Definition of guild

1 : an association of people with similar interests or pursuits especially : a medieval association of merchants or craftsmen 2 : a group of organisms that use the same ecological resource in a similar way

Definition of association

1a : the act of associating b : the state of being associated : combination, relationship had a long association with the firm 2 : an organization of persons having a common interest : society

IMO an association and a guild are the same

Just gonna blast some info at you and see what sticks.

From caspian in the soul chamber on discord

12/28/17 # ORGANIZATIONS ##

Schools: These are organizations dedicated to the furthering of education, research, and technology. Their org structure consists of some members of the organization who pay to be members (to receive training and to gain access to the school's resources) while other members of the organization are paid to be a part of it (as trainers and researchers). Their funding comes from a combination of their paying members and grants from the Kingdom, Duchy, County, or Settlement they reside in.

The main advantage to being a part of a school is that they offer increased and rapid opportunity for learning. This comes in the form of consolidated access to skill trainers, and also access to specialized research tools. And, as new technology is discovered, all students immediately gain access to the new knowledge. Because their primary benefits come from having a larger number of members in a single location, few schools want to create multiple locations, preferring to increase in size and scope at a single site or campus.

Because knowledge is power, and people are encouraged to focus their skill development on one set of skills at a time, characters (ie. identities) are restricted to enrollment in one school at a time.
GUILDS: Despite the same word being used, Guilds work differently in Chronicles of Elyria than in most MMOs and instead function more like guilds on Earth. Where in most MMOs they tend to recruit members with a variety of classes and crafting abilities with which to outfit the group for raids, Guilds in CoE tend to be about crafting goods or services, specializing in one or more trade skills, crafts, or professions - such as Smithing Guilds. Their org structure works similar to businesses on Earth, with employees and owners.

Revenue for an organization comes entirely from its members, with most organizations allowing its employees to keep a percentage of profits and depositing the rest into a central lockbox. Organizations rarely receive money from government, and, more often than not, must pay income taxes. Unlike schools, there is only so much business to be done in a single location and the most successful organizations will find increased wealth from setting up franchises or satellite locations all across their kingdom. The main advantage to being in a guild is increased access to resources, and a steady stream of customers who trust the brand name established by your guild. As your guild's reputation and fame increases, so, too, will your revenue. As with schools, knowledge is power. Because most guilds don't want their trade secrets shared, players are restricted to one organization per type at a time. This means you could be part of both a Tanning Guild and Smithing Guild, or both a Smithing Guild and a School.
ASSOCIATIONS: These are organizations which generally provide a service to the community or to the governments. These range from preservationists to religious organizations. Members of an association come with varying skills and capabilities as, more often than not, the services they provide are unrelated to the hard skills of their members.

Similar to guilds, funding for an association typically comes from its members. Unlike guilds, however, all revenue from the members are passed up to the leadership to be redistributed or consumed as necessary to run the association. Because it is expected that all revenue is consumed for the purpose set forth by the association, these organizations typically do not pay income tax. That said, they're closely monitored by governments and settlements and, if they're perceived to be running a guild instead of an association, you can rest assured people will come to claim the money they're owed.

There are no common criteria around size and distribution of associations, as their purpose dictates such things. There are also no restrictions on the number of associations a character may be a part of at any given time.

Guild tokens can be used for an association. Uses are:

"Notoriety: Each token an organization receives increases the notoriety of the organization. This is an in-game mechanic that factors into the Reputation & Fame system. More notoriety means an increased chance that NPCs will seek out your organization, and communicate your organization to other PCs and NPCs.
Research Points: Each token increases the Research Points of a school, or the resources of an organization by a small amount.
Expansion: Each 15 tokens grants the organization an additional building or add-on. This can be used to expand an existing establishment, or lay down a new one."

The fact that it says Organization and not Guild is key. Schools, Guilds, and Associations all count as an organization and can be contributed to.

Also in reply to your EP and building questions, current projected list of things you can purchase with EP is here and there isn't any set thing that forces you to use any of the things purchased for their implied uses. A guild hall can be used as a school building, much the same way I could blow all my EP on a cathedral just to live in the belltower and talk to gargoyles :Shrug:

I appreciate the questions Neuro, I'm also very curious about all this. Hopefully a Blue can drop in and at least point us in the right direction.

