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General: Five Guilds to Avoid
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
The List today shines the spotlight on gaming communities and how the search for a great guild is a tough one, particularly if one has little time to look. MMORPG.com Lead Writer Bill Murphy details five guilds to avoid at all cost. Check it out and then leave us your thoughts about guilds/communities.
But it seems like most gatherings of players are either poorly run, filled with undesirables, or just not a good fit for my play-style (time-limited hardcore is what I call myself). And so in honor of all those players out there looking for a home in their game of choice, I thought I’d put together a list of five reasons not to join a specific guild. It could be based on the name, the recruitment strategy, or anything at all really. Finding the guild that’s right for you is hard, but these five types of groups are the five I’d avoid any day of the week.
Read more of Bill Murphy's The List: Five Guilds to Avoid.
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Comments
The very last one is the one that just sucks the fun right out of any game I am playing.
That Guild Wars 2 login screen knocked up my wife. Must be the second coming!
been in all of those guilds at one point or another. You left out the "I built this guild for the sole purpose of getting myself and my significant other geared to the max and screw the rest of you" guild tho.
I think I've experienced all of these types of guilds in WoW.
The most amusing for me was when I got kicked out of a heavy RP guild for questioning our guild chat system, (The RP reason was that the GM could generate a mind link with everyone in guild we can hear each others thoughts....he also was a special envoy for the Alliance whose, 'absences', were explained by him going to Northrend to stop the Lich King, this was back in BC), I thought it was far to, 'meta' a reason for it to exist and thus my, 'link', was broken :P
Turned out the GM was trying it on with one of the female officers, who I had an RP argument with a week before and she'd taken it, 'personally', and had screamed at the GM to get me kicked. It was also the sort of guild that raided bits of Kara and gave out gear for, 'RP' reasons, (The GM's going to face Arthas so he needs the purples!!!!!!').
Always makes me smile when I think back to those days, so thanks Bill and nice article
Ha yeah I was in one like that for about a year. The rest of the players were great people but the GM and he's spose were just nuts if they couldn't get their own way.
I wonder what that says about me putting up with it for so long? :P
I think you forget to mention "the guild that makes you pay money to be a part of it" in the article. Those are easily the best ones to avoid. More so then any of the others on this list.
I've said it before but it's still true. More games allowing membership in multiple guilds would solve a lot of the issues. Yes it's hard to do anything "just for fun" in a hardcore guild but if you can switch over to the casual friendly guild that you're a member of, you can have fun with them.
Spec'ing properly is a gateway drug.
12 Million People have been meter spammed in heroics.
Hehe, very recognizable, Bill. Nice pick too, although the "All about raids" guild almost always coincides with the "This is your life now" guild.
My own prefs: casual-rp'ing world pvp focussed guilds with officers mainly having the aim to make sure everyone gets along nicely and organize events.
My brand new bloggity blog.
These are the very reason I've always been suspicious of guilds in general. I've been in MMO's since alpha of origial Meridian59 a million years ago, and have been in only a handful of guilds. Of course I do tend to get bored with these games fairly quick so that helps...
I don't envy the good people who try to create and run a good guild it's got to be very hard to try and select decent people from different time zones all around the world and hold it all together in a nice respectful fun way.
I like the heavy RP guild
The other guilds are all horrible though.
Yap, I've seen them all and IMO the worst of all is the last one. I have a life, I need to earn money, I need to study, I have a girlfriend and friends in real life, I have MY OWN LIFE. Playing a game isn't going to dictate my life no matter what and that includes Guilds. That's why I create my own guild or join a guild with more freedom (a country-man guild is the best way).
I only was in a RP-guild once and I didn't like it much, it's too wierd for me. It's funny doing RP a bit from time to time, but doing and seeing it all the time it's like eating candies all the time, you just get sick of it.
Guilds with no rules don't last long, period.
Raids Guild it's almost the same as the last one you mensioned. Most of the times, it's just a previous state of the "this is your life" guild. You're in a "all about raids" guild and you're getting more and more people in the guild and it will reach a limit where you're forced to kick less active players and begin only recruiting people with certain conditions. That's when it's not a "all about raids" guild anymore and starts beeing a "this is your life" guild.
Non-selective guilds are bad in general, but not all of them. If they have a good, strong leadership and some rules to be followed, the guild is always in a good direction. Most of them fail in a long term, but not all of them do.
The last one reminds me of the first (and last) agency that I was a part of in Global Agenda. I forget their name, but the permanent MOTD contained something to the effect of "you will be booted if you are absent for three days without an excuse." Like really? It's an f2p game, give it a rest.
I made it a whole ten minutes before dropping it - would have been ten seconds, except the procedure for removing yourself from an agency isn't immediately evident to new players (there isn't a button that says leave).
Yeah, been there before. No interest in ever doing that again.
I have to agree with your list. On one hand though one of the best guilds I was ever in was one that was a shouting for everyone to join guild. The game at the time was very new though and there really wasn't any reason to not join one of these guilds. Would I do it now? Not at all.
The super hardcore structered guilds with massive penalties for missing events sucked the life out of me a few years ago. I understood that it was all in the name of fairness for item distribution but at times some guilds go a bit too far. To the point of making it impossible for anyone that doesn't play 5 hours a day 7 nights a week to get anywhere.
It bothered me when people who played everynight had 2 full sets of whatever "epic" gear sets we were going for and people who played 3-4 nights a week had nothing at all or maybe 1 piece of a set.
Mainly because not only did you not get the points for that night but you got penalized points as well. I stay away from these guilds now and have learned to care more about having fun and enjoying myself then achieving all those awesome gear sets that are oh so addictive.
