[ Keeping Players And Active ]

Anyone else notice this with any other guilds, or other guild notice this?

I have a guild that's 2 years old. We have been having problems keeping people. They seem to join and then quit. I thought at first it was due to the low member count. But then I recruited alot of people and the samething.

None seem to want to pvp, pve or gvg. They all seem want to solo and not really want to play along with the guild. Is it me or is the guildwars community hard to find good dedicated players?

Seems that some do not want to be dedicated nor help.

Just wondering if I am the only one.

Guild wars for the most part has become a solo game. There are very few players that have intimate knowledge of most aspects of the game and actually choose to play through the story with less knowledgeable players. As for PvP, you should join a dedicated PvP guild, because it takes a core group of people not in a dedicated PvP guild to foray into GvG's and not get discouraged because they got rolled by those more coordinated and/or experienced. I joined a guild that did GvG on a regular basis, and it didn't help me get into PvP, because I felt like I was still one player playing alongside 7 other players doing their own thing. There was little communication. The only GvG's they won were Iway bunny thumping teams, as far as I could see. It was just ridiculous. The guild I'm in now does faction farming. The only vanquishing they do is in kurzick areas for faction. And never the ones I need. (Eternal grove is my last kurzick area). So, I never have much to do with this guild. Sometimes the alliance does Urgoz, but they take anyone that shows up and two monks. I mean, I enjoy just playing but I don't enjoy wiping at the first mob because nobody knows how to tank and heal properly.

sorry for my rant...I'm becoming rather disillusioned with guilds lately and the only fun I have now is farming for event items. I have no idea what I'll do after wintersday is over.

I do help though when something comes up when I'm not busy, but half the time the person I'm helping is just too damn nooby, and when I offer advice they're like "well this works so w/e"....I'm just about done teaching people how to fish, and I'm not going to spoonfeed them otherwise.

i'm in my third guild, first one was like yours people coming and going like the grand hotel!

second one was better but they don't talk to you so i don't know why in the first place did they recruit me ... lol that's why i am in my

third guild
which I don't think i will leave unless they decided to kick me.

every one is friendly, lots of outings (as in from alliances and guild), almost everyone greet everyone else as soon as they log on, most time they will ask what is everyone doing, and tells you what they are planning for that day and everyone is welcome. all profession. all you need to do is ask. or watch out for the Alliance Chat and jump in.

second day, if not mistaken, that the new book system is out, we've already completed our first book and handed it in.

oh and also farming secrets and spots and build! best guild ever.

Its hard to build up Dedicated guild, atleast alone, its easyer start when you got few friends that willing to help you, and you got goals, for example top 100 GvG, Doing Urgoz in balanced less then 30mins, owning Hzh/cavalon orso. it helps you get motivation for it, and then you can rescuit ppl who got same goals.

most good guilds have a dedicated 10 or less members,the other 90 spots are usually for people who rarely play/random join+leavers.

if you have 10 dedicated members you are in a good guild.

What wind said.. basicallly you can only ever expect to have around 10 or so players active 90% of the time. As awesome as it would be to have 100 people on at a time.. but then it would like impossible for you find a group with the core

I'm in my second guild and have been for over two years. I see a lot of people join and leave every day. Up to 20 a day. the leader and officers are dedicated though and keep the population up over 90 almost all the time. After a while i noticed that there is a group of about 20 players that have been in the guild just as long as i have. about 40 of them come on at least once a week. I think if you want a successful guild you have ho have enough people that you have been around long enough that they want to all be together and after a while more people will see how fun it can be to get to know others and help out and will stay.
The biggest thing i see have an influence is how much guild chat there is and what type it is. If there are a lot of people just talking and having fun, offering to help or requesting help, new people will feel more comfortable and the guild is actualy ther for something.

Ya, i really dont want to have 90+ members. Just a solid guild with say 10 - 20 that are active. People tend to join my guild and same day just leave. We have rules and reqs of course i am up front before hand. But seems to do no good. They still join and then quit.

I noticed this as well. Usually people join ask for help/item and then leave. I noticed really a lot of people joining guilds just to get some stuff and not for a teamplay.

@OP indeed it was not like this before. Hard to find the reasons though.

heroes did this

I've also been in 2 guilds

1st- Brother in Laws guild who introduced me to the game, abour 10 total members, moostly family, ended up kinda lame.

2nd_ Created my own guild, got about 20 members and a few NPCs in Hall, got to be to much with school, and none of the noobs ever played anyway.

Sold my guild for like 10K ish, way less then i got NPC's for, oh well

3rd guild- Found a PvE kurz alliance that does AB, but isnt like "you must turn in 10k faction a day, so we can keep/buy our town." Its fun, lively discussions, few Dungeonsm asking for help, giving help.

Its all about what you and your alliance put into it.

People did that.
You want the insane power that a human controlled character brings?
You need to deal with the idiot controlling that character.
EDIT:
Got carried away a bit there.
It's not just the other people that were the issue - it's also the evolution of PvE itself. The place is to big to support multiplayer as a primary playstyle.


On-topic:
There is a difference between being dedicated and wanting to play with others.
I get my GW socializing kick by chatting with people. I don't need to PLAY with them also.

Open your mind and think about your question(s) for a moment. We live in a world with enough rules and regulations therefore when we play a game we have more CHOICES of what we want or wish to do. No one can become a dictator in a game or control anyones actions (at least not for very long). Many players that join guilds are just joining to see the guild activity and trying to get into one that meets or exceeds THEIR goals. I joined and left 17 guilds so far. I just haven't found the one that I like or does or wants to do what "I" want to do. You must remember first and foremost in any NORMAL persons mind is "ME", "MYSELF" and "I"....then I'll think about you.

