What makes your guild somewhere that people want to hang out?

Alcon · March 2015

How might one find a guild with a (relatively) tight knit community? From my experience thus far, I've found that most guild simply have large numbers of players, each of which may be in many guilds. Nobody in these guild really knows each other besides those that have been part of the guilds from the ground up. I'm not asking for invitations, I simply want to discuss the priorities of guilds in this game. I think of a guild as a place for players to come together for more than just material gain. People are constantly plugging their guilds and I don't understand the point. What does a guild gain by having more members? What is the point of being in a guild? Don't tell me it's so you can get people to run dungeons with you. I get just as much responsiveness from my guilds about joining me in a dungeon as I do from zone chat.

Tl;dr Guilds don't make friends. How are they any better than zone chat?

Refer to post #26 for topic update

Zorvan · March 2015

The only way to sell your stuff outside of spamming the chat channels is to be in a guild so you can use guild stores. Being in 5 guilds means 5 guild stores you have access to. That is the only reason 99.9% of the guilds in the game exist.

Divad Zarn · March 2015

Alcon wrote: »

How might one find a guild with a (relatively) tight knit community? From my experience thus far, I've found that most guild simply have large numbers of players, each of which may be in many guilds. Nobody in these guild really knows each other besides those that have been part of the guilds from the ground up. I'm not asking for invitations, I simply want to discuss the priorities of guilds in this game. I think of a guild as a place for players to come together for more than just material gain. People are constantly plugging their guilds and I don't understand the point. What does a guild gain by having more members? What is the point of being in a guild? Don't tell me it's so you can get people to run dungeons with you. I get just as much responsiveness from my guilds about joining me in a dungeon as I do from zone chat.

Tl;dr Guilds don't make friends. How are they any better than zone chat?

Not all guilds are like that, big part of this depends on guildmaster imo, in my guild for example (i'm part of only this guild and never think to join another) most players know each other and very often have very friendly and warm discussions in guild chat, most guildmasters of big guilds are part of our as well. Thing is that we have rules and main principe is that everyone here is equal besides of lvl/gold/in game experience (so no one allow himself to be arrogant to other just because they are more experienced or have better shoes), thats the thing, Probably you can find few of such guilds, you just should looking for, you will see that in first days of joining when u will receive mostly always help just with asking guys to help you.

LMar · March 2015

It really depends on the guild and the amount of chat you are prepared to take part it. I find that if you contribute to a nice, friendly environment then that will come back to you with more people talking, getting to know them more personally, helping each other , crafting for each other. After a while you get to know the people who chat most and help each other.

So with a little input from you you can get a great social scene going. Also keep in mind that some people turn off the chat in trading guilds so might never see your attempts. I've never experienced that since both trading guilds I am in are actually quite social

Between those and the other 3 social guilds I find myself pausing every step while playing the game to read and participate in all the fast flowing guild chat. Never mind the zone chat!

And for even more involvement join the Guild's website and read/make posts, find events etc..

Mercury71 · March 2015

Alcon wrote: »

How might one find a guild with a (relatively) tight knit community? From my experience thus far, I've found that most guild simply have large numbers of players, each of which may be in many guilds. Nobody in these guild really knows each other besides those that have been part of the guilds from the ground up. I'm not asking for invitations, I simply want to discuss the priorities of guilds in this game. I think of a guild as a place for players to come together for more than just material gain. People are constantly plugging their guilds and I don't understand the point. What does a guild gain by having more members? What is the point of being in a guild? Don't tell me it's so you can get people to run dungeons with you. I get just as much responsiveness from my guilds about joining me in a dungeon as I do from zone chat.

Tl;dr Guilds don't make friends. How are they any better than zone chat?

I have a "main" guild from my own country (Sweden) for socialising, forum and such. Then i am in a guild with a bunch of crazy people just for the fun chat.
Then i am in three larger trading guilds to be able to make some gold.

I think the ESO guild system is very good.

Grundiin · March 2015

Depends on the guild, in my guild, i would say we know each other well, we always have fun talks in chat and help each other out when needed. We also have a great community outside the game with our subreddit and razer comms chat. I think the guild system is awesome, accually you get to know the people your playing with

Cheers!

Grapdjan · March 2015

I can only imagine that because ESO was a solo game somehow no auction house seemed like a good idea, combined with guilds you joined in order to trade.

I imagine they thought themselves groundbreaking in MMO design when they pushed it to live.

