Breakfast Topic: How big is your guild?
by Paul Sherrard 
May 6th 2007 at 8:13AM
I've seen guilds with 1 member, I've been in guilds with 500 members, and yet I've never found a guild that can be everything to everybody. I'm sure even those guys with their 1-man guilds get a bit lonely from time to time. So what is it that makes a guild too big, too small, or just right for your average player?
Would you prefer to be a member of a small, tightly-knit guild or a sprawling mass of people so huge that everyone on your server knows your guild, if not you? What does the size of a guild's membership say to you as a member or prospective member? Does size matter, and if it does, which is better - erring on the smaller side of numbers, or a population enough to start a small city?
How big is your guild, and is it the right size for you? Why? If not, then what are you looking for from a guild, and how does the size of the guild play into your perception and comfort-level with that guild?
Lots of questions, let's hear your answers!
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guilds
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
NeuroMan42 May 6th 2007 8:30AM
Last time we checked, AIE is somewhere between 1000-1500 but we can only see 500 and The Armory is buggy too on the count. We are a guild of podcasters, Comic Artists, fans, and Net Celebrities.
Lunada May 6th 2007 8:48AM
i would rather have a smaller, closer guild. To me the larger the guild the less the individual becomes important acuse at that point they would only see u as the 70 druid, mage, lock, etc (especially if u enter a guild in which u dont know anyone). My guild is small, in fact, out of the 20 members in it (mostly alts of good friends)only 2 r on most of the time (me and one other person), but i still perfer it to the larger guilds in which the individual is phased out to make way for the well-being of the guild as a whole (not that, that is always a bad thing).
Alittlemagic May 6th 2007 9:02AM
My guild is maded up of about 40 members that are the core raiders. Its nice to beable to count on everyone in your guild and you know there just not a number.
Ben Abraham May 6th 2007 9:27AM
One small thing that I'd like to add in way of advocating a "smaller guild" - you can always add more... but with a big guild, you can't always kick people out! :P
Maybe something to think about...
Jason May 6th 2007 9:48AM
@Abraham: You can always /gkick someone. It's true that you can build a guild up, but if you're a smaller, casual guild, building up can do more harm than trimming down and scaling back can be for a larger guild.
As to guilds in general, I'm not a fan of the large guild. I prefer the smaller, tighter knit group. I'm not talking about a DnT or a Nihilium, where you're got a core of raiders, but an actual group of friends. People who are willing to go the extra mile for a guildie, and are just looking to have fun at their own pace. World firsts never did anything for me, same goes for being the best. I play for fun, and I enjoy doing that in the company of like-minded individuals.
Tumples May 6th 2007 10:12AM
@5, Spot on to what I think, I play because my friends do in a way, its a way of talking to them and having fun, I probably wont see the end game stuff this way but I dont really care, as I'm having fun with friends.
Sylythn May 6th 2007 11:03AM
I suppose the numbers depend on if you consider sister guilds members or not...but Midnight Cartel on Elune(A) has very near 500 members, and it's just too big for me. I know people, but I'm also lost in a sea of people I don't know whenever I log in. I highly prefer our sister guild Midnight Coven(H) which has about 225 members right now (less because a lot of us have got at least 1 alt and 1 twink). There are a couple people I don't know, but that's mostly because they're new...it helps to have been in the guild from only a few months after formation. Coven's just that little bit smaller, closer, friendlier that makes it fun - even if we have to work harder than Cartel to support our guildies, and progress slower through end-game.
Rachel D May 6th 2007 11:00AM
I used to belong to AIE, it was a lot of fun but there were so many members it was hard to keep up and feel like you really knew any of them.
To echo most of the comments here, I prefer a smaller guild that is more tight-knit. Running with guildies you know (either in RL or by playing together regularly) is a lot of fun and everyone seems much more willing to help each other out. After experiencing a ginormous guild and a smaller one, I vote small FTW.
chris furniss May 6th 2007 11:21AM
Our guild is pretty small (only about 30 members) but that's just because we are mostly all real life friends. We are recruiting and would like more members, though.
orderofthetapeworm.com
be in a guild with Jhonen Vasquez! It's fun kinda!
