The new Guild UI and Permissions...yikes (Part 1)

[Venjin-bronzebeard (Venjin)]

Please Fix The Permissions

[Druunah-ravencrest (Druunah)]

I’m sure that Rising-Sun isn’t the only guild that doesn’t want to give the MotD permissions to every officer.

True.

At least for our guild.
MotD has always been a Guild Leader only thing in BloodOath.

That leaves leaves precious few viable options for getting the word out to folks and simply makes management even harder than it already is.

Also true.

MotD was always lost in addon spam etc… thus making getting word to guildies difficult at best.

We do have a guild Facebook group for more detailed news and info, but not every guildie joins, nor are they required to do so.

The changes Blizzard implemented (not a glitch nor a bug) has only increased the difficulty with guild communication.

Please:

Fix the permissions Blizz.

[Chrysâlis-area-52 (Chrysâlis)]

/thread

[Polgara-winterhoof (Polgara)]

Happy to see this:

Companion App

• Added Calendar support – manage personal, community, and guild events, and view upcoming holidays.
• Added support for WoW Community and Guild chat.

Now if we can get the permissions fixed we’ll finally be back to where we were.

[Brahmina-khadgar (Brahmina)]

But…that’s just a change to the launcher…right? I’m not sure what a “companion app” is. I don’t have a smart phone because there’s no connectivity where I live (making such an expense ludicrous). I do everything Wow on my PC.

In any case, that doesn’t sound like it’s doing anything to help Guild Masters with actual guild management. It’s just expanding Blizzard’s app.

However those changes work, they’re not a fix for the permissions. Dang it.

[Polgara-winterhoof (Polgara)]

No, not a change to the launcher, but yes, a smart phone app.

I was pointing this out because the loss of remote guild chat was another degradation of the guild features.

Our guild used to always have an officer on remote chat - a small nicety that made people feel like they were not alone. All these little things add up and impact the overall experience - and when you impact guilds even in small ways, this can cause people to ‘feel’ differently, and it can end up having a much greater impact on the social structure of the game.

In my opinion, Blizzard’s greatest failing with guilds was not understanding how all the little pieces impacted by the permissions change impacts players in so many indirect ways. Many of us play because of how we ‘feel’ - both about the game and about our friends and guild mates … By impacting these ‘feelings’ you risk changing a players’ relationship with the game you potentially put the existing social structure at risk.

[Nêlsôn-greymane]

Companion App

• Added Calendar support – manage personal, community, and guild events, and view upcoming holidays.
• Added support for WoW Community and Guild chat.

So it took them 7-ish months to add features that were already in the wow armory app to the companion app.

So by this logic, this will be fixed in about 3 expansions.

[Brahmina-khadgar (Brahmina)]

So by this logic, this will be fixed in about 3 expansions.

They won’t call it a “fix”, though. They’ll tout it as a new feature and improvement to the guild UI.

[Fumel-arathor (Fumel)]

Still doing my read-through. Here is a post that’s a complaint, but it also mentions the things guild masters have wanted for years. Note the poster is not one of the “3 or 4” folks who are accused of being the only ones who post here.

We asked for an update on the antiquated guild UI and got something we can hardly even use. We didn’t ask for voice or any of these other community features (which are poorly implemented, at best). Just a useable, manageable guild UI that we can customize.

And the response was to lock it down even further? Why?

I’d suggest using a little common sense and diverting resources to things we’ve been giving feedback on for years. Offline member management (invites, messaging, and such), more flexible permissions, etc.

We have voice chat. We don’t need your crappy VoIP. Rather than try to reinvent the wheel, why not work with someone who’s done this before? Or just scrap it and let us use our the communications as normal, which we’re going to do anyway. There are better solutions out there—competing with those existing programs is a wasted effort. We told you in beta this was a crap idea.

Also, I understand CMs do a lot of running around and have a lot of topics to manage, but why is something like this getting buried?

I have to agree that it doesn’t make a lot of sense to commit resources to something that doesn’t need fixing, especially when there are plenty of other things that could use the help. Makes me think a bit of the new portals. It’s like making things harder is now Blizzard’s main design philosophy.

[Dlaciabia-sisters-of-elune (Dlaciabia)]

Mornin’!

Don’t worry Fumel, I’ve still got an eye on this one. ;D
It’s a point of morbid curiosity now as to whether they’ll say anything, ever. Even if it’s just “not being redone, deal”. At least be upfront about it. People are already irked by the “world feels bigger” claptrap.

[Fumel-arathor (Fumel)]

It’s a point of morbid curiosity now as to whether they’ll say anything, ever. Even if it’s just “not being redone, deal”.

I fully and honestly believe they’re just waiting for us to skip a day of posting so they can shut the thread down. Most of the people upset about this have either moved on to other games or have found some way to deal wit it.

Actually, all of us have found some way to “deal” with it one way or another, but that doesn’t mean anyone’s happy about it or not hoping for a fix. They’ve just given up posting.

Here’s a nice, to-the-point post from back in August:

Edit own public note was added in at the same time as the guild chat speak permission node. Edit own public note should be a rank permission and toggle-able as such.