What we've ended up with however is no guild loyalty, no grass root community to speak of, a broken economy, boring annoying and time wasting trading system, poor player retention.

What we lost were a whole swath of MMO players who rightly decided not to put up with the poor guild, trade, interface,social and grouping tools and quit, never to return.

And now we have lots of 500 person Trade guilds often with the same people in, soulless, happy if they can at best raise 100 silent players of an evening.

And while it might seem as if they are popular and an Auction House is the devil's seed, it's important to remember that many of the people who were for it left the game, unwilling to spend hours of brain numbing boredom running halfway across the world trying to buy a radish.

What advocates of the guild store/trade guild system seem to ignore is that the long drawn out exodus of players is fundamentally linked to the failure of a games social core which is built via player driven economy and the community of close knit gameplay orientated guilds.

Lithium Flower · March 2015

I am part of and help run a large, social, casual guild with lots of people and a trader where I sell my loot. I think of it as the local tavern - there's a bunch of regulars I'm pretty good friends with, some folk who drop in time to time - we chat, swap 'work' stories, talk about current affairs and sometimes have fun, casual events. There are all kinds of people to trade ideas with and who can help you out - PvPers from different factions, hardcore PvErs, theorycrafters, crafters, roleplayers. casuals and there is plenty of conversation about builds, pvp strategies, dungeon tactics, trading, as well as recent events and goings on in the game. New players join up and can get advice, there's a free-for-all guild bank to trade non-valuables, you can find crafters, alchemists, enchanters and traders.

Then I have a dedicated, PvE raid guild which I think of as my 'workplace'. My guildmates here are all excellent end-game players - 'professionals' if you will. There is a degree of competition between them and we are more 'colleagues' than friends. This guild is a little less relaxed, can be slightly stressful (which is good because it pushes me to constantly up my game) and to have respect and recognition, I have to earn it through my proving myself in game. It's a lot of fun because we get to overcome challenges together and I have found good friends as well as healthy competition.

I am part of a large trading guild - which is intensively multi-factional and this is all about business - we talk about game economics, price checks, upcoming commodities and trends but conversation is not as frequent as in the other guilds. And I haven't made any 'friends' as such though I do have contacts that I can approach for specific things.

I have retained the bank facilities of an old in-active guild which I see as my 'home'. All my crap is in the bank and I'm responsible for roomba'ing it up. If my disorder gets out of hand, I have no one to blame but myself and only me to hold accountable!

Finally, there is my small PvP group which I call my gossip guild. We are a tightly knit group of great friends. We gossip about news, trends, fashion (do you think I look fat in heavy armour?) and who's eso-dating who! Occasionally, we also kill in Cyrodiil! I think of this guild as my circle of BFFs.

Snippit_Thomas · March 2015

I have a main social guild of about 80 active players, supported by a web site and a FB Page, as well as 4 trade guilds. I have the chat for the trade guilds turned off as I am only interested in selling through them.

It took me a few tries to find a social guild but it was worth trying a few to get the right one.

AlnilamE · March 2015

This is my first MMO, but so far, I do like the fact that you can join multiple guilds.

My main guild is casual/social where people chat a lot and do things together. We have events and I have made great friends. I also have a French social guild that is a bit less active, but it's fun to chat with them.

Then I'm part of a trading guild that's very nice and active. Chat ranges from price checks to people looking for groups for pledges.

Then I'm part of a raiding guild because I'm intersted in end-game content, even if I don't try to do pledges on a daily basis.

If I only had to pick one guild, I feel like it would be extremely hard to find a guild that does everything I want to do and still has the social aspect that has made a world of difference to me in this game.

Observant · March 2015

That's what we're about in Sun's Death; Quality>Quantity. We play with the same crew at all times... the only problem with that is getting enough for trials and larger PVP raids. We usually get stuck around 9-10 players.

Nightscar · March 2015

OP I have had the same issue that has spanned my mmo gaming ever since I stepped foot out of wow land..

A few rules I try and live by are:
I don't join big guilds .. If you have 100+ members.. Nope. Normally in big guilds you end up being a number or padding for them.

I don't join blind invites.. If you can't take the time to talk to me like a human being .. Then I don't have time for your guild.

I don't (normally) join guilds that advertise in chat. Again most of the time they are just big guilds looking for more padding.