Laukidh May 6th 2007 11:56AM
My guild is all guys I know through work. We're looking forward to getting 10 live bodies above 60 and maybe someday thinking about kara...
Melf May 6th 2007 1:19PM
My guild has about 55 members and their alts, and probably about 40 of those are the core raiders (3x/week) with the rest as only 1 or 2x per week raiding. Everyone in the guild knows someone else in real life, and there's a core group of about 15 people who have all been friends for many years. It works for us :) We avoid drama and get the job done because we're all real people who want to work together. Also, it helps when you're looking for "bob the druid" that you can just call him up on his cell phone.
Valyria May 6th 2007 1:29PM
Shortly after I started playing, I joined a smaller guild and quickly became friends with everyone. I stayed in that guild for a long time (over a year) and it was nice to play with people who you knew are trustworthy and fun. The main people I play with in that guild and I moved our mains to another, MUCH larger guild (so we could try raiding, which we weren't able to do in the old guild) and the experience hasn't really been enjoyable at all. There's an "A-team" in the guild that are friends with each other and play together, but for the most part the guild is made up of people who don't care to know one another and are just there for "phat loots".
Small guilds all the way!
MartinC May 6th 2007 4:37PM
Small is always best. Keep a core group of people that you know well, and can group with. Our guild has about 15 members, all around the same level, which usually means getting a group of 5 together to do an instance is pretty easy.
The large guilds seems to have so much disparity. I've teamed with a few from one of the larger guilds, and they were pretty good, so my reaction was, "that guild is pretty good." Then another time teamed with a different member from the same guild, as he was horrible.
With the smaller guilds, one person can better represent the entire guild, thus it is much easier to maintain consistency. Numerous time I've run across random people, on the zep or something, that noticed my guild name, and said, "Hey, I grouped with one of your guild members yesterday. He was top notch. You guys have a great guild." Comments like those are always nice to hear.
Lori May 6th 2007 5:29PM
I was in a small close knit guild and liked it very much. Most of us went to a larger, yet small, guild to run 20 man instances. I liked that guild as well. Next was a large guild for 40 man raids and I hate it. It was more like a small guild of maybe 12 ppl with the rest being there to fill out the raids. That was preTBC and now it is more like three or four groups in the guild each with their own chat channel. I'm looking for a new smaller guild now.
Dehaant May 7th 2007 5:58AM
Affinity on Khaz'Goroth is a small guild of 20-30 people but who are great in RL as well. Mostly 25+. The banter on TS is to die for.
Theserene May 7th 2007 6:36AM
We have about 10 regular players in our guild, and about as many casuals. So about 20 in total.
A lot of us know each other in real life, so it's far more of a social guild than anything else, although we do help each other out with quests and money when needed.
Since we have no priest or paladin though we have to group up with others if we want to do 5-man instances.
Shaade May 7th 2007 9:15AM
Sylythn (#8) came by.... one of my members :) /wave
I'm the GM of Midnight Cartel. One of my founding members on the alliance side formed our sister guild Midnight Coven, and never looked back. Thing is, Mourngore (Syl's GM) and I look at the two guilds as one mega guild! Cartel/Coven share a website and forum, and Vent server. Whenever we have cross- faction needs we're always there for each other. It's also a blast to see Coven members out in the wild, find them on our vent server, and offer some assistance. (Taking down PvE bosses is a blast cross-faction)
Anyway... the Coven is pretty huge in terms of Elune horde guilds, and proportionally its the same really if you think about it. Together we have a major affect on the server social structure. Cartel is the largest Alliance guild on server, and we have a great rep. It seems as if every one knows us, and when ever our members 'pug' out (not that they need to much in a large guild) that the new friends all feel better knowing they are grouped with MC members.
Same seems to go for the Coven. All in all, it doesn't matter how large you are, but really how effective you are for your members. Guild rep has a lot to do with that as well, being able to have trusted trading and crafting partners, as well as easily formed alliances to fill up raids when needed.
The size for me, is a layer of comfort. Always being able to find people to play with, knowing you always have people to turn to for help, and further developing real ties in the grander social network of a server. Being large AND reputable makes this game that much easier and more fulfilling.
dirty May 7th 2007 4:29PM
BOOOOOO AGGIES!!!!!!!!!!!
theyre like the real life alliance.