Breakfast Topic: Does your guild's social reputation matter?
by Deb Montague 
Sep 4th 2010 at 8:00AM
If you've been on the internet in any capacity for a few years, you are familiar with the Penny Arcade theory (NSFW language). I've just come through a couple weeks of this with my guild. It resulted in one person's being kicked and another leaving. Briefly, the kicked person tried to sell tracking the Time-Lost Proto Drake for 5k gold. A person on the server paid 2,500g up front and was led on a wild goose chase, after which the ex-guild member phased, hearthed and put the "pigeon" on ignore. When an officer and I confronted the perpetrator, the lies grew ever more convoluted. I kicked him and repaid, from guild funds, the money stolen. The person who quit behaved in a manner that wasn't appropriate. I called him out on it.
These incidents have me thinking: Does it matter how you behave in a fake world? Realistically, I'm probably never going to meet 95 percent of the people on my server. In our guild Code of Conduct, I state right at the beginning, "We do not tolerate malicious, hurtful behavior or speech in guild chat, party chat, WoW chat or on Vent. This is grounds for dismissal. Honor and respect each other and other guilds. When you join this guild, you represent us wherever you go. Respect others as you expect to be respected. Your integrity and actions directly reflect onto this guild. Inappropriate conduct with other guild members and the Llane community at large is not permitted and is grounds for dismissal."
I am adamant about this. I feel that if you want to be treated with respect, taken seriously, invited to raids and not called out on the server forum, you must respect others. I've worked very hard to create a guild that is respected. When people think about us, they know we're here for the fun of the game. We don't take ourselves seriously, and we treat you fairly and with respect. Am I way off base here? Again, does it matter? How do you think your server views you and your guild? Do you care?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
Astalnar Sep 4th 2010 8:08AM
All in all, I really thought that fools who pay in advance were extinct. On our server there is no chance someone would cash him out from guild funds because of his own stupidity.
Josh Sep 4th 2010 8:15AM
@ Astalnar
Not sure if you're trolling but I guess I'll feed you.
The bad seed was using the good rep of his guild to profit from another player, i.e. cashing capital (earned by being a group of good people/ skilled players) for his personal gold. The bad seed was not only stealing from the poor player but from the guild as a whole.
Schadenfreude Sep 4th 2010 11:18AM
It absolutely matters. It might be because I'm on a small server, but guilds get a reputation very fast and it's hard to shake. One guild in particular has been around since vanilla WoW but is furiously reviled to this day for the general lack of skill and bad behavior of its members. Many scheduled pug raids have the entire guild in their banlists.
Individual players have to work quite a lot harder to gain such a reputation. A guild tag is much more common and more likely to generate negative associations.
Redrum Sep 5th 2010 4:51PM
@Astalnar
I'm sure nobody on your server would make that mistake with someone in your guild. When dealing with player from a guild with a good reputation, its reasonable to assume you wouldn't get screwed over for your gold.
@ Deb Montague
I think it was commendable what you did to make things right and preserve the good reputation of your guild. An apology to the victim and a g-kick to the offender were absolutely necessary to prevent your guild from being seen as a bunch of ninjas. Refunding the 2500 gold took some class though, and shows that you were willing to go above and beyond to resolve an unfortunate situation.
Hal Sep 4th 2010 8:08AM
Of course it matters! The world may be fake, but the people are real. I maintain the only reason to abuse other players is because you're a sociopath who's lost the connection that there are real people playing on the other end of the PC.
On a different note, however, I think guild reputation matters because it can really help or hurt recruitment. Even if your guild isn't the most dynamic place to raid, people will stay away from a guild full of jerks, or will be wary of a guild that regularly changes leadership. A lot of guilds that end up losing members may just vanish forever, either because they have a bad reputation, or because they have none.
Killik Sep 4th 2010 10:34AM
Also people will assume you're a jerk, if you're in a guild full of jerks.
Toothy Sep 4th 2010 10:55AM
Odd thing, as a mostly solo player, who does not hang out on realm forums, I have no clue what any guild's/player's reputation is. It doesn't really show in game. (this is probably the reason I have no idea about finding a guild to apply to)
May be one of the reasons that add to the anonymity people feel in WOW. If you are only interacting with the guildies, that is your world. So, if you don't have the inclination to act reasonably on your own, there is no check on your behavior. Your guild is the only place where you may ever be called out on this. If they don't do it, you never get any feedback that, no, it's you who are the problem not the world, and you are likely to continue being an asshat.
Boocat Sep 4th 2010 11:35PM
I believe that the way people act in the game world is really how they are in real life their just in the closet about it. A D-Bag in this fake world will be a D-bag in the real world.
