The Daily Grind: What do you look for in a guild?

A large part of MMOs is the social aspect of gameplay, and a large part of being social is trying to find a guild that suits your style. From listening to guild recruitment shouts in cities and recruitment channels to reading all of the recruitment posts in fansite forums and official forums, there's many things you need to take into consideration when picking a guild.

So for today Massively readers, we wanted to know what you look for when you're choosing your guild. Do you look for a casual environment where you can go at your own pace with other guild members? Do you look for a guild that's all about the PvP? Is roleplaying a high priority on your list? Or do you want to go for a guild that does all of these things in different combinations?

Give us your thoughts on this matter by dropping a comment on this post. We're interested to hear how you make this difficult choice!

Reader Comments (16)

Generally I look for social guilds over those aimed at specific content. Ones who are up for giving anything a go get major plus. I like guilds that have a few sensible rules (like no spamming/begging) but if rules are too restrictive then I won't look twice. Other big bonuses are websites/forums and ventrilo, but they're less important than a relaxed atmosphere. Turn offs are bad spelling, extreme attention seeking member(s) and a lot of swearing.

I usually prefer social guilds, where I can go to dungeons with the members, which can also be a place to sell crafted wares, or a perhaps cheaper way of acquiring like goods than the auction houses/places like that.

I have however, in Guild Wars, been forced to make my own guild, which caters especially to people who don't log in enough to maintain a position in a regular guild. Which hardly makes for a social guild.

I like helpful guilds. The best model is a "pay it forward" sort of thing - if I was given very good crafted gear or a hand on a difficult quest early on, I'm quite happy to help out newbies or alts when I'm more advanced myself. Roleplaying and an ongoing story that my character can be a part of are also a big plus.

Friendly people willing to talk about anything and who avoid the Epic Loot Nerd Rage, just enjoying the game and not too stressed about attendance. Oh, and they take a "Oops, misdirected onto the healer again" wipe in stride, no epic screams on Ventrilo. The members of Kindred Spirits (A - Gnomeregan) have endured me for several years now, always willing to help if needed, and never holding that extra adult beverage against me. The Spirits rock! :)

http://ksguild.org/

A guild name you can be proud of.

This excludes:
- Names including, but not limited to, the words; Blood, Shadow(s), King(s), Children(s?), Night, Regiment, Lord(s), Crimson (everyone is the crimson something, it seems) or any emotion (e.g. Tears of Anger, Fists of Rage)

- Names that are emotions, actions, adjectives or intangibles. Examples include; Exaulted (you mean THE Exaulted?) Vengeance, Misery

- Names that come from real world mythology or religion; Nephilim, Valkyre, Valhalla, Revelation

Joke names are okay, the quality dependent on how funny or clever the joke is.

Remember, this is an OPINION and is in no way an indictment of your guild's crappy name. :-)

The Dark Blood Vengance Shadows of the Child Kings of Night Valhalla Regiment guild is *not* inviting you to their founding anniversary party.

Meagen wins the funny comment awards.

I think I'm inclined to agree with Kdolo though O.o

Like Magnet-Head, I ended up creating my own small guild with a few friends in Guild Wars. This being a non-subscription game, GW suits us well since we are all busy and can't get together on a regular basis. The lack of a monthly subscription removes the pressure of having to show up just to, "get our money's worth."

We could have joined a larger guild but likely would have been lost in it. As a small guild we can't do as much as a large one can, but our limited time within the game is spent well, as we can focus on one specific task and do it to completion with little time wasted on organizing groups and figuring out what were all supposed to be doing. Running a large guild is very time consuming, and ir requires enormous patience as you are essentially herding cats.

Something that is actually easily overlooked, is that it's easier to have that 100% members online when you've only got about 4 people. Beat that, 100-man guilds.

People who generally play at the same times I do and aren't jerks. That is all.

Pretty much what Brandon has said. And it has to be Gnome friendly...

...um...the latter is limited to which games I play.

I usually look for a friendly, helpful, "do what you want at your own pace" guild. A guild that basically is a mix-and-match of the different stuff you can do in the game (PvE, PvP, leveling, farming, RPing, and anything else), and doesn't try to pressure you into doing something.

If I'm like... really wanting to do just one thing though, like PvP, I'll probably just join a friendly PvP guild or something.

I guess basically any guild where I can laugh with others and have fun doing whatever I'm in the mood for.

Good chatters. That's pretty much all I use a Guild for.

Well I look for active and friendly guilds, well I did before I joined Shawn Schuster's Guild Wars guild when he did GuildCast. After he disbanded it to move on to other this I joined a guild it was allied with, Knights Of Echovald. I've been with them for just over 2 years now and made some really good friends so now I never need to look for a guild again har har.

I like my guilds like my women, undemanding with a nice sense of humor.

Being a uni student makes being there difficult at times, especially with papers looming overhead, so I look for a friendly, relatively active group that doesn't mind being without me sometimes when schedule, classes, or lappy disagree with punching and/or healing face. RP is nice but not required; I like being able to carry a good chat either way.

The Daily Grind: What do you look for in a guild?

Reader Comments (16)

Posted: Jan 7th 2010 4:22PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 7th 2010 8:17AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 7th 2010 8:35AM Meagen said

Posted: Jan 7th 2010 9:48AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 7th 2010 10:53AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 7th 2010 11:16AM Meagen said

Posted: Jan 7th 2010 2:15PM ultimateq said

Posted: Jan 7th 2010 11:14AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 7th 2010 4:49PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 7th 2010 11:20AM urgan said

Posted: Jan 7th 2010 11:50AM Its Utakata stupid said

Posted: Jan 7th 2010 12:14PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 7th 2010 12:39PM Pingles said

Posted: Jan 7th 2010 1:45PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 8th 2010 1:12AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 8th 2010 8:53PM (Unverified) said

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