Guilds, Pros and ConsFollow

There exist guilds for every type of play style. What is important is that you join the right guild. Define your own play style, and read guild charters to see if they fit (most guilds will have a website/Ezboard where you can read up on their charter)

Some guilds expcet you to attend a certain percentage of organised raids - usually fairly uber guilds are like this.

Many guilds are more family type guilds - no pressure to attend scheduled events etc.

Some guilds are roleplay orientated, if that floats your boat.

Most guilds orienate around particular time zone.

Advantages of being in a guild are friendship, regular people to hunt with, mutual support for quests and tradeskills, being able to see more content than a single group allows.

There are no real cons. Drama being the main one, no guild is completely devoid of drama. Being in a guild that doesn't match your play style would have many cons however.

It is nice to belong to a guild, biggest reason for me is just the fact that there is always a set of people that at least act like they care when I log on.

Your only cons are if you join a bad guild, as your guilds rep tends to follow the tag above your head. Also guilds that shout for members in OOC in POK tend to not last very long.

Make sure you join a guild that has allot of server presence during your play times and your sure to enjoy the experience.

Thank you for the responses. All of them are provoking the thoughts I was having trouble coming up with on my own.
Once again you guys(and gals) Rock!

Con:

sooner or later, people will leave your guild on ugly terms.

Drama ensues.

Drama sucks.

Really sucks.

Guilds are fairly essential in my book for most MMOs although my server won't allow guilds yet so I can't really comment specifically on EQ.

I would say this though - from the other MMOs I have played (around 8) the second I joined a guild / clan I enjoyed the game more.

I work on the basis that I play these games to talk to people. Many guilds have voice comms so you can chat to one another. Even if they dont have this you get guild chat so when you log on you can talk to people you know - and as Lord xythex said these people act as if they care about what you do. This is especially useful when fishing as we all know how rivitting fishing can be when you got nobody to talk to.

Other advantages - I hate levelling solo (I find it hard with casters)so it is nice to be able to say in guild chat 'who fancies going to ak'anon and pulling a few minataurs' and you get a group going easily. Guilds also tend to either give items away or offer it to other guild members first depending on the type of guild it is. If you join a 'family' kind of guild where everyone helps everyone then it is a fantastic situation to be in - makes you look forwasrd to logging in.

The only con I canthink of is when you get an idiot recruited into the clan who just spams guild chat with 24 lines of 'HAS ANYONE GOT A SPARE BRACER I COULD HAVE?????????' - you will notice the amount of question marks and the capital letters which instantly indicates an idiot. However if you are in a good clan these people don't stay long.

In other words when my server allows guilds I will be looking for a new 'home' asap. A place to chat, organise fun events and level up.

Also don't worry too much about the amount of times you log on. If you only log on one day a week you are unlikely to get internally promoted to 'event orgganiser' but if you explain to your leader that you don't play much or may not be able to attend all events due to real life issues then see what he says. Most clans won't mind. If this one does - find another one.

Hope this information helps.
Woody

edit - changed some of my spellings - bloody dyslexic fingers

Edited, Thu Feb 19 07:47:30 2004 by WoodyCRT

Edited, Thu Feb 19 07:49:21 2004 by WoodyCRT

Completely understandable; though people with families and real-world responsibilities do join raiding guilds and often do quite well, your first guild should probably be one of the many self-styled "familty guilds".

If your server has a message board I'd post there asking about guilds that are looking for new members. Describe, as you have here, what you're looking for. Include, as mentioned above, what you have to offer. You'll probably get a couple of nibbles that way. Look for members of those guilds, seek them out for experience groups and dungeon adventures. Shop around, find people you like and app to one of their guilds.

I recently joined a guild for the first time with my now 45 chanter after rejecting numerious offers in the past. I joined because I was asked by a couple who I had frequently grouped with this year and enjoyed playing with. The most of the group is around my level or lower (a couple at 50 for top end) and have apparently been playing together for some time and many are adults like me (actual age 45 with an 11 year old that occasionaly plays with me on 2nd account).

The current goal of the guild is to get characters over 50 in order to start raiding as a guild - this is attractive to me as I enjoy LDON and groups. I have found guild a good source of information as well as expanding the pool of people I regularly play with. I am happy with the guild and found it motivated me to work with my chanter towards goal (was 39 when I joined, pally and clc are still at 45 and 46 where they were back then), I expect that I will get help with quests, epics, later on, but that was not my primary goal in joining - none of the characters are in guilds, and I also figured joining was one way to test the waters.

It's one of the responsibilities of a guild leader to ensure, during recruitment, that you add people who can cooperate with all other members and add, not detract, from the environment of the guild. It's very difficult, sure, and people can also change and have unexpected clashes, but it doesn't make it any less critical as a result.

Also, a lot of less experienced guild leaders just don't know how to recognize personality conflicts well enough to nip them in the bud early. It's too much to hope for that everyone will be great friends, but you can demand that everyone treat one another with enough respect and courtesy that they should be able to coexist, and anyone that is unable or unwilling to do it should be shown the door.

Our policy is much less formal than you'd probably think, mostly because I try to give as much individual attention to each person wanting to app as I can. Basically, after someone is recommended by a member, the officers take a look at them, and if there aren't any immediate objections and they look like a good add, will raid with us for a month or two, and evaluate them during that time. Usually look for about a dozen people saying they want to have them a member, and tend to reject people if more than a couple solid members have any reasonable objections even after a couple months (or especially after it).

I don't really do trial memberships, I think most people have a tougher time dumping someone that really isn't a good fit after they are already wearing a tag. Also, I feel way too many high end guilds -only- look at someone's character stats and their performance in a raid, not how well their personality fits. I'd actually say a lot of uber guilds have more drama problems than some smaller more tight-knit guilds, because they are recruiting people for their characters, not their personality as a player, which I think is a huge mistake.

Raid availability honestly probably wouldn't even be top of the list. More concerned with their sense of humor, how well they handle defeats/setbacks and their ability to stay positive, how willing they are to help other guild members, how they react to orders, how much initiative they take, what specific personalities in the guild they seem to get along with, what ones they wouldn't, if it's fixable, etc. How intelligent someone is and how much willingness to learn encounters is a big one too, obviously.

For example, often I'll ask apps to do reasonable, but fairly demanding jobs just to see how they'll react. Like I'll ask them to handle getting people piggybacked/raided into a zone. Or put a cleric in a CH rotation that demands absolute attention. Or a new enchanter on CC for rathe. And so on. Obviously if they take an unexpected afk during even a tedious but necesary job, they'll probably get veto'd for the guild. If they complain about missing out or how hard it is, they'd be veto'd. If they question it's necessity, it might actually be a good thing if they seem honestly interested in -why- something is needed. Basically, you need to see how good someone is a raider by just seeing how much they make your (as a raid leader) and everyone else's job easier. If you see any warning signs or possible annoyance points, let them know, and if they don't fix them, boot em.

Don't coddle your apps, in other words, unless you have a really good reason for doing so. Don't overlook personality problems that come up when they are an app, because unless you fix them, they are still going to be there. Go with your early impressions, and either fix them or dump them.