[originally posted on 2010-06-20]

Implementing a basic guild management in Little Goblin

Order? Guild?

Today I have finished a basic implementation of a guild management system. Guilds are called orders in Little Goblin, as I want to use the term guild for something else. In German, the term guild can be translated into Gilde or Zunft which means either a guild of merchants or a guild of tradesmen who practice a craft (and are not merchants). So, when it comes to naming a bunch of players who join together with a common purpose like fighting monsters, I think “guild” is not necessarily the proper term for such a community of motley adventurers. Of course, you can argue whether the term order does more to denote a group of player characters. I think it does, inasmuch as those characters join together with a background unlike those of tradesmen or merchants, but with the goal of founding a fraternity of fighting men (and women) who band together against other opponents for wealth and glory - and, possibly, the advancement of an agenda. The purpose of a guild of tradesmen or merchant is one: to help you achieve a financial goal or further your trade (craft). But players in a MMORPG or browser game are mostly not interested in this. The purpose of an order (in the sense of brotherhood) is more in line with the goals of going out and fighting evil and becoming a hero of the realm.

Note: when using Little Goblin for yourself, you may of course call the orders guilds or Hanse or Commercial Starfleet Association or whatever you like. Open Source software is about letting you choose :) Implementation

The most basic guild/order system needs functions to:

• list existing orders
• create a new order
• show details of an order of which you are not a member (at the moment: description, size)
• show details of your own order (like internal forums, members etc)
• the option to apply for membership
• an administrative interface for the leader to
  • accept or deny applications of prospective players
  • banish (kick) other members
• the option to leave the order (empty orders will be disbanded)

Planned features

At the moment, being a member of an order does not help you in any way. The core system is there, but to be effective or at least fun to use, the guild/order system needs more features like:

• an internal forum, at least in the form of a chat window where the last n messages are shown.
• a logo or coat of arms (watch out for the dangers of user generated content, though)
• game functions where having a guild adds some aspect which would be unavailable to you otherwise (like the use of a item chest or a banking account)
• an (internal) homepage were the shared items and achievements are presented, for example a smithy
• statistics for internal and external comparison of character development
• competitive elements (commonly known as guild wars, raids or quests)