Originally Posted by Tarenth

I disagree with Turbinator on some points. PvE raiding is crucial to guild success. MMORPGs are always growing in the PvE setting so the guild will need to raid and progress through the raids in order to grow and succeed.

The first thing you should do would be to form the guild and get a good foundation built ASAP. Guilds provide bonuses in XP gained, Gold/Iron/Stone/Wood collections, and mount speed for the PvE aspects of the game. With a good solid guild you get a jump start on progression.

With progression comes more knowledge. To progress to the point where you can corner the market as Tubinator suggests you have to grind and grind a LOT. That means getting there first and setting the bar then holding that place so you are the first and last person people come to. This may mean focusing on several 'guild crafters' who take in all the resources in order to master their crafts the fastest. Better goods for guildies means faster progression, mean more material, means better goods for sale, means better goods for guildies. Its a long term investment vs a short term satisfaction deal.

As soon as you have the resources and a base for it you need to craft a city quickly. Having a city will both be a mark of success for TG as well as a place to centralize our activities. We can sell goods automatically with city vendors and generate revenue for the guild as well as host PvE raids on the NPC city for materials and interest from players. With interest comes reputation and with reputation comes power.

Once we have a PvE base to keep operations running we can focus on PvP. PvP is a bandaid for when you don't have enough PvE content. The benefits for excelling in PvP are generally inferior to excelling at PvE. However, if we can get PvP going we can expand our operations and gain even more reputation with whichever server we are on. By turning around our gains through investments in PvE we can build, man, and maintain a PvP battlekeep quickly and effectively. With contacts made through our PvE city we can also broker deals with guilds for defensive and offensive alliances so that we aren't constantly attacked. If people know we will defend our battlekeep and have alliances to back us up, we will be attacked less than if we were a relative newcomer without any reputation. This is a vicious cycle. If we have a reputation we will keep our reputation unless a superguild challenges us for our reputation, however without a reputation we will need to challenge a superguild for a reputation.

If we're starting out in PvP I suggest we either take over an uncontrolled Battlekeep property or get a mutual assistance pact with another strong PvE guild to stage attacks so we both have battlekeeps. This will give us a strong foothold in the PvP aspect of the game.

Raiding provides your members with better gear and prestige as well as guild reputation. If your guild raids then people who want to raid will join your guild. If your guild doesn't raid, then people who want to raid will leave your guild. This is the current problem with TG-WoW and why we're floating under the radar. Without a strong raiding aspect in PvE you will never have enough of a reputation to succeed in other areas of the game. However, raiding is an endgame thing and seems like it will be the focus of the 70-80 aspect of AoC. It should be something we plan for, but not something we aim for. Build a reputation through crafting, teamwork, and progression and we'll have enough momentum to surpass that point when we get there.

You're going to need good leadership who will put a face to the guild. People who are active, knowledgeable, and encouraging while being able to explain that short term hardships are for long term rewards. People may not understand why they have to give up material they collect to the guild in order to help someone advance their crafting or build some building they don't need instead of working on their own crafting progression. Having a good guild is one that encourages people to give up their personal achievements for the good of the guild and that is VERY hard to do.

Oh yeah! For the love of all you hold dear go on PUGs (Pick Up Groups). Guild runs are all fine and dandy, but it creates cliche groups and hides guild members from public view. If you run with other guilds and other people at random and show off your awesomness then you spread the word of TG to the masses and gain reputation and members along the way. Its also good for guild diplomacy if you have a reputation as a guild of players who know what they are doing and will do their job effectively.

Storming a battlekeep in PvP of a guild of nobodies is easy to start and easy to succeed. Doing so against a guild with a name across the realm of good players who have friends within several other guilds and who will beat the crap out of you, steal your lunch money, then sow the grounds of your city and battlekeep with salt out of spite is a lot harder to get support for.

I will be playing AoC mostly for its PVP not PvE raiding, I will get level 80 through PVE and thats where it would end for me, raiding I'll try but veeery seldom.
I doubt PVE raiding in AOC will be any different from WoW, you got same 25 peeps in an instanced area, but we shall see.

AoC is designed with PVP in mind 1st, and Pve 2nd, thats the feeling I got from following it since 2005, and reading devs previews, quotes etc.

Also great example about TG-WoW, this is exactly why I did not bother raiding in WoW.

Check AoC further cause I am getting the feeling that you think it will be PVE centric like WoW and most other MMOS.
In fact from every preview and description from devs its PVP 1st.

If TG AOC guild ends up being PvE raid focused to extent you are describing I would be disappointed not to play in this guild.