Are guilds worth it?Follow

Okay, I was chatting with my brother the other week during one of our regular hunts, and the topic of guilds came up.

Now, my attitude about guilds is, I prefer one that is more of a close knit group of friends, people you enjoy spending time with and have something in common with. I was complaining to him that it seems like every time I find a guild like that, it either merges with another guild who's policies I don't particularly approve of, thus lowering the standard of the old guild in my eyes, or it starts letting in members based on level rather than personality in order to get up to raid strength. I've found that this almost always leads to problems, as there's usually a REASON that level 65 enchanter is looking for a guild, and the reason usually isn't a good one(there are always exceptions of course).

I was complaining about this, and my brother said something that floored me. He said, if you're not in a guild for raiding purposes, then you shouldn't bother being in a guild at all. It would be much easier to just start a channel and invite all your friends into it.

So my question to you noble posters of Allakhazam, is this...is my brother right? Is it more hassle than it's worth to be in a guild if you have no desire to raid?

And sorry Leiany, but this question I haven't reached a decision about yet, so I can't give my opinion in the original post.

Edited, Tue Apr 6 01:26:58 2004 by danreynolds

I am in a Raiding guild and a Family chatroom. Basicly all us UK players are in a chatroom and that is where all my group making and gossip occurs.
I also have all my alts in a Family guild, we have no ambition to be anything other than a family guild and people are generally alts of old members bar the hardcore family of the guild, and it is a family in RL.
If you don't want to raid then family guilds are best since 90% of the raiding guilds will have min lvl requirements ect.

On a side note the GMT raiding guild on Druzzil Ro has requirements:-

lvl 65 100AA <specific per class> Elemental flagged and that gets you into the 'Holding guild' and you must attend 4 Raids per week once you are in.

Guess i will be in my US raiding guild for a while then

ANNOYING DISCLAIMER: I play on a PvP server, so raiding is not the only focus of a guild.

To me, a guild is a group of people who have similar playing styles to you, who you can interact positively with, and who help you out when you're in need. A guild is a great way to start a group, and a great way to meet new people. I recently created a guild with a good EQ friend of mine whom I met in a previous guild. And since I have the leadership role, I can tell you that your woes about most guilds are not unfounded.

Our guild has no real level requirment, but we do have another way of admiting people. For our guild, The Pirates of Zek, you must have an alcohol tolerance of at least 50. This is just for kicks, since our guild is nowhere close to raiding status and has no real game-related goals. We created the guild so we could always have somebody fun and interesting to talk to. We only have about 20 members, but there are all funny, nice people.

But that's our little guild. On Vallon Zek, the main reason to join a guild is the same reason kids in the ghetto join a gang: safety in numbers. Basically, if somebody gets jumped and gets the **** beat outta them, they call on members of their guild to come and back them up. I've seen up to 15 people in PoJ some nights just for PvP. It's like a small war sometimes. Of course, this kind of factioning isn't important until the higher levels, but you can never be too careful on a PvP server.

Consquently, I've always wondered what EQ would be like without the random acts of PvP. Do you blue server guilds raid often? What do you do when you're really bored if you can't go around indiscriminately killing people?

Edit: Because people like spelling and grammar

Edited, Tue Apr 6 03:50:51 2004 by TwiztidSamurai

Hoss are PST not GMT but have no level restriction since membership is by invite only.

Europa was the GMT guild. They came across from the pay more for GM events server <Stormhammer?>. They are Time flagged and generally all round good eggs, as are Hoss these days since they got rid of all the idiots that where giving them a bad name.

Jophiel, check out www.etherealsisterhood.org

Their latest raid will be April 10th in PoHate.

One comment about this...I would not necessarily jump to the conclusion that because someone is 65 and in need of a guild that there is a problem with that person. More likely it was a problem with their previous guild! Too many guild implode leaving a good core of players guild-less, most of whom would be excellent additions to any guild.

just my

Welcome to the Allakhazam forums

Since my guild is falling apart at the moment, I have also reflected upon guilds a bit. To answer the question at hand, no I don't think guilds are just for raiding, but that may be a great stabilizing force.

I like family guilds. I like to get to know people both personally and game-wise. Some of the coolest, funniest people may also be a bit too flakey to make reliable group mates - so there is a tension there. For me, the guild I am in was a like opening up Everquest again back in 2000. There was that funky, ecclectic mix of personalities and banter which always helps make my day. Kind of like the OOT forum, here. However, leading a guild like this is as challenging as herding house cats. Probably harder. These people were selected for personality not soldier-like discipline. Inevitably, a subset of people want to progress in game and they need a guild to open up whole chunks of the game to which you just don't have access without a raid force. Another subset has no interest in this.

It is inherently hard to balance the two. Eventually the leadership will just give up and: quit (perhaps merge), try to raid or make it clear there is no raiding here. No matter what, some people will get pissed and leave. If the guild tries for raiding, after those not interested in raiding leave, there just may not be enough people left to continue. If the guild tries to become a family, starting your family with half the people leaving is discouraging.

Why small family guilds don't continue is a mystery to me. I think people want to follow their friends and if most of them raid, then people will follow them. (Of course, now the raiding guild has people not interested in raiding - so they will have a problem).

Raiding can help stabilize a guild, I think. When raiding, the higher level people feel needed and the lower level people get to see new content. Further, if you're building up DKP with your guild, there is less reason to leave. Also, if you just spent all this time flagging people, you have a mutual investment. If you don't get along with someone in particular, are you willing to loose all that work by quitting? Less likely. However, there is still a balance to be struck here: how hard are you going to raid? I suppose that is why the most aggressive raiding guilds generally seem to last - the players know there is no where else to go that is going to be harder. I suppose these people burn out, but I bet they have a line of people waiting to get in.

An idea I've been toying with is to advance the guild through LDoN instead of raiding. This way you avoid flagging and DKP. Everyone gets LDoN points and exp is (generally) good. A big problem with LDoN is the time spent picking up groups. If one could collect all the people interested in advancing through LDoN - and who know how to play their character's well - you'd have a ready made list of people to choose from. Beyond that, perhaps we could single group some content beyond LDoN - but not try any large flagging or other time sinks. Obviously people want their epics and some of that is not going to be doable.

Haha, bad week to ask.

I have never guilded so far but I sure miss some efficiency in advancement therefore.