Guilds. Or team-orientated spirit. Yes or no?

[Mitz]

We first saw SEGA experimenting the guild-system with PSOBB. However back then it was, and actually still is nothing more but a glorified chat system. You could contribute to the guild by dumping unwanted rares for some minor rewards like a dressing room, or bigger guild sizes, but there was no real benefit to belong in one.

Nowadays though, more and more games are appreciating the value of teamplay and a strong guild-orientated system. We've seen WoW for example go from a glorified chat system to a system that massively rewards players that belong and actively contribute to their guilds. Other games have picked it up faster and have much stronger systems to begin with.
Thing is, in for example WoW or most other 'true' MMORPGs, it is generally beneficial to belong to a guild as they provide not only a social outlet, they can also provide (raid)groups, protection, tradeskills, etc. None of these things were present at PSOBB, so we have to wonder how important this system would really be for the game.

So what do you think they should do? Improve upon their previous versions and make the guilds more engaging, more interactive and above all, more useful(12 player high end content speaks to something a guild would be useful to have for)? Should they just keep it as a chat system and a way for groups of friends to keep in touch. Or should they just rid themselves from as many bad implementations as possible and ditch the guild system.

And if they're going to implement it, how should they integrate it into the game?

Discuss.