School me on guilds....
 

I've been doing about 90% solo so far, and have made it to Notoriety 24 over the last month or so (and recently finished the Scary Mary quest). I've been invited to join guilds a couple of times, always by a random person that I've never seen before. I've declined, because I don't want to join up with anyone that I don't know. Also, I don't really know the reason to join a guild. I'm mainly playing the game for fun and adventuring, not really to chat a bunch and meet new people. I don't mind doing that, it's just not a big motivation for me.

So what are the pros and cons of guilds? Why would I want to join? What are the benefits? What do guilds do? How would I go about choosing which guild to consider joining? What are the differences between guilds? Why would I want to join an existing guild rather than creating my own (or vice-versa)?

Thanks in advance for the help!

guilds
 

Easiest thing I found using guilds is if you need a crew real quick to fight some big ships, instead of running down your friends list to invite say 5 or 6 friends, you can just hit your guild talk and invite everyone on your guild list at one time. If you have been active in your guild people are usually pretty quick to help a fellow pirate. Also works when you need to ask a question for a quest. Anyone who knows will answer you instead of you trying your list of friends until you get (lucky). If you continue to use your guild talk while questing they can see if your running into trouble and will teleport to you and give assistance. Hope this helps a little.

Guilds are basically for people that do not want to play the game alone. Your guild mateys are your 'playmates' in the game. Need help? Need ships? You can always count on your guild mateys to come running when in need.

There are guillds for all the different playing styles. Some guilds are huge, some are small, and some are inbetween ;) In choosing a guild, probably want to look for a guild that have people playing during the same times you play. If you like to sail, look for a guild that does a lot of sailing. Just kinda need to find the guild that matches you.

Some guilds are very social and others are more serious. Being in a guild doesn't mean you have to chat. Those that are chatty will chat, and those that are not will be quiet. Might see a little lol from them every now and then :p

Some people prefer to start their own guild so they can pick and chose the people they would like in the guild. Being a guild master however, comes with it's own set of problems, just as being a manager at work.

Sometimes being in a guild makes grinding much more enjoyable lol. As you're sitting there pressing control, you can either chat or read the silly chat that's going on.

Over all, being in a good guild, that matches your own style, in my opinion, makes the game more enjoyable :)

i personally find guilds very helpful its better than assembling a crew of basics that u randomly met on the docks

Guilds with number usually contain nothing but basics that don't know how to properly man a ship. They sit on the wrong cannon constantly, never follow attack directions, etc.
A good guild (like the ones in the guild sub-forums) helps rid you of that.
Personally I know to not sit on one gun unless the others are full (rarely happens) and run from one gun to another depending on the target in relation to the ship.
Just last night I was on a fully-crewed galleon and boosted my cannon skill from level 5 to level 9 in under an hour. Excellent cap'n (shout out to KK!) and I think everyone was over notoriety level 15.
If you're low on sailing skill having a good crew can boost that up in levels extremely quickly. Bad crew and too high a target and you're sunk quickly as well.
A guild can also help out on some of the higher level quests when you have to take out something 5+ levels about you, you hollar for help and someone equal or higher to the critter's levels can help you take 'em out.

I wouldn't recommend joining a random guild with someone you've never met before. Play with them first, find out if you like playing with them, THEN decide if you want to join their guild.

PotCo seems unique in that it allows ANY player to create a guild (assuming you have Unlimited Access). Most other MMOs don't let you create a guild until you reach a certain level, and then they'll charge you a lot of gold to create one. It's almost better that way, because you end up with fewer guilds and more dedicated players in each guild. But with PotCO, there are a LOT of guilds with practically no members, or members who never seem to be online. So try to avoid those!

I can see a lot of benefits in being in a guild, a "good guild" that is. My first Simon Redbeard-character got a lot of help from various people and being in a guild makes that help easier to find. That said, I'm not in a guild because I'm not really guild material: I like playing solo (I've helped some people randomly, but I mostly try to find quiet servers - my timezone makes finding them a bit easier if I move my daily schedule to allow POTCO earlier in the day and start working later). Also, my playing style is probably a bit boring and I'm constantly starting over (bad habit from the times of playing roguelike games, btw has anyone else played Angband, Nethack, Moria or something like that?). But I'll try and stick with my current character now, level up my sailing and get a war sloop. Maybe I'll even join a guild someday, if a guild accepts me.

Even more off topic: I like your sig Vandelay, it's funny and informative. You don't happen to be Art Vandelay from Vandelay Industries?

Simon

Thanks for the information, folks! That does help a lot.