In ESO however besides posting on the forums that's really the only way (that i know of) to find a guild.. I love how you can join up to 5 guilds.. Better chance of finding one that suits you.

The 1st guild I joined I am very happy with

Small .. Helpful.. And I feel like when I talk they listen.

TL;DR
O well

Elsonso · March 2015

Alcon wrote: »

Tl;dr Guilds don't make friends. How are they any better than zone chat?

I disagree. Almost everyone I socialize with in the game is someone I met in guild chat. No matter what alt I am on, no matter what zone, no matter what Alliance, I can chat with them. It blows to smithereens the idea of Alliance loyalty, but for social it is great.

Grapdjan wrote: »

I can only imagine that because ESO was a solo game somehow no auction house seemed like a good idea, combined with guilds you joined in order to trade.

I imagine they thought themselves groundbreaking in MMO design when they pushed it to live.

What we've ended up with however is no guild loyalty, no grass root community to speak of, a broken economy, boring annoying and time wasting trading system, poor player retention.

What we lost were a whole swath of MMO players who rightly decided not to put up with the poor guild, trade, interface,social and grouping tools and quit, never to return.

And now we have lots of 500 person Trade guilds often with the same people in, soulless, happy if they can at best raise 100 silent players of an evening.

And while it might seem as if they are popular and an Auction House is the devil's seed, it's important to remember that many of the people who were for it left the game, unwilling to spend hours of brain numbing boredom running halfway across the world trying to buy a radish.

What advocates of the guild store/trade guild system seem to ignore is that the long drawn out exodus of players is fundamentally linked to the failure of a games social core which is built via player driven economy and the community of close knit gameplay orientated guilds.

I realize that this is your personal opinion, but I am struck by the bleak life you describe for yourself.

My opinion is that the Auction House is as soulless as you describe what is in ESO. The guild traders add a level of play, as a seller, that simply transcends the Auction House. I play in other MMO games that have Auction Houses and I can't do it anymore on them. It is boring. It is lifeless.

For people who sell, it can add an entirely new level of play. I am in competition with people in my guild to outsell each other. I do it in a way that is not cutthroat, as I chat with these people daily, but I am still going to outsell them and they are going to try to outsell me. Done with respect and no hard feelings. For me, there is a level of friendly competition that simply does not exist in the Auction House games I play. I am sure that other guilds can have different dynamics.

Some guild is having a contest right now for non guild members who buy at their kiosk. This is brilliant. It is also something you will not see in a global Auction House. There, people don't care and it would be hard to do.

What ESO has is more than what other games provide. If ZOS decides to change to Elder Day Traders Online, I would probably stop participating.

While I doubt that any of this will sway the Auction House crowd, and alternative solutions have been beat to death, right now I feel that what ZOS has done here is goodness.

EQBallzz · March 2015

It's interesting reading how some people are making the guild system in ESO work for them but I think by and large the system is just bad. I really don't like the multiple guild system. I hated it in GW2 and for the same reasons I don't like it here. If the point of a guild is for people to come together for some common goal (pvp, raiding, socializing or whatever) then by it's very nature a multi-guild system is at odds with what a guild is supposed to be. How can you expect loyalty or time or atention from your guildmates if they are committed to 4 other guilds that also may have expectations of time or attention?

I do sort of enjoy the voyeuristic nature of being in multiple guilds but honestly..apart from a couple specific exceptions I couldn't tell you who is in what guild. When person A is talking in guild 1 chat it might as well be guild 2 or guild 3 because they have become a sort of amorphous cloud of "guild" that has little meaning and sort of devalues the purpose of being in a guild. Guilds are supposed to have a personality or style that is formed by the direction of the leadership and the composition of the members and I think a multi-guild system diminishes this.

I'm used to talking about things in guild chat and then people respond and that's how relationships and personalities and bonds between guildmates are built up over time but with this system..which guild do I talk to if I have a question or topic for discussion or a joke? Do I always talk in one guild to the exclusion of the others? Do I repeat the question to all 5 guilds and try to carry on 5 conversations at once? Do I rotate and talk to a different guild each time and dilute my presence/interaction in all of them? This is the basic problem with this system IMO and I'm not a fan of it.

