Breakfast Topic: Are guilds like the Corleone family?
by Mark Crump 
Jan 15th 2008 at 8:00AM
Near the beginning of a game night, a nervous guild member logs in and types
"/gu looking for healer for Shadow Labs run so I can get my Kara frag." There is silence for a bit, and finally the sole guild priest online says "I will grant you your wish. Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to run my alt through Gnomeregan."
Guilds often revolve around the concept of "you scratch-a my back, I scratch-a yours." After all, that guildie that was there every time you needed an instance run for your Kara frags, whom are you to refuse the request when he or she needs a fifth for a heroic?
How much back-scratching do you in your guild? Are you more likely to help those whom have helped you, or are you ready to make anyone asking for help sleep with the fishes?
Filed under: Guilds, Breakfast Topics, Humor
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Swarfy Jan 15th 2008 8:18AM
I've got a fairly social guild... Most of us haven't seen the inside of a 25-man (There are a few that came from other guilds that have been in them). So we tend to help each other out a lot. Doesn't help that most of us are real life friends. ^_^
The last guild I was in got to the point of some of the 70's wouldn't run ANYTHING if the person asking for help was below 65 because the 70's thought the person asking wanted 'Hand-holding'. When the person asking only needed one more person to fill out the group. I normally helped out. Mostly because the person was bringing up a main raiding toon. And I liked seeing the few 70's that were utter jackasses fume over it. (Thankfully those guys have since left the guild, some on to better things, some can't clear kara on a weekly basis)
Erika Jan 15th 2008 8:24AM
I always help my guild out and i Ask if anybody needs help often. But there are times where i need help to and tey are usually always ready to pay the favors back.
Calaana Jan 15th 2008 8:32AM
I'm pretty much the only tank the guild has that's on at the prime hour. I'm guessing this question isn't directed to me.
My other guild is made of two groups: Scrubs and guildies. Guildies I'm happy to help out, to the point of rep grinding to get a faction recipe. I think you can all guess what the "RUN ME IN ARC PLZ!!!" five times a minute types get.... :)
Paw Jan 15th 2008 8:40AM
The attitudes of the people in the three guilds I belonged to early-on soured my opinion of them in general for the rest of my time in WoW. I had no level-capped toons, my main was the same level as many of their alts. When I, or any of the other underlings, asked for assistance for a run-through of a lower level instance, we were ignored...most of the time. Sometimes they would come flat out and say that they were too busy getting ready for a bigger raid or instance. Sometimes, if they were in the right mood, they would log onto their alts and offer anyone a run through...the catch being a run-through of what they wanted to run through, not what we wanted or needed. That is when I gave up on guilds. I was getting no help in any way from the higher level players, so I figured what was so different about going guildless? Nothing. Except that I had less drama to deal with scrolling up my chat window.
jaxson_bateman Jan 15th 2008 8:53AM
Personally I don't join guilds on alt until cap these days as I rarely do instances (I find questing much more productive for XP), and have enough RL friends to chat with if I get too bored. On my first few toons I joined guilds at lower levels whilst keeping this philosiphy, and I would daily get asked to run instances - it got very old, very fast.
However, when you say 'run through', it usually means that a higher level effectively solos the place for you... but the way you say it makes it sound like they got on a similar level toon to run the instance with you (and the rest of your group). If they were running you through on a higher level, I personally feel you should appreciate it and not take it for granted - as an example, a lv 70 would get next to nothing running a lowbie through, say, SM:Cath. Maybe 10g from Small Radiant Shards if they're an enchanter and both rare drops aren't needed. Farming in Outland, they could easily make 5x that in the same period of time, if not more.
If they were hopping on a similar level toon, it is a little more questionable... but in that case, it seems like a case of bargaining. "I'll jump on a similar level toon to help you run something, if I can choose where" doesn't seem like such a bad deal to me.
