Why guild stones were a necessary.

[Velvathos]

Hello, I am going to talk about guild stones today and why they were necessary. Let's take a loooooong trip down memory lane as I discuss guild stones.

Current System - Overall, it is less buggy, there are more features, easier to recruit, alliances were added, the only down-side was that guild stones were no longer needed. And players can make more than one guild.(upside)

Old System - Under the old system, there was more of a incentive to do more activities as a guild, guild stones led to the rise of several player towns, while the new system did not. Players were constantly meeting up at their "guild houses" and folks would generally try to build around it and build player towns, it is where we met up, recruited members, had guild wars, and did guild meetings, as there was no guild or alliance chat, there was even more incentive to group up as a guild. I agree with the new system as far as rankings, and being able to make a guild per character, which is why I believe it was done.

Good intentions, bad results.

What should have happened:

What should have happened is that the current system should have been implemented upon the guild stones. And from there, your other characters could make guilds without the guild stone, but your first guild, you would need a guild stone.

 

[Aran]

Guildstones have never been anything but an inconvenience in my experience. You're looking at the past through rose colored glasses.

 

[DVDA]

Wait guildstones are gone? I still have 1 in my Cabin in Fel...

It has 2 members on it, me and this other guy :-D

 

[Aran]

No it doesn't. It doesn't do anything now. Completely unusable.

The guild is still there, but the stone is dead.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Regardless of interface, guildstones were symbols. During the time of multiple houses per account, it denoted the Guildhouse (owned by the guildmaster) which tended to differ from the guildmaster's private house.

Also as noted above, guild towns DID spring up thanks to the guildstones used as a marker. Not that the guildstones had any ingame systems that were used to create the town, it was simply the "statue in the town square" that held the town together and made it what it was. It was a Focus.

Personally, I'd love to see a Guildstone be brought back even if only as a decorative item that could be purchased and placed only by the guildmaster, maybe even have a "plaque" type interface so that current and former members can be listed and shown in a gump when double clicked.

 

[SavageSP]

I agree with Dermott of LS, I think it would be cool if nothing less as a Deco Item. To me it's like a Flag, a Symbol that you can touch and see. The Gm could buy it out of the Guild Menu, deed it and move it around.

 

[Cear Dallben Dragon]

The most awesome guild i was in on atlantic during the late 90's had alot of chaos hit it when the GM left because of buge with guild stones. Long live K*T.
but as symbols, they should have never been taken away.
Im all for doing something to the old ones to make them unique, for markets sake, and giving them back to modern players.

 

[D'Amavir]

I buy up guild stone deeds anytime I find them on my shard. I know I can't use them. But I hold onto them just incase something changes and they toss us 'guild stone lovers' a bone. I am all for the 'decorative guild stone' idea. Just a stone in a house with a guild's name when you click on it. Doesn't need any major usability. Just deco.

 

[SchezwanBeefy]

Guild Stones were actually brought up during a guild chat we were having a couple days ago.
While I like the new system UO has implemented as our guild head can give as many member as he likes access to recruit, we miss the feature the guild stone used to have and the unity it created between players. We still have our old guild stone which was luckily not stolen when hackers took over the main account. I think the biggest problem with the new guild recruitment style is that it's so less personal.

 

[Lyconis]

I miss guild stones, my first guild had a small guild village outside of destard in Felucca. When new members were added everyone would gather at the guild house to greet and give some form of initiation to the guild. The tradition carried on even after guild stones were rendered useless.

I was recently given the task of assisting my old guildmasters account, moved as much as I could to his bank boxes and signed off his account. Long live the memories of The Sons of Thunder! Huzzah!

The guild I am currently in requires new recruits to do some form of gang initiation where we beat folks up then add them to the guild. We all go to the village we have create and it gives some form of greeting to the members lol.

Guildstones have never been anything but an inconvenience in my experience. You're looking at the past through rose colored glasses.

The inconvenience for the player interaction is well worth it in my opinion.

 

[Bazer]

They honestly just look awesome as well, esp with the guild initials and name on it

 

[Uvtha]

Meh, player run towns and the necessity of groups being in the same physical in game space died out years and years ago. Lack of stones did nothing to change it.

But I do miss the stones anyway.

 

[Aran]

The inconvenience for the player interaction is well worth it in my opinion.

Well, you know what they say about opinions.

 

[debii]

wish i had kept our guildstone.

 

[Cear Dallben Dragon]

wish i had kept our guildstone.

I wish i hadnt lost one in an IDOC.

If anyone has a stone Followers of Armageddon [FOA] found on atlantic holler and i'll give you mad cash.

 

[Cyrah]

I agree with what Dermott said. Please let us have them back that way.

 

[MalagAste]

I'd like to see them as a craftable item.... something for stonecrafting. I think they should be craftable and then engravable..

 

[Aran]

I still have two of my old guildstones. Hooray.

 

[Spelosty]

Yes the idea of some kind of guild symbol would be quite awesome. Currently I only know of a few guild run towns. My favorite being the TMC run town on Legends. Woo!

 

[Cybrdragon]

I miss the GM of guilds saying, "Now touch the stone" when adding new members. Our guild still has its stone. I think the new system is more convenient, but would support something like guild housing or even new guildstones as a symbol to place in a guild house, to bring that feeling of community again.

 

[Aran]

You can already make containers guildmember accessible, add that to granting access to private homes and there's already guild housing available.