Ask anyone you know playing this game and almost all will say yes. Then ask why and the answers will vary greatly. Some will say how well their guild does in competitions like GbG championships. Some will say the people and the relationships they have with them is what makes their guild good.
Also a lot of players are in the same guild
they started out with as a brand new player and wear that as a badge of
honor. I don’t see it that way. I think it’s good to move around as needs
change. That doesn’t mean you were in a
bad guild or moving to a good guild it just means it’s time for a change.
The conclusion I’ve come to is there’s no such thing as a
good or bad guild but rather what’s good or bad for you. Sound simple but it really isn’t.
When we start playing this game for the first time we are all
babes in the woods. We don’t even know
the right questions to ask. This game
has a bad tutorial system and requires players to either learn on their own or
be mentored, usually in guilds. As a
player develops their play style may change along with their needs. That beginner player six months later is
killing it on QI or GbG and looking around at all his friends in the guild
wondering why they have zeroes beside their name on the scoreboard. Conversely there will be people in highly competitive
guilds wondering why they bother doing 8-10k fights a GbG season.
With the game changing by rewarding players for guild
achievements instead of just individual achievements the contrast in play
styles is even starker. A competitive social
guild is on the endangered species list.
Let me explain.
A social guild is one that is welcoming to brand new members
and consists mostly of farmers content to collect city, maybe dabble in GE,
GbG, QI but mostly socialize and form bonds with like-minded players. In terms of raw numbers social guilds
dominate FoE and they’re needed.
Competitive social guilds are ones where they may have 10-20
very active members and an equal or greater number of farmers all living in
harmony as it has been for about a decade.
The guilds are competitive but that is mainly due to a small number of
hard core players within the guild and not by the guild as a whole.
Highly competitive guilds are ones with strictly enforced guild
lines of what it take to remain a guild member as they try to compete against
the other hard core guilds to win championships.
As the game has shifted rewards to being guild based instead
of individual based we have seen the formation of super-guilds. These are guilds that were once competitive social
guilds absorbing a similar guild, taking their best hard core players and
shedding their own farmers until the guild is full of hard core players only.
The only competition for these super-guilds is the other
super-guilds on the server or player world.
The competitive social guilds are road kill. So what happens is the competitive social
guilds start a GbG season for example hoping to not have any super-guilds or
maybe only one so they can try for second place or fight from base to win
third. The 10-20 hard core players start
looking around and realizing that fighting for guild goals feels awful lonely
when half or more than half their guild is there for social reasons. So they leave to join the super-guilds where
they can play with like-minded players.
The social players in the competitive social guilds also
look around and wonder why am I getting all these messages about doing more in
GbG? And they’re right. We all play FoE for our own reasons. If an officer in a super-guild is trying to micromanage
your city or tell you what to do then leave.
If you’re in a social guild and they are trying to be more competitive by
making you play QI and you hate it then leave.
There’s enough stress in life as is you don’t need it in this game.
The simple solution is people need to find guilds with
like-minded players regardless of where that is on the social/competitive spectrum. Also as stated above player needs and play
styles will change over time so you may be a farmer when you start, become a
hard-core player for a time, then transition to a Yoda type been there, done
that sage advice giver in a social guild later on. Those three stages are nearly impossible to
happen cohesively in one guild.
The moral of the story is understand who you are as a player
and what you want from a guild then find the right one if you’re not already in
it. And do this before you either resent
people for not contributing more or resent people for asking you to do stuff
you don’t want to do. It’s not a
marriage. It’s not the Harry Potter
unbreakable vow. Move around and find
what you’re looking for or pop back in a month or two if you don’t find what
you need.
Lastly and I see this all the time. Guilds welcome new players with open arms yet
tend to be resentful of players when they leave. It’s like they internalize the rejection. When players join your guild they do so
because they have unmet needs from their previous guild. When players leave they do so for the same
reason. There are no good or bad guilds
but rather just good or bad for you.