But yeah, I have yet to see a 'levelling' guild work. My advice would be to just go guildless until 70, then consider joining a guild depending on your tastes (PvP, raiding, casual etc). If you need to instance run on the way up (and trust me, you can easily get to 70 on non-instance quest rewards) then your LFG tool is only a button away.
jaxson_bateman Jan 15th 2008 8:45AM
I couldn't imagine the feeling of 'oweing' someone in a guild because they did something for you could be very healthy or productive.
As a healer that is exalted with all the instance factions and has all the loot I could possibly need (for all specs), doesn't need nethers and isn't a fan of doing heroics just for badges (22+ from doing Kara and possibly also ZA is enough for me), if I ever do an instance it's usually as a favour. I won't be the first to volunteer to help in case some other healer would actually enjoy doing it... BUT, if I do end up going so that the run can get done, I don't think in the back of my mind "they better do something for me in the future"... I consider that I've done them a favour, and would like to think that if I ever were in their position they would do the same.
It is my opinion after all, so anyone is free to disagree. But I think the healthiest environment is one where people who give out favours expect nothing in return (though there's nothing wrong with thinking it'd be nice to get something in return as long as you don't expect it as a given).
ZUR13L Jan 15th 2008 9:04AM
My guild is pretty social and not very militant. That said, one of the posters above mentioned the "RUN ME NAO PLZ" type... Those guys get booted, flat-out. I figure, if you can't respect your guildmates enough to even try to type in English... As a result, we have a much older guild playerbase and just about zero drama. In my guild, if there's more than one high-level on, they are often climbing over each other to help out others. It's just how we are.
We don't allow begging for gold (insta-boot) and we don't allow selling. I've given numerous blues to guildmates because I knew they could use them. Our guild is just much more helpful and friendly than a lot of others seem to be.
Hank Jan 15th 2008 9:26AM
When I finally aquiesed and rerolled horde side, my freind who wanted me there ran me through anything I needed on his main, or the alt he was leveling. ANd if I need help with something, and a guildee offers, I fully expect to return the favor in some way; it may not even be to help him.
I'm sure I'm the only non-officer in my guild who contributes anything to the guild bank, someone will get quite far with Aldor.
PeeWee Jan 15th 2008 9:29AM
If you're not prepared to help others out, don't expect to recieve any help either.
Actually, never expect to get help. Ever. Each time you do recieve it, see it as a blessing.
Bloodchills Jan 15th 2008 9:48AM
I generally give more help than I receive.
Many many people have helped me get BT attuned, and obtain the gear necessary to survive in that place. I could never repay them, so I repay others... pay it forward so to speak.
There's not much else left for me to do in the game but help lower levels or under-geared people to improve their characters. I try to run Kara every week, and ZA. I generally answer LFG requests for group quests if I'm in the area. I settle PVP disputes for 70 allys picking on lowbies. ;-)
But then you run into people who only want to take advantage of you.
Frequently.
And then you see what people are really like.
Case in point:
A while back I helped some Alliance re-rolls on my server to get their Horde characters a major head-start on our server (Skullcrusher).
There were about 5 people who all knew eachother IRL, who I invited to my ALT guild. I was leveling alts in my spare time.
Sometimes I would duck out of raids to level alts, if I didn't feel like the stress of raiding that night. My guild knew many of my alts but not all of them, so I could have some personal time -- you know how it is.
At first I kept my main a secret, but in time I felt I could trust them with my alt names, because they seemed really nice.
They all graciously accepted my kindness and pretended to appreciate it.
But they were taking me for a ride.
I started to notice that guild donations were greatly lower than officer withdrawls, so I closed the bank temporarily to see if anyone would donate anything of value. Two of the four people gquit almost immediately!
Knowing that these people were using me, I kicked the rest of them and completely culled the guild. They took me for about 600g which isn't really that much in the grand scheme of things, but still pretty significant.
Knowing how much I had helped them, most people would have simply tipped their hats at that point and said, adios.
