Its been speculated that guilds in ESO will be multi-faction. Meaning you could have DC, AD, and EP all in the same guild if you want. There might even be some Dev quotes stating such but have also heard the opposite.

Anyways purpose of the thread isn't really to discuss if its true or not. Reason is, based on what we know of the game, I'm not at all sure what the purpose would be of a multi-faction guild. We know we can't PvE group and quest with an enemy faction in our own faction lands. We know that the only time we will even see an enemy faction players is in Cyrodiil and there they will be hostile/enemy targeted.

So question is, beyond sharing a guild chat channel what is the gameplay purpose of having a multi-faction guild. Because to me the way the game is set up there is no purpose or mechanical gameplay reason for it.

This is one of the things that I hate about this game (OK I don't really hate it, because it would be nice to still talk to my guild if I'm playing an alt and he's in another faction). But there seems to be no reason for it other than the faction it allows you to just be able to talk to your friends if you are in a different faction. You can't PvE or even PvP with the people in your guild if you are apart of a different faction. So what reason was it for them to add it other than to be just a glorified chat feature.

Oh, and I hate that you can join 5 guilds on one account. I'm just an old school guy and I think that you should only stick to one guild and that's that, but I will have to learn to deal with this feature though.

Been thinking about this as well. A possible 'positive' outcome of this mechanic is that you will probably be put in the same campaign in Cyrodiil as your guildmates on the other side. This way you can play against each other. I for one would welcome this as a pleasant surprise. On the other hand it also opens up possibilities of guilds letting each other win and certain members spoiling the fight by passing on info to the enemy through their guild.

I'm kind of with you on this one, but on the other hand it would be fun to join other specialized guilds for niche stuff like crafting or exploring, aside from your main guild.

Not sure how I feel about cross-faction guilds, but multiple guilds is a welcome thing. I would gladly say goodbye to the days of trying to find a guild for every aspect of the game all in one.

Goodbye trying to find a PvE guild that actually has PvP, or vice versa.

Goodbye trying to find a guild to just [censored] in that actually does PvP and/or PvE.

Goodbye trying to do any of the above and maintain a guild with any close RL friends or family.

Yeah I mean at least with the being able to be in multiple guilds I can see a reason for it, like if you're a PvPer and you're friends are raiders. You could be in the PvP guild for that gameplay, then also join your friends guild to socialize and PvE with. That at least I can make sense of.

But yeah multi faction guild just doesn't make sense to me. If the issue is a social one than they could have a friends list chat channel or something where by you can add friends regardless of faction and share a chat channel. or just allowing players to make their own chat channel and invite who ever they want accomplishes the same thing.

The whole thing is probably an unintended consequence of how the guild system is set up (5 total guilds for your account, and new characters are automatically added to your guilds) and allowing players to have alts in the different factions. My bet is that it's a side-effect that can be viewed as a feature, so ZOS is billing it as one rather than trying to re-code the system.

Might be a good question to ask tonight during the Q&A over at mmmorpg.com.

"Are guilds multi-faction and if so whats the purpose of it?"

We already know guilds can be crossfaction. It is confirmed. As for the second part of your question, I'd like to know their idea behind it as well. But for me, being able to allways PvP against my guildies is awsome in itself.