Lets play with the following scenario. Player A like the rep-systems in his
guild(s), rep and the sense progress reflected herein as a small boosts of
power, fulfilling the most common goal why player A likes rpg-based games,
evolution, a sense of improvement of your character.

After timespan X, player A is now very powerful within this rep-system, and
start to looks elsewhere for progression, as the rep-system was so cleverly
made that it scales out after timespan X, that the powergain is minimal, but
still visible.

A very common way of doing this, is to take less and/or even 0 levels in the
utility guild Navigators and Wanderers. It's not uncommon to see 9 man parties
where it takes 30 minutes to assemble at starting point, or wasting thousands
of spellpoints into failed/fumbled navigator spells.

The obvious solution would be to ask player A to reinc and take more utility
levels and spells, helping the cause of this 9man party the next time they
meet, saving loads of time and effort.But I dare say that not a single one of
the players in this game think like this, because utility is nothing you can
mesure, or see in terms of raw data such as damage done/plaques/other
indicators of pure personal power. And in the days of massive eq-ss with large
amount of members, you don't really get the feeling of a "team" to
improve and progress with. We rather stand around waiting 30 minutes to start
a party, just to get that superhard blast in, or to cast war ensemble with 2
points dex higher. I'm sure there's an example or five for every guild who are
able to join navigators/wanderers.

Make the utility guilds that actually improve gameplay at an
"invisible" level,
and reduce annoying factors in this game have other joining requirements, and
NOT use levels. Navigators and wanderers have it already, and this explorer
guild, could have similiar requirements. Who wouldn't love to have camping for
that time when you ran wrong and out of eps.

Oh dear, we dare not give players more power, you say. But this isn't about
power, power is already capped out within the 100, well 103 levels available.
It's about UTILITY. You will just produce a more enjoyful environment. No, it
will not reduce the use of ships to zero, everyone has a ship anyway for
dragging loot and not everyone can join navigators/wanderers.

Thanks /G