Feedback:User/Zenebex/RE-Think Guild Leader Auto Transfer

RE-Think Guild Leader Auto Transfer
User	Zenebex
Categories	Player interaction → Guild system

After 50 months of play, I found out the hard way that GW has an automated Guild Leadership transfer system. Apparently, if the guild leader goes inactive >60 days, guild leadership is transferred to the officer who has been with the guild longest. At first glance, this seems like a good idea - It is not fair to guild members to have administrative guild functions go inactive with 1 particular player. But there is a flip side to that coin as well...

• First off, I would like to point out that there is no mention of this feature in the Guild main page of the official GW wiki, nor could I find mention of it in the printed game manual. I feel that automated transfer of ones guild is worthy of a mention.

• Additionally, the name of the game "GUILD WARS", implies a certain focus. But by imposing a 60 day inactivity limitation, GW is stating that you may not be a guild leader unless you plan on playing at least once every 60 days. While guild wars is a good game, players should have the right to take a break from it if they so choose without being penalized.

• Automated transfer could also be viewed as theft. Ownership of the guild and it's assets have been transferred to another players account without permission of the original owner.

In my own case, well over 500p of my own funds had been invested in the guild (not to mention a significant amount of time), and control of those assets were mindlessly stolen by a Guild Wars algorithm.

• Many inactive players were kept in the guild roster specifically so that they could go inactive for a time and then come back knowing that they still had a guild, as well as easy contact with old friends. (We felt that it wasn't very fun to have to find another guild every time you decided to take a break). In this particular instance, the player that the guild was transferred to has been inactive 2+ weeks and I generally am online with her at the same time about once every 3 to 6 months. It would appear that my only recourse at this point is to post the issue in Guild Status and hope she reads it some time over the next 2 months. In the mean time, Automated leadership transfer has not been the improvement that I am sure it was intended to make.

• Transferring leadership to the senior officer or player isn't as cut a dry as it seems either. In my case on several occasions I have left my guild for brief periods of time for one reason or another. To the data base, I most likely appear to be pretty far down the list even though in reality, I am the guilds founding member.

What I would propose is this:

• Make a mention of the automated transfer feature in the guild page of the GW wiki. (This is my first ever wiki post, I'm not about to go messing with someone Else's at this point, or I would do it).

• Mention it again when the guild is first formed! Every guild leader should be made aware of automated guild leadership transfer and inactivity time limits upon forming a guild. This falls inline with generally accepted basic game design regarding good feedback mechanisms.

• Provide a custom time period for guild leader inactivity that can be set by the guild leader and/or founding members. If they set it, they can't argue with it.

• If you must transfer leadership after a relatively short period of inactivity, make it a temporary transfer. I.E. "Zenebex is now acting guild leader". Then provide an extended period to allow the original leader to return. This would allow the guild to continue to function, without stealing it outright from it's rightful owner/leader.

• Another possibility is to allow either the guild leader to designate a successor, or provide the current active officers the means to vote a new leader in after the current leader has been inactive for a time.

I'm sure there are other good ideas out there as well.

Thanks for the read.

Zenebex 14:54, 10 June 2010 (UTC)

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