Maidenname · March 2015

Alcon wrote: »

How might one find a guild with a (relatively) tight knit community? From my experience thus far, I've found that most guild simply have large numbers of players, each of which may be in many guilds. Nobody in these guild really knows each other besides those that have been part of the guilds from the ground up. I'm not asking for invitations, I simply want to discuss the priorities of guilds in this game. I think of a guild as a place for players to come together for more than just material gain. People are constantly plugging their guilds and I don't understand the point. What does a guild gain by having more members? What is the point of being in a guild? Don't tell me it's so you can get people to run dungeons with you. I get just as much responsiveness from my guilds about joining me in a dungeon as I do from zone chat.

Tl;dr Guilds don't make friends. How are they any better than zone chat?

Joining a trading Guild helps to sell off your stuff but bear in mind the percentage of cut you have to pay to sell it and when the sale is closed. Some trading Guild requires weekly pay up to allow you to sell and I have heard and seen when Guild went busted and the Guild leader or next in line, ran away with all the Gold.

I belonged to a small but active Guild around 35 players but with the situation of the game these days, on good days 19 players will log on or 6 players on low peak days. We stress on friendship and teaching each other to play. We stay in our Mumble channel to promote better communication and interaction. It's unavoidable if you really want a small, close knit Guild to flourish and keeping active in the game and heck! It helps to accomplish veteran dungeon runs smoothly and efficiently to have some sort of voice communication. However, we will always have casualties. Lower level players joined us and get to VR 14 will quit us because some think reaching VR 14 is the end game itself.

Having 5 Guilds seems attractive when one enters the game, no existence of a Public Auction as in LOTRO, makes such ability of joining 5 Guilds seems the only way to make money or buying stuff...but at end of it, there is hardly a strong loyal feeling in any particular Guild. I personally don't join any Trading Guild anymore since 1.3.... If I need to sell a good loot, I will advertise in Rawl Kha or Craglorn or even pass on to another worthy Guild member. I can say I have done well with accumulation of Gold even though sometimes, I give Gold away to friends or Guildies. Being part of a main PVE Guild I believe with improved communication and interaction, helps to survive in the game both the system and the economy. I help them, as they help me in return while we enjoy this game or hanging in to see what the next update or new contents will bring. The atmosphere and ambience in a small close knit PVE Guild is significant in this game.

I agree, it's not easy to find a Guild you will fit in...immediately. Humans nature, character and personality..just like real life. But there's no penalty to quit unlike real life, but you will give yourself no chance to know you fit in or not, if you do not try or being patient at all for at least 7 days. Don't expect joining a Guild to find them holding your hand. If you find a levelling partner, that will work. But the real test is when you reach veteran rank and ready to start veteran contents dungeon. Get into the Teamspeak or mumble and ask for grouping or help. During levelling time, you will know if you fit in when you speak up for guidance on game related topics, class skills and gears. Sometimes, We also find a new recruit always asks for help but denied to help in return, is not a suitable member in the Guild. It's both way....

P.S. You need to join a PVP guild to do PVP stuff .... That is significant as well on the higher PVP content ofc.

Geraltoc · March 2015

Alcon wrote: »

How might one find a guild with a (relatively) tight knit community? From my experience thus far, I've found that most guild simply have large numbers of players, each of which may be in many guilds. Nobody in these guild really knows each other besides those that have been part of the guilds from the ground up. I'm not asking for invitations, I simply want to discuss the priorities of guilds in this game. I think of a guild as a place for players to come together for more than just material gain. People are constantly plugging their guilds and I don't understand the point. What does a guild gain by having more members? What is the point of being in a guild? Don't tell me it's so you can get people to run dungeons with you. I get just as much responsiveness from my guilds about joining me in a dungeon as I do from zone chat.

Tl;dr Guilds don't make friends. How are they any better than zone chat?

Guess so far you have had bad guild experiences, personally im quite happy with guilds in ESO and i did make friends in my current guild, friends who i communicate with outside the game and talk about real life stuff.

My main guild is a 60ish members guild and we all know each other, know each and everyone's quirks and most of the time chat is banter and people laughing and helping each other.

Same guild that allows me as fairly newly vet to be able to run daily pledges, craglorn, pvp, etc.

Other 4 guild slots are 4 trade guilds used simply to make money, isnt that what they are for after all?

Nestor · March 2015

Alcon wrote: »

What does a guild gain by having more members? What is the point of being in a guild? Don't tell me it's so you can get people to run dungeons with you. I get just as much responsiveness from my guilds about joining me in a dungeon as I do from zone chat.

Tl;dr Guilds don't make friends. How are they any better than zone chat?

