The Noble Robot wrote:Dovahn wrote:Right, and I have a feeling that calling this "unofficial" would only confuse people. Let them think that we are official; what's the harm? As Eschaton said, it's not like Cyan is going to say, "Okay, you all aren't allowed to be the Guild of Writers". It doesn't make sense.
That's true, and I think we can all agree that the people on this forum (and plenty who haven't joined us yet) will constitute the official GoW no matter where it is hosted or what form it takes. But... what happens when we form an elected council, ranks and actual membership (other than mere forum membership)... and then Cyan comes out with their own Guild structure and maybe even a website?
I'm not saying that this will happen, and if it does, we'll all simply slide over to the new "offical" system, but it's easy to say we're the official group, because we haven't done any kind of organizing or structuring which could possibly be challenged by Cyan or anyone else for that matter.
And excuse me for bringing this up so late in the conversation, but the "poll" on the MOUL forums was *specifically* for the home of the "Unofficial Guild of Writers!!"
Thus it, as the only claim to "officialness" this site has, actually contradicts itself!
I Cyan decided to force a guild structure on us after we had built on, it would be a tough transition. But it would still be a transition. Those who we elected, we would quickly try to place in equivalent positions. For postions arguably unrelated, new elections. If there was no election system in the new heirarchy, and Cyan picked whoever they wanted, yes, we'd get the shaft. But cyan wouldn't dare do anything so stupid, it invites cries of favoritism and bias. It could even cause people to leave Uru for good. Whether or not Cyan was biased, it would take no stretch of the imagination to see them as such. We have faith in Cyan, but think about how it looks: A tight-lipped, seldom-speaking development company picking leaders for the game it develops, based on a criteria we would be unlikely to ever see. Yeah . . .
Anyway, that kind of strayed into a rant on closed leadership, but short of Cyan going to a closed system, ANYTHING else is just a modification to what we already had. We are the writers, we are a guild, and we are official, as there is no other authority on the matter. If Cyan is thoughtful enough to give us a hierarchy, it would still be the official GoW, just with a new system (likely more thought-out) for the same leaders. Short of lots of lawsuits and the complete destruction of the GoW, there is nothing Cyan can do to get rid of us. Which is why I sometimes feel sorry for them