Breakfast Topic: Does your guild membership depend on guild perks?
by Darren Brown 
Dec 20th 2010 at 8:00AM
A few months ago, there were no such things as guild levels, guild perks, or guild reputation (except for on beta, maybe). We had good old-fashioned guilds, without levels or perks, full of players who stuck together purely out of common goals in raiding, PvP, etc., or just to enjoy each other's company. Hopefully, you were in a guild that matched both of those criteria.
Now, we have guilds that can level and gain some pretty impressive perks. Perks include bonuses to experience, honor, justice points gained, increased mount speed and more. In order to gain some of the benefits of guild membership, you have to gain reputation with the guild. This isn't like the old days, when your guild perks were being able to raid or PvP with the guild or when guild "rep" was making sure the other members and officers liked you.
I've been in the same guild around two years now, which is about 80 percent of my WoW history. I tried a couple before my current guild and found some to be too casual (accomplishing nothing) or too pro (full of jerks). My guild now sees all the content when it's relevant, including 9/12 heroic ICC on six hours per week of raiding and with a two- to three-month break from raiding as a guild. I enjoy the mix of the great atmosphere with what we can accomplish.
The guild perks are for me, well, just perks. Even if it took years to hit guild level 25, I'd stick where I am. On the other hand, I know a good raider who guild hops almost bimonthly to ensure he is in the best position for raiding and other achievements. What about you? Are you loyal to your guild for what it is, who the players are, or do you need the perks?
| Its playstyle and activities. | |
|---|---|
| The people in it. | |
| The guild perks and achievements it earns. |
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ad134 Dec 20th 2010 8:11AM
I have a feeling that perks will become like Gearscore, Catch-22 wise. In order to level up you need members, and in order to get members you need to level up. Maybe it's not so bad at the moment, while most guilds are still pretty low, but once guilds start to get the later, better perks, people will see them as a requirement. I love the idea of guild perks, but they could fall flat on their face quite soon.
Ad134 Dec 20th 2010 8:12AM
Forgot to add:
I personally don't care about perks, I join guilds for the people, but I'm sure a lot of people will want the extra rep/XP gained from a levelled guild.
TY Dec 20th 2010 8:13AM
I think guild achievmants and perks will only affect what guilds you apply to. For example i just moved servers and i didnt want to apply to a guild that boasted 100+ members but had only achieved level 2 (this was yesterday). This to me says that they just have ALOT of alts in their guild. So i think the lvl will affect how people view a guild to apply to.
baraka1408 Dec 20th 2010 8:14AM
I'm in a guild with good people. They are not jerks. I left a guild that was full of jerks. This was before 4.0, and all these guild perks anyway, but I'd have walked anyway. I'd much rather be where I am with nice, friendly people who invite you to runs, even if we are a small guild (under 150+ members) and level ourselves slowly, than be in a fast leveling guild, full of jerks, who don't invite you to anything because you don't know them in real life like the other 9 elitist assholes they always invite.
baraka1408 Dec 20th 2010 8:16AM
BTW out of 150+ members, we only have about 12-15 on at a time. Most don't play anymore.
Roguesan Dec 20th 2010 8:16AM
On the subject of guild perks, does anyone know if items bought after completing guild achievements (such as the tantalising Reins of the Dark Phoenix, for completing Guild Glory of the Cataclysm Raider) are stripped from you from leaving the guild.
If my leaving my guild was ever a notion I cared to entertain, something like that would be one of the factors which would make me think twice.
Sleutel Dec 20th 2010 8:26AM
It's my understanding that once you've purchased/learned the item, it's yours.
MusedMoose Dec 20th 2010 8:17AM
I'm in my guild because it's made up of good people, plain and simple. Granted, the perks are *great* - we're nearly level 4, so the rep boost will be awesome when it comes time to start grinding, and the mounted speed boost has been a big help with leveling Archaeology without a flying mount.
What I'm really waiting for is being able to get the massive lion mount, since we're an Alliance guild. I'm sure some Horde players are just as excited about their eventual scorpion mount as well. Blizzard did an awesome job with those two.
Also, I wonder if we'll see less guild-hopping now that you have to gain rep with a guild in order to get some of the perks. I've stopped looking at my guild rep with my lower-level alts, it takes so long to build. @_@
Namy Dec 20th 2010 8:20AM
At the moment my guild see our perks as just that, perks. We play together because we like each other. The fact we get perks now is just a bonus. Everytime the guild dings we all congratualte eachother and it's nice because we're doing it together with people we like. There's a real sense of 'well done team'. I wouldn't join a guild just for the rep. Who cares how awesome their perks are if you don't even know them? Saying that, I would bloody love that guild mount ; )
l89 Dec 20th 2010 8:22AM
Actually, it was only a few WEEKS before ;)
Sleutel Dec 20th 2010 8:28AM
My membership doesn't depend on perks, but it would be nice if I could have access to the rewards we've earned--I'm one of those whose guild XP is bugged, so I've been stuck at Friendly while everyone else is off buying the fun items we've unlocked. :( Not to mention, the guild is missing out on even more achievements that require members to be at Honored to count towards, because I'm by no means the only one bugged.