Not these people!! They opened a forum topic and accused me of being a gbank ninja!
Worse, they published all my ALT names so now I can't duck out of raids on those toons anymore. :(
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3773333938&sid=1
After this fiasco, I still help people on my server, but I don't give them anything other than my time.
Bloodchills, 70 Warlock Horde, Skullcrusher
theRaptor Jan 15th 2008 10:19AM
You deserved it for helping ally re-rolls...
Bloodchills Jan 15th 2008 10:29AM
[quote]theRaptor said...
You deserved it for helping ally re-rolls...[/quote]
In hindsight, you are correct. I was hoping that they could be encouraged...
Race Bannon Jan 15th 2008 10:47AM
I don't know that I'd have posted that thread mate. You don't come off looking good.
RE the topic:
I help guildies out when possible, but I don't automatically drop everything I'm doing anytime someone asks. I think I give a lot more than I ask for and that's how I like it.
Manasseh Jan 15th 2008 11:21AM
You made one very fundamental mistake... you trusted the Alliance. Even dressed up as Orcs and Blood Elves, they're still jerks.
Smurk Jan 15th 2008 2:14PM
I'm glad I read that thread, if only for the part where someone says the guild "moved slower than Christopher Reeves swimming through syrup."
robotrock Jan 15th 2008 9:49AM
I was healing an instance where it was all guild members but one pickup mage. My guild leader didn't like how the mage was talking in the chat so he told me to let him die.
I didn't really want to but I didn't want to piss off the guild leader (he's a personal friend).
Milktub Jan 15th 2008 10:28AM
Thanks for the chuckle.
I had a "favor" situation about two weeks ago. I'd let it slip that I was leveling blacksmithing. Me and another miner in the guild had a little game going on where when one of us would hit a node the other would yell in chat "MY ORE!" and laugh. I guess he took me seriously, thinking I really wanted a bunch of ore. So every few hours, he'd be sending a few khorium ore.
After a couple days I said I didn't need any more khorium, how can I repay you? He was leveling 'chanting, so I could repay him in some dust and essence. Logged onto my 'chanter and sent him a couple stacks of arc dust and a stack of greater planar ess. Settled, right?
For the next two weeks: "where's my mats?" "where's my mats?"
But yeah, overall of course there's an implied favor with every favor. We aren't the type of guild that gives "runs", but you always make a mental note when someone comes down to help you out with this or that group quest, sends you a stack of buff food, or tosses some mats your way to help you out with a profession leveling.
David Emmons Jan 15th 2008 2:54PM
I've been on a guild for about 7 months that is comprised entirely of real life friends. My wife and I actually switched servers and factions to play with these friends and we don't have as much free time as they do, so they've always been ahead of us by about 15 levels. Since they hit the cap, however, we've been catching up. They've helped us through so many binds, I'm going to be thrilled when we can be of help to them.
theRaptor Jan 15th 2008 10:10AM
The issue with helping people with content you have advanced past, is how much time you have to meet your own goals. I have goals I want to achieve in my playtime, I don't play purely for the social aspect (I don't need to pay $15 a month to hang out with people). So I help others either when they have helped me in the past, or I have filled my goals for that day.
For the past three weeks I have been gearing up my mage to ensure that my raid spot is solid, and so have had little time to help others out. Today I ran some alts through WC because I have reached my goal and didn't feel like working on my pally.
Gessilea Jan 15th 2008 11:03AM
I'm in a guild with a bunch of friends from college who are almost never on except for our weekend raids. We're in a larger guild alliance though where I have some good friends. It's a sign of friendship to be fair with each other. I'll do an enchant or cut a jem any time someone asks, assuming I'm available (their mats, of course), and know that they'll do the same. A tank friend of mine runs instances with me that I know he doesn't really need, so I do anything I can to help him when he asks. People who are just takers stop getting my help pretty fast, because who wants to be taken advantage of?