I'm the GM of the ally guild Infinite Asylum of The Scryers US server. The guild is officially 1 year old in about 11 days. I created the guild with a small handful of friends because we all faced the exact same problem in our guild(s).

They were all just a bunch of random strangers who got together to down bosses and get loot. There were more cliques than a poetry cafe, you couldn't type a curse word without being shunned, and the 100 man ventrilo server was NEVER uses except for raids...and even then the only ones permitted to talk were raid leads.

It was horrible, and we (myself especially) hated it. People had addons that would greet/congrat people. It was a very mechanized, cold, lifeless environment.

So we broke away, and I formed IA. We formed IA under the principles that this is a massive multiplayer game and we're going to make use of that. We use ventrilo -constantly- and THAT is a huge key to keeping our guild alive. We know everyone in the guild, and when new people join we try our best to make them feel welcome. In 11 days, the entire guild will be making the trek to the midwest (my hometown) for a huge real life 3 day party to celebrate our 1 year anniversary. Real friends have been made, and I tell ya what..it's the only thing that keeps me playing.

One thing I could suggest to help keep your guild in one piece and not divided with cliques etc, would be hold fun silly contests and events for the entire guild to participate in. We host a monthly 'farmapalooza' contest to help members level their professions, and we also host bimonthly fun events such as 'gnome lawn darts' and 'lvl 1 raids'.

The environment we're in allows players to feel relaxed and just be themselves. We're uncensored (a key point to our guild) and mature rated. Basically, think of your favorite bar/club. You can pretty much say/do anything as long as you're not intentionally trying to hurt anyone or start a fight. Adults like this environment..because it separates them from their offices etc.

I'd say hang in there Anonymous (even though the editor of this column named the guy in his response...faux pas on you!) ...stick it out, communicate with your other officers and see if you guys can brainstorm to come up with some ideas on how to get that casual fun social atmosphere back into your guild.

If you'd like to learn more about Infinite Asylum and our policies, please visit: http://infiniteasylum.guildportal.com

-Pestle/GM of Infinite Asylum

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