Time to switch guilds: Guild Hopping
Posted on October 27th, 2009 by Bigtaker under Alliance, General Tips, Horde, World of Warcraft, WotLK(We here at DominateYourServer.com are always on the look out for new talent. Here is an article from Gorebain, a.k.a Big Taker who has a different view about a subject that we’ve all come into contact with in some form or another since we started playing on-line games: Guilds.)
Some people never join any guild, others change every other week, so what makes people change? Here’s what our reporter “in the field” has come up with:
Time to Switch Guilds or Guild Hopping
We all know someone or we are someone that looks for that perfect guild to fit our personal definition of the perfect guild. For me, it has been a long road to where I am now in DYS. This is a sore topic for some and a joke to others, but, finding where you want to be is very important to your gaming fun.
This is a topic that I just had to write about. It is one that many players either struggle with at some emotional level or take far too casually. While not getting teary over the changing of guilds, it is something that I take very seriously and do not enter into lightly.
Your guild is your in game family and deserves some respect because of it. In general guilds help each other and jointly progress through the game. If you’re like me, you want to spend more time questing, adventuring and gearing up with these players than anyone else. If they are so important, why would you want to change?
To me there are a few very solid reasons to change, although I still don’t recommend doing so without considering it fully. The main reasons are:
Behavioral or Political Differences – This is a big one for me, I have joined a few guilds with characters only to find out that guild chat is full of swearing, trash talking, degrading people because of where they live, religion, politics or some other crazy thing. To me, I play the game to get away from real life concerns and childish behavior, not to put up with it in yet another location. So if the guild won’t address these players, its time to leave for a new guild. I can only put up with this for so long before leaving.
Difference in Play Times or Play Styles – Sometimes it happens that you join a guild and it or you evolve to a different play-style. You could join a guild to level and quest and then the guild decides to do mainly PvP. Or you could be online from 5-9 Pacific Time and everyone else in the guild is on at 5-9 eastern, so you never see each other. Some people change their lifestyle to play at times when everyone else is playing but some people can’t do that.
Guild Rules – Some guilds run very loose, some very tight and militaristic. If the style of the guild you’re in does not suit your style, switch. I have been in a high level raiding guild that dictated builds, gear, and play times to a strict degree (this guild folded after only 3 months). If it’s all about progression for you that may be ok. If you want to have some fun and choices, then it’s probably not your cup of tea.
Level Differences – If you join a guild of like level players and then they all zoom to 80 while you’re still at 25 and can never find a group, it may be time to switch guilds. This happens all the time, and some guilds are very cool about helping out their low level players, while in others you may as well not exist.
Size / Progression – This is the weakest of the reasons to leave, but still valid. Sometimes guilds just get stuck at a point where they will not get any further in the game. It could be due to not enough players, not the right classes, or any other number of things. If you have done everything in the game to progress, and have nothing left to do without switching to a larger guild, it can be valid.
There are also some lame reasons to change guilds that I see way to often:
I don’t like player X – Personality conflicts happen all the time. You’re an adult either fix it or ignore them. If it’s one person out of 100 in a guild, don’t let them spoil your fun and leave the guild.
Loot arguments –Sometimes arguments happen over loot. I see many players run from a guild over one argument. Sure, we all want that shiny new item, but look at it objectively. Why did someone else get it? Was it fair (even though you didn’t like it)? Was there a reason that makes sense for the guild (if it was not purely fair)? If the leaders are all friends and everything goes to them it may be a real issue, but my experience is that that is rarely the case, and its generally greed getting in peoples eyes.
X Guild is further in Y Raid – So? Work at it. If the guild is further it’s because they have more experience and time into the event. You will get there if everyone sticks with it and doesn’t bail. The other guild was at the same point you where at one point in time.
I switched my current favorite toon due to the Size / Progression issue. While I loved playing with the few people in the guild that were level 80, we never had enough on to do normal instance runs, and they really didn’t want to progress further into the game like I did. I waited a long time since Dominate mentioned starting an Alliance guild, and the guild I left fully knew about it long before it happened.
In conclusion, find where you want to be, and stay there as long as you can because a guild you fit in is rare. I am where I want to be and have no plans on leaving for any of the above reasons.
I tend to have the opposite problems. It’s not that I leave a guild but that it falls apart. There are a ton of reason that they’ve fallen apart. Everything from too much drama, to the leaders of the guild getting tired of the server type (pvp) and so they rerolled and transferred servers. I’ve been seriously considering transferring over to the DYS Alliance server, but I finally got my girlfriend to start playing and don’t want to leave her behind.
Same reason here last two guilds i’ve been in have fallen apart and the latest fell apart because our guild leader left, for no reason we could find, i’ve found its given me a break from playing the game as im not loggin in to raid since im not doing any but in the same way its bad as im not able to talk to the people that ive became friends with through playing the game with them.
I think this article has hit a nerve with me because, as a member in Dominate, we see some attrition in the guild. People come and then people go. They pull their mains out to go to other guilds but leave lower level toons in. I’m not talking about some of our higher level players switching realms altogether.
I FINALLY found a guild I’m happy with. I can never raid cause I work third shift. I saw I guy in a guild called….Third shift! It’s awesome! Everyone is on in the mornings and everyone is super helpful. After 2 1/2 years I finally found my Warcraft family. Great article. Very keen insight.
I have this exact same problem, though I haven’t been lucky enough to find a guild with people who work the same shift.
