Pocket Legends Better Guilds Bureau

[DanielRH]

Hi,

Since guilds first came out I have felt that the guild system, while an incredibly powerful group organization tool, was also horribly disorganized: It is hard to find a good guild; Sure there were listings, but they run themselves into inactivity, and never give you anywhere close to the full selection of guilds. The other thing that I think is lacking from the guild system is that guilds currently have no motivation to sort out disputes between players both inside the guild and out. It's the guild against the world.

So around a month ago I sat down and planned out what I could do to possibly fix these issues, and thus began the Pocket Legends Better Guilds Bureau (yes, the name is taken, and adapted from the BBB).

I have a couple goals that I hope to fulfill with the PLBGB:

1. Provide a fully searchable (by type, level, ratings, name, etc) guild listing service that will allow guild owners (or their assigned public relations officer) to post up their guild page with a complete description, requirements and rules, and to allow players to find the perfect guild that fits their needs.
2. Provide daily voting (one vote, per person, per day on the guild of his/her choice) on all guilds that have been listed so as to create a "Top Guilds Listing".
3. 3. Provide an interface between players and a guilds staff members so that complaints against a guild or guild member can be made, and resolved to the satisfaction of both parties.
4. Add a level of accountability for a guilds actions by making the complaint statistics (not individual complaint information) viewable by the public, and incorporating complaint statistics into the ratings calculation.
5. After being listed on the PLBGB for a certain length of time, and maintaining a low complaint level, guilds will be able to apply for PLBGB accreditation which will "feature" the guilds listing on the website, but will also come with an additional set of guidelines that such an exemplary guild should follow.

I have begun development on the PLBGB, most likely given my course load and other projects it will take me a few months of development work to complete the system.


I would love your feedback, and suggestions on this project!


Here's a demo of the PLBGB home page to wet your appetites:

[XghostzX]

Wow, this is so cool, Daniel!

How do you go about ranking each guild? Is it based off of levels/number of members? Or is it based off stats?

Again, this is really cool and I'm not a whiz at making these sort of things. But with PL's given guild system and lack of guild activities (including both PvE and PvP), I'd find it difficult to rank each individual guild. There's no guild-point system in PL that would correlate with rankings.

[DanielRH]

Wow, this is so cool, Daniel!

How do you go about ranking each guild? Is it based off of levels/number of members? Or is it based off stats?

Again, this is really cool and I'm not a whiz at making these sort of things. But with PL's given guild system and lack of guild activities (including both PvE and PvP), I'd find it difficult to rank each individual guild. There's no guild-point system in PL that would correlate with rankings.

Guild rankings would be calculated based on votes (guilds would need to get their members to vote for them daily), and the number of complaints a guild has.

If anyone has other suggestions on how to calculate the rankings, let me know!

The lack of guild activities is another matter that can be combated by the PLBGB... a guild event calender perhaps? Members can sign up for a guild mailing list? Eventually I want to add such features as that, and forums, and turn them into real guild pages.

[XghostzX]

Guild rankings would be calculated based on votes (guilds would need to get their members to vote for them daily), and the number of complaints a guild has.

If anyone has other suggestions on how to calculate the rankings, let me know!

Because honestly, I feel like only the biggest guilds and most forum-frenzy will just vote for themselves. If everyone votes for their own guild (I know I'd vote for mine), then it would come down to size. Perhaps if there was a more systematic way with crunching in all numbers (size, age of guild, age of all toons and when they were created, PvP stats, PvE stats).

Just trying to help out!

[DanielRH]

The feedback is great xghostzx, i really appreciate it!

While that is true, i thought that if i include the complaints in the calculations, they might balance each other out... bigger guild = less managment, less managment = more complaints? Not sure... this part definitely needs more thought...

[XghostzX]

The feedback is great xghostzx, i really appreciate it!

While that is true, i thought that if i include the complaints in the calculations, they might balance each other out... bigger guild = less managment, less managment = more complaints? Not sure... this part definitely needs more thought...

Very interesting, nonetheless and I know the community will be grateful for whatever the outcome is

[Duflie]

lol thats cool a guild ranking system. Always wanted one

[DocDoBig]

Wow more Forum Gods coming back to Forums!

I really like your idea and I'm looking forward to ''Beta-Test'' it.
Will it be an App or a Website like your Stat Calcs?


P.S.: I was that random guy in Blacksmoke who talked to your lvl. 30 bird one or two weeks ago.

[Roberto077]

Perhaps you could make it so people couldn't vote for their own guild? Maybe make a title system with your guild name so you couldn't vote for that title? Just little suggestion/questions.

[DanielRH]

Wow more Forum Gods coming back to Forums!

I really like your idea and I'm looking forward to ''Beta-Test'' it.
Will it be an App or a Website like your Stat Calcs?


P.S.: I was that random guy in Blacksmoke who talked to your lvl. 30 bird one or two weeks ago.

Beta testing won't be for a while, but i will keep you in mind when the time arrives.

It will be a website, not an Android, iOS or Windows RT app.

Ah yes, i remember you

Perhaps you could make it so people couldn't vote for their own guild? Maybe make a title system with your guild name so you couldn't vote for that title? Just little suggestion/questions.

I can definitely make it so that the guild owner or whoever put up the guild cannot vote for it... but i can't stop guild members from voting for their guild unless i make everyone register an account, which is somewhat of a pain.

[Suentous PO]

An interesting idea, some thoughts:
How is point #1 differ from the guilds section of the forums?

Seems like point #3 should be the duty of gms and officers
More than that seems redundant to me.

