Comments on: Great Debates: Your Love of Your Guild vs Your Love for Yourself

By: Gothyelk

Gothyelk — Sat, 17 May 2008 03:52:51 +0000

Wow – thank you for that. I have been struggling with this very issue for a long time now and still have not resolved it fully. It adds some unwanted stress to what I want to be my leisure time activity. I’ll work it out in the end like you and many others have.

By: Mama Druid

Mama Druid — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:06:34 +0000

The title of this post says it all and speaks to the reason for one’s playing the game in the first place. Is it to advance your character and see new things (loving yourself) or to hang out with friends (loving your guild)? Neither is better than the other, they are simply the motivators behind our monthly $15.

By: Dezdemone

Dezdemone — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:45:23 +0000

Very Hard decision to make, and a painful one no matter which side you choose.

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:11:43 +0000

I hopped from a guild that had a very consistant trend of inconsistancy that was 1/6 SSC and 1/4 TK that raided late to a guild that was 5/6 SSC and 3/4 TK with an earlier schedule.

Did I regret leaving the friends from the old guild behind for new content? No, because I left on good terms and have maintained some of the friendships.

Is the new guild better than the old? For my schedule and raiding, Absolutely! For everything else, thats debatable. Some of the people I just dont get along with, but that is true for everything in life. I do really enjoy that I am able to say that I have cleared Hyjal and BT!

Overall, I’m glad that I moved. WoW is more fun for me now, and considering that its a game, thats the whole point!

By: Sydera

Sydera — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:09:48 +0000

I enjoyed the post thoroughly BUT I think you have to look at the specifics of a case. I am a recruiting officer in the business of getting people to leave their guilds for mine. There are good and bad reasons to jump ship for a more progressed guild.

BAD (and if I know about these, the player won’t get a g-invite)
1. The player is considering jumping only 2-3 bosses to get over a hurdle–like Vashj and Kael–because they are frustrated with the wipes that come with progression. I need raiders with patience.
2. The player comes from a similarly-progressed guild and has taken a ton of loot for both on and offspec and the main advantage of leaving is resetting dkp to zero.
3. The player wants to skip an entire tier, or go from a non-raiding guild straight into Hyjal.
4. The old guild had “too much drama.” I’m always suspicious of this one until I hear the whole story, and if this is the reason stated on an app for leaving a guild, I’m going to try to get in touch with the applicant’s former guildies to make sure that the aforementioned drama was not caused by said applicant.

GOOD reasons:
1. The player is in a similar guild to mine or even more progressed, but they can’t make the raid times. D’oh!
2. The player is in a good guild but their raid role is very competitive. My guild has an open spot.
3. Something about the new guild’s culture suits the player better. For example, my guild has a lot of couples and we do our utmost to schedule them together or bench them together, and we also let people bring in their significant others as casual members if they like.
4. The player has been out of raiding for a while and when they came back, their guild had passed them by. The player wants to raid the content they missed.
5. AND most commonly: the player’s guild has simply stagnated, and the player has a desire to see more of the game. This seems to have been your case Matticus! In that case, you did the only thing you could have done. One person can’t remake a guild from the inside and give it motivation, and short of starting a raiding guild yourself, finding one is the only way to get what you want out of the game.

By: Gius

Gius — Fri, 16 May 2008 17:06:12 +0000

I was thinking more on this and my career moves come to mind. I’ve been somewhat loyal to each employer I have had but really I have moved up the career ladder by taking on bigger roles by changing jobs. Loyalty is nice but it doesn’t put the kids through college, the wife in a new car so she’ll quit whining, etc. If the guild isn’t moving fast enough to keep your enjoyment level of WoW at an acceptable amount, it would be time to move on. I still think it would be best to communicate your frustrations in a polite manner to the guild leaders and give them a chance to fix things a little. Why burn your bridges? Again, same thing in the workplace.

By: Dechion

Dechion — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:20:35 +0000

@sid67 I think Blizzard has realised this to some extent. It seems to me that the badge of justice system is in place to help counter the effects of not getting your random drops. If you run the instance enough times you can likey buy your way into a comparable peice of gear than the drop that never happened. Having lots more gear that is BOE is helping as well.
They have also mentioned that all professions will be able to produce poweful and useful BOP items when they are updated in the expansion.
I have seen lots of threads that are complaints about the relative ease of getting badge gear and how it is going to destroy raiding, I honestly think it will help keep guilds together.
If the new 10/25 man raid format holds the way it was released this week, I believe it will help as well.
Then again only time will tell.

By: Pugnaciouspriest

Pugnaciouspriest — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:53:49 +0000

Your both right – its easier to leave ‘virtual’ friends behind, but again liken this back to the real world – in the real world you network – why can’t you network in gaming. I lost all of the ‘friends’ that I had made in the one guild I felt was a true home, yet I’ve picked up along the way alot of people in other guilds/runs ect ect that I wasn’t as close to – but have proven better ‘friends’ and have lasted the distance.
In theory As long as you aren’t booted or rage quit, then you should be able to good relations with the people that you know are good – or are just great people, and they you – Just from a networking point. A good friend won’t hold you back a better friend will still /w Hey! when you log in no matter what guild you are in.

By: The dreaded /gquit « Destructive Reach

The dreaded /gquit « Destructive Reach — Thu, 15 May 2008 23:45:33 +0000

[...] No no no, I am not leaving either of my guilds, calm down people! However, I was reading one of Matticus’ posts today which uncannily reminded me of my own experience in leaving Dying Breed, and my thoughts and [...]

By: Dynasor

Dynasor — Thu, 15 May 2008 22:42:31 +0000

sid67 makes a good point. One thing I like about being in a “casual raiding guild” (gasp…yes i said it ), is when we get new mages in who are near the bottom of the meters in dps and watching them quickly climb up with few pointers on gearing and spec and rotations. The trade-off is, once they take the advice and realize their potential, they can quickly become frustrated with our progression and then take the gear and knowledge they got from us and put it to use for another guild (which is the process that ends-up hampering our progression the most). When I think of all the people who have left for better progression and think about where we might be as a guild had they stuck it out a bit longer, it is frustrating. I hold no animosity towards most of them and understand their decision though….you can only be patient and stick it out to a point. Some have more patience and/or resolve than others, but I have to admit…both of those things are running pretty thin even for me these days.