This week, many of my fellow guild members posted "goodbye" threads on our guild forums, and walked away from the game for good. It has resulted in a sad collection of moments indeed, especially since these guys were great people and a pleasure to enjoy the game with. But what makes things even worse is that many of them were officers or top tier players, which has really hit the guild hard.The whole situation got me thinking about the warning signs of guild doom-hood (is that even a word?), and after talking with a few good buddies of mine from the EU, we've come up with a list of characteristics that seem universal... to me, anyway. =P
Check them out (they're in no particular order), and let me know what you think!
- You spend more time outside an instance in an evening than actually raiding it.
- You have to wait an extra 60 mins for "backups" to sign in to fill your raid party.
- You're on your 3rd newly recruited "MT" in as many weeks.
- You only have one player filling a "main" tanking role.
- The guild transferred servers.
- Summoned raiders always arrive flagged for PvP.
- Ventrillo is silent... or way loud... after a wipe.
- "Farm" encounters are farming you.
- You have more canceled raids than raid sign ups.
- Officers disband a raid when everyone else wants to try new content.
- Many guildies quit the game, only to be found playing an alt on another server.
- No one signs on for so-called "Wipe Nights."
- The guild's "best" attend raids less and less.
- You have more "farm" content scheduled than new content.
- Guild chat is all about the new PvP epics.
- Farming honor or doing daily quests take greater priority than prepping guild members for raids.
- Your GM takes an extended leave... twice...
- Everyone jumps into different vent channels after a raid.
Got anything else to add? Let me know in the comments.
24 comments:
How about "When your guild is already talking about how great they'll do in the next expansion" to justify poor performance now? That's what happened to my guild before The Burning Crusade and it fell apart. The same is happening to my current guild and I bet it won't last long after Wrath either. =(
I can relate to alot of these, but my guild is still around. It doesn't do anything, but it's still around. ^.^
I like this list a lot, although it's totally possible for a guild to come back from these. I remember, for instance, when I joined ILL again (time 3... or was that 4 lol) this fall and they were working on SSC. They had gotten Hydross down once, but it took about two weeks to do it again. They spent more time trying to kill Hydross a second time then they did a first. This was right after they lost some folks that transferred off, so the old core that was there was pretty frustrated.
But, unlike some other guilds they did manage to pull it together.
I'll tell you what though, some of these things on the list just freakin' piss me off to no end. Like raiders arriving flagged PvP. For of it all, it obviously shows where the “raider’s” true priorities are. And secondly, as a healer, I get really tired of it. Because either I end up flagged, or they end up bitching about buffs because I didn’t realize they were flagged and when I did a fort prayer they didn’t get it.
Let’s not even talk about people that are constantly AFK or type “brb” while a boss is being pulled.
In my opinion, raiding can be fun, but some guilds get a “casual” mindset and think casual means, of course you can go AFK for 20 minutes without warning, of course we won’t replace you even though you’re gone an hour, etc. And I’m sorry, but to me there’s nothing fun about waiting for people that are AFK. If anything it shows a lack of respect for the rest of the raid.
I miss PK.
I knew my guild was in trouble when my gm yelled at me on TS for no good reason.
Yeah, I agree that these may not be signs that all is lost. If Blogger would allow html in the post titles, I'd cross-out the "Soon" and put a "Maybe." But I can't, so I'll just leave it as it is. =P
PK had a lot of potential for sure, Cheese. It was a fun run, but it was bound to fail. The guild just had too much working against it.
It was unfortunate, but I'm glad it ended when it did.
Kael'thas is enough of a reason!
My guild's website never got updated. No good applicants took us seriously and we eventually all went our separate ways.
Oh Lala, trust me, I know all about it. ;)
When you have 30 people online AND YOUR GUILD RUNS KARAZHAN!!!!
When did you leave your guild? Are you coming back to Alexstrasza?
No plans to return to Alex. Who is this, btw?
I'm just an old mate thats glad to see you left that deadend guild. What are your plans?
I didn't actually leave. =/
Anyway, I have no plans. I'm not playing much and am currently theory-crafting with a few peeps, but that's about it.
You were gkicked? YOU? LOLOL! Did this post of yours hit too close to home or what?
It's another item for your list, IMHO.
If you ever make it back to Alexstrasza, you know who to look up. And we would love to have you. *wink
I just checked the Onyx website and it's completely redesigned. It looks like you lit a fire under their asses! AND THEY KICK YOU FOR IT! LOLOL!
Sorry man, it's just so backwards that it's funny.
I can't comment much on the matter, to be honest. I'll just leave it at that.
those arent signs of a guild breaking up, those are signs of being in a guild.
breakups only happen when people completely give up. i suppose youre right in that many of those are signs of such... but really, no matter what guild youre in - most of that happens more than once, no matter how together you all may have things.
OMFG JAGO! Ologan called himself "the top raiding warlock" in Onyx. I was going to say "Yeah, because Jago and Demo left" but I'd probably get in trouble for it so I didn't. I nearly pooped my pants I was laughing so hard!
I don't mean to come off harsh, but to be honest, I'm not interested in that kind of information. I wish Olo and Onyx all the best. Lets leave it at that.
I don't believe that crap, dude. You're not that passive and having a warlock thats not half as good as you call himself the best has to piss you off some. What Ologan said got under alot of people's skin too, so surely you can't ignore it.
Heheh, it really isn't an issue to me.
So who is this, really?
The armory shows Jagoex guilded with Onyx. Are you are aren't you? Cause if not you better be on your way to Azuremyst!
I am, but I'm not active. After that initial anonymous post, I checked the armory and it didn't show me as guilded. But now it does.
I wonder if the armory will be in beta form forever...
That's the last time I read comments just because there are lots of them.
Also, the top performer of any class usually doesn't have to give himself that title.
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