Guilds, what are they and why do I need one?
For the first 30 levels I soloed without a guild. There was no need. I was not running instances and for me it was a solitary game, not a true social game that MMORPG’s are meant to be. The fact that this way of thinking was wrong in so many ways was only evident to me after I had found a good, interactive guild in which to be a part.
A Guild is a group of people who are like-minded in their play style, their in-game goals and their attitudes towards the game as well as, many times, their life. You tend to find people in a guild that have similar personalities or similar approaches to the game.
The idea of a guild originates in society from the earliest days of ancient history. Guilds were formed to bind workers in a specific field, such as stone cutting or leather working, to each other and their profession. They were intended to be a source of support in the market and under the political leadership of the day they needed the support. The thought was that an individual could easily be pushed around in the market or by the more powerful politicians of the day, but if they grouped together they might have more power and influence.
As guilds continued through history many developed a means of educating and training future members by creating apprenticeships and different levels within the guild such as artisan, craftsman, master and/or grandmaster. It became a method to pass on the knowledge of their field, while at the same time, keeping certain members in power.
Today, there are associations that act as guilds once did and the idea of a union is a guild of a sort. These groups and associations, even in today’s society, provide some of the same benefits to their own group as they once did. They stabilize power; provide influence in the market and in society. In most cases, they are successful in putting people together for a common goal. (Bored with your history lesson, yet?)
That is the same thing that happens in WOW. Guilds put people together for a mutually accepted goal, whether that is raiding, leveling, or because you’re a guild of teenagers. No matter the raison d’etre of the guild, it really only matters to members or prospective members. Guilds that are made up of people with goals or desires that do not match quickly fall apart and have constant turnover in members.
In comparison a properly managed and led guild is like have a good a combination of a workplace, home life and a group of really good friends. I say that because when you look to a guild as an overall entity you realize that it encompasses all of these factors. If you ask a good guild leader, they will tell you much the same thing.
The first and foremost thing that a guild provides you is support. The members of a guild work together to help every member of the guild accomplish what is good for both the individual character and the guild itself. A raiding guild will support its member in getting geared up so they can attack the hardest instances and raids and then raid, raid, raid. Where as a leveling guild is more focused on helping its entire group of members move up through the levels to get to 80.
This support can take many different forms. For your purposes, being a lower leveled toon, you need a leveling guild or at least a guild that is willing to take time away from raiding to assist its member’s level. A guild such as this will help to organize groups for instances so you can fully experience the game and get better gear. Also, a leveling guild will be there to help you enchant your equipment, provide necessary gear upgrades, provide materials for your professions, as well as many other functions.
Many guilds use some kind of server based means to talk to one another such as Ventrillo (aka vent). This allows the guild to support each other even more. You can use the in-game chat along with vent to ask for members’ advice on any in game issue; organize to run instances, and just chit-chat. In my two guilds, we spend more time talking about in-game and out-of-game stuff then we do for organizing or running instances. The truth of the matter is that during the day vent is filled with chit-chat and some instances, then at night when raiding is scheduled, it is primarily about raiding.
In the end however, vent is just one more tool to make WOW a form of social media, where we can interact with our friends. I have real-world friends in my guilds, I have only in-game friends in my guild and now after having joined Bound, I have some colleagues in the guild. This is probably the way that most people define their guild.
One word of caution however: some guilds do require you to apply. That is not necessarily a bad thing. The guild wants to make sure that it gets like-minded individuals into the guild. A guild needs to make sure it is compatible with its members and that the members will fit together or the guild will never be successful. In fact, most of the high level raiding guilds requires an extensive questionnaire and interview for a person to be accepted. For them, it is like interviewing for a job and you have to earn the right to be a member.
You need to find a guild that first meets your goals in the game. If you play only part-time and are taking your time leveling find a guild that supports that. If you do not like foul, dirty language then find a guild that supports those beliefs. The guild needs to be a tool for you to use and to enjoy or there is no reason for you to join a guild.
So, go find a good guild. Join and if you like it then stay, if not bail and find another. Let me give you a fortune cookie fortune from the Inquisitor: A Guild is only as good as its worst member.
Now, go level!
Inquisitor
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The Rawrcast Show
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Hello Rawrcast readers and listeners. My apologies go out to all of you since this is my first column in two weeks. I have been swamped with work and family and was unable to find the time to sit down and write. Today, however, I am back at it. My life has slowed down and that means more columns to come.
Today was a gorgeous day here in North Texas. One of the many tasks I had set before me was to have my car’s oil changed. Rather than hanging around inside the stuffy waiting room filled with outdated magazines and blatantly obvious infomercials, I decided to park myself on a bench outside of the service station. Soaking up the afternoon air I made small talk with a gentleman also enjoying the breeze. When all of the sudden, down the road a stretch about 200 yards from the station a little blue Subaru came to a hazardous stop in the middle of traffic. With lights flashing, I could make out the frantic flipping and flopping of hair in the driver side seat of the car. I gently motioned to the gentleman waiting beside me and said, “Looks like she is having car issues.” He agreed and went back inside.
As a guild master myself, and having seen Stomp and Haf recently setup their own guild, 
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