How do you keep your guild busy during the pre-expansion lull?
by Anne Stickney 
Feb 29th 2012 at 12:00PM
It's become something of a cycle over the years: An expansion is released, servers are glutted with players eagerly devouring content. As the expansion goes on, patches are released with more new content to play. But eventually, all good things must come to an end -- and when the last patch of an expansion is released, guild leaders have to contend with players who get ... well, flat-out bored, really. With nothing left to look forward to until the next expansion is released, it's hard to keep a guild entertained.
As far as my guild goes, we keep ourselves amused by going back and completing old achievements or clearing old content. Any raid mounts that we may have missed along the way are picked up for all. In between that, people run old-world raids on off nights for transmogrification gear and other achievements. But in every guild I've been in, there's always a lull at the end of expansions. Once you've beaten that final boss and dinged that last achievement, what do you do to keep your guild entertained when the expansion is drawing to a close?
As far as my guild goes, we keep ourselves amused by going back and completing old achievements or clearing old content. Any raid mounts that we may have missed along the way are picked up for all. In between that, people run old-world raids on off nights for transmogrification gear and other achievements. But in every guild I've been in, there's always a lull at the end of expansions. Once you've beaten that final boss and dinged that last achievement, what do you do to keep your guild entertained when the expansion is drawing to a close?
There's a thread over on the Raid and Guild Leadership forums that discusses exactly that, including a lot of entertaining suggestions for various types of amusement. Some highlights from the thread include steeplechase mount racing -- as pointed out, the circular nature of Ironforge is just perfect for this -- guild hide and seek (which requires nameplates to be turned off), and of course, the usual run of scavenger hunts and riddle contests.
Personally, I love the idea of Guild Darts. One player -- the GM, in the suggestion's case -- leaps from a tall building to his or her death. The rest of the guild follows suit, trying to aim their corpses closest to the first player's. The closest corpse gets a prize. If you perform these antics in a populated area, the commentary from nonparticipants ought to be a prize in and of itself. Random players falling from the sky to their deaths sounds entertaining to me, anyway.
The thing I really like about these suggestions is that they don't necessarily just involve the guild; there are plenty there that offer a moment of surprise spontaneity reminiscent of flash mobs or improv groups. I'm a big fan of guerrilla improv like Improv Everywhere, which specializes in creating scenes in the middle of ordinary, everyday life. It's entertaining for those who participate, and it's entertaining for those who are lucky enough to witness the scene when it happens, too. Why not bring some of that random fun into WoW, too?
What do you do to keep your guild amused while waiting for Mists, or when you're just having a ho-hum day? Go ahead and share -- and while you're at it, pop in and share on the original thread, too!
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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Guilds
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Hateraide Feb 29th 2012 12:18PM
Header pic; "Look everybody it's the Trollol train!?
Tri Feb 29th 2012 1:42PM
Haha improvised conga lines in cities is always fun. There's ALWAYS some random people that join in xD
Noyou Feb 29th 2012 12:19PM
I have been bad, been playing on my alt sever. Only checking in for a little while on my main server. Sorry. I need toons to level :)
jimportal Feb 29th 2012 12:25PM
I've yet to see a level 25 guild with 100% completion on guild achievements. It seems there's always something to do. It's just a matter of getting a few people excited about doing things.
John Feb 29th 2012 12:29PM
Alt-toon raiding!
Valkonsilver Feb 29th 2012 12:39PM
Play another game? :P
Kunikenwad! Feb 29th 2012 12:40PM
Play SWTOR?
TheWizard Feb 29th 2012 12:43PM
Ours sorta... died.
eirinefrostblade Feb 29th 2012 12:49PM
As a member (and quasi-officer) of two role play guilds, ir's rare that we never have anything to do to keep us occupied. We're also really small, so we're still plugging away at leveling the guilds and getting achievements :)
photofire1969 Feb 29th 2012 12:53PM
In the lul of the last couple of months I have tried to keep intrests going for Guildies by offering a guild raffle. Each guild toon pay's in Xg for a chance to win either a mechanohog, a vial of the sands or whatever I have on hand that is cool and tradable in game. Each entry is alloted 20 Mysterious fortune cards and the toon with the highest gold total win's, I sometimes throw in a lott card prize for the lowest amount as well (sucks to get 20 10s cards in a row dotcha know!!). To keep everyone honest I turn the cards while my Girlfriend draws a random name from a hat. It's pretty fun watching everyone scrammble around to collect the needed gold on alts to enter.
