[Set]

I'll keep this simple;
Guild banks, great, about time, a few flaws.

As a tool for a Guild Leader being able to manage and control a guild bank is a fantastic way to motivate players. Having the 'Raider' rank being allowed to use guild gold for repairs is a great motivator to keep the rank, making sure people are stocked with pots keeps performance up (yes people should be willing to pay their own repairs and should always have pots but bear with me).

Where the hell does a guild bank get this money?

I'm bringing this up because Eve Online is another game that I play where Guild Banking is very important and gives a hell of a lot of GM control over a guild where as in WoW at the moment the only really tools a GM has are DKP (often ignored by players) and the GKick. Where Eve Online Corporations have Taxation though WoW doesn't seem to have any sort of revenue generator for Guilds.

I am aware that certain top end guilds are flowing in cash but to my mind at least its the new to mid level Guilds that need the help keeping their players motivated where weaker players need to gear up and stronger players need to well not gquit and join a better guild...

So my question (Did I actually say I was going to keep this simple?);
With this new tool of the Guild Bank, where does a Guild get the money?

[Lavache]

we currently offer dkp for needed item (primals for hydross gear) and raiding consumables. everything else that people send in to the bank gets either redistributed or put on the AH to buy raid consumables, usually in the form of flasks and health pots. i pay enough attention to the AH (by using auctioneer) to manage to sell a majority of what i put up. anything that doesnt sell "of the boar/owl" i send to an enchanter and we keep the mats for people that need them.

i havent had an opportunity to see the guild banks on the test realm, but as soon as i can get some people from the guild over i plan on giving it a work out. there are also a number of post on the guild relations forum on the wow boards discussing this.

if i can - i plan on setting one tab as general access - low level quest items, crafting mats, ore etc. and having the other two be restricted access. anyone can donate to them, but withdrawals will be restricted to (hopefully) prevent abuse.

[Kawfek]

This always seems to be a touchy subject with my officers and other guildies...that asking if the guild has mats for an enchant like mongoose to help me fill out what I don't have...is like commiting heresy. And it always loops back to well you are a dps warrior just farm it. Any suggestions as to how to approach it?

[Anansi™]

The guild bank is an excellent idea. It will probably see it's strongest point on guilds in SSC/TK and beyond who can generate money using the BoE epic recipes that use Nether Vortexs/Hearts of Darkness. Guilds who haven't progressed to that point trying to generate money as a guild would probably have to consist of group/guild farming runs (shard farming some normal/heroic no one needs anything from or any other type of "farming.") Since there is no taxing system in place it would have to be something arranged/organized by guild leadership.

In FFXI we didn't have to repair thank god, but a lot of "linkshells" would charge an initial membership due. This was used to help members skill up their crafting and the yields would be used in raids. After enough time in you would be given access to some of the paid in dues granted you were able and willing to skill up a profession in a timely manner. . . which given it could vary on the cycle of the sun, moon and weather it might or might not take a while.

[Unger]

I wrote this in another thread, but it seems to apply here too.....

In order to assist people in the acquisition of gear, our guild split our guild members in half with 2 separate distinctions. The first was called "Kara Farm" status and the other was called "25 man farm status" (although ZA is included in 25 man farm).

When someone had all of their gear out of Kara, we would require that they run Kara once a week. Usually groups consisted of 3-5 "25 man status" members and 5-7 "Kara status" members. The groups would full clear (we have 5 raids going now) and the "25 man" people are not eligible for loot there. The result of this was a lot of VERY happy "Kara farm" guildies who would be totally geared in 3-4 weeks. We would try to get a class mix so that when something dropped, there was only one "Kara farm" person who could use it. No rolls, happy guildies.

In exchange for this, the "Kara farm" people had to do 2 things. First, if they got invited to a 25 man for some reason (short on people, etc.), they were required to pass on loot that dropped there unless nobody else could use it. They get their epics in Kara and when the time comes, they will be elevated to "25 man" status, run Kara with the newbies and get their gear in the higher level raids.

The second thing we had them do was to farm for the guild. We didnt have a preset amount, but we encouraged 3-4 primals or shards a week. When you look at it logically, its a great deal for everyone. The Kara folks get geared fast because the better geared guys were running them through, the 25 man guys didnt have to roll on loot they wanted and both served their guilds in some fashion (either running Kara's you didnt need or by donations). If someone said to you "I'lll run you through Kara, you'll get all the loot that drops that is for your class/spec and all you have to do is donate what is the equivalent of 100 gold a week", its a no brainer. 8-10 epics are worth thousands in gold and 20+ badges a week is a big deal too.

Figure you have 25-30 "25 man" guys and 40-50 "Kara guys". You are getting roughly 150 shards a week for the guild. At 30 gold a pop, thats 4,800 gold per week. Plus, you are gearing guildies, protecting the more geared ones from losing rolls to the new guys and giving the new guys something to shoot for.

Whenever we had a specific need, we could go to our "Kara farm" folks and ask for more help and they never failed to respond. You figure that each epic is worth between 600 gold on average, they are getting about 8 over 3-4 weeks, that is roughly 5000 gold worth of gear in addition to the experience. Wouldnt that be worth the 400-500 gold that they donated?

The key is to figure out what your guild has in excess. Ours had the ability to gear through Kara. For others, it could be PVP teams. Whatever you have in excess, trade it for what you need.... gold.

Works for us.

Unger

[Methadone]

Our gbank (4/9, 5/5) has 0 HoD and about 1200g atm after our Gm key keylogged. Think we lost about 50k gold's worth of stuff.

/sadface

[byechee]

Source: Methadone Our gbank (4/9, 5/5) has 0 HoD and about 1200g atm after our Gm key keylogged. Think we lost about 50k gold's worth of stuff. /sadface

ouch. if someone hacked our GM they could make out with a bunch of craptastic boe patterns and 40 seaspray emeralds.