Posts with tag guild

Guild leaders who want to faction-change their guild for free will first need to pay for the initial transaction, but will be granted a refund if they change to the eligible faction within the free-faction-change time frame.

---

In a game as long-lived as World of Warcraft, virtual acquaintances come and go. Players stop playing, guilds break up (or simply grow inactive), and groups of friends move apart. Over the course of WoW's nearly ten-year lifespan, it's hard to blame anyone who's grown tired and walked away. But sometimes guilds stand a longer test of time, passing from leader to leader, maintaining an identity of sorts even though the game -- and the guild members -- may have changed.

And for some gamers, who you're gaming with is all that matters -- membership in an agreeable guild is crucial to fun gameplay. For others, tackling content matters more, and those gamers might jump from guild to find a group that best suits them. Today, we're asking whether you've stuck with your guild: do you game with the same group of players day after day, or do you come and go from guilds as your gameplay needs change?

---

Guild leaders have been sending us a lot of questions in the Queue and elsewhere about how to keep their guild active during the down time between expansions. At this point many guilds have already cleared Orgrimmar and are either slowly working on heroic modes or stalled out entirely. It's not that anyone is doing anything wrong -- they're not -- it's just the nature of players. After things have been accomplished, why bother continuing on? This is totally a normal behavior and shouldn't be taken as anyone abandoning the guild or anything silly like that.*

So, life is slow on the forefront of raiding. What can you do? Change your game. Make the game not about killing pixels from this expansion, but about experiencing everything in a social atmosphere. I've had to make this transition a lot, and I've always found it works.

End current content raiding
Make an official end to the current tier of raiding and move to other activities. Allow for a small group to form that wants to keep pushing into harder heroics and what not, but don't make anyone feel like they have to go. And don't feel obligated yourself too -- it's okay in a guild leadership position to sit out and just facilitate.

Azeroth is celebrating Hallow's End, which means it's time for another It came from the Blog Candy Run. We won't get Deathwing to join us like he did two years ago, but there still should be plenty of fun without being roasted like a marshmallow.

• When: Friday, October 25 at 10:30 p.m. EDT (7:30 p.m. PDT, 11:30 p.m. server time)
• Where: Meet at Brill on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H)
• Who: Any level Horde character, though the more flightpaths you have, the better
• How: Ask Tizzi or any member of It came from the Blog for an invite, if you're not already in our family of guilds

We'll be running around collecting candy from willing innkeepers for the first half of the event. Then we'll abandon the lowbies and continue via flightpaths in order to complete the continent. So bring your character with the most old world flightpaths if you want to participate in the entire event.

Come and join us this Friday for some Candy Run fun!

---

Please join us on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H) in It came from the Blog. All guild ranks can invite, so /whisper Tizzi or any online member. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules -- basically, don't be a funsucker! Visit the guild FAQ for more details.

---

The people you play with make up the heart and soul of your World of Warcraft experience. They'll make the game a delight you keep coming back to or a misery you can't escape soon enough. What this comes down to is that who you're guilded with makes or breaks your game experience. A bad guild or, worse, a good guild that's falling apart will make you rush offline to a good book or a favorite TV show rather than spending your idle time in Azeroth. Of course, it's not always straightforward to find the right guild for you -- it's all too easy to have mismatched goals or schedules that turn what may have seemed to be a great group of players into a guild nightmare.

When I'm in need of a guild, I tend to follow my friends around, which always seems like a good formula but doesn't always work out. But it's hardly the only way: all you have to do is be unguilded to get numerous (unsolicited) guild invitations and the guild recruitment forum is always brimming with new guilds LFM. So, just how do you go about picking that perfect guild?

---

Most of us have been in more than one guild. With guilds falling apart over drama or absent guildies or whatever, we haven't been able to stay with the same guild we were in when we first started playing. It can't all be blamed on the guild; sometimes our tastes change or we move on to greener pastures.

Once you've been in a really good guild, it's hard to let go even when things go sour. This is a topic that comes up in Drama Mamas so often, we've written a guide as to how and when to leave your guild. A bad guild can be detrimental to your enjoyment of WoW, just as a great guild enhances your gameplay experience.

But what defines the perfect guild? I think there are three factors:

• Posted guild rules Whether they are in the in-game guild info or posted on a separate website, clear and easily accessible guidelines for guildie behavior are a must. So much drama can be avoided when everyone is clear about how to behave both in and out of guild.