I would not personally be interested in seeing people voting on rankings, would that not only benefit large guilds?
I've seen some guilds have "wars" with others over little to nothing other than it was entertaining to some members. Voting rankings might work to the detriment of some pvp guilds where people hold grudges. The amout of "x rushes"Complaints could be enormous.
Taking out the human element of opinions would leave something I might look at.

Have you seen how guilds are ranked in AL? Might give some ideas.

Pardon my criticisms, I only intend to save you some hassle.

[Conradin]

I like it DH!

[Roberto077]

Did you two collaborate on when to come back? Oh wait, fbows got nerfed, that's why.

[Mothwing]

Looks really awesome Gj

[Gideon Jean-Claude]

Great idea. I would love to help you in any way possible on this project with input and such. I created a FB page for my guild to help better organize members and activities a couple of months ago because nothing like this existed. I would like to point out one little thing that stood out to me from the aforementioned suggestions.....that of the complaint statistics. As an officer and even before I was one I have witnessed people that were rightfully removed and sometimes banned from the guild only find a way to get back in on the same toon or an alt and wreak havoc until removed again. Some would be so scorned that they would do ANYTHING to bad mouth the guild and/or any of its members. One person with a vendetta, plenty of time, and multiple toons or accounts could file NUMEROUS complaints aimed solely at destroying a guild's character and now ranking. I just wanted to point that one pertinent thing out while fresh on my mind. I shall DEFINITELY be keeping track of this post and how your progress is coming along. Thanks a million for partaking in this endeavor of a long needed and overdue guild management system.

[DanielRH]

An interesting idea, some thoughts:
How is point #1 differ from the guilds section of the forums?

Seems like point #3 should be the duty of gms and officers
More than that seems redundant to me.

I would not personally be interested in seeing people voting on rankings, would that not only benefit large guilds?
I've seen some guilds have "wars" with others over little to nothing other than it was entertaining to some members. Voting rankings might work to the detriment of some pvp guilds where people hold grudges. The amout of "x rushes"Complaints could be enormous.
Taking out the human element of opinions would leave something I might look at.

Have you seen how guilds are ranked in AL? Might give some ideas.

Pardon my criticisms, I only intend to save you some hassle.

1. It would not be all that different, but would be somewhat easier to use. Players can enter in what guild level range they want, what type of guild, popularity etc.
there will be a top-votes page and possibly some others. You post to the guilds section of the forum and you have to keep bumping it to get interest, with the PLBGB you can have your players vote to keep it up at the top with a top daily vote page, overall votes page, etc.

2. It absolutely is the duty of the gms and officers, the problem is, that it is almost always impossible to either a. contact the gms/officers about a complaint. And b. Even if you are able to contact them, they have no reason to help solve the issue, its the guild against the world.

3. Yes i suppose it would benefit the large guilds, but top-votes will not be the only page... I'm using a Minecraft server listing website model, it worked fairly well there, i don't see a reason why it wont work here. Yes, some good, small guilds get lost in the hubub of the bigger guilds, but perhaps adding a trending guilds page might fix that?

4. The complaint system will of course be moderated. The PLBGB will put forth a set of guidelines for complaints, so complaints for rushing and the such wont affect a guilds ranking (i will set up some filters to automatically disallow complaints for common things like rushing).

I really do appreciate all the criticism i can get, it makes no sense to work on and produce a shoddy system. Thank you for all your input!

I like it DH!

Hey Conradin, long time no talk! We should catchup in-game! And thanks!

Did you two collaborate on when to come back? Oh wait, fbows got nerfed, that's why.

Yup :P I only PvP these days.

Looks really awesome Gj

Thanks Mothwing! Long time no chat, we should catchup in-game!

Great idea. I would love to help you in any way possible on this project with input and such. I created a FB page for my guild to help better organize members and activities a couple of months ago because nothing like this existed. I would like to point out one little thing that stood out to me from the aforementioned suggestions.....that of the complaint statistics. As an officer and even before I was one I have witnessed people that were rightfully removed and sometimes banned from the guild only find a way to get back in on the same toon or an alt and wreak havoc until removed again. Some would be so scorned that they would do ANYTHING to bad mouth the guild and/or any of its members. One person with a vendetta, plenty of time, and multiple toons or accounts could file NUMEROUS complaints aimed solely at destroying a guild's character and now ranking. I just wanted to point that one pertinent thing out while fresh on my mind. I shall DEFINITELY be keeping track of this post and how your progress is coming along. Thanks a million for partaking in this endeavor of a long needed and overdue guild management system.

As stated above, i will be putting in filters to remove complaints that are for common things like rushing. There will also be a maximum of 2 active complaints per guild per user, and i will put in safeguards to guarantee that each user only has one account. Plus there will be a moderator team to quickly look over complaints and verify that they are in-fact valid complaints before they are registered against the guild.

There is definitely room for abuse, and i will be doing everything possible to mitigate the problem.

[Chickenrunnn]

Hello Dany, It's been a long time

Nice to see you back on forums, making awesome stuff

[Bilaxman]

Sounds like a cool idea!

[DanielRH]

Hello Dany, It's been a long time

Nice to see you back on forums, making awesome stuff

Hey runnn! How're things going? we should catchup in-game

[WhoIsThis]

A ranking system would need several things: A large enough committed playerbase. I admire you for attempting this, but I do fear that the size of the hardcore playerbase will limit it's potential at this point. The other is that I would recommend sorting the guilds by type, namely casual, levelling, endgame PvE, endgame PvP, and twinking. The other issue of course is that some system of moderation would have to be developed, especially for the quality of complaints that any system might get. You're likely to get bitter players.

Finally, for the system to work, a significant percentage of the entire PL playerbase would have to be committed to the rating system and accept the legitimacy of the guild ranking system.