So... about Guilds

So, my guild… previous guild, fell apart this season about 5-ish weeks into the season. I had no part in it at all, and it was kinda stupid how it happened. Basically one half of the raid team wanted to prog faster than the other (it was like a 25 man average size team), they got mad or whatever and all left to start their own thing. Annnnddd… those new things didn’t go anywhere for either and they just stopped playing.

Nothing new I know. But I’ve been on the hunt for a new crew and I swear 90% of every guild that hits me up is a “we are rebuilding or we went and started our own thing and have 3 people.” The other 10% are the mega guilds with 500 people or whatever.

Are guilds falling apart really this rampant? Like… why even try to be in one if it just going to be a rinse and repeat? I’m not a guild hopper by any means, once I join I set my roots normally. Tbh being in a guild for anything other than being social or finding a group seems kinda pointless. Blizzard has all but abandoned making guilds have anything worth being around for outside of that. So maybe that has something to do with why people are so quick to bounce for any reason. Annnddd it is a game at the end of the day.

Maybe yalls experience is different, or I’ve become jaded. I hope my experience is a one off but… maybe it’s not. So what are your experiences? Do guilds seem worth it? Are you a PUG-lord? Do guilds seem to be falling apart far more constantly than they have in past years (not just Midnight, TWW was like it too)? Think Blizz will ever care about making guilds more impactful?

Hope you all are having a great day by the way!!

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So, the problem with guilds, is both community and developer driven… some guilds are just toxic and sit there like lead poisoning the communtiy around them the way lead poisons the blood stream, but also it’s hard to maintain a guild when as soon as we start getting members back from everyone going dormant after Undermine… season 1 of Midnight empties out literally all but maybe 5 members because of just how bad it is. A guild can’t continue if nobody is gonna be there, this game can’t continue. Blizzard seriously needs to start considering the longterm health of its community over quick gains that result in longer term losses.

We had 20 or more members join at the start of S1, do you know how many of those stayed or actively continue playing? Almost 0. That’s FASTER than TWW and even DF and SL which started off GREAT member wise and plummeted halfway through…

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Before you were stuck on a specific server or group of connected servers unless you paid for a transfer, you would be more selective on which guild you joined. The commitment was real as the number of possible options was limited. Now you can go anywhere, any guild, almost any server you want; the illusion of choice breaks that commitment, it can be better somewhere else… or not.

I’ve been in my current guild since legion, my sister has gone through 3 guilds in 2 expansions. These things happen.

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Wish I could say things are going well but I will just say thanks and hope it’s going well for you OP. That said… there are A HECK of a lot of guilds. Blizzard can’t change their aging player base who just wants to play solo or what not. There are cross realm guilds too. AND cross faction. There are cliques, big guilds, discord ones where they just talk there… gotta weed it out unfortunately.

I’ve stopped looking for a guild myself for a few expansions or more now. I want(ed) to try again this expansion. I heard it can be time consuming and some guild hopping will take place even if you don’t like it, unless you somehow find some group in a raid or in chat that you somehow click with and think ‘‘yeah I can fit here’’ or whatever. Which I heard is kiiind of rare.

If you are mostly raiding or what not, consider raider dot io to search for who is looking for what. Whisper someone from the guild. Put in that elbow grease. (Yes I don’t take my own advice, lol)

Good luck!

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The nice thing about classic though is you can know every guild and more or less their reputation and play style.

I opened up the guild finder in retail after finally deciding to try landing in a guild this expansion, and was greeted with a front page of guilds recruiting for Nathria prog.

With everyone just piled together, it’s difficult to even know where to look or how to find an appropriate guild, or at least is for me. I don’t really want to hop from guild to guild every other week or month as I attempt to find a good match.

