I think I’ve been far more accommodating in the last couple of years than I was in the roughly eight prior. I’ve shrunk our guild policy from a small novel to a rather undersized comic book. One thing that continues to amaze and drive me nuts is the fact that people will have different characters in different guilds and be obvious about it! I am fully aware that World of Warcraft has changed the face (read: mostly destroyed) of the MMO universe but this is ridiculous to me.
Long ago when I was in an EverQuest uber guild this was unheard of. Not only was it against the rules to do such a thing guild members wouldn’t even want to! The pride in our guild tag was so high that we’d never consider a lesser one. Those that did this sort of thing were either spies or slugs and nobody ever admitted it. It was simple: one player in one guild frequently for years.
In EverQuest 2 the same was true for my guild. We allowed and sponsored a couple of alternate character guilds but beyond that you were not allowed to go guild hopping. The only reason we even put up with it in EQ2 was because a “large roster” meant your guild wasn’t exceptional. It was irrelevant that you were number one on the server and had 95% of the server firsts. If you went past a certain roster number you were no longer awesome! That is another story though.
With the coming of Warhammer Online the guild lines became so fuzzy with the alliance system that I had to deal with more than a few members having characters in more than one other guild. It was almost maddening to try to figure out who was who. What was even more incredible is that they would want items for the characters that didn’t have a Sodality tag from the Sodality bank!
I have to pose the question to everyone then. Is my concern valid or am I just living too much in the past? Have we gone so far that primary loyalty to one guild is obsolete? My vision is that the MMO of the future will bring back the importance of guild stability. Surely at some point developers will need to step in to quell the guild and server hopping. I’m interested in seeing tangible, in game bonuses for long time loyalty. For now, however, we’ll just have to put up with the constant turn around.
All characters are © 2007 - 2012
I fully admit I live in the past. I hate people who have characters in multiple guilds, because I believe that it shows an extreme lack of loyalty and respect. The officers/leaders in a quality guild put in so much time to make sure the members are having a quality gaming experience that having characters in all types of guilds seems like a slap in the face. Add to that, I believe a guild is something of a family where members care and watch out for one another.
People who join multiple guilds are just plain selfish. Call me outmoded or strange, it’s just how I feel. They are like the sports fans who are suddenly rooting for whoever is winning that day. Bandwagoners and fair weather types need not apply!
My god. Dont make statements like ‘maybe I’m living in the past’. Multi-guilding is unacceptable! My guild doesn’t accept anything like that, nor will we tolerate someone contantly switching guilds.
Seriously, having played through the ages of MMO’s, I see no real reason to be loyal to one power, and one power alone. It’s a game, for starters. Say I have a level 80 character in World of Warcraft (which I do), and she’s in an end game raid guild. And I have a level 20 alt (which I do) and she’s in a friend’s guild who is not interested in end game. I’m to be punished for that?
Albeit, you’re right. People asking for guild items for non guild characters is not only pushing, it’s just stupid and wrong – but people should have the freedom to put there characters where they choose.
My current guild in WAR has even gone so far as to remove all alts for the guild, cutting them loose to join whatever guild they want.
In your situation it isn’t that big of a deal. You have your high end raiding guild and your friends guild. What about, however, a situation where you have two level 80 characters in two different raid guilds. I really see that as a conflict of interest.
I also don’t see the problem with being loyal to one power. That was sort of the point. The guild takes care of its own. The core group of Sodality has been together so long we’re pretty much family so this seems like a peculiar practice to us. We are pretty far behind the times though ^_~
Thank you for your post. It has helped me make up my mind regarding the current situation I find myself in.
I must confess to being an “Alt-o-holic”, having 2 dominant chars (main) and 2 backburner chars (low rank infrequently played alts) and these are split between 2 guilds.
I’ve been uncomfortable with the amount of time I’m splitting between the 2 guilds and so will now “retire” the chars from one of the guilds.
Am I correct that a guild in WAR is penalised for having infrequently played characters? It seems that the rate at which a guild levels is directly based upon the input from it’s active members averaged out over the total number of members.
After a fashion, yes, they are penalized. Totally inactive players don’t hurt a guild since they don’t count towards the level contribution formula. Casual players, sadly, do hurt how fast a guild levels. It isn’t a great system really.