Ok so just posted this on Blizzard needs to incentivize and promote guilds - #294 by Cheheals-gilneas
As a guild leader, I’m mixed on the future of guilds. 6 years ago, creating a new guild on my server after consistently disappointing experiences as an officer and raid leader in other guilds was relatively easy. I knew lotsa people and they trusted me. Bam, we had an instant guild when I announced it and we had activities, including raiding as well.
These last 2 years have been difficult for many reasons but obviously, the pandemic. People’s expectations for what the game was going to provide them in the absence of real life was , in my opinion, crazy. Suddenly people in our “no politics/controversy” guild were ignoring rules. I had to take action.
Next thing was, in the middle of CN Heroic progression, for our avowed casual guild (yes, always AotC) it was brought to my attention by officers that I needed to start benching people. What? Who cares if we don’t make AotC? The people in guild are more important! Well, that was a bad calculation, the suddenly hardcores bailed.
Then next up to bat were the people suddenly offended by the reality of discrimination and harassment in a corporate workplace. “I can’t support a company that endorses harassment!” Okay, so they all bailed. But they still buy gas, eat fast food, and all the other things that have corporate values just like Blizzard. They just choose to turn a blind eye to that? Anyways…
Alright so now it’s 9.2. I realized as all this crap was coming down in guild that what I needed was people who actually wanted to play the game. Community. Hundreds of people flocked in. Why? Cause we had activities and made no demands on them other than their time to get things done. There are hundreds if not thousands of players out there looking for this experience, which guilds used to be. Current servers are crammed full of “friends and family” and hardcore guilds but nothing in between. It’s a shame but a reality of where we are.
Solutions for guilds? IMO keep condensing servers. The proof is out there now. Players want to have choices of how to play and are willing to guild in the right situation.
Reality? Communities are the answer. No commitments, no expectations unless you commit to them. So, why doesn’t Blizz embrace their own creation? Why doesn’t Blizz allow Communities to have all the benefits of guilds? Hmmm…stay tuned, you never know.