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Yeah I guess I hadn’t thought of us having been more or less server locked back in the day. Guilds also had levels and all that then too, so it was time consuming. Maybe its like me and my refrigerator now. The more options I have the harder it is for me to make up my mind what I wanna eat lol.

i haven’t been in a (non-shell) guild since legion, i was permanently benched during emerald nightmare despite being the best healer on the team. gm’s girlfriend needed a spot and the other healers were owed a favor ig, so i was taken off the team and left on my own accord soon after

haven’t been able to recover my drive to join a guild/community since

I will say, if you’re active and a decent person, I gladly welcome folks willing to grow the guild, just know we have standards, and I strictly recruit on those standards and ensure the officers do likewise. I pride myself on leaving server and OOC drama no quarter in our guild and Discord.

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I think guilds are worth it (if you like grouping and doing group activities) , but you (or me) need to look into them a bit more closely.

I used to see “applications” to guilds (which is ridiculous), but as someone who wants to join you should be asking them questions. How long have they been around? How many people? Join their Discord and watch raiding and listen to see how they interact. What is their progression? What is their progression over the last few xpacs? Do they M+? Are they just leveling? Are they always advertising (big red flag)? Create a new charater and stand in Org or Stormwind and see if they just “auto ask you to join a guild” (huge red flag and I can think of a few that I’d avoid like the plague that do that), Ask for a list of “rules”. Ask for a list of “loot rules”. etc.

Rare I change guilds - only 3 since OG Vanilla WoW. But I usually tag along with ones I think I’d like to join to make sure they are the right fit for me. It is a two-way street.

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Not really true. With housing it’s preferable to be in a guild and some form of guild halls are coming to neighborhoods. It’s definitely increased my socialization with my guilds.

I think the game has more of a ‘people quitting and unsubbing” problem than a guild problem. You can find good stable ones. I mostly found my guilds by checking wow progress for my servers.

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Idk all the guilds I’ve been in only reach out to me if they want carries or the meta-healer isn’t available to heal. So I’ve given up. I noticed a lot of people pug raids now, or just use guilds as a spring board to get in other higher raids. Kinda sad actually.

True, housing really isn’t my thing so I kinda forget about it but I def see it as a good way to socialize. Maybe I need to try things from a different angle. Wow progress is a good idea.

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Just as a side issue. I checked my guilds’ raid progress this season (I’m not a raider but like to keep tabs on it occasionally) and all of them have slipped very far in the rankings. I think having three raids going is part of that.

Game is very quiet for a first season so soon after xpac. One of my usually full and chatty guilds is very quiet. Kinda feel like they are a bit dispirited and not as engaged as they once were. Hope it’s a phase.

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Its pretty normal… extremely stable guilds are rare and even those have turn over.

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PuG and solo content is all I do anymore, as this guild died sometime in DF.

I just really liked the name and never felt the need to join elsewhere.

I’m usually in PvP guilds, and those tend to die quickly as PvP dries up each expansion.

This guild has been around since Everquest. I first learned of them in classic, since I hadn’t played EQ, and they were well known to be the top guild on the server. I finally joined them in Cataclysm.

There’s like….two players left from the classic days. And maybe half a dozen from when I joined in Cata. We’re always bringing in new members and shedding some. Sometimes there’s drama that causes people to leave, sometimes people want to do mythic raids (we haven’t been able to field a steady 20 since Nathria, and some of our raiders will be the first to tell you they have no business in mythic) and go find a mythic guild instead.

It’s just how it goes. A guild doesn’t stay stable by fighting the waves. You just ride them.

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Kind of moot to join a guild when you can random party everything (Except Mythic raiding to some degree). Doesn’t help that guilds can feel like a GM power trip more than a bunch of folks being a part of something bigger.

Speaking of guilds, I’m kind of on the lookout for a chill one. Been hard to find with folks treating the game like a job and/or personality conflicts. Too many speed runners, not enough lets enjoy the challenge for what it’s worth.

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I’ve been in the same guild since Wrath.

Because it’s all mine and my wife’s alts.

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Sounds like you don’t know how to look up how long a guild has been around? It’s pretty easy to find stable guilds. There’s nothing wrong with mega guilds either. Just provides more opportunity to meet friends.

There are literally thousands to 10s of thousands of long-term, stable guilds. Anyone trying to say otherwise is just pushing some weird agenda and misinformation.

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