A Guild War is a formal declaration of War by one Guild upon another. Only WAR GUILDS can take part in Guild Wars. The relative standings of War Guilds can be seen on the War Guild Challenge Ladder.

What's a WAR GUILD?

Any guild can be a WAR GUILD as easily as setting the checkbox on the Guild's Web page. (Only someone with the guild password can set this, so don't share your password with untrusted people.) You can turn this feature on or off at your pleasure, however if you turn it off, you will lose your spot on the Challenge Ladder and lose any open wars. SO, if you tell someone your password, they can get you off of the ladder and ruin years' worth of effort on your part.

What's a Challenge Ladder?

In this case, it is a ranking of the top 100 WAR GUILDs (Ok, I will stop capitalizing that now). The only way of moving up this ladder is to challenge a guild which is already on the ladder, at a higher position than you (you only want to move UP).

Also, you can only challenge guilds which are not too many rungs above you (otherwise you would just challenge guild number one, right?)

How Do I Win A Guild War?

Assuming your victim accepts your challenge, then the war will last for (some number) of days. During that time, any PK battle between members of the two guilds in the war will result in WAR POINTS being given to the winner's guild.

When the war ends, the guild which earned the most war points during that particular war, wins it.

What if My Opponent Doesn't Accept My Challenge?

Then, come the end of that war, you win. Note that PK battles do NOT accumulate war points for your guild until AFTER the opponent accepts your challenge. So there is no point in fighting if they haven't accepted the challenge. But you WILL win. And remember, you can only challenge a few rungs above you on the ladder, so you are actually 'safe' from anyone sufficiently below you. There should be no 'nuisance' challenges, only challenges from guilds who should actually give you a run for your money.

What Happens when I Win The War That I Started?

Yes, well, maybe you should be asking what happens when you LOSE, but we will ignore your bravado for now.

Basically, if I challenge you (you are therefore a little above me on the ladder), and I win, then I jump immediately to your spot on the ladder. We don't just change spots though, you keep your relative position to the people on the ladder between us, they just all get pushed down a rung.

Or, graphically, 'you' challenge and beat 'me', and:

Since the list has 100 guilds in it, and you can only challenge, say, 5 spots above you on the ladder, you have to win around 20 wars to get to the top of the ladder in the shortest time.

OK, What Happens When I Lose The War That I Started?

I'm not sure yet. For now, let's pretend there is no risk and you stay where you were. But what I think I would LIKE to do is knock you down as many levels as the difference between you and the guy you challenged.

Please note that if someone else challenges YOU and they LOSE, then YOU just stay in the same spot. You can't get bumped up by people losing to you (on purpose or otherwise).

Cool, I am going to Cheat and Have My Friend Make a Guild To Lose To ME!

Um, didn't I just point out that you won't go up the ladder that way? Besides your pal's newbie guild probably isn't even on the ladder. Besides, you shouldn't be thinking of ways to cheat already!

Um, if I Can Only Challenge People Just Above Me On The Ladder...

Yeah, how do you get on the ladder in the first place? Well, the trick is that the bottom people on the ladder can be challenged by ANYBODY. So beating one of the bottom-most Guilds is how you get on the ladder. You then want to work your way up and out of that bottom section, since otherwise you are fair game for anybody else trying to get on the ladder.

What are WAR POINTS?

Oh, you caught that, did you? War Points are what you win from an individual PK battle between two players in opposite sides of an open Guild War.

How Are WAR POINTS Computed?

They are a side effect of the existing chess rating system. If you beat a player who has a higher rating than yourself, you earn more points than if you beat a player who has a lower rating than yourself (to discourage bully behaviour)

Won't People Just Hack And Cheat This?

Sadly yes, so this is just for entertainment, no gambling! I will do my best to minimize such antics, but you KNOW there are people for whom being on a list is more important than living their lives according to any particular sense of good ethics.

But let's not let them ruin our own joie de vivre! Let's live our lives in spite of them, and hope they get carted off to jail for their malfeasances.

What's an Open Guild War?

Well, from the moment My Guild Challenges yours, until the end of the war, that war is 'open.' You can review a list of open guild wars to get an idea for how people are doing. But your ladder position will not change until the war ends, if it changes at all.

There are, presumably, lots of wars going on at the same time. Your guild might be fighting several wars at once (but there will be no more than a single war between any pair of guilds). The uniform you are wearing in the PK battle determines which guild you are fighting for at the time.

Won't People Just Team and Heal and Run?

That's got nothing to do with the Guild War system, so please work within the framework of the WoS Development Notes to improve PK Battles in general.

Why Change Things?

Please note that this system does not change whatever you were doing before with guilds. It just adds something new (and, hopefully, fun). And remember that you have to make your guild a WAR GUILD in order to take part in Guild Wars