Is the concept of a FC already dead?

[Xatsh]

XIV is not a guild centered game. It is based on solo/statics.

A free company in essence is nothing more then a chat channel with benefits.
There is no way to do guild level events.
There is no way to do scheduled events.
There is no way to run a guild bank.
There is no way to have an organized lotting system
There is no way to promote the mentality of Guild over self
There is no way to enforce policies set by the guild
There is no advantage with clearing content from being in a guild
There is no Guild related content at all in that matter

If people remove housing and guild buffs from the equation what is the purpose of being in a guild vs a small static/ls.

There are no advantages to being in a guild in XIV in all honesty. It is why loyalty does not really even exist it seems in this game outside a core group of friends. You cannot really run a guild in XIV, all you can do is run a social group. Even the top guilds are not really guilds. They are collections of highly skilled statics which is not a guild.

If you disagree with that. Answer this is it more effective to do the hardest content in this game by involving everyone in your guild or is it more effective to form set groups of 8 people of similar skill and playtimes. If you answer the 2nd... that explains the problem with guilds in this game. XIV is a 100% pure joke when it comes to guilds in a mmo. It is probably the area the fails in more hardcore then most. Only AAA mmo with a worse guild system are TESO and SWToR.

[Rhas]

This so much!
I created my own fc for the house, so me and my friend got us to rank 8 andI bought the house for my own money only. Now I got 2 new members recently and I've been lucky with drops so I got a lil rich. So was planning on getting a medium house. On my server it vosts about 12 mil gil, which isnt that much, but if I could sell my current house I'd get the new house faster.

Until you realize that then RMT buys up all the land because they have the money and jacks up the prices from whatever it is to 5x... 10x... 50x... the cost just because they can and you have no choice because they control the market... oh wait... are we going back to FFXI again?

[Docj]

XIV is not a guild centered game. It is based on solo/statics.

A free company in essence is nothing more then a chat channel with benefits.
There is no way to do guild level events.
There is no way to do scheduled events.
There is no way to run a guild bank.
There is no way to have an organized lotting system
There is no way to promote the mentality of Guild over self
There is no way to enforce policies set by the guild
There is no advantage with clearing content from being in a guild
There is no Guild related content at all in that matter

If people remove housing and guild buffs from the equation what is the purpose of being in a guild vs a small static/ls.

There are no advantages to being in a guild in XIV in all honesty. It is why loyalty does not really even exist it seems in this game outside a core group of friends. You cannot really run a guild in XIV, all you can do is run a social group. Even the top guilds are not really guilds. They are collections of highly skilled statics which is not a guild.

If you disagree with that. Answer this is it more effective to do the hardest content in this game by involving everyone in your guild or is it more effective to form set groups of 8 people of similar skill and playtimes. If you answer the 2nd... that explains the problem with guilds in this game. XIV is a 100% pure joke when it comes to guilds in a mmo. It is probably the area the fails in more hardcore then most. Only AAA mmo with a worse guild system are TESO and SWToR.

1.So its not possible to create a pick-up group from within a FC and do something together in-game? It's not beneficial to pick from a group of people you're familiar with? There is only content for solo or statics?

2.What is wrong with a chat channel with benefits? That's essentially what a "guild" in any game is.

3.Guild level events? I assume something you have a narrow definition of?

4.Can't schedule events? Perhaps you need a new FC or access to your FC board.

5.No way to run a bank? Then what are the permissions that restrict who has access to the bank for?

6.No organized lotting system? What are these odd boxes I see that say "need", "greed", "pass" every time loot drops?

7.No way to promote guild over self? Then how did my small FC selflessly save and pool all their gil til we had a medium plot?

8.No way to enforce policies? Did your FC master remove his ability to demote/kick members?

9.No advantage to clearing content with guild? So your saying that getting the people you run content with better gear doesn't help you at all?

10.No guild related content at all? You mean you are always forced into doing content with random players in duty finder despite being in a FC?

11.Hypothetically removing housing and buffs would make FC less beneficial, good thing they exist.

12.No advantages to being in a guild in FFxiv? OK so... getting to know a community of people to play with regularly has no advantages? Getting to know people you can chat with is useless? The FC actions are 100% useless? Having a house to use as a headquarters for FC activity isn't cool?

13.All you can do is run a social group? AKA guilds.

14.So in your mind a "guild event" MUST consist of more then 8 players at a time? Just because that's your idea of a guild event doesn't make it the FFxiv way. Do hunts if you want to get everyone involved.

So after calling into question the validity of every statement you made, I suggest you quit playing FFxiv. You obviously don't care for the game or the people you play it with. At the very least you should learn to frame your opinions as such, and not as facts.