Casual
Organized
not more than 40 member
but still maintain discipline as to show up on time when there's an event
this type of guild is rare nowadays, i was part of one small guild, around 28 people only, we're 10 man Raiding guild, but most of the members are wise and pretty reasonable, you are not forced to go raid if you dont feel like it, but also they gave you some encouragement to raid with them
hopefully, in Guild Wars 2, i will discover a guild like this!
So What Now?
Actually, thousands of Goons would disagree, and they pay anywhere from 15 - 50 a month to be members. And I've fun into some fun guilds out there with one time fees of like 15.00 annually including as I recall the Oldtimers and a few others.
Dues aren't always a bad thing, though can't say I've ever been a member of one that charged real world money.
Now in game, I've been in Corporations in EVE that charged 50M ISK a month dues to help pay for expenses of living in 0.0.
I confess, I've been in every guild in the list and then some, usually the ones run for personal gain of the leaders are the ones I loath the most, if I get even a hint of that its out the door I go.
I was in one good Role playing guild, the Shadowclan in DAOC which I suspect the OP would consider "weird" since we not only had to chat in character, but had our own "language" that everyone had to follow (which had specific linguistic rules, such as no words with the letter "c" or "e" in it). Taking a bio break became "Mi niid tu fynd bushi"
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Althou I agree. There was one time in Guild Wars I joined a "Non-selective" guild. Most fun I ever had. Friendly people and an excellent leader
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What this article is really about are guilds that don't suit the writer, not those that everyone should avoid at all.
None of these guild types are 'wrong', they all suit particular people, otherwise they wouldnt even exist.
We all have different needs from the guild we join, and if someone wants a ultra hardcore suck-your-life one, or a no rules just talk crap one, or a hardcore RP one thats always IC, then thats what they want and thats fine. They pay their sub to play the game the way they want with like minded people.
Silly article tbh that tries to impose the authors version of 'normal' on what guilds should or shouldnt be... which is just kind of arrogant. I hate this kind of thinking that tries to look down on other styles of play.
agree with the list, well written, also the guy several posts up mentioning the "i started a guild to gear myself and my g/f" is both true and imo among the worst because it's so divisive and amplified by every couple in the guild as well.
i've seen good perfectly well done guilds implode over night and shatter because of real life relationship problems too. it sucks hard for everyone at that point.
i've seen all the guilds on the list in wow and lotro, the will take anyone guilds are important in low pop games though especially ones where people staying in said game need to be in a corp or have half a dozen accounts to do anything (like perpetuum
)
@kyleran, shadowclan has people playing lotro on landroval in the entmoors on monster side.. at least they used to, i like them, they added to the atmosphere a lot.
Currently Playing: Perpetuum
MMOs Played (most time spent to least): World of Warcraft (BG/Open world PvP focused), Lord of the Rings Online (PvMP focused), Warhammer Online (BG PvP focused), Global Agenda, Age of Conan, DC Universe Online (PvP focused), Runes of Magic, Allods, Aion, Fallen Earth
Thats because the heavy RP guild is what suits you and you find it enjoyable, and thats fine.
Ignore those that try to look down on you for liking to play a specific way. You pay your dollar to play with 'like minded people' as well, just as Bill does.
Just because your guild dosent suit him dosent mean it shouldnt suit you.
The one rule in selecting a guild should be 'do you understand what it offers and is it what you personally are looking for?'
Thats all.
There is, after all, a reason why there are multiple guilds and not just the one.
"The All About Raids Guild"
If you want to raid this is the only guild you would want, i loathe those social guilds were chronic underperformers are staying in raid just cause of their social connections or as social guildmembers would call them: "fun people"
"No rules guild"
Heaven for the strong, hell for the weak, welcome to the jungle
The guilds i avoid are those with obviously retarded leaders, those which are raising social drama flags , application forms & forums- im there to play a game not to play burocreacy and those which op calls out as the last type
Pi*1337/100 = 42
Heavy RP guilds are the worst, almost bound to be at least little twisted. It took me sometime to figure out I was in guild where "cyborz" was something the officers did regularly. This weird hierarchic system, where the most self-absorbed and witty people were respected and adored most. The guild master's emotions went constantly up and down, which lead into spontaneous guild kicks. It was by far the weirdest guild I've been in, I have avoided pure RP guilds ever since. Optional, casual RP is ok. Not that I've been any in any guild in couple of years, I always end up soloing and socializing with whoever I run into within a game anyway.
This kind of nerds looking down on other nerds in order to not feel so nerdy themselves is tragic, imo. And I don't even RP in these games.
If you don't like heavy RP guilds, don't join them, thats your valid choice, but understand what dosent work for you is fine for others
I didn't know guilds like these existed.
I've been leading for 11 years now, I think i've struck a pretty nice balance between hardcore and casual. I've kept the same players with me for many years and pickup some extra's along the way.
AbraXuS
www.exile-corp.com
Clan Founder.
Actually you could add one. The guild with rules, that only applies to guild members however the officers don't have any rules.
For instance raiding in a raid guild, the rule is you have to sign up to go. Recently had one guy who had been gone for a few weeks, a really good healer. Logged in and got my spot. I asked whats up with that I had been signed up for a week, and he had not signed up. Was told he was an officer and had been gone for 2 weeks and deserved a chance to play.
Not cool when you make up rules then just break them because your an officer.
actually the goons are a great example of why its a bad thing.. the other downside of the goons is that once you've been a member.. there arent many corps in the game that will accept you into theirs if you ever leave.. .. bit like the hotel california.. you can check out any time you like.. but you can never leave ;D