is not getting input from the people, and the people are often upset and do not agree with the decision that their ruler makes. The person in the power can sometimes become very power hungry and create several problems for their country.
Democracy:
This form of government is considered to be the most fair, and is based on involving the people in making decisions for the bettering of the country. Unlike the previous two types of government, democracy allows for the people to vote on laws to gather their input and decide what will be best for the country as a whole. The decision that gets the highest number of votes ultimately wins and is enacted.
Although it is the fairest option, there are some problems with it. As the democracy gets larger, it is harder to get mostly everyone to agree on the issue and also keep everyone informed of all of the information. Also, by taking the most popular vote, the minority gets ignored and exploited. Sometimes the most popular decision is not exactly the right one, and it takes an even longer process to go about changing it and/or informing people of new information.
Dictatorship:
Rule by a single leader who has not been elected and may use force to keep control. In a military dictatorship, the army is in control. Usually, there is little or no attention to public opinion or individual rights. Rule by a single political party.
People are forced to do what the government tells them and may also be prevented from leaving the country.
Totalitarian:
Rule by a single political party.
People are forced to do what the government tells them and may also be prevented from leaving.
Theocracy:
A form of government where the rulers claim to be ruling on behalf of a set of religious ideas, or as direct agents of a deity.
Monarchy:
A monarchy has a king or queen, who sometimes has absolute power. Power is passed along through the family
Parliamentary:
A parliamentary system is led by representatives of the people. Each is chosen as a member of a political party and remains in power as long as his/her party does
Republic:
A republic is led by representatives of the voters. Each is individually chosen for a set period of time. Alternatively, a republic can be ruled over bu a father (calm, wise and doesn't put up with crap!) son (drunken, womanizing ex-cop who is going through a messy divorce) team of private detectives from St. Johns, Newfoundland.
Anarchy:
Perhaps the most misunderstood of the lot. In an anarchistic society the guiding ideal is that the average person knows that it is wrong to steal, murder and rape while setting fire to an orphanage filled with baby seals and further, that the people of the society have no need of a police force to make sure they do not steal, murder and rape while setting fire to an orphanage filled with baby seals.
Democracy:
In a democracy, the government is elected by the people. Everyone who is eligible to vote - which is a majority of the population - has a chance to have their say over who runs the country.
Anarcho-Syndicalist ommune: We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week. But all the decision of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting. By a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs,but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more--
Capitalist:
In a capitalist or free-market driven government, people own their own businesses and property and must buy services for private use, such as healthcare.
Socialism:
Socialist governments own many of the larger industries and provide education, health and welfare services while allowing citizens some economic choices.
Communism:
In a communist country, the government owns all businesses and farms and provides its people's healthcare, education and welfare.
It would also be cool to be able to create your own rank systems:
President/High Priest(ess)/Grand Nagus/Chief/Architect= Commander
Viseer/Auditor/Technician/Overseer= Lieutenant
Crew/Yeoman/Assistant/disciple/Neophyte/Red Shirt= Member
Was it this? (found by searching for "Guild +Structure")
I'm honestly kind of glad VO makes the guild member/council/commander system somewhat automated. Anyone can go to the trouble of defining ranks outside of the game, on guild websites. Given the level of drama that's been happening with certain guilds recently, not having overly vague user-defined systems/ranks is probably good. Everyone knows what it means when a commander gets voted off by the council, right now. This becomes less transparent if player X got moved to rank Y because the guild was a Z system.
Not that it wouldn't be interesting, but I'd say there are bigger fish to fry.
I'm honestly kind of glad VO makes the guild member/council/commander system somewhat automated. Anyone can go to the trouble of defining ranks outside of the game, on guild websites. Given the level of drama that's been happening with certain guilds recently, not having overly vague user-defined systems/ranks is probably good. Everyone knows what it means when a commander gets voted off by the council, right now. This becomes less transparent if player X got moved to rank Y because the guild was a Z system.
Not that it wouldn't be interesting, but I'd say there are bigger fish to fry.
