Apr 14

Kleenex Guilds

Category: Asides, WoW

Tobold’s on the money, as usual, when it comes to a frustrating element in World of Warcraft.

“On new servers guilds often invite lots of people at first, establish some sort of average advancement speed, and kick out the players falling behind. On the high end, people leveling up faster than the average just leave the guild on their own and join a faster guild. On the new server that opened last Thursday, I joined a guild on Friday, and Saturday I observed the guild master kicking out everybody who hadn’t been online since 2 days. Guild membership becomes as disposable as a Kleenex, there is no more loyalty from the member towards his guild, nor from the guild towards a member.” 

This is exactly what happened to my first WoW guild: I didn’t stay up with the curve, and eventually there ceased to be a point to my being a part of the organization. There was no guild leadership, so I wasn’t kicked out, but I essentially spent the best part of my time leveling up in WoW with no support whatsoever. I think I grouped with guildies like twice since game launch. My fault, I know, but I’ve never really reflected on it in a larger context.

2 Comments so far

  1. Saylah April 14th, 2006 4:53 pm

    Whenever I read a spam about a guild paying for ppl to sign their charter, I see Kleenex guild written all over it. Guilds in WOW aren’t were they were in AC2 or are still to a degree on EQ2. Other than being able to get 20 or 40 ppl functioning as one, so you can kill a boss mob, they guild doesn’t really serve a purpose - no player benefit. This is bad news for our “me > than all” society. So players come and go as benefit them best and guilds dispose of those that won’t be of use in the immediate future. That’s not my idea of a guild. A guild should be an extended player family - not considered easily disposed of by either party. Beyond people being immature or selfish, Blizzard needs to take the first step in adding more value to the guild entity.

  2. Michael April 14th, 2006 7:51 pm

    Here, Here, Saylah. Especially since research has shown the *one* element most likely to keep you in a game is a good group of people. IE: A guild. You’d think Blizzard, et. al., would have a vested interest in creating lasting and enjoyable guild experiences.

    That’s one thing I’ve really grown to hate over the months of playing WoW: The truly shitty Guild features. Gah.