Cyan looks to be trying to recreate some of the D'ni guilds... I think the ones currently on the list are Writers, Cartographers, Messengers, Maintainers, and Greeters. (Greeters was an official guild? Didn't think it was...)

So the idea is really kinda neat, but what's upsetting is that there are a LOT of people who are jumping to "claim" each Guild as their own, with statements like they've done the most work, or they're most entitled because of [random reason], and everyone's trying to give their own opinion on how a certain guild should function. Now, of course, there are some people who probably SHOULD get the guilds, like Cartographers and Greeters. But there are no Writers, Maintainers or Messengers, yet. Still, I think, even though there are Cartographers and Greeters, they shouldn't be expecting to just magically become official and not change anything, and the other three should ESPECIALLY not expect to become official.

I kept asking people if Cyan was encouraging this (this meaning claiming a guild, professing to be the expert, etc), but never got a straight answer... Usually silence and just being ignored entirely. So then I was actually able to visit the new Kirel District in Uru, which is where the Guilds are "officially" based. The papers they have there describing each guild encourage the discussion of the guilds and how you think the guild structure should be.

Okay, so right now, it's just open to discussion. This isn't "campaign" time to plug your experience and wishes to rule over the Guild, this is just a time to talk and wonder what it would all be like. But people are taking that much, much farther and are going so far as to say "okay, this is the Guild of Writers" or "okay, this is the Guild of Maintainers", when it's not. Cyan hasn't even let us know what the Guilds' purposes are, yet. Most people, including me, think it might be the first steps to user-created content, but I wouldn't be surprised if that is NOT the case... But lots of people seem to already have their minds made up about how the Guilds should function, who is going to be in them, and what they're going to do. I mean, beyond the in-character papers stating that the Writers Guild writes Age, and the Maintainers Guild approves Ages... Sure, that's what the old D'ni Guilds did, but that might not be what Cyan/DRC has in mind.

I personally think Cyan didn't release enough information at once and left a lot of this open ended... It could be bad, but only because there are people taking what little information they have and are running a LONG way with it. I predict a lot of disappointed people in the future, and it will be their own fault.

On the other hand, I'm rather excited to see these Guilds popping up. I've always wondered what it would be like to be a Maintainer. Just think about it... I enjoy being important, but being important BEHIND the scenes. The Writers were probably the most highly esteemed Guild, the most respected and the most powerful. They did, afterall, create the D'ni Ages! But who linked to the Ages first? Who made sure it was safe? Who made sure it wasn't a death trap waiting to claim the lives of every citizen who linked to it? Thaaaat's right! The Maintainers! The guys behind the scenes making sure the Ages are safe, and remain safe, and have the power to approve or ban the use of Ages. Writing your own Age would be awesome, of course, but I don't think I want to do that. From an OOC perspective, to make an Age, you have to create models and pretty much build an interactive Quake map for people to explore. I've never been really good at map-making. I guess I could if I ever wanted to spend time learning, but I don't... At least not right now. And with all the chaos and politics surrounding the age-building tools right now, I don't want to be involved at all... At least not with any age-building project in action right now.

No, sir-ee... the Maintainers Guild is the Guild for me at the moment. And Edrick was all happy about it, saying that I would be a Maintainer and he would be a Writer, and I would be his sure-fire way to get his Age approved... Bwahaha. He has no idea...

However, I'm just going to sit back and watch things develop. I don't see the Guilds actually becoming useful for a while now, and the current state of affairs is pretty dismal. I may join a Guild in the future, but probably not until they're actually functioning and actually have a defined purpose.