The rank permissions that were consolidated under “IsOfficer” should be unbundled, and we should be able to run our guilds with the same permissions and granularity we’ve had for years until these changes were made.

I couldn’t agree more.

It hurts nothing to give Guild Masters the tools they need to run their guilds as they wish. It blights the game to its roots when Blizz tries to force every odd-shaped peg into their singular round hole.

[Druunah-ravencrest (Druunah)]

It’s a point of morbid curiosity now as to whether they’ll say anything, ever. Even if it’s just “not being redone, deal”

This (for me anyway)

I just want an answer one way or the other at this point.

I fully and honestly believe they’re just waiting for us to skip a day of posting so they can shut the thread down.

Blizzard. so you understand:

Although I am no longer posting on a nearly daily basis as I once was, my original promise to you (and myself) stands firm.

“I’m not going away”

I check this thread diligently several times a day.

There’s just not all that much to say anymore.

We’ve all provided tons of useful (and sometimes colorful) feedback here that you requested many many months ago. Regardless, you continue your deafening silence.

“Improved communication”

Indeed.

[Delirium-bronzebeard (Delirium)]

Agreed Druunah! We have said it all. RL makes me busy but i post when i can and check the thread daily. I AM NOT GOING AWAY BLIZZ! We need a response, PLEASE.

[Altherei-wyrmrest-accord (Altherei)]

Was out of town for a handful of days but glad to see this thread is still kickin’!

Blizzard, please fix the permissions. There was no good reason to bundle them up, even if it was to match the new ‘community’ feature. Why not instead give the community features the guild permissions we used to have, so community leaders have that same freedom and choice?

This was not broken, but now it is. And even if I had interest in running a guild again, as long as I am unable to run it the way that I deem best (by having unbundled permissions), I will not be making a guild.

[Takoda-kul-tiras (Takoda)]

I also check the thread every day. Sometimes, I don’t post because I’m trying not to spread my grumpiness. Other times, I feel that you guys have already said what needs to be said.

“I’m not going away”

Agreed! I’ve been nurturing my stubborn streak for years, almost as if I was preparing for this. And I don’t intend to stop now.

Venjin, I can’t remember if you’ve done this song or not, but I think you could do something awesome with Stayin’ Alive. The '70s were weird and before my time, but sometimes they just feel right.

[Venjin-bronzebeard (Venjin)]

Somebody narc’d on me at work so I’ll have to do it when I have some free time, but I think it’s do-able.

BTW Bliz,
Please revert the permissions!

[Fumel-arathor (Fumel)]

Still doing my read-through. If someone from Blizz would confirm they’ve actually read this thread already, maybe I wouldn’t feel like I have to do this. But since they’ve been sticking to radio silence, I have no idea if everything here is being deliberately ignored or not. So I’ll keep bringing things forward in case I can catch anyone’s attention.

Here’s an excellent explanation of why “edit guild info” shouldn’t be a permission given to each and every officer:

Feature: Edit Guild Info.

How my wife uses it: It’s a summary of when we were founded, our Discord info, our Facebook address, and explanation of ranks (which is now inaccurate due to new changes). Due to abuse by former officers in 2007, this has been exclusively GM controlled since 2008.

Workaround: Nobody else is an officer at the moment. This power is under tight watch until we can get things fixed. A daily conversation, typically 10-15 min. in length, regarding the “complete and total breaking of how I can’t control things the way I want” is levied upon me in which I am required to agree with any salient points.

Even when I’m in the middle of building a new Magic: The Gathering EDH deck, which causes an occasional lapse in agreement that extends the lecture by 5-7 minutes and causes “wife aggro”.

Blizzard.
I’m lookin’ at you here.

I have no idea why anyone thought it was a good idea to lump any of the permissions together, but Guild Info is, to me, the most egregious one. That should always be exclusively a GM’s domain, or a task assigned to a particular officer by the GM.

This entire permissions issue has dragged on an inexcusable length now. There was no reason to change anything to begin with, but there has definitely been more than enough time for a fix.

Your game is dying, Blizz. Get your heads out of the hole they’re stuck in and fix it.

[Grunwulf-stormrage]

It is absolutely absurd that they continue to ignore the reasonable requests and thoughts made in this thread. Not even an acknowledgement. This is sad, Blizzard. You used to be a whole lot better than this.

[Cladis-korgath]

Give it up guys, they dont care.

[Fumel-arathor (Fumel)]

Give it up guys, they dont care.

As I have previously stated, I’m far more stubborn than Blizz realizes. I don’t care if they don’t care. I’m going to keep posting until they either give us a substantial reply, or they shut the thread down.

It actually takes quite a lot to tick me off like this, but their complete silence has done it. At least with the portal issue, they made a reply (which ended up proving your contention they don’t care about the players).

As long as I can post about this, I will. Messing up guilds is not a minor issue that can be put on a back burner without consequence. The longer this problem continues, the more WoW’s social fabric will unravel. The social aspect of the game–especially guilds–is what holds it together. When guilds are gone, WoW is gone.

Fix the permissions, Blizz.