Blizzard needs to incentivize and promote guilds

Community General Discussion
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I’m seeing a common theme on the forums of issues when it comes to raiding or M+ or even PvP. And that’s the fact that most are trying to do this through random pugs.

To me, this is an issue. The higher progression group content in this game was never truly meant for random people to do together. It’s meant for static groups who know each other, know their playstyles, can work together and communicate.

But with the changes to the guild permissions, the addition of the group finder for higher content (not talking lowbie LFD here, I’m talking the actual group finder for progression raids and M+), the deletion of most guild perks (yes, some were too OP, I get that), we’ve watched the disintegration of guilds and communities.

People talk about toxic behavior across the board, but most of that is seen in random pugs. People don’t know each other, are impatient, want to get things done and don’t much care about anyone else there.

I think the community and Blizzard both need to change their views on guilds. I think there should be smaller, less game-changing perks added to incentivize guilds and I think people need to learn that their views on how guilds function is not actually how they do function. I also believe that Blizz needs to add a system something akin to Old Republic’s Conquest, where you earn points towards a goal for guilds across the server to compete and everyone gets boxes of goodies at the end of the week for it.

Not all guilds care when you’re on, need a set schedule or have strict rules. Not all guilds require you to be social constantly, nor do they force people to do stuff all the time. These types of mindsets are some of the reasons why people won’t join guilds, rely on pugs and have terrible times in this game.

I think guild promotion needs to be better by Blizz and individuals. I think the guild finder tool could probably still use more improvements and I think people need to not be afraid to try out guilds or start their own.

Is it difficult to get one off the ground? Certainly. But it can be done. And if guilds need to merge on some servers to create a larger pool of people, I think that needs to be encouraged, as well.

It should be about community helping each other. And that’s fallen apart over the last decade. I’ve watched it fall apart even more after Cata’s guild perks and guild challenges went by the wayside. Some for good reason, others needed to just be tweaked, instead of thrown out the window.

I understand there are a lot of people who don’t deal well with being social and that’s okay. I would never say that the group finder system needs deleted or anything. I’d just like to see those that are on the fence about guilds have a reason to try it out and enjoy it more.

Just my two cents for the day. :slight_smile:

68 Likes
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LOL how about no.

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It all comes down to the GM and their ability to communicate and the way the leaders treat members.

I have some friends that just left a raiding guild because the GM and raid lead decided to feed a new recruit everything he could use in a raid, without letting the team know beforehand. This was discussed and basically blown off, and they did it again. It was the last raid that guild ran, it fell apart.

I was in a Horde raiding guild and constantly donated mats into the vault. I was in need of a weapon enchant for my raiding toon, so I asked the GM/raid lead for the enchant. He told me I needed to contribute mats, he never checked the logs I later found out from an officer I still run with. I never asked for anything from that guild again, and never donated a single flower. After we got the AOTC, I left and came back to my Alliance toons.

Good guilds are out there I agree, but if you have deal with too many of these situations trying to find one, giving up becomes the better option for some folks. It’s those experiences that make solo players. It would be hard for Blizzard to fix what they have no control over.

12 Likes
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it’s a huge issue. blizz has basically gone out of their way to rip the guild system apart at the seams.

what we’re left with is a bunch of people who insist on pugging, then being all toxic and mad when their pug experience isn’t a guild-like experience.

surprise pikachu face, I guess, when random dude in LFG you will never see again doesn’t care to invest any energy into teaching you mechanics you don’t know.

30 Likes
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guilds and communities are a natural response to adversity. make content less puggable and they’ll spring back up.

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If they could find a way to do that. People started mass recruiting in Cata when guild levels came out because they wanted to level their guild and unlock everything. Everyone wants their own guild.

Even when they start falling apart, most GMs are determined not to let their guild die or merge with another. Their members slowly get absorbed (or suddenly all at once sometimes) and all that’s left is the GM and a few people, while all these mass recruiting guilds like the old gods or ruin continue to just pick up people through recruitment addon spam. And not just on a few servers. On almost every. server. in game.

So if Blizz could find a way to make smaller guilds more incentivized, that’d be great. I just have no idea how they’d make that work, especially if people want their alts in.

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Exactly. Many GMs I’ve encountered are abrasive in nature or have their little circle of favourites, sometimes both. If their “rules” or attitudes aren’t applied evenly, it just breeds discontent.

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No.

You need to promote your guild.