I'd like to have a go at answering these questions. I'm doing so as I read through my many notes and the many quote grabs I've saved away, so hopefully it should be somewhat close to the reality of the situation.

Define: ASSOCIATION

from:Caspian#3850 12/28/17

These are organizations which generally provide a service to the community or to the governments. These range from preservationists to religious organizations. ... Because it is expected that all revenue is consumed for the purpose set forth by the association, these organizations typically do not pay income tax. ... There are no common criteria around size and distribution of associations, as their purpose dictates such things.

Aspects: Member driven. Has a stated goal/purpose. No skill requirements, unless the purpose requires it. Can be communal or private. Approval and acknowledgement from local government is required to avoid full taxation.

1) Is there a specialized structure for associations?

A) Before answering this bluntly, there's an important caveat to add that it depends on the purpose of the Org. But for the sake of the discussion, if we put that aspect aside, my answer would still be "Yes, they have a specialized structure.". I obviously can't confirm this and the name of the structure has not been determined. But in my mind, I simplify things by just calling it a "clubhouse" for now. Hopefully that helps you too. We can delve further into clubhouses in further discussion if people want to.

2) Can Guild Tokens be applied towards an Association? I have a few I want to consume for myself.

A) I'll humbly admit this is a question that is only answerable by someone at soulbound, but my guesstimate is that the answer is yes. As far as I can tell, Guild Tokens are for Organisations as a whole, not just skilling Guilds. Although I could be wrong on this, and the intent may but to introduce early skilling guilds into the game history as an attempt to make Launch smoother.

3) What kind of specificity can an Association have? I intend to set mine up as a place to receive training, a place where where maps and journals can be gathered and compiled, a bit of a storage space and commissary for members, and a place where we can take requests or follow up on reports of interesting activity nearby.

A) The rules of an association can mimic those of "Guilds" and "Schools" in real life, but they're often viewed with a little less validity as people assume the successful Associations would just become Guilds and Schools in of themself. This is accurate on most counts, but the idea behind an Association, even in real life, is that they're less institutionalized. Meaning, the relevant governments aren't dipping their fingers into your day to day business, and instead of that it's run by the most dedicated members. Just like in real life. This means the concept you shared with us could work. To directly answer the question on specificity, you have almost total freedom. Even if you state a goal and have a purpose, most casual members will simply view it as another job or a place to find work benches for skilling. In other words... as long as you have places for people to use and grow their skills, it will work, even if its tangential to your actual stated purpose. Does that make sense?

4) Are there formal rules for enforcement of names and themes?

A) I don't know, but I'm very confident we'll see some common restrictions in place. Like being unable to name an Org something because: "name is already taken". As for your example on another branch of the same Organization splitting off and trying to pretend like they're the original Org and the founders, I'm betting they'll add something in to prevent those kind of exploits, but if not... well... this is where business stops being buttoned up and polite and gets real.

5) Do associations get additional benefits as they grow and progress, ones different than those other organizations may see?

A) Again, I'm not a dev so I can't give you anything outstandingly useful. But I'm definitely expecting high-tier Associations to come with their very own style of buffs and elements. A Guild might increase skilling speed. A School might increasing research speed. So, an Association might have something a little more 'universal' for each playstyle to leverage, such as reputation (for example). But that being said... I think people will generally prefer to buffs from Guilds and Schools, which are likely to translate directly into your skills and skill ramps.

6) What can I do with EP to build up, supply, staff, and bolster my association?

A) Available job openings. What this means in game terms is work benches, resources (or trade/areas to gather) and leasing work places and shoppes for cheap to those looking for work. To be less general about it, for you that could mean EPing in structures and work benches that the Association trades WITH, rather than simply stacking the shit out of your own group and structure. Apart from that, if youre a total baller, I'd just buy the highest quality work benches and tools you can, and kiss that mountain of EP goodbye in the process.

Thanks for the replies, everyone! That all definitely makes sense.

Fortunately I have enough EP to cover the bases. Either going full-on high-quality everything, or more likely, creating the facility and supporting infrastructure. The one caveat is that the more expansionist plan looks to add as many as 70 new faces to a two-town region designed to support maybe 225-300 already.