Yesterday, the NDA on the Cataclysm beta was lifted so if anyone thought they weren’t getting enough information about that yet … expect to drown in it from now until release. If the sheer volume of data is overwhelming, then comfort yourself in the knowledge that many things will still change before launch day. So you could reasonably just save your energy and ignore it all until you get to play personally.
Top sites for info:
- mmo-champion
- wow.com (the old WoW Insider blog, nothing to do with Blizzard)
- official US cataclysm beta forums (ignore the EU ones, devs don’t post there)
Comparing with the current expansion, the NDA for Wrath was lifted on July 18th for a Release date of November 13th. If Blizzard are running a similar timetable for this expansion, then they’re aiming for a release in late October. So maybe a couple of weeks after Final Fantasy 14 goes live on the PC (Sept 30th).
A look at the proposed guild perks
I’m right in the overwhelmed with data category but I was curious to check out some of the guild perks which are currently in the Cataclysm beta.
This is definitely going to change guild dynamics. And I wonder if actually these new guild abilities will encourage good practice and help guilds to differentiate themselves.
For example, some of the perks on offer will automatically pay money into the guild bank every time a guild member loots a mob. So what are guilds going to do with that cash?
- You could pay repair costs for guild members.
- You could pay out bank dividends every month (just divide the contents of the bank by the number of players.)
- You could run a guild lottery – let people enter by paying in crafted or gathered items (ie. something useful) in return for a chance to win the monthly pot. I’m considering doing this for my little friendly guild.
- you could provide guild members with consumables or even crafted goods
- you could pay for mounts, or for starting bags for new alts
- you could keep it all for yourself and your alts …
But the main thing is, a guild will be expected to do something with this new resource, and to inform guild members what they plan to do. Other perks include increased honor points (from PvP kills) for guild members, better results from gathering, reduced repair costs, and shorter hearthstone cooldowns.
The other one which caught my eye in the list was:
Chug-A-Lug (Rank 1): The duration of buffs from all guild cauldrons and feasts is increased by 50%.
We haven’t seen cauldrons for awhile. In TBC a cauldron was a type of resistance potion which could be used by an entire group or raid. So it looks as though guild alchemists will again be able to provide an entire group with a potion or elixir buff.
In any case, being in a guild with any or all of these perks is going to be quite a sizeable advantage for a player. And I wonder whether the perks and the push towards being guilded will make more people question what sorts of services they think a good guild ought to offer to members. Will people still be satisfied with what they get from their current guild, or will GMs be expected to offer more?
Welcome to Spinksville! 
You asked some good questions:
* What will guilds do with the money? Or better, what will the Guild Leader and Officers do with the extra 10% (other question: why not let players chose if they want to loot only 90% gold and donate 10% to the guild bank. Is there not already enough inflation in the game?)
* How to get the guild perks? <- how are they earned?
* This could create monster sized guilds with all perks and several semi-independent "raid divisions"
I still think people should join a guild because they genuinely like to play with their fellow guildmates. Now I would rather try to join a guild with all bonuses to have my own selfish desires fulfilled. Heck, some people might even pay for a spot just to be in such a guild.
Plus that raiding guilds would eagerly get as many levelling noobies among their ranks to generate that money for raiding and completely forget them. Raiders are the elite, the levelling players are the pawns.
Selfishness on the guild size. Brutality of the lack of social tools and incentives in the game.
Not to mention the railroading of people into socializing alltogether.
C out
This could also open up for a whole new level of scamming: Get new players into your guild, and watch the money roll in.
Promise stuff once they reach 85, and the /gdisband
I doubt we’ll see much scamming of it, because it’s quite simply not that much money if you’re below max-level. Unless you literally get several dozen active people, it’s just not better gold-per-hour than doing dailies. Some friends of mine in EVE Online worked on a similar scam, and it’s way, way, way more work than you’d expect. It only works there because of the complexity of the crafting system and how it needs corpmates to work.
I’m not saying you won’t see guildleaders and officers of crappy guilds skim off the top, but I don’t think we’ll see mass looting or outright scams. Similarly, adding noobs to your guild won’t really help, because guild XP is capped so that like only the 10 “best” people contribute. So having 30 levelling newbies doesn’t help much. What we might see happen is PvE guilds recruit some PvP guys (and vice versa) so that they’re earning guild XP on two fronts. Or you might have raiders just decide to work on guild XP by spending every other saturday afternoon doing BGs.
I never understood why they took away cauldrons in the first place. But it will certainly be a welcome addition.