Hello! Ever since I started RP in wow, I was told to stay away from army type of guilds.
But tonight I saw like 5 of em spamming trade for people to join.
What goes on in there? And how do they fit in lore wise? And what kind of unique events do they hold?
Thanks! Just a curious cat :).
I suppose it depends on how far those running the guild actually decide to take the idea. Based on personal but arguably limited experience it can be as loose as wear the tabard or a designated uniform and walk in formation sometimes, to having a culture of protocols and training drills. A guild I have a character in on my server leans more towards the latter, but things are overall fairly lax ooc.
Moonglaive Sentinels are ic a cadre within the Sentinel Army. As far as I know many military guilds are similar; emulating existing armies in universe. I suppose mercenary companies and warbands would be the exception if one were to count them, but I digress. Many events within the guild typically require a uniform. We typically address each other a particular way ic, generally by rank and/or surname (among other ways that might be typical of a military). There is more to it but as I am going from memory I lack the confidence to elaborate. I’m sure you get the idea.
One of the more unique and consistent events that occur within Moonglaive are the aforementioned drills. Attendees within the guild line up in a particular uniform and perform particular movements and marches based on the orders of the Commander or appointed officers. These events also handle things such as ic inductions of recruits, news, and ic promotions. They can be pretty entertaining to watch, especially when things go as they should.
I’d like to reiterate that not every military guild is like Moonglaive. I can’t accurately speak about every common variation but I imagine there are fair few who are similar to their commitment of the idea. Another guild I was in, Starfall Sentinels, adopted some similar ideas but a bit looser in structure and culture in favor of character focus.
I believe this type of thinking stems from the bad rap that military guilds have gotten, especially Stormwind guard ones. New guilds crop up and some have a lax structure so the “guards” sometimes throw their weight around IC, try to enforce laws, meta-game arrests, devolve into OOC disputes, etc. Due to this, they tend to die out quickly leaving drama in their wake, thus earning a bad reputation. As Yonara pointed out though, they are certainly not all this way and this should not prevent you from joining if you find a good one!
Honestly, I started off with the same recommendation from friends back when I was just getting into WoW RP. I decided to give it a try later and I’m glad I did— I’ve been in Moonglaive for over eight years now, active off and on due to college. It’s really a case-by-case example in terms of community. Dipping a toe into the waters with an alt without necessarily making a big commitment is my recommendation. You might find that they expect you to dip by RP events now and again and adhere to uniforms/minor drills as stated above, but it isn’t anything that will determine your entire game experience.
They don’t because lore doesn’t give a flying half copper about Warcrat:GI: Joe stories.
It’s a thing for people looking for the sense of belonging that regimental cults of personality offer. Not to be knocking… I truly understand that people do go for this sort of thing and why.
The bad reputation, in my opinion, usually comes from being highly drama-prone, as many people have said. I’ve personally seen military guilds that constantly fight with other guilds due to lore disputes/disputes over representing the same entity, such as the Stormwind Guard or the Sentinels. That’s usually fixed by establishing the guild as a separate subfaction, such as the Silverwing Sentinels or some specific platoon of the military, etc.
My biggest beef with certain military guilds comes down to their rigidity and authoritarian structure. Sure, it’s good to pay respect to officers and veterans, but forcing new guildies to gruelingly obey whatever a given officer tells them is not my cup of tea at all. Especially when many such officers tend to be far more interested in showing off how Cool and In-Charge their character is rather than crafting an interesting story that everyone can enjoy.
If you’d like to try a military guild, browse around and find one that looks good to you, join on an alt, and see if you like it. Military guilds tend to focus events around training drills, marches through the capital city, maybe some more casual “off-duty” events, and military combat events like missions, battles, a guild storyline, etc. but every guild varies.
Green flags for good guilds include friendly and available officers, a good number of events on the calendar (1-2 a week at least) run by more than one person, friendly/welcoming guildmates, an active guild chat/Discord, and clear, well-established rules that every member is expected to follow.
Red flags include distant/unfriendly officers, very few events on the calendar or events that are announced very suddenly, mocking or unfriendly guildmates, dead guild chat, IC events where people don’t talk outside their cliques, or a lack of established rules/rules that are enforced unfairly.
Another HUGE red flag is immature officers, or officers/guildies who seem to spend way too much time flirting or ERPing with each other. I have no qualms about people who want to ERP, they can do whatever makes them happy, but I’ve seen far too many guilds devolve into little more than harems with a uniform.
If it’s a guild spamming whispers or trade chat, it’s probably not a guild worth your time.
Military guilds can be cool provided you like combat-oriented events, uniforms and troop formations. Usually when you see big extravagant events where everyone is all wearing the same colors, or are on a palette it’s usually military guilds getting together in-uniform representing themselves. It has it’s wow factor that way.
Otherwise a good military guild will be a very down-to-earth group of soldiers on a meaningful progression path for promotions that come from partaking in guild stories and activities frequently in-character. You can develop a very competent character through a decent traditional military guild. They’ll usually follow their own battle and strategy based story arcs - anything from dealing with a Gnoll kingpin in Elwynn, to getting captured by Ogres and needing to escape their grasp, to giant, epic-format battles.
The problem rests in everyone and their mother wanting to play commander and make their own guild to play boss on people. You can easily avoid pretty bad military guilds by not joining ones who spam trade, ones who whisper you, and ones you more often see in Stormwind banner recruiting than actually roleplaying.
I wouldn’t tell you no but I would say I there a certain degree of drama in any social guild or any social activities in general. I’ve been in a few and while I did think the formations were impressive I decided that it wasn’t for me.
I suppose any guild or social group is about where you fit in and if you find out you do, then more power to you. But I’m assuming that you’re actually looking for a better guild and was looking for an invite?
They’ve always struck me as a variant of one of the more unpleasant type of frats. Some of the folks who run this get their jollies over the thing they put newbies through, so be warned.