Ryan is TRS and is bitter about being booted from TRI and wants things changed to Benefit his evil plans of the future!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yanno CS I thought the exact same thing and LOL'd.
Ryan, you've done a good job of presenting an overview of various political and sociological structures, but I fail to see exactly what you are proposing as far as in-game content goes. Perhaps you should elaborate a bit more as to what sorts of guild positions you'd add to the game and what sort of powers those positions would have.
For example, totalitarian: people forced to do what gov't tells them to do. How do you see that playing out in VO? The only thing I can think of really would be implementing some sort of mandatory payments to the guild bank at regular intervals or something. Otherwise you could mandate players do certain actions in-game or be expelled from the guild, but that is already possible with the current guild implementation.
As far as renaming existing guild ranks, people will surely pick inappropriate or dumb names. Moderator approval could get around the former, but that is still going to leave the possibility of naming conventions that make it unclear what the position entails. And as Phaserlight stated, there are more important things for the devs to be spending their time on.
For example, totalitarian: people forced to do what gov't tells them to do. How do you see that playing out in VO? The only thing I can think of really would be implementing some sort of mandatory payments to the guild bank at regular intervals or something. Otherwise you could mandate players do certain actions in-game or be expelled from the guild, but that is already possible with the current guild implementation.
As far as renaming existing guild ranks, people will surely pick inappropriate or dumb names. Moderator approval could get around the former, but that is still going to leave the possibility of naming conventions that make it unclear what the position entails. And as Phaserlight stated, there are more important things for the devs to be spending their time on.
Grand Nagus
lol, trekkie. :p
lol, trekkie. :p
That ones from 7 years ago strat... really...
Meridian, firstly... thank you I'm glad you appreciated it and, second... admittedly content wise it adds very little, guild wise it adds somewhat more. Primarily it gives people a little more (or in the case of anarchists, a whole lot less) control over the guild and how it is perceived.
It's more aimed at RP and giving newbs a more clear idea of what guilds are about. It is low priority, but it would still be cool to be able set up a truly democratic, totalitarian or anarchistic and be able to create ranking titles yourself.
It's more aimed at RP and giving newbs a more clear idea of what guilds are about. It is low priority, but it would still be cool to be able set up a truly democratic, totalitarian or anarchistic and be able to create ranking titles yourself.
Other then being able to specify the number of council and Lts. I dont see any reason to change the system. Almost any type of governance can be used with the current system
1+ to changes to guild structure. Yes, I know, we're all so surprised.
Perhaps the Dictator version could also feature requiring permission to leave the guild as well as the inability to oust its leader
Improving on Pak's idea... rather than "requiring permission to leave the guild", if a member is killed by the guild commander... that member is expelled from the guild.
+1000000000 to OP! Awesome suggestion!
I'd like to see promotions come from killing those higher up in the hierarchy of the guild (you take what you kill).
Members can assume a council seat if they kill a council member three times consecutively (without being killed by the council member in between attempts).
Council members can take a lieutenant seat if they kill the LT three times in a row.
Lieutenants can steal the commander position if they kill the commander five times consecutively.
Kills need not be the same day, but the would-be aggressor cannot be killed by the target between attempts.
Lieutenants that fail get demoted to council and the council member with the most tenure that was most recently logged in becomes an LT.
Council-members who fail get demoted to member and a council seat comes open.
Members who fail get booted from the guild.
This will ensure that the guild always has the most talented members at the top.
Members can assume a council seat if they kill a council member three times consecutively (without being killed by the council member in between attempts).
Council members can take a lieutenant seat if they kill the LT three times in a row.
Lieutenants can steal the commander position if they kill the commander five times consecutively.
Kills need not be the same day, but the would-be aggressor cannot be killed by the target between attempts.
Lieutenants that fail get demoted to council and the council member with the most tenure that was most recently logged in becomes an LT.
Council-members who fail get demoted to member and a council seat comes open.
Members who fail get booted from the guild.
This will ensure that the guild always has the most talented members at the top.
That sounds like fun.