Spazmoose Sep 7th 2010 1:31PM
@Toothy
While I may not be a solo player like you, I too avoid the realm forums, but I don't agree that player/guild reputation is not apparent in the game. If you spend any time in the Trade, General, Guild, or Local channels, you will often find out quite a bit about people on the realm.
For instance, there is one player on my server, who constantly trolls trade chat, and as a result, has been banned from many PuGs that get going, and has been booted from multiple guilds, even though from my experience, he is a rather skilled player.
Likewise, there is a very large guild on my server that has gotten a bad reputation for having ninja looters in the guild, even though any time the GM finds out about a ninja looter, they get a quick /gkick, as he doesn't tolerate that. The guild itself has some very good players, and nice people all around, but because of a string of bad apples, they have gotten a bad name.
Saying that reputation doesn't show unless you are in a guild/on the forums seems a bit like having blinders on to what is going on in the game.
Josh Sep 4th 2010 8:09AM
Given that I spend so much time in this virtual world, my toon's rep, as with that of my guild, matters a ton. Even on a relatively large population server, the ninja's and baddies are often well known targets of endless trade flaming. On the other hand, a good rep allows more profitable trading or getting into pugs on weaker alts.
Be one of the good guys!
rplkleynhans Sep 7th 2010 9:29AM
But i like evil more.
Succulent Sep 4th 2010 8:12AM
My guild goes along these lines as well, we don't have anything written about it, generally think it's a common sense thing.
I can say for sure that bad reputations certainly have a massive effect. I've seen guilds with bad reps be seriously effected by this, labelled as "ninja" guilds, people avoiding anyone with their tag and constant talk of them on trade.
While it's not something I concentrate on, I'll call people out that could be giving us as whole a bad name.
relmatos Sep 4th 2010 8:14AM
Your reputation and your guild's reputation matters a lot.
It's obvious after spending a while in a realm. Guilds will kick ninjas, players will avoid certain guilds and players, ...
It would only help if blizzard finally implemented account and guild ignores.
Redrum Sep 5th 2010 4:26PM
If not a whole guild, it would be great to be able to ignore an entire battle.net account. Some of the trade trolls on my server keep popping up on alts.
Last night i was in Mauradon on my level 44 enhance Shammy. The hunter in the group ninja looted a +defense cloak and refused to remove distracting shot from his rotation. Instead of breaking combat long enough to ignore/vote kick him, the tank proceeded to pull the entire room and disconnect, punishing everyone for the mistakes on one player. Both the tank and hunter are ignored, but I'd rather not run with either of these players again, or any of their alts.
Josh Sep 4th 2010 8:14AM
@ Astalnar
Not sure if you're trolling but I guess I'll feed you.
The bad seed was using the good rep of his guild to profit from another player, i.e. cashing capital (earned by being a group of good people/ skilled players) for his personal gold. The bad seed was not only stealing from the poor player but from the guild as a whole.
Josh Sep 4th 2010 8:15AM
sorry for the duplicate, damn this comment system!
omedon666 Sep 4th 2010 8:26AM
I am a firm believer that the entire point (or at least a major one) of the guild leveling system is to incentivize the very accountability this article discusses. It's a sideways way to "police the community" without actually doing it.
-You will want to be in a guild. It's the optimal setup. (perks)
-You will want to stay in that guild. It's the optimal setup. (reputation)
-To stay in the guild (any guild worth it's salt), you need to behave.
And for guilds that really don't care, well, that's also self-solving: we will know who they are. ;)
Krz Sep 4th 2010 8:53AM
I agree, the effects of these additions to guilds are going to be very profound and have an interesting and far-reaching effect to gameplay and server atmosphere in general.
I'm really fascinated by the way Blizz seems to have set this up.
Bring on Catacylsm!
Gendou Sep 4th 2010 8:32AM
Our guild has a single written rule for all guild members: "Don't be an asshat."
That goes for both internal and external interactions, and breaking the rule is grounds for an immediate /gkick.
Yes, it's subjective. But it's worked for the last five years, and our guild has a reputation for being one of the 'more mature' guilds on our server.
Adoisin Sep 4th 2010 4:22PM
My guild has the same basic rule. We have that not as a matter of reputation, but the fact that most folks in the guild are relaxed nice people. We see no reason to tolerate an ass hat in the mix.
Not long ago, I gkicked a guy for breaking that basic rule. He decided to take his issues to trade chat, and started bad mouthing my guild. I was surprised and more than a little shocked to find people who had pugged with us, traded with us, and in a few cases total strangers speaking out on behalf of our guild. Seems like we have built a reputation, intentional or not.
Just when it seems like you are ready to go postal due to all the thunderfury, anal, and trollish chat in trade, people do something like this.