((EDIT: I am soooo sorry this is so long >.<))
First off, this seems like a great idea, and as Mtoto said, it's been done before but fell apart. One of the reasons why (neglecting internal conflict, as I was not here) it may have fell apart was because FFXIV was well on its last limbs, and had it not been hope for 2.0, so would have been the RP community. But now that 2.0's coming, and it's a brand new beast, tamed by someone as confident as Yoshi-P, and with the natural gathering power of releasing brand new content, you better believe this place, and FFXIV will /thrive/ for some time. Now more than ever is a fantastic time to create a new guild, as you get new RPers and old.
That being said, you have a guild concept appealing to a wide array of people. Though you require a good/neutral alignment and have an emphasis on the twelve, you give the player a choice on how much "religion" the player can bring in. Otherwise it's a goodie-based guild. Though, really I've yet to see an evil-based guild, or much of a evil person (true evil, rather), but really this isn't much of a faction game like WoW/EQ2, so it is what you make it.
You have a military aspect (especially if you 'play' off of the PvE side) and you also have the magic/scholarly side. That's a wide aspect, and depending on the RP that you provide/create and host for events. The Military/Academy theme, individually or together, provides a lot of self-sustaining aspects. Forums are a common location to set any headquarters and background information needed, while the game provides the modern/active setting. The guild chat could also be the HQ location, but the most popular use is, well...a chat medium for real-time. I've seen guilds in other games where they use enchanted badges or earrings as the medium which they speak in. Since FFXIV has linkPEARLS, one would assume...it's a pearl...but what do you do with the pearl? How do you speak into it? How do you listen to it?
Anyways, I got off a little bit off topic. Basically, it's self-sufficient. Having these chat mediums and a good backstory, you give something the players can work with until you can interact as a guild to other guilds. Everyone will be in game RPing with themselves, and there would be enough dynamic for them to RP to do so as you set up camp to get internal and external events running. You can give the guild a mysterious background, having its headquarters either in a foreign land or in Eorzea and have the past members decimated with little survivors. Rediscovering the fortification or head quarters is not only a great starter event (once you have enough members), but it can start to define who the guild is as a whole and define how the new members view and take seriously the guild. This also provides grounds for new/creative injection of RP about the guild or its backstory as you go through the 'HQ' (which for the sake of imagination, you could find any ruins in the game and RP the travel there, then RP going inside an instance or open dungeon).
Now, that was only an example, but it's actually very very similar to a guild I used to be in from 1.0. The guild existed before and fell apart, and when I came in, it was about reforming this guild to it''s former glory and one of the RP events was gathering together and going out to discover a lost, abandoned fort and reclaiming it. The leadership allowed people to 'find' things that they would think that they would find in the rubble to either help progress the story along (my character found some notes and took some charcoal sketchings, and it counted more or less as an unlock) or create small, new things to add to the backstory (Say, if someone found a certain type of book full of spells that would define what type of spells the knights had used back then). So there's a lot you can do once you got even an inkling of a backstory and want to get the guild formed.
A lot of these goals will come in time. The most important thing is to set at least one overall goal or theme to the group. This is a military/academy, so teaching people how to defend themselves responsibly while protecting the weak and sick may be one. You do have a PvE side, so that does put emphasis on the military side, an perhaps the military aspect has a different goal than the academics/magic side. Depending on the lore of the guild, you could have the magic side focusing on deciphering and studying things the military finds out in the field, in order to find something out there in the world or something of the past. While you have a lot of leeway with your overall military/magicka theme, it's also harder to boil down exactly what you want, but don't forget that the people you recruit should guide you, too. That doesn't mean skimp out of the backstory, but it does mean that the success of the backstory depends on the people believing in it or executing it.
Oh, and don't forget to give members something special for joining. Something very popular is a mark that distinguishes them from other guilds. Something that the people can RP in front of others, like a tattoo or a piece of jewelry. They eat that stuff up XD. Even more if you give each and every member something personalized, like a nickname, or something!
As for the difference in linkshell and free company: A linkshell will be a manageable chat channel. You will be able to see who belongs to it, who's online and everything, but all it is is a glorified chat channel. You can have multiple linkshells. A free company is every sense of the word "guild" from other games as it'll have a roster, multiple ranks and of course a shared guild hall/home, but you'll only able to have one. If you are absolutely serious about sharing the PvE side of this guild, you have to consider that you may not be able to be a linkshell, as RPers will not join a Free Company so lightly, and regular players will not join a linkshell to raid. In reality there's no difference, because there are no raids, so a group is a group is a group, but there will be content that comes up that will tailor to free companies (no clue what FFXIV has planned, but if you know other MMOs...).
In addition, regular players will not want to join a guild they have to share guild chats with people who are RPing. You may be able to make a FC for the PvEers and a LS for the RPers, but...then at that point you'd be raising two guilds with the same/similar name.
But I see the concept you're going for, believe me. I want to RP /and/ have a group of people I can reach endgame with and consistently group with. It might just be difficult mixing the two.