I can find a group from my guild mates way faster than with Zone Chat. Plus, I can find those members that mesh well with my playstyle far easier.

There are 3 main types of Guilds.

Trading are the ones for selling your stuff. They usually have a Kiosk, but if not an active store. These guilds obviously benefit from more members. More members, more stuff to buy, more members to sell to.

PvP Guilds are mostly used to coordinate activities in Cyrodill. More members, better raids and chance to win the objective.

PvE/RP/Social are guilds that are more casual in nature. These can benefit or not from more members. But these guilds exist to have a group of people to hang out with, do things with, quest with, go on dungeon runs with, help out with crafting, someone to talk to in Chat or whatever. It all depends on the Guild really.

Now, anyone guild can fit into all three categories or just one of them.

I find that being a member of 3 Trading Guilds and 2 PvE Guilds is a good mix for me. I can trade what I need, and I can always find people to run something with if I need to. Or, I can jump on a group if I am in the game and bored at the moment. If I did PvP, then I would be in one of those Guilds.

Elsonso · March 2015

EQBallzz wrote: »

It's interesting reading how some people are making the guild system in ESO work for them but I think by and large the system is just bad. I really don't like the multiple guild system. I hated it in GW2 and for the same reasons I don't like it here. If the point of a guild is for people to come together for some common goal (pvp, raiding, socializing or whatever) then by it's very nature a multi-guild system is at odds with what a guild is supposed to be. How can you expect loyalty or time or atention from your guildmates if they are committed to 4 other guilds that also may have expectations of time or attention?

This is only a problem if you think that guilds must be at odds with each other. That they must compete head-to-head with each other. Even with trading guilds, this does not have to be a problem. The only guilds where I could see this as a problem is PVP guilds.

It feels odd to me that someone would say that if a player is socializing with a group of other players that they should not be allowed to socialize with anyone else. I am in two social guilds. Somehow, I do not feel that I am betraying either of them.

The same goes with guilds that do pledges, or organize shard runs in Cyrodiil. I cannot see a reason why someone can't do that with more than one group of people. I know for a fact that some of the people in my guilds that do Trials are doing them with guilds I am not a member of. If anyone cares, it is between individual players, not guilds.

Guilds in ESO are not ranked against each other.

UrQuan · March 2015

Alcon wrote: »

Tl;dr Guilds don't make friends. How are they any better than zone chat?

This tells me that you haven't been in any good guilds. To be honest, most of my experiences with guilds match this. Aside from the small guild that I'm GM of (which is really just made up of myself and a group of my real life friends - when we play together we physically get together in the same room, so there's no need for TS or Vent), I've only ever found 1 guild that genuinely feels like a community (shout out to Lone Wolf Help for being that 1 guild). Every other guild I've joined has simply not had a community feel to it. That's fine for trading guilds, of course, but being a member of a guild that actually feels like a community, where people will help each other out is great.

timidobserver · March 2015

Sure, you can run dungeons with people in zone chat, but I wouldn't touch a zone chat trial run with a 2 mile stick. Particularly in 1.6. Beyond that, you typically don't find a lot of coordinated pvp groups in zone that. You usually need a guild for that. There is also trade guilds, which plenty of people have already mentioned.

If you want a close-knit guild, find a gaming community that has a branch in ESO. There are a number of them out there. I avoid them because they are going to want you to write a dissertation to join, but once you get in they are pretty close-knit.

EQBallzz · March 2015

lordrichter wrote: »

EQBallzz wrote: »

It's interesting reading how some people are making the guild system in ESO work for them but I think by and large the system is just bad. I really don't like the multiple guild system. I hated it in GW2 and for the same reasons I don't like it here. If the point of a guild is for people to come together for some common goal (pvp, raiding, socializing or whatever) then by it's very nature a multi-guild system is at odds with what a guild is supposed to be. How can you expect loyalty or time or atention from your guildmates if they are committed to 4 other guilds that also may have expectations of time or attention?

This is only a problem if you think that guilds must be at odds with each other. That they must compete head-to-head with each other. Even with trading guilds, this does not have to be a problem. The only guilds where I could see this as a problem is PVP guilds.

It feels odd to me that someone would say that if a player is socializing with a group of other players that they should not be allowed to socialize with anyone else. I am in two social guilds. Somehow, I do not feel that I am betraying either of them.