There are lots of reasons to join a guild: it makes it easy to find groups and raids, you have guaranteed company while you're playing, and most importantly, guild perks. In case you've been living under a rock, guild perks give you great bonuses for guild membership based on your guild's level. Perks can boost the amount of experience, reputation, and honor you gain, make your hearthstone cooldown shorter, and even make flight paths go faster. So, really, the question seems to be why not join a guild?

The question's been asked on Reddit and it got me wondering why my own alt of choice (for the moment) is currently unguilded. It couldn't take much more than a polite request to jump on the guild bandwagon and get my hands on those yummy, yummy perks. It would stop the regular requests I get to join guilds (even if you've turned off guild requests, you do frequently get whispers) and it's not as though I'm in a demanding guild at the moment. And yet when I don't feel like doing much (or dealing with others), I hop on to my alt to solo for a while.

And what about you, fellow players? Are you guilded or unguilded?

Joining a guild has always been a core aspect of World of Warcraft. How to choose the right style of guild can be an especially large hurdle to overcome for new players, but it's something we learn along the way. Players currently have a few resources at their disposal, whether it be the Blizzard Guild Recruitment forums, GuildOx, WoWProgress, or other tools. But there's an oft-forgotten in-game tool that was released back in patch 4.1. What about the in-game Guild Finder?

The options are a bit limited, and the listings depend on the effort put in by guild masters. Let's just say it's a neglected feature on a few fronts. I've used the Guild Finder before, when searching for a casual leveling guild on a new server. Outside of that, I stick to other tools when recruiting or looking for a new guild.

What about you -- do you ever use the in-game Guild Finder? What's your preferred resource for guild recruitment and discovery?

---

Are you searching for a guild of "friendly, mature people" who "have fun" in either a "social" or "raiding" context? You're in luck! You'll find those terms in most guild recruitment ads for WoW's 10 million players worldwide. On second thought, that may be more than good luck; it's more like an avalanche of virtually identical guild profiles. Will those terms help you discern any meaningful distinctions between these groups of players? That's a lot of "friendly" people to sort through.

Many guilds are fairly easily described by their schedules and raid progressions (or their lack of either). More likely, though, the essence of your group -- the part that gives it its flavor and makes it stand apart from other guilds -- is somewhat trickier to describe. "Social," "casual," "raiding" ...These terms describe most guilds. And even terms that seem fairly self-explanatory at first glance can be problematic for players trying to evaluate a potential fit. "We're a dedicated roleplaying guild." OK, so what's the spin? One RP guild might maintain a military structure and campaign, while another plays out some very adult-themed interpersonal dramas -- definitely not interchangeable concepts!

Our experience is that player and guild drama becomes inevitable when members end up unhappily guilded in a group that doesn't truly fit. The Drama Mamas frequently get mail from players who find their guildmates nice enough but still have that itchy feeling that something just isn't clicking. The fit you want is probably out there, but the terminology and labeling for these guilds hasn't quite caught up yet.

What are you looking for in a guild? What sort of group will help you enjoy playing World of Warcraft? Let's figure it out -- and if you're looking for a particularly specialized type of guild, we've included a few niche group suggestions to kickstart your research.

Based on their database of 230,000 guilds, GuildOx has come up with the top 20 most popular guild names.

Interestingly there are no guild names that really run away with the list -- the most popular guild name only appears 62 times. One would have thought that there would have been names that'd appear hundreds of times, but according to the data that's not the case.

Also noteworthy is that none of the top names are offensive or jokes. This speaks well of the community at large. Here's GuildOx's results:

20. Prime -- 48
19. Requiem -- 49
18. Eclipse -- 50
17. Genesis -- 50
16. Exodus -- 50
15. Asylum -- 51
14. Defiance -- 51
13. Invictus -- 52
12. Relentless -- 52
11. Insidious -- 52

The rest of the list after the break!

Back in July, Blizzard announced the Guild Mentoring Program, aimed at easing the process of connecting new players to guilds. Now, both the European and US servers have their initial mentoring guilds selected. These guilds will have their names temporarily changed to make finding them easier for new players, becoming Blizzard Mentor Horde or Blizzard Mentor Alliance for the duration of the program.

