In the MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online you can join up to 5 guilds. At first glance, that sounds like a lot. However, certain conditions lead many players to perceive this number as too low. Among them is MeinMMO author MiezeMelli.
For many MMORPG players, this may sound strange at first. But ESO is a bit different from its genre colleagues in some aspects. This significantly affects trading, for example. But first, a little about my current guilds:
- My own community guild “The Magical Miezmuschel”
- My raid guild “Wings for Victory”
- My 1st trading guild “Nirn Traders”
- My 2nd trading guild “Ork Mania”
- Other community guild “Arkay’s Blessing”
What you’ll definitely notice first: I have 2 trading guilds. As I mentioned, trading in ESO works a bit differently than many are used to from other MMORPGs. And that brings me to one of my main points:
ESO has no central auction house
Unlike some other MMORPGs, ESO does not have a central auction house. To trade, players must join a guild. This guild must then acquire a merchant. To do this, the guild must bid on the desired merchant each week.
Only the guild with the highest bid can then sell items through this merchant for 1 week. This means that merchants at central locations are especially sought after and thus particularly expensive. Therefore, only trading guilds with strong capital and turnover can prevail.
This results in some trading guilds acquiring their permanent merchants for quite some time. If a player wants to join one of the stronger trading guilds, they naturally have to be worth it for the guild. This leads to minimum revenues or donations that must be made weekly.
This may pose a problem for trading newcomers. It’s advisable to start with a smaller guild instead.
Another fact also represents a limitation for trading.
You can offer only 30 items per guild.
Each guild can only offer 30 items at a time. At first, this doesn’t sound like a lot. But if you earn gold primarily due to the quantity of relatively cheap items, it becomes more difficult.
Since you are obviously not logged in all the time, there are always periods where these slots remain unused. It would be good if there was at least the option for sales items to “fill in”.
Guilds usually specialize in only a part of the game
Most guilds do not offer every activity that can be done in ESO. They usually specialize in a small area. Personally, I’ve found that it’s usually less useful to ask in a trading guild for replacements for raids and such.
On the flip side, not every strong player is necessarily an asset to a trading guild. This specialization thus makes sense in a way. The actual issue is that there are more guild types and activities than there are guild slots.
And even if every guild type were represented: What about those who need a 2nd trading guild? What if a player runs raids in different guilds? Or if someone doesn’t want to part with their 1st guild, even though hardly anyone is actively playing there?
In the guild search alone, there are 7 categories, 11 subcategories (activities), and still 3 different playstyles that can be selected in the search. One would instinctively think that there should be at least 7 guild slots.
These are the 7 categories:
- Trading
- Group PvE
- Roleplay
- Socializing
- PvP
- Quests
- Crafting
At the same time, you can also select up to 11 activities:
- Trading
- PvP
- Dungeons
- Trials
- Homes
- Quests
- Roleplay
- Crafting
- Fishing
- Legal System
- Antiquities
When it comes to playstyle, you still choose between:
- Casual
- Normal
- Hardcore
Personally, some categories are of course also uninteresting. At the same time, I also miss some activities. I think, for example, that housing could establish itself as its own category, and I would be interested in such a guild.
I must say that I often would like to have a 3rd trading guild. I sell both individual expensive items and many cheap items. After a few years of playing, my bank space is more than utilized. Depending on how diligent I am in doing craft dailies, I often don’t know where to put all the stuff.
But I still have a need for guild slots for group PvE. I have been in several raid groups now and in the past, for which I don’t have a slot in their guild. The contact could only be maintained because someone else had to be removed from the full friends list.
And now we are already at the next problem.
The friends list is limited to 100 slots
But often it’s just about keeping in touch with a few people when one guild had to make space for another. Every player then has to weigh which guilds they are most active in. Unfortunately, the limitation affects not only the guilds but also the friends list.
In ESO, you can have up to 100 friends. Anyone who has used social media for a long time will know: 100 slots are not much. My friends list has been full for many years, and I had to start prioritizing based on activity in the game. I find that really unfortunate.
Especially since ESO places so much value on community, I find this limitation somewhat paradoxical. Because, as in real life, you get to know more and more people over time. And even though the game has been online for over 7 years now, the number of slots has never been increased. It’s about time!
What do you think about guilds? Have you ever been in a situation where you had to choose one guild over another? Feel free to let us know in the comments.
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