As a GM of a guild I find guild hopping painful, disturbing and often damaging to the guild. There are many people now days who play the role of dark-wolf. They embed themselves in a guild with the purpose of destroying it in other words. They spread a disunity through members and cause dissent and sometimes splits or guilds folding. We try to be vigilant over such things but one can not always be everywhere at once. Additionally we see many more guild hoppers today who are more loot whores than anything. They jump into a guild, demand a raid spot, take gear and then leave. The server I am on this is a big issue. So I think it is fair to say that there are many different reasons for guild hopping but by and large I feel it should be discouraged. Research your guild before you join it. Spend time running with its members as a PuG. Find out if you fit with them and they with you. Don’t just join, make a quick evaluation in the guild and damage it by leaving and possibly taking others with you.
Guilds also need more mechanisms to ensure their recruits understand their culture and how they work, their rules and their guild personalities. Additionally there should always be a grace period where people can acclimatise to their new surroundings properly then decide if they want to stay. We try to nurture our new recruits as trial members and mentor them in the hope they stay.
Sadly however it seems that guild hopping is a disturbing trend that is destroying the foundations of the game for those wanting to undertake serious end-game raiding.
Excellent article! In 4 years I have been in 2 guilds – 1 on the realm I started on and 1 on the Oceanic server I rerolled on. A guild is all about community as end game content is mainly dependent on the relationship you have with other people. From my experience if a player (or guild) puts progression and loot before community and people then the writing is on the wall.
Even the very best, long-running guilds can stagnate. I’ve seen dead websites of guilds that seemed to have a lot going for them at their peak — tons of dedicated players, great stratification, progression, focus, pro-quality websites, etc. And my own guild just recently dodged a bullet through some choice (frankly lucky) recruiting, though we’re still not completely out of the woods. I’ll keep my story short, but I think the example is worth mentioning. My guild started as a group of friends in an entirely different MMORPG. They came together over to WoW, and even survived a server change where the Australasian half split from the U.S. half to get on an Oceanic server due to the very time zone issus you mention. The remaining group is the very definition of tight-knit: real names are used in chat and on the website, everyone knows everyone else’s personal life story, we drop almost anything to help a guildie who cries out in chat; we’re like online best friends. But RL strikes even the closest of clans, and as core members dropped WoW in favor of college and the dreaded “real job,” we had to re-examine our Zero Recruiting policy. Some of our members were actually able to recruit some former playing friends out of retirement, and we got very lucky finding some perfect fits in a few PUGs. Our membership is up to 16 now, as high as it’s ever been, after a death knell approaching low of about six. But the next challenge we face is a little bit of frustration now as we still can’t seem to get enough people on together to even run a level-appropriate 5-man instance (the 80s are always willing to drop what they are doing for a loot run with a lower guildie), much less progress into BG or Raid, as some members are itching to do. So, as your blog mentioned, sometimes a guild changes as its membership changes, and sometimes we as players change as we get “bored” with one type of content and want to try something else — with a favored toon rather than bringing yet another alt up through the ranks. If the rest of the guild remains content, it might be time to bring an alt into the “social” guild and move the main to something that more closely matches our goals. After all, it’s a game and a grand waste of time — it ought to feel like fun and not unpaid computer work! Cheers for the insightful article!
an exccelent artical and i will refer back to it when i post my artical on guild rewards and changes for cataclysm . for i see many guilds out there going nowhere for the very reasons you have mentioned. if your not happy with your guild on kalacgos or fenris come join us , in a nut shell we at dominate/dys help you have fun what ever your fun is anibow
Ok article, but standard. He needs something more interesting and in depth to show his real skill. Also I disagree on the matter of Size/Progression being the weakest reason to leave. The whole game is about progressing your charecter, first from 1-80, and once your 80, its all about gear and raids, so in my opinions its actualy one on the most valid reasons to jump ship and join a new guild
youre writing is horrible. dont trash other peoples writing (whole article in this case) until you have fixed your own. He did fine.
If you feel the whole game is the selfish progression of “your charecter” (sic) then you are exactly the type of person I’d be glad to have leave my guild to go somewhere else.
The purpose of a guild is to progress together and have fun. If your guild isn’t progressing and doesn’t have the major problems listed, you are inherently part of the problem. Its time you became part of the solution and made yourself and guildmates better with better gear, strategy, etc.
If you believe what you just wrote, you could make your guild better by typing /gquit.
Brilliant, concise and right to the point Shadowcaster! It is these people, the “lewt hores”, that have missed the whole basic underlying factor of gaming – fun! And the fun with MMOs is the community of people that you interact with.
i got tired of guild drama years ago, so I made my own…..with just me and my alts! LOL
Leaving a guild because of a progression issue is similar to leaving your gf/bf because one a little hotter likes you. If you always try to inch your way up in the end you get no where. Going for the flavor of the week never got anyone anywhere. Progression tends to go in waves, and guild A might be a few bosses behind guild B, but in a month that could be different. I try to address the reason there is not enough progression to make a decision like that, rather than slow progression as a reason to leave on its own. If your guild is slowing because it is short on a few people, give it some time. If you are consistantly getting no where because the guild as a whole is not motivated, or afraid of a challenge, poor organization skills of raid leaders, then maybe it’s time to go.
People play WoW and other mmorpg for many different reasons, as such there are many guilds with different goals. It’s all good, If you like being in a guild where there’s alot of trash talk, join a guild that does that.. etc
It’s all about fun.. Excellent article..
Actually, given the upcoming changes to guilds and their new acheivements in the planned “Cataclysm” expansion, Size/Progression may well soon become an important factor in looking at your guild. After all, if your guild is too small or too low-level to get certain acheivements, thereby gaining certain benefits, then you might well consider that a factor in deciding whether or not to stay.