Guild Features and Influence Overview
By: Seven | Feb 25, 2012 | GW2 News,Video

Influence is the main “currency” of guilds, and is earned by doing events, pvp, dungeons, etc. With the influence earned by the guild, the leader may purchase buffs or more permanent upgrades, like a guild bank.

The 4 Guild Categories with examples:

Politics - More social aspects of the guild
+5% Influence gain for 24hrs
+10% Influence gain for Events
Guild Weapons Contract (able to purchase weapons with guild symbol on them)
Economy – Efficiency and growth
+10% Magic Find (bonus to looting magical items)
+5% Karma gain for Events
+5% Experience gain for 3 days
Art of War – PvP and WvW buffs
+10% Influence for 3 days
WvW Fort +10% Experience (EXP gain for defenders)
WvW Fort +10% Magic Find (bonus to looting magical items)
Architecture – Guild Addons
Guild Stash (50 slot item and gold storage)
Guild Treasure Trove (100 slot item and storage)
Guild Workshop (allows additional upgrade to build simultaneously)

Guilds can continuously upgrade themselves in the various categories, thus essentially adding higher returns on the perks chosen. A build queue is listed in the guild overview screen as sort of a countdown timer to show when the skill training or that new Treasure Trove will be completed. Overall, guild functionality incorporates a lot of the design aspects you would expect to see in an RTS, and makes running a guild more that just grinding through experience to gain the next perk.

PCGamer has a quick overview of GW2 guild features present in the beta, as well as how teams can spend influence to effect gameplay. The video is a bit short but very informative. A lot of the information above is pulled from the screens present in the video.