First off, this seems like a great idea, and as Mtoto said, it's been done before but fell apart. One of the reasons why (neglecting internal conflict, as I was not here) it may have fell apart was because FFXIV was well on its last limbs, and had it not been hope for 2.0, so would have been the RP community. But now that 2.0's coming, and it's a brand new beast, tamed by someone as confident as Yoshi-P, and with the natural gathering power of releasing brand new content, you better believe this place, and FFXIV will /thrive/ for some time. Now more than ever is a fantastic time to create a new guild, as you get new RPers and old.
That being said, you have a guild concept appealing to a wide array of people. Though you require a good/neutral alignment and have an emphasis on the twelve, you give the player a choice on how much "religion" the player can bring in. Otherwise it's a goodie-based guild. Though, really I've yet to see an evil-based guild, or much of a evil person (true evil, rather), but really this isn't much of a faction game like WoW/EQ2, so it is what you make it.
You have a military aspect (especially if you 'play' off of the PvE side) and you also have the magic/scholarly side. That's a wide aspect, and depending on the RP that you provide/create and host for events. The Military/Academy theme, individually or together, provides a lot of self-sustaining aspects. Forums are a common location to set any headquarters and background information needed, while the game provides the modern/active setting. The guild chat could also be the HQ location, but the most popular use is, well...a chat medium for real-time. I've seen guilds in other games where they use enchanted badges or earrings as the medium which they speak in. Since FFXIV has linkPEARLS, one would assume...it's a pearl...but what do you do with the pearl? How do you speak into it? How do you listen to it?
Anyways, I got off a little bit off topic. Basically, it's self-sufficient. Having these chat mediums and a good backstory, you give something the players can work with until you can interact as a guild to other guilds. Everyone will be in game RPing with themselves, and there would be enough dynamic for them to RP to do so as you set up camp to get internal and external events running. You can give the guild a mysterious background, having its headquarters either in a foreign land or in Eorzea and have the past members decimated with little survivors. Rediscovering the fortification or head quarters is not only a great starter event (once you have enough members), but it can start to define who the guild is as a whole and define how the new members view and take seriously the guild. This also provides grounds for new/creative injection of RP about the guild or its backstory as you go through the 'HQ' (which for the sake of imagination, you could find any ruins in the game and RP the travel there, then RP going inside an instance or open dungeon).
Now, that was only an example, but it's actually very very similar to a guild I used to be in from 1.0. The guild existed before and fell apart, and when I came in, it was about reforming this guild to it''s former glory and one of the RP events was gathering together and going out to discover a lost, abandoned fort and reclaiming it. The leadership allowed people to 'find' things that they would think that they would find in the rubble to either help progress the story along (my character found some notes and took some charcoal sketchings, and it counted more or less as an unlock) or create small, new things to add to the backstory (Say, if someone found a certain type of book full of spells that would define what type of spells the knights had used back then). So there's a lot you can do once you got even an inkling of a backstory and want to get the guild formed.
Quote: I am almost incapable of whittling down my point. With the concept of the guild, this is particularly difficult and I'm finding it hard to come up with a lot of things like realistic in-game goals, individual tasks, etc.
A lot of these goals will come in time. The most important thing is to set at least one overall goal or theme to the group. This is a military/academy, so teaching people how to defend themselves responsibly while protecting the weak and sick may be one. You do have a PvE side, so that does put emphasis on the military side, an perhaps the military aspect has a different goal than the academics/magic side. Depending on the lore of the guild, you could have the magic side focusing on deciphering and studying things the military finds out in the field, in order to find something out there in the world or something of the past. While you have a lot of leeway with your overall military/magicka theme, it's also harder to boil down exactly what you want, but don't forget that the people you recruit should guide you, too. That doesn't mean skimp out of the backstory, but it does mean that the success of the backstory depends on the people believing in it or executing it.
Oh, and don't forget to give members something special for joining. Something very popular is a mark that distinguishes them from other guilds. Something that the people can RP in front of others, like a tattoo or a piece of jewelry. They eat that stuff up XD. Even more if you give each and every member something personalized, like a nickname, or something!
As for the difference in linkshell and free company: A linkshell will be a manageable chat channel. You will be able to see who belongs to it, who's online and everything, but all it is is a glorified chat channel. You can have multiple linkshells. A free company is every sense of the word "guild" from other games as it'll have a roster, multiple ranks and of course a shared guild hall/home, but you'll only able to have one. If you are absolutely serious about sharing the PvE side of this guild, you have to consider that you may not be able to be a linkshell, as RPers will not join a Free Company so lightly, and regular players will not join a linkshell to raid. In reality there's no difference, because there are no raids, so a group is a group is a group, but there will be content that comes up that will tailor to free companies (no clue what FFXIV has planned, but if you know other MMOs...).
In addition, regular players will not want to join a guild they have to share guild chats with people who are RPing. You may be able to make a FC for the PvEers and a LS for the RPers, but...then at that point you'd be raising two guilds with the same/similar name.
But I see the concept you're going for, believe me. I want to RP /and/ have a group of people I can reach endgame with and consistently group with. It might just be difficult mixing the two.
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F&AM, A&ASR 32°
