To Guild or not to Guild…
April 4, 2008 – 5:12 pm
I’m not quite sure whether or not I’ll bother joining a guild in Warhammer Online…
*Note - this is just an anecdotal piece, so you won’t gleam any interesting tidbits about WAR from it… Readers beware! 
It’s just not something I’ve been into since DAOC. Back in the realm of Midgard (Nimue), I helped form a guild from scratch as an officer but it was more work than I wanted to put into it. You see, the high ranking guild positions require a lot of time and effort if you want your guild to be successful, and even back then, I was a full-time student with two part-time jobs. I stepped down and eventually disbanded from the guild, while remaining friendly with the people who forged ahead.
After some time, I wanted the notoriety of a good guild, but wasn’t willing to take the reigns and steer it in that direction. I wanted a hardcore guild that would let me step up to the plate when I wanted to, but as you know, that’s a rarity in games of this nature. I eventually joined a hardcore 8-man RvR/PvE guild with about 15 unique members. I had an “in” from someone I knew who had recently joined and they invited me on a trial basis. Most of the members had similar personalities to mine (with a much stronger in-game work-ethic mind you) and it wasn’t long before we found common ground and I was invited permanently. The average member still played 2-3 times more than me and keeping up was a challenge, but I managed to keep myself and others entertained over Vent with general banter and some original, Tenacious D’esque acoustic songs.
I joined them in the frontiers and PvE from time to time and had some great experiences (dinging to 50 on my Skald of an Infiltrator in Emain for example). They helped me twink out a capped Healer, Skald, and Shadowblade with ToA goodies and I was very thankful for that. I began to play my Skald and Shadowblade more often in solo RvR because the core 8-man group didn’t have empty spaces very often. Eventually, the guild broke up with groups of players leaving for WoW and EQ2, but I had a really good time with them overall because we connected on a personal level.
Enter World of Warcraft. I helped form a Horde guild of ex-MUD acquaintances and a couple good friends. I got pretty bored around level 30 and went back to DAOC. During that time, everyone in my WoW guild raised up to 60 and started raiding. The guild chose a PvP server but PvP was pretty terrible back in 2005, so they primarily raided dungeons. I came back to WoW a few months before The Burning Crusade expansion to give it another shot. I rejoined my old guild and found that everything was kind of unfamiliar and there was no-one around my level to group with. I stuck with the guild and decided to make a solo effort of it.
I played around in the BGs and eventually focused my efforts on reaching level 60 so I could enjoy some of the crazy battleground PvP that was happening due to the upcoming expansion release (everyone realized their raid gear would be rendered useless after TBC, so they didn’t bother raiding anymore and focused on PvP instead). Did I mention I was a casual gamer? Well, it took me a while to reach level 60… In fact, I think I hit the mark three days before TBC launched and I missed the PvP boat. I take solace in knowing that my green quest gear would have only made PvP immensely frustrating vs. epic’d out opponents anyway.
Still a sucker for PvE punishment, I decided to reach for the stars by purchasing TBC. I stuck with the same guild, not knowing anyone else on the server, and things didn’t improve very much. I was a stranger to my own guild, by my own design. Had I been more outgoing, I’m sure things would have improved, but it just didn’t feel worth it. In my entire WoW career of 1-70 in the same guild, I think I might have grouped with guildmates on three occasions maximum.
Once I hit 70, I thought it might be different, but it wasn’t because we weren’t on the same page at all. They were in Karazhan mode and I was in Battleground mode. I wasn’t able to form any guild parties willing to participate in PvP, so I eventually just sold my WoW account and quit the game cold turkey.
Even in Warhammer beta, I find myself playing purely solo these days (except for the odd public quest). I even have a couple good friends in beta but we just never group (conflicting schedules mainly). I know this game will be RvR-focused and much more like DAOC was in terms of experiencing more success by having a good guild, but I don’t know if I can really be bothered.
I don’t want to join a casual guild because getting anything done will be a nightmare (trying to get longer term objectives done with people who have my kind of schedule is a frightening thought). I don’t want to join a hardcore guild that will blow right by, leaving me in the dust. I guess I’m hoping to find a guild like I had in DAOC with a good mix of hardcores with casual attitudes. People who aren’t so focused on personal or clique advancement that they’ll ignore my pleas for assistance. People who don’t take themselves too seriously and can laugh at a good joke. People who are interesting enough that I can write ridiculous three-verse balads about.
Maybe I just need to open up again and hope for the best.
5 Responses to “To Guild or not to Guild…”
I’m not the most extroverted soul in the world, but being in a good (note “good”) guild multiplies my stay factor in a MMO by a factor of ten. It’s just not as much fun for me to be alone in the game, without the support or fun of a guild. I’m trying to feel out if my current WoW guild will be making a WAR guild, or if I should start shopping around. You’re right tho — you really do have to find a good fit, and that mature/friendly/semi-casual/fun-spirited guild mix doesn’t come easy.
By Syp on Apr 6, 2008
I can’t agree with Syp more. For me there are two elements in an MMO that keep me coming back: RL friends and a great guild. The guild experience for me becomes all the more important when my RL friends decide to jump to another game. My time playing WoW was almost 90 percent spent in a casual raiding guild. I felt like I was part of a team that worked towards a raiding goal but not to the detriment of alienating our bonds of friendship. Maybe I was lucky when it came to joining a guild but I must say for me a casual/serious guild is the only way to go. Total side note, I too was an officer in a guild. I enjoyed being a part of the inner circle but I must admit there were times when I laughed at how being a guild officer was like having a mini part time job. I’m really looking forward to the living guild system in WAR with its built in guild management tools. Lets hope that it takes some of the work out of running a guild
By Ted on Apr 7, 2008
Yeah, I’m thinking that being guildless in WAR will be a huge limiting factor on the amount of fun I’d have. Like DAOC, I have a feeling, you won’t get much excitement out of it if you’re solo all the time, whereas in WoW, it was just too easy to log in solo and get lots of stuff accomplished.
I could join the zerg, but that’s only a last resort!
By Snafzg on Apr 8, 2008
I have to throw in a plug here for my guild, Shadowclan (www.shadowclan.org). We fit into that odd sort of casual/hardcore niche, have a lot of fun in-game and enjoy PvP. If you’re looking for a raid guild, we’re not it (we just started trying Karazhan a few months ago and our first 6 attempts were with no more than 8 players). We often head into instances with odd groups (such as 1 healer and 4 warriors, or 1 warrior and 3 shaman) and generally are willing to try anything rather than be obsessed with being the best or having the ‘optimal’ group.
But probably one of our strongest features is our open membership. We usually have some sort of racial restriction, and sometimes a skin shade restriction as well, but other than that, anyone who is willing to create a character with a decent name is welcome to join. No applications or references required. You just have to login, contact a guild member and prove that you’ve at least looked at our website and made an attempt to learn our rules. We also have no requirements on participation and dont care if you have characters in other guilds or if you only play your Shadowclan character once a month.
The only drawback (for some people) is that we’re a roleplaying guild. That scares a number of players away, but we’re fairly casual about it. The only real rule is that you always speak in character. Meaning that you use the appropriate language (which varies a bit depending on what race(s) we choose) and that you dont talk about real-life events or about numerical stats and such. Those sorts of discussions should be kept on the forums rather than in-game.
Anyway, might be worth checking out if a fun, casual guild who likes to work together is really what you’re after. We don’t have any solid plans for WAR, but I can almost guarantee that we’ll be Greenskin-only. Other details will be worked out once a real release date approaches.
By Tholal on Apr 10, 2008