Revynn Feb 29th 2012 12:53PM
Mostly the same as you, Anne. Mount runs, grabbing older titles and achievements like Sinestra or H-Nefarian that we couldn't manage when it was current, Transmog gear runs and alt raids through the current tier.
Mostly, though, we'll eventually call an end to focused progression and the guild will turn into a hang out spot for the people who stick around which is generally the officers and long time members. The people who joined for hard mode raiding will bail when we can no longer field a consistent raid.
Sansarya Feb 29th 2012 1:14PM
Our guild has finally decide to learn how to raid with other friends from different servers, thanks to the new cross-realm raiding. We've had two hilarious fails in Ahn'Qiraj and Serpentine Cavern so far (with a raid size of four), but we remain undaunted in our quest to get all the achievements in game. :)
threesixteen Feb 29th 2012 1:14PM
i've started an art collective guild on US-Turalyon called where i collect and exhibit grey items with fun flavour text in the guild bank which doubles as my art gallery.
I get fun reactions in trade chat when i spam my latest exhibits and invites to join.
Feel free to create a lowlevel alt and send an ingame mail to "Malivoire" if you're interested in joining. I also accept contributions (either cool grey items, or gold to help me acquire items. as word has been spreading i'm finding more and more great grey items on the auction house)...
i try to create fresh exhibits each month and i have guild ranks based on donations etc.
hoping to announce a special white item exhibit in the early spring as well.
:)
threesixteen Feb 29th 2012 1:15PM
*guild is called "DEADWOOD" (for some reason the < tags didn't work here).
:)
JakeDaSnake Feb 29th 2012 1:20PM
I love the old Mammoth walks from Dalaran. I am trying to start a new tradition -- Flamingo walks in the SW fountains by the Auction Houses. If you want to be the coolest person on your server and start this trend, just take your Lovebird and walk around the fountain in the water. For added flare, bring your Mulgore Hatchling. And if you really want to be cool, roll a hunter and bring the pink tallstrider with you too.
Snappel Feb 29th 2012 1:30PM
I've just been doing this same thing I did at the end of Wrath when ICC had started becoming stale, completing the "Glory of the Hero" heroic 5man achievements.
On an unrelated note, I present the true hybrid class, druid monks.
http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=p1nfkj6qu6
Gimmlette Feb 29th 2012 1:53PM
I don't have enough time for everything I want the guild to accomplish and do. We are working our way slowly through content and doing our regular Classic, BC and Wrath raids. We have a guild member designed "Ironlite" challenge going on. We're attacking the Whale Shark for those who've never had the terror of seeing him charge. We have our 3rd Annual End of Winter Bash, which is server wide and PvP. We're working on the last remaining profession achievements. There's so much to do.
I like the flamingo idea. We may have to do something with that.
AquaWrench Feb 29th 2012 2:25PM
My guild organizes scavenger hunts, where we all get a list of obscure items - some from vendors, some from drops, etc. And whoever has the most items after a set time wins a prize.
In-game trivia games are also fun, and there's an addon that makes these easier to organize and run.
Bare-knuckle dueling (no weapons, armor or spells, just dukin' it out) can be entertaining.
Hide and seek (with locator addons switched off, and maybe confined to a small location like Org or SW). Prize going to whoever is last to be found.
I wonder if there some sort of a kick the can type game you could operate using the origami or leather ball crafted items?
Then there's old content, achievements, and that sort of thing.
Thander Feb 29th 2012 3:12PM
As long as the guild has achieved its progression goals, I think it's perfectly okay for people to take a break from the game. Playing year round is a sure way to burnout. If that burnout happens during the launch of a new expansion, your guild is pretty much done. Better to let everyone get refreshed before the expansion is out. Some players are perfectly fine playing year round, but a lot of people need that break.
Cbeefman Feb 29th 2012 5:19PM
I myself have never felt the "lul" you speak of untill recently.
Just this week I was talking to a friend out of guild about how i feel, after playing since vanilla, that I have finally outgrown the game. I actually feel stuck because our guild is still working on our first staff legendary, the owner of whom i happen to be engaged to, we'll be done with the rogue one in about 8 more weeks and then my own pair to follow shortly after (we have two raid teams). But those things aside, I feel stuck in WoW because of the annual pass (damn your clever marketing blizzard!!) I want my D3 for free. If i cancel before thats two copies if diablo i have to buy (one for the Fiance) as well as the two Guild Wars 2 copies I'm already planning on buying