I think the FC system is good as it is. I enjoy having a house and FC actions. I enjoy seeing the same group of friends each day. I enjoy sharing the FC chest with them. I enjoy the FC board so I can post times we'll do things. I enjoy the drive to earn gil a FC house provides, gives crafting a purpose. Most of all I love the fact that this game is still fairly new and expanding in all areas including FC and larger scale content.

[saeedaisspecial]

1.So its not possible to create a pick-up group from within a FC and do something together in-game? It's not beneficial to pick from a group of people you're familiar with? There is only content for solo or statics?
The only non-static content is casual content, so in the grand scheme of things, it's irrelevant because it's all PUGable anyway.

2.What is wrong with a chat channel with benefits? That's essentially what a "guild" in any game is.
Nothing, but linkshells exist, and you aren't forced into having only one.

3.Guild level events? I assume something you have a narrow definition of?
4.Can't schedule events? Perhaps you need a new FC or access to your FC board.
One line is not enough to schedule a mass of events, something like a calendar (which has been requested for a long, long time) is.

5.No way to run a bank? Then what are the permissions that restrict who has access to the bank for?

6.No organized lotting system? What are these odd boxes I see that say "need", "greed", "pass" every time loot drops?
Neat, so a PUG group has the same loot organization as a guild.

7.No way to promote guild over self? Then how did my small FC selflessly save and pool all their gil til we had a medium plot?
This one is a player thing, but there isn't really too much that encourages the guild to work together for a goal, such as how other MMOs have guild achievements.

8.No way to enforce policies? Did your FC master remove his ability to demote/kick members?
They are incredibly limited.

9.No advantage to clearing content with guild? So your saying that getting the people you run content with better gear doesn't help you at all?
There isn't. The "advantage" you stated is the same as running with a static outside a guild or inside one. An example of what a guild specific benefit could be is similar to the new player bonus, increased Myth/Sold for completing a dungeon in a full pt of FC members.

10.No guild related content at all? You mean you are always forced into doing content with random players in duty finder despite being in a FC?
There is no guild specific content. As in content that specifically requires a guild.

11.Hypothetically removing housing and buffs would make FC less beneficial, good thing they exist.

12.No advantages to being in a guild in FFxiv? OK so... getting to know a community of people to play with regularly has no advantages? Getting to know people you can chat with is useless? The FC actions are 100% useless? Having a house to use as a headquarters for FC activity isn't cool?

13.All you can do is run a social group? AKA guilds.
AKA linkshells

14.So in your mind a "guild event" MUST consist of more then 8 players at a time? Just because that's your idea of a guild event doesn't make it the FFxiv way. Do hunts if you want to get everyone involved.
If your guild is big enough that more people are not participating than the 8 people that are, then yes, they MUST consist of more than eight people.

So after calling into question the validity of every statement you made, I suggest you quit playing FFxiv. You obviously don't care for the game or the people you play it with. At the very least you should learn to frame your opinions as such, and not as facts.

I think the FC system is good as it is. I enjoy having a house and FC actions. I enjoy seeing the same group of friends each day. I enjoy sharing the FC chest with them. I enjoy the FC board so I can post times we'll do things. I enjoy the drive to earn gil a FC house provides, gives crafting a purpose. Most of all I love the fact that this game is still fairly new and expanding in all areas including FC and larger scale content.

I answered most of your points in bold, the ones I didn't I sort of agree with/see no point in answering.
tl;dr all FCs do in this game is give you a bank, an extra chat channel, a house, and mediocre buffs.

[Noshpan]

In WoW, if you have a small guild and/or isn't already level 25 well, good luck getting new members much less convincing them to stay.

The benefits to being in an FC is so that you don't get spammed with random invites to FCs that just want big numbers to increase their rankings.

[Wadoka]

My FC on Gilgamesh does for me, exactly what I need from it. A friendly group willing to help me advance content, and for whose members I'm willing to advance content.

But we also have a very cool synergistic arrangement with 3 other small FC. My FC is 40 people; but we are also managing a linkshell alliance with 3 other small FC and together we get a great community of mutual support while everyone gets to hang out in the FC that fits their personality best.

FC plus LS alliances = great environment.

[Dhex]

It is based on solo/statics.

It really feels like Orwellian doublethink when I call FFXIV: ARR an MMORPG.

[Xatsh]

Snip.

Your post has proven you have no idea what an endgame guild is. Let me enlighten you.


Guild Level events are events where working as a full guild gives more benefit then not having a guild / working in small statics. Aka if the whole guild works together (30+ people) everyone as a whole will be better. IF you remove the houses hunts are the only thing that qualifies as this. But you can do this in a pug social network just as easily as a guild so it is a weak argument at best.

There is no such thing as a pug in a guild. That is an contradictory statement. You are 1 guild. Any guild operation as fractured groups is not functioning as a guild.

Organized lotting is not Need/Greed/Pass. That is the definition of a free for all. Organized lotting is a lotting procedure where gear is distributed based on work put into the guild. Some guild will tie in things such as seniority or job preferences. Some bad guilds will give leaders stuff sooner. Organization will involve attendance tracking in some way. Typically done via DKP or similiar method.

