I have been thinking about the phenomenon of guilds in MMORPGs recently. It certainly makes sense that players should be able to form organizations within games, for they are able to pool resources, makes friends, and play the game together, but why shouldn't we extend this to the real world as well?
Sure, we have unions, and clubs, and organizations, but MMO-style guilds, with multiple people of different professions uniting are, as far as I am aware, not a reality. Well screw that! I think that it would be a great idea to establish something similar to guilds in real life. It would allow like minded people to live their lives differently, according to their desires. Think about it: Some guilds might decide to operate as single economic units in the generally capitalist societies. They would pool resources (to whatever extent they decide upon), and operate almost like a commune. For the less radial minds, lose business affiliations or alliances would be practical. Members of the same guild could receive preferred trader status, and so on.
The general idea would be to create smaller, stronger communities that cities. With guild sized organizations, everyone has a chance to voice their opinion, and genuinely make a difference to their lives. With groups of people under about 300, true democracies have a chance of functioning, because it is truly possible to form connections with everyone enough that any minorities are appeased.
Additionally, formation of such guilds would grant the people some measure of protection from the government. Every person would have allies in their guild, and that guild would potentially be able to enlist help from other guilds as well. Guilds could potentially create their own laws (punishment if broken: kicked from guild) so that they may live their lives as they choose to.