The Mentoring program is only available on the selected servers for now, so if you feel you're in need of mentor services, check the lists to see if they're available on your server. The program is specifically tailored for new and low level players to get an introduction to what being in a guild is all about, so if that's you, definitely check it out.

---

It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

---

Welcome to the return of our weekly guild recruitment post. Every Friday, we'll bring you listings we've been sent, even featuring a couple guild's websites right here on our front page. Hopefully this will turn into a great resource to help guilds and guildies connect to go kill some dragons and elemental lords.

Knights of Tranquility
http://kotguild.shivtr.com
Recruiting Mage, shadow priest, warlock, arms warrior, death knight tank
More information Our guild, Knights of Tranquility, is a tight knit group of laid back, fun, sociable older people (30+ years old) who like to progress and see new content, but we strongly believe in the social aspects of raiding, and WoW-life balance. We have a good sense of humor and are respectful of other people's values and beliefs. We place a high value on the individual worth and contributions of our guild members, and pride ourselves on putting enjoyment of each others company over loot/achievements. We have some sort of guild activity going on every day, and each night guild members will be sitting on Vent chatting with each other and having a good time. We have a Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday raid schedule, between 7:30-10:30 p.m. PST. We are a level 25 guild who has currently gotten down 1/8 Heroic Dragon Soul. Our guild has been around for six years, so we have a long history of mature raiding.

Conquest
http://www.cqgaming.com
Recruiting: Resto and Balance Druids, Holy Paladin, Hunter, All Priests, Mage, Warlock
More Information: Conquest is a 25 man Alliance World of Warcraft raiding guild on US-Ner'zhul. We're currently at 3/8 hard mode and are close to pushing heroic modes. We formed at the end of Burning Crusade and are one of the oldest and most stable guilds on the server.

If you'd like to see your guild in here next week, just copy and paste the following info (along with your specifics, of course) to adam@wowinsider.com or leave it in the comments:

Guild Name: The name of your guilds, we won't publish racist or R rated names, so don't be that guy.
Guild Website: Give everyone a link! If you've got no website, just leave it blank.
Recruiting: Tell us what classes and specs you're looking for.
About: Give everyone a short (250 character or less) blurb about your guild. Again, no racist or R rated material will be published.

Onward for this week's list of guilds, collected from Twitter and Facebook.

The Classifieds brings you weekly news from around the WoW community, including our famous Random Acts of Uberness shout-outs to players who make your WoW sessions memorable.

This is survey week on WoW Insider. We have a quick player wealth survey below, and then Nick Yee needs your help behind the cut. What's the point of having a multimillion-player community if it can't be exploited for science?

This is what Xsinthis of Shadowmoon (US-A) had to say:

I'm looking for more people to complete my World of Warcraft Wealth Survey. Using this quick, painless 4 question survey I hope to answer questions about wealth in the World of Warcraft. The survey can be found here: http://www.xsinthis.net/survey Everyone is encourage to take the survey, data is needed from all walks of digital life, from the copperless lvl 50, to the players who need guild banks to hold all their gold, the more data collected the more accurate the results will be!

Do you want to rename your guild, move to a new server, or change the guild's faction? Now you can! Blizzard's just announced the new Guild Services, and they're a fairly extensive lot. Having jumped servers with guilds twice now, and having seen a guild jump both servers and factions, I think this is pretty darn exciting news for anyone considering any of these changes. It'll help with holding on to guild resources, guild identity, and should make that horrible feeling of being on a new server without a tag waiting for someone to scoop you back up a thing of the past.

You can read the text of the announcement at the official site and we'll have it after the jump, of course.

The Classifieds brings you weekly news from around the WoW community, including our famous Random Acts of Uberness shout-outs to players who make your WoW sessions memorable.

Okay, folks. Here we go. Tomorrow night, we get to enjoy the good times at 2011 BlizzCon Reader Meetup at the Anabella hotel. Live stream, celebrities, and mingling with your fellow players. What's not to love? Come hob-nob with your intrepid staff of WoW Insider writers, have a few drinks, and get ready for BlizzCon.

Did we mention the Horde and Alliance each have their own drinks? Oh yes, it's true. The Horde cocktail and Alliance cocktail are both delicious, tasty, and plentiful. You should feel free to sip from the glass of your faction and raise your mug in celebration.