IN a guild where I or any leader only has 2 options for a problem. Ignore it or kick the player how does that work. If a member refuses to come to an event for 1 day but he has been a member for a year. Does that warrent getting kicked over the first offense? Can I suspend thier lotting if they can just as easily get it in a pug. If I remove someone from a coil group for a week, they can pug it and easily get to at least turn 9. Leaders have almost no disciplinary powers in XIV besides kick the member. And unless you are running a skeleton crew you will have conflicts, no matter how mature your group is.

A guild bank is not just having what is in game. Yes it is a GUILD BANK so to say, but that is not what a guild bank is in terms of a endgame group. What can I do as a guild to generate money which can be used to facilitate progression? How do you make money with 0 member donations into the bank? I can merc things how we got our large house. But after that what is the point? Money has no value outside vanity in XIV. Next patch you can spend 1.2billion gil gearing up all my coil groups to better progress. But that money is vendor trash once they get some drops so it is not worth the work to get it. So no there is no bank.

Organized content is scheduled content. Not log in and go who wants to X tonight. The issue with scheduling is you have to choose. Scheduled events or Coil. You cannot have both. Because statics (which are required for adequate coil progression) run on times that best fit thier group. Thus destroying the ability for me to say. Tuesday - Frontlines, Wendesday - Full guild Crystal Tower 2 runs, Thursday - S hunt camping. ADD ONTOP OF THIS => Half the content is always negated compared to coil drops so you have to choose the coil path if you are an endgame guild.

Having a house is vanity purposes. Is it cool. Yea. Does it surve a purpose to advancement of your guild. Absolutely not. It has chocobo stables... ok. But if you are beating turn 9 do you need a choco for anything in the open world, since those mobs are turned to Ilvl40. And I could care less about those not beating coil we are before that argument is thrown out.

And no a guild event can contain 8 members only. If the groups of 8 are leading to the advancement of the guild as a whole not just their statics AND if you were not able to progress as quick without multiple groups of 8. I have done it in several games where I split up into teams. But the gear that not locked to that team. And progression was a group not an individual. (Example: Limbus. was an event surprised of 5 sections. First 4 unlocked the 5th which was a boss fight. I split into 4 group. We were able to do 1 boss run per cycle. And we allowed all members of the guild who were up to lot the boss drop. Not just those participating in the kill.)

IF you think a guild is nothing but a chat channel you are part of the problem. I will leave it at that.

And for the comment about me not caring. It is laughable. Anyone who readys any of my 1000s of post on this forum should get a clear view I am all about guilds about my family ingame so to say. If I did not care I would screw over the masses for my own advancement. Yet I log out everynight stressed out from having to make decisions like. Who can I leave out of coils this week who will not quit the guild. What I am going to do with Member X,Y,Z who are about to quit the game out of boredom. I would not be running with the new players in my guild as leader trying to get them caught up. I would running with my main progression group.

If I did not care about this game I would of quit it in 1.0. I want this game to fix itself. And these are not my opinions these are hard facts not just from me but any other leader of an endgame guild that wants more then just Coil Statics A,B,C,D,E in their guild. I stick with XiV because I love FF and because SE before they destroyed it had the best Guild based mmo in history. IT would take so little for them to fix the game and prevent hundreds of thousands from quitting early. I cannot speak for the community as a whole. But I can speak for the 57 members of my guild who share my opinion. And the 72 that have quit since 1.25 who left because of the reasons in my prior post. As someone speaking for about 1% of the prior community I refuse to belive I am the only one with these feelings. Do I ask for XI no, it would fail in the modern era. Do I expect SE to support guilds more endgame, hell yes. They are the life blood of a mmo. Without a guild I have no reason to be in XIV or any mmo. ATM SE is making it a hellish task to keep my guild of 10yrs alive in XIV. I been a leader of a guild for a long time longer them most ppl have played mmos. I have also played enough mmo to know how things will playout if SE does not give guilds something more then vanity.

A guild is more then chat channel. A guild is the essence of a mmo. It is the lifeblood of the genre. IT is what seperates a mmo from a co-op offline game. It is a 2nd family. It is a group that comes together to accomplish things that cannot be done alone. XIV makes that hard to do.

[RiverTams]

People usually want an fc thats going to carry and baby them through content. We built our own, recruited, got old friends, low levels, vets... Etc. people who wanted coil done joined, and left. Guess what my fc did the other day? Clear t5 and progress to t6. And the people that left? They just wanted to be carried through it instead of learning the fight. We all learned together and got it.

The people who left are probably still fc hopping complaining they cant find a raid group.

[Zaero]

FCs aren't dead. Players just want to progress and use them as a means to an end.

Players changed, FCs didn't.