The same goes with guilds that do pledges, or organize shard runs in Cyrodiil. I cannot see a reason why someone can't do that with more than one group of people. I know for a fact that some of the people in my guilds that do Trials are doing them with guilds I am not a member of. If anyone cares, it is between individual players, not guilds.

Guilds in ESO are not ranked against each other.

You are missing the point or gist of my post. I'm talking less about literal competition (as in raiding or pvp) but rather competition of time and attention. Lets expand your example a bit and say you are in 5 social guilds because that is totally normal. Now lets say you have something interesting to say or a question to ask. Which of those 5 guilds do you talk to? Which of those social guilds will get to hear your idea or question (and by extension get to know you better etc..) or will you attempt to talk to all 5 at once and carry on 5 separate conversations about the same thing with 5 groups of people?

Another example might be that you are in a PvP guild and a trials guild and each has an event on the same day/time and they both need you there because you are the super duper healer of both guilds. Now you have to choose between those guilds and one gets left out. If that guild knows they couldn't count on you for their event and it wasn't because you were busy outside of game but rather with another guild it's not going to make for great guild relations. Their event gets canceled because of that choice. It's just not natural and doesn't foster a cohesive type of guild environment IMO.

AlnilamE · March 2015

But isn't the same true IRL? It's not like everybody only has one social group with no competing interests.

What happens when your co-workers want to go for dinner to celebrate the end of a project on the same day that your niece is having her birthday party, which happen to fall on the night of the week you usually play board games with a group of close friends?

Nestor · March 2015

Time management is always an issue. However I don't think anyone is a member of 5 social guilds. Most people are a mix of trading and social or PvP.

The only time I see an issue with an event is in PvP or Trials,. In the two general purpose guilds I am in, what you would call social I guess, I see events going on all the time that I don't have to be a part of unless I want to. In fact there are a number of events I opt out of simply because there are already a bunch of people doing it. In PvP and Trials this could certainly be an issue, but that is up to the Guild Master to figure out what to do there.

You mentioned why would someone want to grow their guild, this is the exact reason. If you have 200 active members and 30 to 40 of them are usually logged on in an evening, then any one or two individuals that don't show up won't mess things up for others.

UrQuan · March 2015

EQBallzz wrote: »

lordrichter wrote: »

EQBallzz wrote: »

It's interesting reading how some people are making the guild system in ESO work for them but I think by and large the system is just bad. I really don't like the multiple guild system. I hated it in GW2 and for the same reasons I don't like it here. If the point of a guild is for people to come together for some common goal (pvp, raiding, socializing or whatever) then by it's very nature a multi-guild system is at odds with what a guild is supposed to be. How can you expect loyalty or time or atention from your guildmates if they are committed to 4 other guilds that also may have expectations of time or attention?

This is only a problem if you think that guilds must be at odds with each other. That they must compete head-to-head with each other. Even with trading guilds, this does not have to be a problem. The only guilds where I could see this as a problem is PVP guilds.

It feels odd to me that someone would say that if a player is socializing with a group of other players that they should not be allowed to socialize with anyone else. I am in two social guilds. Somehow, I do not feel that I am betraying either of them.

The same goes with guilds that do pledges, or organize shard runs in Cyrodiil. I cannot see a reason why someone can't do that with more than one group of people. I know for a fact that some of the people in my guilds that do Trials are doing them with guilds I am not a member of. If anyone cares, it is between individual players, not guilds.

Guilds in ESO are not ranked against each other.

You are missing the point or gist of my post. I'm talking less about literal competition (as in raiding or pvp) but rather competition of time and attention. Lets expand your example a bit and say you are in 5 social guilds because that is totally normal. Now lets say you have something interesting to say or a question to ask. Which of those 5 guilds do you talk to? Which of those social guilds will get to hear your idea or question (and by extension get to know you better etc..) or will you attempt to talk to all 5 at once and carry on 5 separate conversations about the same thing with 5 groups of people?

Another example might be that you are in a PvP guild and a trials guild and each has an event on the same day/time and they both need you there because you are the super duper healer of both guilds. Now you have to choose between those guilds and one gets left out. If that guild knows they couldn't count on you for their event and it wasn't because you were busy outside of game but rather with another guild it's not going to make for great guild relations. Their event gets canceled because of that choice. It's just not natural and doesn't foster a cohesive type of guild environment IMO.

