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Obduction Backer |
Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2006 1:41 am Posts: 124 Location: West Bountiful, UT
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Being a "Guild" doesn't, and *shouldn't*, entitle a Group to any more "respect" than any other "Group". There have been quite a few non-Guild "Groups" in Uru: The Great Tree, the Cavern Activities Team / D'ni League of Activities, the Cavern Choir, the D'ni Zoological Society, the D'ni Linguistic Fellowship, etc. While some like the DLF might well become a Guild at some point, each of these Groups has had quite a lot of activity, success, membership, & respect, *without* the specific title of "Guild".
The reason the above-mentioned groups got "respect" w/out being a "Guild" is because of the *quality* of the organizations themselves, and the *quality* of their work/activities. There have also been several Groups that just didn't fly, because they weren't well organized, well thought-out, or effective. Such Groups would fail even if called a "Guild". That's because what a Group is *called* isn't ultimately the important thing---it's what the Group *does* that matters.
As for what a "Guild" is, I really got the impression that, amongst the various already-existing Groups, Cyan had the DRC announce the formation of the Guilds to make them a *special* class of Groups. By "special" I don't mean "superior", "privileged", or "first-class". Only that they were meant to be a bit different---unique, and set-apart. And above all, *uniform*. Why would certain groups, specifically named by the DRC, be given the title of "Guild" if they were just random Groups, with no similarities? Specifically organizing "The D'ni Guilds" gave me the impression that they would be basically organized like the original D'ni Guilds. Obviously the Guilds can't be *exactly* like the original D'ni Guilds (like Eleri said, we're all waaaaay too old to begin our apprenticeship in those ), but I fully expected each of the Guilds to *share* a basic structure in function & leadership (only slightly modified for each Guild's purpose). Otherwise, they're no more similar to each other than to any other Group.
What really leads me to believe this is what Cyan intended is that for quite a while, they asked us NOT to call any of our organizations a "Guild". They made an "exception" for the Guild of Greeters, because the GoG organized themselves & started working back in the Uru Prologue before Cyan "restricted" the use of the title "Guild". I remember back in 2003, when the D'ni Linguistic Fellowship first formed, we were debating what to call ourselves. I was one of those who wanted us to take on the title of "Guild of Linguists", previously used by the Riedl-brothers' website. But then Cyan made their announcement, and we---as well as the rest of the Community---kind of assumed that Cyan had something special planned for the "Guilds". And then this past year, the DRC announced the formation of 5 specific Guilds. It just really feels like they have a particular plan in mind.
I still think they *do* have something specific, unique, & uniform in mind. But they haven't had a lot of time to address it, because they were so busy this last year trying to get the next month's content-release ready w/a limited staff, and then MO:UL closed down. And also, I really think they wanted to leave some of it up to us. Not all of it, but it really is a bit of a test for this Community to see if we can take the initiative to organize ourselves. But between the closing of Uru, the ambiguity of what MORE will be, confusion of what constitutes a "Guild", and worries about corruption in hierarchal structures, we've kind of held back, even within the "established" Guilds.
Obviously Cyan is busy & under-staffed, but at this point I think we NEED them to tell us what they've had in mind for the "D'ni Guilds" in Uru. Even if they still want to leave some of it up to us, they need to tell us where *they* stand, and what's in *our* "jurisdiction" to decide.
</unexpected-epistle>
_________________ ".rezuhnuh voohee tsahnril robotesh gelenij"
"The ending can never truly be written."
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