Myself: A chance to see raiding one night a week, a guild that is willing to do arena or premade battlegrounds. VERY light on the foul language. Medium-light on the adult conversation. Understanding that Orclette comes first.
Herself: A chance to see Kara one to two nights a week and a chatty social guild that doesn't cuss a lot and one that understands that Herself has a kid and other priorities.
Dumbself: One night a week raiding + someone to listen to.
Youngself: Mostly... someone to talk to. He plays often enough to fit with anyones schedule.
Gurgleself: Shiny, banaflavored, chewy, noise making, face banging things.
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The real article
Recently Matticus and Tobold both mentioned guilds. And had two -very- different approaches.
Matt's approach makes sense from a professional standpoint. If you are sloppy, you are hurting everyone else. Sit out or shape up. I like it for Arena Teams, Pre-Mades, etc. If I'm competing... I don't want to mess around. We analyze our mistakes/successes and learn... or we play something else. And honestly... if you are applying to a guild that wants a certain number of hps or gear and requires you to raid on nights x, x, and x? You should expect to be cut if you can't cut it. Superbowl teams don't get there by letting people show up late to team meetings and skip practices.
Tobold though mentioned a friendlier world where the guild helps you skill/level up and they don't leave you behind/cut you if you aren't keeping up. A loyalty world, not a world where players go from team to team each season trying to get to the top. I like the loyalty, I like the feeling that this is my 'home'.
Thoughts:
1) I think the reason earlier incarnations of guilds would wait for people to catch up was simply because there wasn't enough 'dedicated', 'skilled' players available. Also the idea of treating raiding like a Job that you apply for and interview for and schedule... was still growing back then(and is still growing now). As the numbers of very competitive, skilled players grows and they meet eachother they start setting standards. Show up on time or get booted. Wear [x] gear or get booted. Be [x] spec or...
And they can actually apply these standards...because if they boot someone they -know- there will be a replacement who is just as skilled. Before there were less players...and the pool of people willing to play like this was much smaller.
2) There are plenty of people who aren't this dedicated and prefer loyalty. You just don't see their guilds very often. Why? Because we focus on the top... and the fanatics get there faster. They don't have to wait around and level people up and train them.... they demand you be ready. So they get to the top 10%...and then we stare at them and want to be there too... and we try and emulate them. And guild jumping starts happening. Because we saw someone else 'win' by doing it. And the loyalty guilds? They are still demanding loyalty... and they will eventually do the top stuff... but at a much more glacial rate.
3) Being a pvp-based person I think I would prefer to be in a loyalty guild and expect performance from my Arena team or Premades. This way I get the best of both worlds. If I was a raid-based person... I would sit down and -decide- which I prefered. The friends angle with preformance on the side(you can have both you just need a focus). Or the Performance angle with friends on the side(Matticus does have friends in the game I'm sure he just also has standards for raiding).
Anyways, this has been another rambling post from an Orc.(ps: 52 yay baby!)[Ungoro Crator I love you](spelling optional)[now 33% fat free]
Comments
Keeping me fingers crossed on yer guild-hunting situation.