I understand what you're getting at with this, but I wonder how big an issue it would actually be for the majority of players. With 5 guilds, it seems likely that a player will join different guilds for different reasons. So a player's 5 guild might look something like this:
Guild 1: trading guild
Guild 2: general PvE guild
Guild 3: PvP guild
Guild 4: raid guild
Guild 5: RP guild

Of course, not everyone is interested in all of those aspects of the game, and other types of guild are possible too (vampire/werewolf guilds, fishing guilds, guilds that only exist for the guild bank, etc)

The trading guild (and I imagine a lot of players have more than 1 guild slot taken up by a trading guild) doesn't really compete with the others for game time.

The other guilds do compete with each other for game time, but because they have different focuses, they don't really compete. What I mean by that is that if the player is doing some PvP with his PvP guild, odds are it's not cutting into his PvE time with his PvE guild, because he was probably planning on doing some PvP on that particular day anyway, so he wouldn't be playing with his PvE guildies.

Of course, the situation you describe where the player is the #1 healer in 2 guilds which both have events at the same time is still possible, but as adults shouldn't we just be honest with each other, and in such a case just say to the second guild (as in: whichever guild asked you to participate in their event second) that you've already committed to healing for a different event at that time? If the guild members in the second guild are the type of people to get upset at something like that, then to my mind that would be showing a distinct lack of maturity, and it would be a sign that I should probably quit the guild.

TiberiusTryton · March 2015

The more members you have that join and become apart of the close knit group the more tasks and reliable tactics you can deploy in PvP. Not to mention when someone has a question, needs help or just wants to chat there is a better chance a fellow guild member will hook you up before someone in zone.

Alcon · March 2015

I wonder then, how does one find one of these genuine guilds? What do they look like? This isn't a guild recruitment thread so I'm not looking for plugs or invitations. I simply want to know how to find a guild with a proper community and anything I can look for in a guild for quick identification. I realize that that is a very broad question and in the end I'd have to decide for myself. I guess what I'm really asking is:

What makes your guild somewhere that people want to hang out?

@Divad Zarn @LMar @Mercury71 @Grundiin @Lithium Flower @Snippit_Thomas @AlnilamE @Observant @Nightscar @lordrichter @Maidenname @Geraltoc @Nestor @timidobserver @UrQuan @TiberiusTryton

Nestor · March 2015

Alcon wrote: »

I wonder then, how does one find one of these genuine guilds?

What makes your guild somewhere that people want to hang out?

Try them out. It's easy to join a guild and it's easy to leave one. Now, to join a guild that would be what you want it's best to know someone already and get a recommendation from them. That is not always possible of course.

One of the guilds I joined was Lone Wolf Help, in particular because their tag line is:

A guild for the solo player that knows sometimes you need the help.

Which fit me to a T. I played this game for the first 3 months without being in a Guild. Mainly because I did not want to have to commit to guild activities and events. I just wanted some help every now and then. But, now they have sucked me in, mostly because the people are so helpful and friendly and spend more time laughing at ourselves than inspecting gear. Ironically, this guild runs all kinds of events, but they are optional to engage in. However the events are such that I find myself joining in with the events. There is an event calender here (the website loaded slow for me just now, could be my ISP, but give it some time just in case)

http://www.lonewolfhelp.com/

I like the fact that if I needed an item for research, all I had to do was ask and it ended up in my Inbox, for free. Which of course made me do the same for the other members of the guild who needed something for research. I also enjoy showing folks the benefits of a Crafted Set of gear by making them one and then letting them see how deadly they become. I always have extra mats, so this is easy for me. Most everyone in the guild feels the same way. I remembering sending out a Guild Chat about doing a World Boss Dolmen tour in Guild Chat. This was a VR2 Zone. 3 Guild mates showed up in a couple of minutes, and we went to town on the map. Anyway, it was about a week or two of membership that showed me how good a guild could be in this game. Need help, they are there for you, need to be left alone, we will do that too.

So, if your on the NA server, send me a message in game to @Nestor and I will get you joined up. If after a week or so, you don't like the crowd, then drop the guild. But, I bet you won't.

This goes for anyone else reading this thread and wondering just how to get into a great guild. Send me a message in game and I will get you hooked up.

UrQuan · March 2015

Alcon wrote: »

I wonder then, how does one find one of these genuine guilds? What do they look like? This isn't a guild recruitment thread so I'm not looking for plugs or invitations. I simply want to know how to find a guild with a proper community and anything I can look for in a guild for quick identification. I realize that that is a very broad question and in the end I'd have to decide for myself. I guess what I'm really asking is:

What makes your guild somewhere that people want to hang out?

