Guild of Writers

Many have expressed the desire to get moving with regards to forming a Guild Structure. However, forming leadership is definitely not something we all agree about, so I've put together this poll to see what we think as a whole. (It's very limited. If you don't like my options say so and I'll change things.)

If you feel strongly about your choice, post here and explain why.. maybe you can convince others. And if you haven't voted yet, read what others have to say about it.

I voted for a "Little" - a leadership by council who is in place simply to choose which projects we spend most of our resources on. The reason I feel this way is that we have some extremely talented modellers and programmers, and we'll want to ask them to work on Ages that are the Guild's top priorities rather than other works. (For instance, once we have a working scheme for the Showcase Age, I'd like to ask Nadnerb and JulyForToday to focus on modelling it, despite the fact that both are currently working on Odema and Yinfara. Not that these Ages shouldn't be completed as well, but in order get our biggest projects done we'll need to pool our talent. Plus I'm hoping if I can work with them, some of their talent will rub off on me ;D)

I don't feel like the council should have any crazy authority over projects.. I just think one needs to be in place to choose which to build and which not to build. People can get ideas and pitch them to the council for priority ranking, for instance. Plus we'll have easy choices of lambs to the slaughter when it comes time to try to establish a working relationship with Cyan. x.x

I think such a council should be elected, but I think they should be mostly chosen out of the site team and the plugin team. These are the people who would have the best perspective as to what we could concievably do and what we fall short of, and I think even if we elect the council in a popular vote, they ought to be involved in some sense.

If you feel it's too early for leadership, remember I'm just trying to gauge opinion here. We don't have to do this now. But I think it's time to move forward and I think this is where we begin.

Here's the results from a similar poll conducted over at Myst Online. Out of 25 people:

• 16% wanted no structure - all democratic decisions
• 80% wanted a team leader for age creation teams
• 72% wanted a council
• 32% wanted a single leader of the guild (e.g. grand master)

Personally I picked little, the council should be made up of the mostly the people that without them, we wouldnt even have the plugin we have. Also I understand that we can asked for help if we have something we would like to add to the pipeline, but I doubt semi private ages are on the front burner.

I like the 'little' choice. I also think that the community should have the power to over-ride the decision on what ages are prioritized. Have the council more as a means for communication towards what is needed to accomplish a goal.

Great idea Pry!

I picked the second option as well. We will need reps when the time comes to have a working relationship with Cyan, and the council should also be there to help make directional decisions about technology and content (based on what is allowed, not what they like or want).

I still think many decisions should be held as a guild vote, but we do need people to tally the votes, and the council can do that as well.

By the descriptions here, I voted for little. I prefer a more helpful leadership (that's not meant as an insult, I just can't think of a better word to describe it).

I'd like to see a Grand Master, democratically elected by those interested in the Guild enough to register at the forum. The Grand Master would serve as the Guild's "liaison" to the DRC/Cyan/Maintainers. He/she would also recognize people in the Guild who did good work with promotions (from Guildsman/woman to Senior Guildsman/woman and/or Guildmaster, etc.).

I would like to see a Grandmaster and council structure.

GM to oversee the guild, site, forums etc make sure they work, gives people someone to go to when they want changes made on the site.

Council (of which the grandmaster would be in) to over see what projects should be given priority and what not.

I think in that case I'll characterize this as more about the "levels" of leadership (none/little/moderate/extreme) rather then the style (council/grandmaster). When this is done, if people are consistently voting for a council as it seems they are, I'll make a new poll that asks about a grandmaster on top of a council, but still under the "Little" leadership type of headline.

I voted "None". Actually it's still too high for me. I'm not even sure we need to make decisions. We need to make Ages.
At the project level, anyone can start a project, thus becoming project leader. If the project is interesting people will hop in. If the leader is bad people will hop out. Natural selection.

I like what Volle (from the same German-speaking group as Jonnee) has said and adopt it as my motto:
"We have no interests to be a GuildMaster and we hate political discussions.
And we don't want a tournament with other agebuilder-teams.
We have fun to write ages and we do this in our free time. Without stress or pressure of time."

Thank you Chacal, for writing down my thoughts.

The "Natural Selection" model for the guilds is one I've been advocating since the beginning. Doesn't even apply specifically to this guild, although it has produced a few examples. Do something for the community or yourself, and see if others are interested. Any required structure will materialize as neccessary. Yinfara started as a concept, people thought it was interesting, they joined in with more concept or models. I thought Odema was an interesting concept. Etcetera and so on. No one here is being paid to work on ages, (unless I'm missing out on something here. ) and it's hard to make someone work on something over a forum. People will do what they will, we merely need to provide an environment to do it in.

However, I do recognize the need for a group or individual of some sort to hold conversations directly with Cyan, when neccesary. That person should either step forward, or be found by one of the organizers of this site, and then the community can approve that person, so that they can reasonably expect them to relay their interests effectively.