Edition8
Gamer's Mantra One of the cool things about Guild Wars is the guild aspect of it. At least it's supposed to be. Given it's the first word in the game title, we know it must be somewhat important for the game. Anyone can play thru the entire PvE aspect of the game and participate in PvP matches with random teams for as long as they would like, so a person doesn't absolutely need to have a guild. However, without a guild, they are likely missing out on a lot of the fun and rewarding aspects in Guild Wars. Ideally, a GW guild consists of at least 8 or more like-minded players able to consistently play at roughly the same times. In other words, while you're logged on, you should see 7 or more other guildmates logged for an extended period. This allows you to form a full-sized 8 person party for the later missions or areas like the Underworld or Fissure of Woe, as well as tackle the PvP and Guild vs. Guild matches at the end of the game. Smaller guilds can certainly get through the PvE missions or quests by either teaming up with random people or using henchmen. However, areas like the Underworld or Fissure of Woe do not allow henchmen, and these locations require considerable teamwork for success. In those regions, I'd far rather rely on guildmates I know and trust than random people I've never met. Based on the number of cloaks I see, it certainly appears that a majority of the players belong to a guild. On the other hand, anyone can form a guild, so the term "guild" can be rather misleading. Is a one person guild really a guild? Sure they have a guild name and a cloak, but they aren't really getting anything else out of having a guild. Single person guilds might be rare, but they do exist. A recent poll here at Guild Wars LQGaming found that nearly a third of the guilds consist of only 1 to 10 members, and the next largest group was 11 to 25 members in size. Over half the guilds out there have 25 or fewer members. I didn't find this surprising, especially given that my own guild is in that first group, under 10 people in size. What I suspect is that other small guilds are likely encountering some of the same issues I've found in my own guild. I know my guildmates will read this, and hopefully they won't take any offense, but the truth must be told... We have a dysfunctional guild! When I log in, and bring up my guild roster, I am lucky to see anyone else from my guild on-line. During my typical playing time on nights or weekends, I might see one or two guildmates on board, but that is about all. If I want help in a mission or quest, there may be no one available to assist me, and even if there is, they may not be far enough along in the game to assist. My hunch is that there are many other small guilds out there that have this exact same problem. There are some solutions to the problem. The first and most obvious is to recruit new members. However, this isn't as easy as just sending out lots of invites and hoping people accept. You'll want to recruit people that...
Finding such individuals is not always easy. If they are on-line when you are, there's a good chance that #1 may be satisfied. However you'll still want to verify it just in case this was an aberration in their normal play schedule. It's also fairly easy to determine if they satisfy criteria #2. If you meet someone doing missions and exploring while you are doing the same, chances are they are working toward the same general goals. On the other hand if you meet them in the PvP arenas, they are likely into that aspect of the game. A few people may tend to bounce back and forth, so you may want to verify if they are mostly PvE, PvP or somewhere in between. It's also pretty common for players (and guilds) to be focused on PvE right now, but planning to move more heavily into PvP at some later point in time. The hardest one to determine is #3. A few things may be dead giveaways at the beginning like foul language, leetspeak, grammar or general tone of their dialogue. If you team up with someone in a mission or explore, you can also generally detect if they are cautious or impatient. If you do find someone that seems to match all of your criteria, they might make a good candidate to invite to your guild. If you can grow your small dysfunctional guild large enough thru recruitment, then you can make it a healthy and active group. Another option is to try to recruit members away from an existing guild. It's very common to find people that you'd like to have in your guild that already belong to another guild. Guild membership is not a permanent fixture; everyone is free to leave at anytime. As a player, it's very possible that another guild might fit your needs better than your existing one. On the flip side, from the guild's point of view, there might very well be players from other guilds that would be a better fit in your guild. I'm not endorsing the raiding of other guilds purely to grow your roster. However, in those cases where an individual is not entirely happy with his or her present guild, this is a good solution that can work to the benefit of both guilds. The last option involves merging with another guild. Chances are good, another guild with similar goals to your own is looking for more players. It's possible that one or both of those guilds are too small by themselves. In this case, merging the guilds makes sense. There's not a merge guild button, so one of the guilds will need to disband and then have its members get invited to join the other guild. That's not overly difficult, though I'd recommend having the smaller guild disband to save work. Unfortunately, when you disband, you'll lose any guild items you've purchased, including the registration fee, cloak and most importantly, your guild hall. You might be able to sell your guild to someone if you have a guild hall, but due to the potential for scamming you'll likely get less money for it than it originally cost you. If your guild is small, and you are considering merging with another guild, then it's prudent to not waste money on a guild hall, or even a cape for that matter. With enough new players entering the game, recruitment is still a viable option, but at some point in the future, we could be faced with fewer and fewer new players to recruit. At that point, the consolidation thru guild mergers will probably become the primary way to grow a guild back to a healthy size. As guilds distinguish themselves, guild-swapping may become more prominent as well. There will likely be some folks out there with a stubborn attachment to their present guild, who resist such an action to the bitter end. After a while, I suspect even they will face the need for a larger guild and realize there is no other way to solve the situation. In the meantime... Gauge Your Guild Is your guild too small? When you're playing, are you having troubling finding enough guildmates to team up with? Is your guild failing to meet your needs, goals and expectations? Are you facing conflicts between members? If you answered yes to any of those questions, it might well be a sign that your present guild is dysfunctional or that your present guild isn't a good fit for you. You should probably explore one of the options above (recruitment, merging or changing guilds). Being part of a healthy guild that meets your needs can greatly enhance your enjoyment of the game. |
