An Experience With Guild Drama

Guilds are typically a large feature in any MMORPG. They can greatly enhance a user’s experience of the game: opening the door to a social circle of like-minded players, allowing you to easily find groups to complete content and make friends along the way. At it’s core a guild is a community, but with any community problems can occur. I’m sure many players have been met with some sort of difficulty, ranging from a simple loot argument to a disagreement in the higher ranks which can be felt throughout the pyramid. I have had the misfortune of dealing with guild drama and lost a few friends because of what happened.

Guilds were always an appealing idea to me, even during my early days playing World of Warcraft when I actually tried to start a guild when I was about 12. The feeling of success when the guild was made a reality was overwhelming, and I recall a helpful Gnome suggesting ideas on how to run the guild. In addition, a member donated about 50 gold to help get the guild off the ground but to me it felt like someone handing over the contents of Fort Knox.

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It didn’t take long to realise that guild leadership started to take up most of my playtime, when I just wanted to explore Azeroth rather than tackling mundane guild issues. Organising ranks and guild rules took up a lot of time initially, but what cut into my fun was constantly trying to recruit new members. I disbanded the guild after a couple of weeks figuring no harm done, but my Gnome friend warned me the player who donated the gold was out for blood. I had grossly underestimated how many players value their virtual currency, and I was terrified of getting banned from a game which I had barely begun to experience. Luckily I was able to keep playing, learning lessons about the work that went into guilds and how seriously people took the game.

It wasn’t until a few years later I started to look into joining a guild. I was enjoying the game, switching between characters without reaching level cap with one (a common problem I seem to have in many role-playing games). Nevertheless, I was having fun which I saw as the whole point of any game.

On the flipside, playing WoW wasn’t exactly the golden ticket to a booming social life in school. I became motivated to find a guild, the want for some sort of social circle. Looking back, as is rather typical after hearing many other’s stories, school wasn’t as bad as I thought. Despite this, I wanted some friends who shared my love for the game and guilds seemed like the obvious route. So there I was, a solo player finally looking to find that perfect guild, and eventually I found it.

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The advertisement caught my eye due to the promise of a “casual, friendly guild with constantly active members.” Since I wasn’t max level yet, and focused on playing the game for fun, this was what I was looking for in a guild. I sent a message to the advertiser, and a satisfying jingle came out of my speakers as the guild invitation popped up. I was greeted by a wave of messages in green text, welcoming me to the guild.

After introducing myself, a few members began to ask me about myself. No questions about my raiding experience or when I’d reach level cap, but questions about the person behind the screen. They seemed genuinely interested in me, and I in them. It wasn’t long before there were a few members I’d talk to on a regular basis, and many assisted me in completing difficult content should I need the help. It was a community of people passionate about the game, who shared my opinion that games exist to have fun and not to grind out the same content in order to be better than everyone else.

Being part of a community was just what I needed at the time, making friends who I still talk to today. It felt good to be part of that, helping other players and myself experience everything the game had to offer. Typical stuff when you think of a guild. But it was not to last, and eventually a combination of growing tired of the game and doubts about where the guild leader was taking the community became too troublesome.

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The guild was mostly casual and the raiding groups existed solely to have fun together. I didn’t have the time to dedicate any more than two nights a week to raiding, but the guild leader wanted to mould the guild into a dedicated raiding guild to stand triumphantly on the leaderboards. Not a problem necessarily, but it wasn’t for me. There was also the hype surrounding a new MMO that promised to beat WoW: Guild Wars 2.

Eventually, some friends and I jumped ship to get started on this new adventure. One of my friends formed a guild which contained many people I knew from WoW, and it seemed like the perfect setup. And in most respects it was. There were always people to play with, and the guild leader did a grand job of keeping things running smoothly, organising special events that kept things fresh. This went on for about a year, and I can honestly say it was one of the best times of my MMO life.

Despite the fun I was having, the same problems that interfered with my WoW experience arose again. The game grew stale, and I actually began to miss WoW. For some reason the lack of solid raiding content in Guild Wars 2 made me long for the structure that WoW offered. In addition I began to have personal disagreements with some of the guild members and the guild leader.

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I was helping out as an officer at the time, and I felt that not enough was being done to cater to new guild members. The guild was beginning to feel like a tool for the guild leader to increase their social circle and be the centre of attention. While everyone was entitled to make friends in the guild, in this case it came at the cost of making other members feel less included. Because of my views, I grew more distant from this friendship group of the highest ranking members, choosing instead to spend time with other guild members or on my own.

In the end I said my farewells and unfortunately lost more than a few friends, and it felt like I was back to where I was before I even started looking for guilds in WoW. While I still kept in contact with a few people, it felt like I was on my own in the MMO world.

I think that a common theme that ran through my time with guilds was guild drama. As with any group of people, be it in real life or in game, there are going to be disagreements. Unfortunately, in both scenarios the drama split the guild, and I had to leave for multiple reasons. As online gaming becomes more popular for connecting with like-minded individuals the fallout from leaving a good guild and losing friends can be quite damning. Fortunately I managed to keep some people as friends from my guild times, but drama is something that can affect a guild rather prominently.

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If anything, looking back I respect my guild leaders much more than I did at the time. They had a lot to manage beyond running a place where people can find groups easily. They are community managers, and as such have to deal with everything that comes with that. It’s one thing to recruit new members, but it’s a difficult task to keep them for an extended period. Sometimes this doesn’t go as planned and it can be a real blow. The idea of people not liking the way you run your guild and leaving as a result can really damage your own confidence in the guild.

Unfortunately guild members leaving is something that can happen often, as guild drama can cause friction in the ranks which may lead to a drop in numbers. The guild leader must act as a moderator in these cases, working to find common ground as to please both sides. Careful officer recruitment can help ease the workload, but being a guild leader takes a great deal of resilience and dedication. It can be a mundane job and many times feel unrewarding.

I’m not currently in any guilds. I still play a couple of MMOs, but prefer to do solo content or use group finders to complete content. However, writing this article has made me particularly nostalgic about my time being part of a guild. Despite the drama and the fallouts they really did enhance my enjoyment of the games. Perhaps I’ll look into joining a new guild, or even consider making my own. At the end of the day, you need to decide what is best for you and why you enjoy the game. I love MMOs because they not only provide a solid RPG experience, but give me the ability to connect with people who share my interests. If you are hesitant about joining a guild, or haven’t yet found the one for you, I implore you to keep looking.