Billlop Dec 20th 2010 8:30AM
Its bad news IMHO. The amount of guilds ive been invited to full of people that couldnt care less about each other is staggering. People join guilds for perks now, not because they know people. Its a real shame. We are going to end up with guilds just full of people who dont know one another. Defeats the purpose of a guild
Ice Dec 20th 2010 11:05AM
Thats why we have strict policy on this. If someone gives any hints about wanting to join due perks/level/activity level we dont invite them.
If someone wants to join guild because of those things they DO NOT deserve to join our guild, simple as that. It was same on late ICC. I would idle on my frostwyrm at dalaran and would instantly get whispers like "Can I join your guild?" "Whats your progress on ICC? How much you farm?". Excuse me?
Thats like applying for job: "Do you get free car in months time if I apply to you? I dont care about anyone at work, I just want the car and then leave with the car of course"
Its really sad I agree. My friends guild got some major changes after the perk system.
Before, they had questionable ways to raid. I was with them briefly and on vent they would talk about gearscore all the freaking time. THey even gave BONUSES for people who would have BIGGEST GS on the guild or biggest improvements, wtf?
Now they went all recruit spree, my friend and many others are now recruiters. Why? Simply because more people = faster levelling. Instead of getting nice people who are active they want to turn into zerg guild. Why would they do that? To straight quote their GM: "When we recruit people why would they join us if we are lagging behind on levels".
At which point I said my friend that "whoever wants to join guild because of their guild level doesnt deserve to be in the guild. Also getting to 25 takes 5 months, fastest ones get to it in APRIL. Also noone cares."
Budokan Dec 20th 2010 8:31AM
"too pro (full of jerks)"
In my experience these 2 things always coincide. Always. Why is that?
Sinthar Dec 21st 2010 3:35AM
I personally believe its because you end up with many people in the raid passionately believing they and they alone are right. This is because to join a 'pro' or hardcore guild, you must have a hunger for the goal, that hunger provides motivation, and competition between the members. That leads to one upmanship, jerkism etc etc.
In my experience there are many ways to do the job, some harder than others. The trick is to match the way to the folk you have treading that path, to maximise their strengths and minimise their weaknesses.
Moonfaxx Dec 20th 2010 1:58PM
More often than not, I think you're probably right. However, it's all about perspective. For example, if I'm not playing to my full ability, I expect to be called out on it by my leaders (publicly, if need be) with no sugarcoating. I imagine this would turn off many individuals (particularly those looking to enjoy the game in a relatively casual atmosphere). But my setting is that of competitive raiding, and if a fellow raider isn't pulling their weight, I certainly don't want them in my group. Does that make me a jerk? Perhaps to some. It all comes back to perspective.
leopold.valenta Dec 20th 2010 3:23PM
The people in my current guild closely overlap with the circle of friends I had when I started college. Back then, we were all fresh out of highschool, and were pretty afraid that we'd loose touch. So when one or two of my friends started playing Wow, and suggested I play too so we would see each other outside of special holidays when everyone was back in town, I hopped on.
And its pretty much the same people, we stuck together through 4 guilds, founded our own, saw it rise to 2nd best serverwide in BC, crash and burn in WotLK, and reuniting for Cataclysm, even getting me back online after a one-year hiatus. .
We're like a 12-member boyband, now that I think about it. Except that instead of becoming old, fat and/or drug addicted, at least some of us became doctors.
Bart Dec 20th 2010 8:42AM
Thankfully I joined a guild that is incredibly friendly, we're level 5, almost 6, but we're still like a huge group of friends =]
Loradio Dec 20th 2010 8:43AM
I like what we do, i just wish we had raiders, instead of puggers
Ste Dec 20th 2010 8:43AM
My guild is level 5, which is great, but I wouldn't leave for another guild that was a higher level because I enjoy playing with the people in the guild.
However, I do worry about newly formed guilds in the future, I think it will become very difficult for new guilds to attract members as most people when looking for a guild will look at the guild level I think.
I can't decide whether guild levels are a good thing becaues of that, I'm very happy with my current guild and don't ever envisage leaving, but if I decided to roll an alliance toon (quite likely I will at least try a worgen at some point) then if I'm honest the first thing I will look at will be guild levels, as it is the only thing you can possibly know about a guild before joining.
At this point I think the only way I would join a newly formed guild would be if I knew some of the people in the guild and enjoyed playing with them, but that is often not the case for me when joining a new guild, particularly when starting from scratch.