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They tried with communities, which would be a great place for small guilds to come together to form raid teams. That would be ideal, no need to abandon your guild to join a raiding guild.

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Would you care to go through my post and highlight what you disagree with? It helps when trying to have a conversation.

Which is why I pointed out that it’s also a community thing. I think if people were more open to talking about these things and trying to focus on the environments they want or create, it may help.

That causes different issues, then. I’m not sure we can just delete that sort of thing.

I’m sure it could be done. It worked in Old Republic up until this new expansion.

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Not talking about promoting individual guilds.

They are talking about making guilds a more desirable scenario to be in so people won’t ONLY go solo and PuG when they need help, and then complain when things don’t go well.

My experience has been, invariably, that a guild situation is FAR more likely to conquer a raid than a PuG. Guilds are more likely to use voice chat, more likely to have and FOLLOW a plan, and less likely to have people who “go rogue” (sorry, real rogues). Generally, people that don’t follow those plans in a guild setting don’t get invited much. With a PuG, you never know what you’re going to get.

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That would be heavily moderated and I’m not sure what the benefit is?

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While I come from an era of guild websites, all of what you’re talking about is in guild chat already. You can scroll back as much as you want.

Although from my experience, the only guilds that used website forums for permanent discussions were roleplaying guilds.

Conversations just don’t seem to be a permanent thing in normal guilds these days.

1 Like
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When you look at the guild recruit tool, the requirements for being able to do things is ridiculous. Some say social and leveling, but once you get there it can be emo people, or ego people, or the ones that require gear ilevel to even raid with them. How many times does one want to keep ordering food at a crappy restaurant to see if there’s one good dish?

I’ve been here 8 years and have tried four. The one I’m in started out great and then some got all into M+ and raids and suddenly instead of helping you had to have a certain gear level. The guild split over this. Luckily the one’s left are good people and I’m not talkative. But I’ll never again try to raid or do a M+ with anyone or ask. I’ll take my chances with pugs, lfr.

You’ve been kind enough to ask me, but you’re on a different realm. I’ve found other nice people on the forum. About 5 years ago a couple of girls said they had a great guild. I paid to switch four toons over (yeah, should have just done one and waited to see. chalk it up to noob mistake) - but man, the first week all helpful, second week, not so much, third week emo everything, I just don’t say anything or interject during that kind of stuff I left. Another I tried - suddenly one day I wake up, log in and no guild. I guess I didn’t talk enough.

Guilds get a bad rap for a reason. Finding the good ones on the right realm is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

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This is why people need to talk about this and look at the perspectives.

Yes, for certain content you’re absolutely going to need a minimum ilevel. Otherwise, you’re not setting the group up for success. But the goal should be to help each other reach that level.

As for getting involved in conversations… that’s something that’s completely personal. People don’t necessarily leave others out. It’s simply that people don’t know how to jump in and chat.

Communication is key. And that’s something that I believe needs talked about with the entire community to help support guilds and understand some of the issues.

2 Likes
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If guilds got incentives, it would just end up being another chore for a lot of people.
If it rewarded anything meaningful, it would feel mandatory.

I think being in a guild, assuming it’s not one of those random invite guilds with 500 people and no more than 2-3 players online at once, already confers plenty of benefits.
If your guild isn’t enriching your experience, you’re probably in the wrong guild.
People get so focused on “progression” that they put up with negative behavior way more than they should.
GMs, raid leads and highly skilled players get away with so much crap because people are afraid to fall behind. Outside of everyone else quitting the guild, you have zero recourse and everyone being on third party apps like Discord makes it even worse because you’re relying on those same people to moderate bad behavior.

The recruitment tools could use an overhaul but nothing is going to remove the toxic atmosphere that hangs over this game unless they start to action bad behavior more aggressively. Right now you get a slap on the wrist for most things.

1 Like
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Sl seems to have killed engagement, in guilds and most other places, from my experience even when we DO get guild members; they inevitably don’t talk or do anything.

I can talk till I’m blue in the face, but the fact remains that trying to run a RP guild with a wall of radio silence is basically impossible.

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Uhm

OK never mind. You’re right.

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that’s not my experience at all, but most of our conversing happens in discord, because we can talk with everyone, not just with those who happen to be logged in at that time.

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I get what you’re saying, and your ideas are great, but getting the whole WoW community behind it? Talking about it unfortunately won’t change anything. I don’t mean to be debbiedowner here, but I just don’t see it ever changing.

1 Like