So I tried to copy/paste a post I made on the US forums but thought worth repeating here. That didn’t work. I tried linking the post here but that didn’t work either, so I guess retyping is the way to go:
I’m a long term guild leader. I have been part of the same guild since 2009 and, for the majority of that time, have been leading it. I created and maintain two websites, Facebook page, guild discord and a silly number of google docs. I also contribute (rather minimally :P) to a guild addon discord (because a lot of guild leaders feel the default guild UI is inadequate), and run my own Guild Leaders discord with guild leaders and officers from both the EU and US.
As guild leaders, we have multiple concerns in relation to guild neighbourhoods. The majority of these concerns revolve around things that, originally, Blizzard said were going to be provided however, when testing on both PTR and now Beta, have failed to materialise.
These essentially boil down to
- A lack of control over guild neighbourhoods, ie, there are only two states for guild neighbourhoods - is, or is not. There is no control over which members may select a plot in the guild neighbourhood. There is no rank control (for example, only certain ranks able to select a plot), and there is no individual control (for example an individual cannot be removed from a plot without being removed from the guild).
- A lack of control over guild neighbourhood “layers”, ie, it appears additional layers will spin up automatically, whether wanted or not, when the neighbourhood gets to a set capacity.
Now initially, neither of these seem to be an issue, until you consider the possibilities and are aware of the inherent problems.
As far as layers are concerned, every layer is a “blank copy” of the first. Same plots, same NPCs, same endeavour with, I’m going to assume, the same endeavor progression. One of the main points behind neighbourhoods was “being neighbourly” .. having a busy neighbourhood with other guild members around, being active. However, guilds with additional layers will have their members split, never seeing one another unless they make the effort to go “visit” the other layer.
Some guilds may want to restrict their neighbourhood to only one “layer” - either because they know they’ll only have less than 55 members who want a plot and don’t want members utilising that second layer, or because they would like to reserve the guild neighbourhood as a rank reward rather than opening it up to trial members, for example.
A lot of the issues with layers, potentially, could be resolved by simply having “hub” areas in a neighbourhood with multiple layers be unphased - members on all layers could see and interact with each other near vendors and NPC areas.
The lack of controls, I feel, is a bigger issue.
Partly from an initial opening up point of view - it would have been nice to be able to select your more longstanding members to have the option to pick a guild plot first, before newer members, opening it up on a rank by rank basis. This also links back to the potential that some guilds might only want specific ranks to have a plot (ie, not trial members), especially in relation to plot numbers/potential additional layers.
But also simply from a maintenance point of view. I come across very few guilds that have been around a while who DO NOT have a few guild members who are currently inactive, but who are intending (or are considered likely) to come back again. Be it real life issues or perhaps taking a time-out from WoW. But it seems a shame that these inactive members could be sitting on a plot in a potentially fairly full neighbourhood, when someone else wants it. A guild leader’s only choices then are to either write that plot off in the hope the inactive member returns or remove that temporarily inactive member from the guild. Which seems a bit harsh.
From what I have heard, Charter neighbourhood managers/admin will have the ability to remove someone from their neighbourhood. So why can’t guild leaders?