Alliance Nomenclature

two30

The "Helm Guild -> Sword Guild -> Gauntlet Guild" names for positions within Guild Alliances are crummy. In particular, for someone unfamiliar with the system, it's not obvious that Sword is above Gauntlet. I don't expect the names will change, but I think the community can come up with better names.

Good names should:

• Follow a recognizable pattern.
  
• Be thematically appropriate.
  

For instance, big, medium, small is a recognizable pattern. So "Giant Guild -> Ogre Guild -> Orc Guild" would be a thematically-appropriate example of this pattern. "Gold Guild -> Silver Guild -> Copper Guild" is another pattern we all recognize in this game. Even "Purple Guild -> Blue Guild -> Green Guild" would work, although it's a bit too meta.

Any good and/or funny ideas?

instynctive

Uber
l337
n00bz

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melindaoz

I would NOT like to be called noobz or Pawns for being in a smaller/lower stronghold guild.

wildfirede

i find the names should not be insulting to the lower tiers .... or ppl in small guilds will soon be called orcs peons copper guys and so on
those 3 soind neutral and the guys who care who is who will know the difference


i prefer my guild beinf the gauntlet before being the orcs or peasants

two30

wildfirede said:

i find the names should not be insulting to the lower tiers .... or ppl in small guilds will soon be called orcs peons copper guys and so on

That's a fair comment, although I don't consider "orc" an insult. My half-orcs are fine characters.

Is "Gold Guild -> Silver Guild -> Copper Guild" more insulting than Star Trek Online's "Alpha Fleet -> Beta Fleet -> Gamma Fleet"?

Regardless, it appears I've overestimated the community's desire or ability of think of something better.

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wildfirede

actually i find things like Alpha-Beta-Gamma not insulting - there are a few fantasy books i can think of where earth was destroyed/enslaved and the only surviving Gamma fleet killed the bad guys.

In fact a straight numeric ordering would be not that bad - the 3-rd house (Salvatore style - but too much drowish for my personal liking)

The Alliance's gauntlet sounds cool too, if you want it more offensive maybe - Greatsword-Longsword-Dagger (or whatever 1d12, 1d8, 1d6 Weapons come to the mind).

And i am not against new community driven names at all, just not something that later results whole guilds classified as "The Guttbusters's coppers"...

I also was thinking about some forgotten realms lore based regional/cultural names,
but that would imply that everyone would have to be familiar with the said lore.

, maybe we are overthinking it

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instynctive

And, to be fair, I was being facetious.

I think there can be a tendency of *any* label to be considered "insulting", whether it's "copper", "gamma", "orc" or "sunshine and puppies". It's not the label itself, but the perceived sort of stigma that might go along with the label.

Perhaps if people focused less on labels, and more on the "big picture". Seriously.. not looking at things like "imma copper" or "imma noobz". Look at the big picture: I'm part of this amazing thing, surrounded by amazing people, and look at all the dragon fangs I have now, and I haven't had to PuG an epic dungeon in MONTHS, and my coffer is filling so quickly, and... and.. and.."

And honestly, the labels don't matter.

And, always remember that the "low man on the totem pole" is actually the most revered one of all the figures on that pole. Seriously. Google it.

melindaoz

I don't have a problem with Helm - Sword - Gauntlet order because if you look at a character sheet, that's the top down order you see on the picture. I'm sorry to say, my sense of the silly hasn't come up with an alternative that wouldn't end up being rude in one way or the other.

dfnce

Would be OK of each alliance call their guild ranks individually. Some alliances may went into some historical descriptions, some not.

Gauntlet/Sword/Helm is not self-describing, even if i try to explain things, it would be easier to me use terms Alpha/Beta/Gamma or Primary/Secondary/Tertiary

hawkeyel

I can see some of the old larger guilds that we used to have benefiting some from this but for me. Perhaps I can make a couple more accounts and call my guild ranks ME, Myself And I. Really would have rather seen them use the limited man power they have toward working on character fixes /reworks rather than adding something that want really help the ones that needed the help to begin with. Will just end up with a few large Alliance and then the rest of us with little benefit to show for it. But hey stay positive this could be great lol.

darkstarcrash

melindaoz said:

I don't have a problem with Helm - Sword - Gauntlet order because if you look at a character sheet, that's the top down order you see on the picture. I'm sorry to say, my sense of the silly hasn't come up with an alternative that wouldn't end up being rude in one way or the other.

Well, that's the thing: arms/Gauntlets are above mainhand/Sword on your character screen -- so the character screen order does not help you remember what the guild hierarchy order is.

I'd just go Alpha/Beta/Gamma myself -- much clearer. I think they're trying to be more fantasy than Star Trek, but it's not clear at all from the names.

beckylunatic

Knight, Squire, Page

Edit: I don't personally dislike the terminology as it stands. Helm is intuitive enough, but people mess up the others because a Gauntlet holds a Sword and not the other way around. But they've been assigned with the Sword in the middle role because the word represents something more symbolically powerful than a glove. Maybe it makes sense to me because I'm mostly looking at it from a literary perspective, not anatomical.

two30

How about "Dragon Guild, Griffon Guild, Unicorn Guild"?

They're all heraldic creatures. They're all Faerûnian. They descend in size.

instynctive

beckylunatic said:

But they've been assigned with the Sword in the middle role because the word represents something more symbolically powerful than a glove. Maybe it makes sense to me because I'm mostly looking at it from a literary perspective, not anatomical.

Ah, but to be fair, Excalibur's real power came from its scabbard.. ;-)

kreatyve

For a while, before I knew the names, I went with Alpha, Beta, Gamma.

ironzerg79

Agreed. I like our idea of Bourbon, Scotch, Beer...

Gimme 1 bourbon, 3 scotch, and 9 beeeeeerssssss!

beckylunatic

I am sure there are reasons for having to name the roles to implement the underlying structure, but in an ideal game, the Alliance would be able to use custom names like a guild can name its own ranks 1-7. Then everyone could be happy.

instynctive

ironzerg79 said:

Gimme 1 bourbon, 3 scotch, and 9 beeeeeerssssss!

The beers will be flowing tonight. Looking forward to that.. ;-)

kvet

Maker's Mark > Jim Beam > Jack Daniels

I find myself using alpha, beta, gamma because they're a heck of a lot easier to type and make immediate linear sense. I support the idea of Alliances being able to name their levels just as guild can name their ranks. I also support the ability for alliances to name themselves rather than it being [Helm Guild Name] Alliance.

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