Starting to return to MG and looking to toss my bubbly gal in somewhere with friends! Any recommendations? The Gnome landscape seems to have changed since I’ve been gone!
Hey there! Insofar as I’ve seen, Gnomeregan Far Fielder is the only Gnome guild I’ve seen. If there are others though, I’d love to know about those too myself- little green on the community landscape myself since it’s been a while. For reference:
You’re more than welcome to toss our way, or just ping us if you got any questions about the whole shindig!
There’s also Heart of the Mountain which is dwarf and gnome focused I believe and honestly dwarfs are like the coolest cousins to have.
Far Fielders for Gnomeregan!
Send yourself our way, and ensure a brighter future for you and your people!
Since you’re posting on a goblin, be sure to also check out Flashbang Exports for the Horde side of the short folks!
I’m gonna be frank, and may get some heat for this, but Gnome guilds on Moon Guard have a history of being short lived.
There’s usually an ebb and flow of Gnome guilds, where a guild is formed, gathers a bunch of gnomes, then fades out a month or two later where they could be considered ‘dead’. Then, when people start playing their gnomes again these guilds go through revivals and the cycle continues.
The problem that Moon Guard’s gnomes face (and by all means, I don’t mean this as a true problem, just one for community organization) is that gnomes are both a fairly small portion of the Alliance playerbase - and I would wager most gnomes are RP alts rather than mains. Because of that, Gnomish guilds are in a rock and a hard place; small player numbers reduce the recruitment pool by a wide margin, and with so many gnomes being RP alts leads to what gnomes you do wind up joining going inactive when their RPer decides to go back to their main.
Not the best environment for a racial guild, but it does tend to keep the guild sizes fairly small, which is always a plus if you like that “Small Guild” atmosphere where everyone knows your name.
Now, as others have said, we currently have the Gnomish guild “Gnomeregan Far Fielders” and I wish them the best; I want them to break the cycle that has taken so many others and the only way for that to happen is for the guild to remain active with a steady flow of recruits.
Likewise, there is Heart of the Mountain, which being a split Dwarf/Gnome guild mitigates some of the recruitment issues of a purely gnome guild by having a larger recruitment pool.
I can’t tell you which guild to pick - if you choose to pick one of these two at all - but RP with them, get to know the guilds that are around, and make an educated decision on the guild that fits your character the best. I personally have not RPed with either of these guilds, so I can’t make a statement on the quality of their RP, but see for yourself and find a good fit for your character.
We had the same problem in Flashbang initially, that the vast majority of our members were alts. It is mostly due to race, as goblins, like gnomes, tend to be a novelty change rather than a main character for most. Having said that, there are a few people who are utterly devoted to their shorties, and those are the ones that you really want on your team.
But a guild comprised of alts can still thrive. The GM has to be prepared for a constantly changing roster, and not to give up on people when they’ve been gone for a month or more. You have to treat everyone the same, whether they’re a familiar face or someone you don’t really know. Invite everyone to join in and create lots of casual RP events rather than intricate storylines.
It takes a lot of perserverence, but I do hope that our new gnome guilds do well! Who knows, we might even be up to do some short stack PvP with ya’ll
All things considered, none of this surprises me- but it’s great information for us to be aware of, all the same! Truth be told, the “founding core” of GFF went into this with a strong hunch it was a pretty niche market with a lot of volatility, but each of us has committed to maining a Gnome regardless and sticking it out. We aim to give it a lot of TLC. Frankly, we’re no strangers to niche markets as it is either- we ran a Forsaken guild here on Moon Guard back during Wrath for a few years when that niche was in a similar spot, and it turned out pretty well, I think. Will that be the case here? I’m not so arrogant as to claim it’ll be, but we’re at least committed to finding out!
As a matter of guild philosophy, to compensate for the niche market, our general aim has been to ramp up networking and outreach to other guilds and groups for collaboration. From experience, this is really what makes or breaks it- even with a small population, by banding together with other potentially niche guilds, we can cancel out each other’s weaknesses in a symbiotic bond where everyone ultimately stands to gain and grow. Through that, we can hit some longevity and set up for the long haul.
You’re actually on my hit-list already, Flywheel! I’ve been keeping an eye on your guild thread, but didn’t want to bomb into it quite yet since we’re still a bit too small and volatile (we more than doubled in size in the first night). Even if it’s a little preliminary, you’re welcome to hit me on Discord @ Thunderbolt300#0807. I kinda feel we gotta have something to offer first, but hey, we’re getting there.
I hope you keep your Warmode on!
This right here is going to be the make/break part. From personal experience with being involved with gnome communities off and on for a couple years, the two things that really gets in the way of gnome communities taking off is A) Meaningful Outreach and B) Reliably scheduled events.
I’ve seen so many gnome guilds and communities die because there was both no pressure to actively outreach to the larger RP community - or other gnomes ICly aside from OOC involvement in the community - and absolutely no reliable events scheduled. Most were ran with the idea that a community would naturally arise from pure racial association, none put in the work to keep it rolling…despite a lot of “There will be events” and the like. Turns out when everyone joins a community based on race with little to no IC motivation…the community dies. Who knew?
This isn’t skepticism against the GFF, I find the prospect of a gnome guild that actually and truly commits to the idea very promising for Moon Guard as a whole. But definitely keep in mind the mistakes of the past. I’d hate to see it happen again.
Oh no- I don’t take it as skepticism against us at all. It’s reasonably founded. At this point, I can sit here and talk the talk until I’m blue in the face, but at some point, it’s on us to actually deliver something. If nothing else, I appreciate the heads-up on the history here, as it’s important to know the target audience when you’re forming a guild and what the “temperature” is like on the community side of things.
I actually have a gnome I’m leveling who is my wow version from D&D. She’s a Gyrocopter pilot - to very, very various degrees of success - and I’ve had my eye on your guild while leveling her. I do the occasional /who guild and I see there’s almost always someone from your guild online, which is a nice thing to see. I’m still working on leveling her but plan on poking one of you guys eventually!
Bonus point for possibly gnome-gobbo PvP shenanigans!
finger guns Celby
I got my eye on ya, gnome.
actual guns Flywheel
Nothin personnel, kid.