I hope this hasn't been discussed in other thread, the search turned up nothing useful, but if it has, please delete this topic.

I've read some where that the development team themselves weren't sure what term to use for "guild" and that they pretty much sticked with guild because they could find any other more fitting.

What I'm thinking about, is not using only one but multiple terms, according to the kind of faction one of this groups is part of. Why not for example call a group of raiders "gang", free wastelanders "group" or "clan" and brotherhood groups a "unit".

Everything is in the FAQ here: http://gamesas.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5321

I think this is what you were looking for:

On guilds

I saw a post or two about the naming of "Guilds", and hoping for something other than "Guild" as the name of a player-based social group.

Well, we tried. Internally, we called them something else. We set up wiki pages for the new name, all references in the design docs used the new name, etc... And we kept referring to them as guilds whenever we had a discussion.

Finally, we caved in. If people are going to call them guilds, we might as we support that.

So, our "guilds" are Guilds. Yar, it's not quite appropriate ("Faction" is reserved for something else, and "blankity-blank-blank", the name that we tried to get people to use, was stolen by another part of the design and co-opted to do something else), but it's what everybody uses.(1)

(1) Geek op-ed piece: It annoys me when a paper-and-pencil RPG calls the DM something besides DM, if fantasy, or GM if anything. A GM is a GM. It's not a keeper, or a storyteller, or a HPIC or whatever. It's a GM.

Seems like this is something that has already been decided on.

why not use different terms? if there's a raider faction call them gangs, brotherhood? squads, enclave? platoons or units, vault born? welll....errrr vaulty? sky's the limit if context naming is a key thing

I like galahad1313's idea. It might get complex though.
It seems like an open and closed subject but why not call them Societys instead of Guilds? It would be easily adaptable for different interests and factions.

Example:
Water Seekers Society
Ancient Arms Society
Society of the Dog
Society of Star Gazers
Pillagers Society
Pillar of Society
etc, etc

It might be a little different than simply substituting it for Guild, but I think it would give the game more immersion..

Just because gamesas refers to Player organizations as Guilds doesn't make your group a "guild".

Just because I click on a tab that say "guild" does it mean my nasty band of thugs and highway men known as "The Vipers" are a "guild" and not a "Gang"? I guess that entirely depends on how we operate and conduct ourselves.

I don't think stressing what they call the player organizations is really that big of a deal, but I'm an RPer so I would always refer to my guild or clan by name and never ever call it a Guild, so it doesn't really matter to me.
Worry about the guild system more than wither or not "Guild" sounds right, I doubt the word will get used much ingame anywho. Another drunk conquistador conquering the governor's ball...

Agreed - no guild name just regular names... You could have a faction (unknown) named something along the concept of the how the 1st Star Trek movie "The Motion Picture" had an entity named "V'Ger" was short for "Voyager". The audience was intrigued to know this was something from our era and completely distorted by what the entity thought the past represented. A named faction made for and generations based on the erroneaous/distorted assumption of what fallout characters believed civilization was like before the fallout. Any names? The Elvis one was okay. Something more perverse though - not sixual, not violent just further distorted.

Unrelated -- Also many towns/cities "present day" have time capsules - why not have something based where a time capsule is opened from the past.

I laughed.. since you said at the beginning: "I hope this hasn't been discussed".. That's pretty stupid.. I mean if it weren't discussed at all then that'll be terrible.. and a sign of lazyness ^_^ - But let's try and come with as many ideas as we possibly can about guilds in this topic? Patrolling the Mojave Wastelands almost make you wish for a Nuclear winther..

I do like the reference "Tribe" or "Tribes" in FO Vegas. Sadly with American Corp greed making a MMO from IP of another Company is a failure. If it was Canadian be more like Go ahead, Eh? And be done with.

Caravans anyone?

OH, Come on!


Vaults!

We are all from diffent Vaults not guilds.
Gives us as players a roleplaying history together as prior vault mates.
Provides a reason we out in the world together.
Sending it back home for support of our Vault.
Vault is synonymous with bank, so there you have it.

I hope you don't use Guild.

You don't have lawyers up in Canada, huh? That must be nice.

You don't have lawyers up in Canada, huh? That must be nice.


Well I don't know about the exact legal technicalities, and honestly - I don't want to know - especially not about a legal system as perverted as the American one.
But there are two main reasons why I wouldn't say that this could lead to legal difficulties:
1. The term tribe is a general term, describing certain group of people, as defined in various dictionaries. Using it as such can't be protected as a trademark, or anything else.
2. As far as I understand it, gamesas is allowed to use the Fallout franchise for their mmo. So even if this one term is considered a vital and distinctive part of the FO franchise, they are allowed to use it.