Excellent question @Alcon. Like I said, most of the guilds I've been in haven't been one of these guilds with a good community. It's only a guild that I joined pretty recently (I think I joined in January or early February) that has truly felt like a good community (well, aside from the guild that's basically just me and some of my real life friends - and that's not really fair because we hang out in person way more than in game).

For me I decided that the guilds I had been in previously were lacking, and I was getting frustrated with the feeling that I had no good options for getting people together for any in-game activities. So I started actively checking out the guild recruitment section of the forums to try to find a guild that seemed to match with my "values" (for lack of a better word). I knew I wasn't interested in a hard core raid guild, or an RP guild, or a PvP guild (nothing wrong with any of those, they just aren't for me). I knew that I was looking for an active, yet fairly casual guild that was friendly, and focused on helping each other out.

I found a couple of recruitment threads that seemed right up my alley, so I did some more research into those guilds: I checked out their web sites, checked out some of the forum posting history of the people doing the recruiting, and just generally tried to figure out which I would mesh with the best. I ended up picking the one that I did largely based on the GM's attitude - she seemed like the type of person who genuinely enjoyed the game (although, like most of us, had her pet peeves regarding it), and wanted to create a community where people helped each other, whether they were seasoned veterans or complete noobs. I also liked the guild's "mission statement".

Interestingly enough, around this time I had a brief discussion with another player on the forum who offered to help me out in-game with some stuff that I hadn't yet done due to mostly being a solo player. Turned out that this helpful forumite is a member of the guild I chose.

Naturally, for the first couple of weeks I was getting a feel for the guild, so I tried to participate in a few scheduled events, and I was semi-active in guild chat. I found myself having a lot of fun, and doing some stuff in-game that I wouldn't have had a chance to do solo. In that time I also found that there were almost always 20+ guild members online, and that there were a few regulars (some officers, some not) who were on very frequently, and it did start to feel like an actual community to me.

Most of all, I think I like the "fun" events that the guild does. Drunken fishing (I actually have yet to have a chance to participate, but from guild chat it sounds like a lot of fun), a hunt for guild officers following clues, etc. The more standard events (Cyrodil sky shard runs intended to help non-PvPers grab some skyshards, and maybe do some delves while at it, dungeon run events, etc) are good too, and those are what I was really looking for, but it's the "fun" events that really help build the community in my mind.

UrQuan · March 2015

Nestor wrote: »

One of the guilds I joined was Lone Wolf Help, in particular because their tag line is:

A guild for the solo player that knows sometimes you need the help.

And of course, this is the guild I'm talking about too

And honestly, pretty much everything you say applies to me too.

AlnilamE · March 2015

UrQuan wrote: »

I found a couple of recruitment threads that seemed right up my alley, so I did some more research into those guilds: I checked out their web sites, checked out some of the forum posting history of the people doing the recruiting, and just generally tried to figure out which I would mesh with the best. I ended up picking the one that I did largely based on the GM's attitude - she seemed like the type of person who genuinely enjoyed the game (although, like most of us, had her pet peeves regarding it), and wanted to create a community where people helped each other, whether they were seasoned veterans or complete noobs. I also liked the guild's "mission statement".

This is a great strategy.

I ended up in my guild because one of the friends who encouraged me to play the game after the Beta weekends had joined and she liked them, so I asked her for more info and applied.

It seemed like a great group of people and I have made good friends. I really look forward to logging on and hanging out with people, whether we are doing something together or just hanging out on TS or chatting in Guild Chat while we each do our own thing.

Our recruiting strategy is quality over quantity, so we mention the guild when we group with other players that seem to mesh well with our group and it's worked well so far. We've had people join when they asked for help in zone chat and were helped by one of our members, when we PUGged a 4th person to run a dungeon, when we were running an event in a Public Dungeon and someone needed help. It's kind of an organic thing. We usually get a couple of new members every month, and we've recently had some inactive players return to the game, which has been exciting.

I feel really lucky to have found them, particularly since this is my first MMO and I've no previous experience being in a guild.

TiberiusTryton · March 2015

https://youtu.be/9fasEnUO5qQ

You just join them and try them out like any other thing. For example if you watch this video and don't like the language or the play style then this guild is not for you. Move on until you find a match.