Haven't seen this in a long time. Our guild didn't recruit active for a long time now and we are still getting request from old guildies if they can come back.

If I ask in GC who wants to team I might get a few members with me, or not.
Everyone who has been with our guild knows and understands that. Some officers became frustrated because scheduled events didn't occur because no players wanted to join. That's our guild, one time you have 8 or more players for an event, the other time you are alone. If you don't want that, bye!

I think many players don't understand that a guild is made by all players.
Many want something from the guild instead of offering something to the guild.
And it's not that you should help others achieve their goals and not achieving your own.
It's about teaming up together once in a while or chatting about stupid things.
If your goal is doing Eternal Grove today, don't expect any help. You are on your own because it's your goal. But if you ask in GC if someone wants to join you might get a positive reply. Because someone might be up for some fun/challenge. Or might need it, but can't join today, but will be able next week.

In the end, it's all in recruiting and setting expectations.
That's the reason that we stopped recruiting. Too many players who have high expectations that we can't meet. Not because we are bad, but because many players expectations are not realistic.

I agree in part with Red Sonya's sentiments above. Having been Guild Leader of the same Guild for over 2 years (with a 2 month break when RL demanded attention), I've noticed a marked difference in the last few months.

People play Guild Wars (mostly) in their spare time. That means that their enjoyment is paramount to themselves, so they will be motivated by what increases their enjoyment. For many that means staying away from others - you have to work with that other person after all, and with the bad experiences of many PUGs people just don't want the hassle of teaming up. One of the tricks as a Guild Leader or Officer is to bring together people who enjoy similar things and giving them as many opportunities as possible to team up.

As for people joining and leaving - consider why they do this and maybe change your recruitment strategy accordingly. Consider also what you class as a good player - one who is technically good at the game, good at motivating others, good at helping you run the guild etc. There are always those that cape leech - not everyone has the time or drive to "help out", but even those that just talk on Guild Chat contribute in their own way and may be all they want from a Guild.

A final issue is one that upier touched on - people's playing styles are changing. As people finish up their goals they're stopping playing the same content they've played 20 times before in PvE and spending their game time elsewhere, or as I've noticed playing shorter hours. 1/2 of MYST log on every day just as they did this time last year, but instead of seeing 20 or so people logged in at the same time, we're now seeing 10 or so, just because there's less to do. As a result we've moved to using our forum and IRC to get people online to do stuff in an attempt to coordinate efforts.

People join guilds for their own reasons, and with their OWN expectations in mind. If they don't like what they see, they will naturally leave (though some don't really give it much of a chance). For example, if you have a huge list of rules, new recruits are likely to just say "screw this, I'm going somewhere else". I've seen it in my old guild, as well. I agree with the person that said every guild has a dedicated 10 or less members. A few people that are always on, and always remain in the guild. The rest are randoms that you can expect to leave suddenly at any time for any reason.

I agree that the amount of guild-hoppers has gone through the roof lately. In my old guild, I'd say 8 out of 10 new recuits left within 24 hours. MOST of the time I could predict when the person was a "leaver", too. 1. They say nothing. They don't socialize at all, except maybe a "hello" the first time they are welcomed. 2. They ask for stuff.

I don't really understand why the number of leavers/hoppers seems to be going up. Maybe people are expecting more from a guild these days, and most guilds can't meet those expectations? *shrug*

Thats why you should tell rules before you let em in, ask em that they understand it etc. and only then let em in.. You can rescuit only from website, no rescuiting ingame. that way you get only few newbies

Yes, you're right. You can do that. But the "list of rules" thing was just one example. New recruits will leave for any number of reasons. They don't like one or some of the members...they'll leave. They don't like the leader...they'll leave. The guild doesn't do the things the recruit expected them to do...they'll leave. They just don't feel like they "fit in"...they'll leave. I've heard that one MANY times when I would ask why a member left..."Eh, I just felt like I didn't fit in" (though staying for a day, and not saying a word doesn't really seem like much effort to "fit in" on their part). Lately it seems like people find it easier to just leave and move on to another guild, than to try to make things work in their current one...resulting in a continuous flow of joiners/leavers.

yeah that happens alot in my guild. someone recruits says 8 people. 3 want stuff,what you're not going to give me free stuff then bamb they're gone. 3 more if you dont drop what you're doing and bow to their whims then bamb they leave too. one usually joins says some rude,childish or something of mean then laughs and leaves. and the last one stays and actually becomes a nice new friend to play with it. sadly its hard to find nice members that want to join and are active for more then a week or more.

Change the way you recruit.

Recruiting in towns or just letting anybody in will leave you with all the guild hoppers, freebe hoarders and general idiots who get kicked from other guilds for being immature.

Create a clear plan of what kind of member you want with criteris such as:

• Age requirement
• Preffered play type (pvp, pve or more detailed with gvg, vanqs etc)
• Playstyle
• PlayTimes/timezone
• Language
• Professions
• Acheivements
• Personality - This is the most important. you want a guild to be full of people with complimenting personalities
• Tech requirements (do you want them to have vent etc)
• Personal Statement (let them give info about themselves
• Sell yourself section (leave a section dedicated to letting the potential member give reasons why your guild should accept them)
• Referee (do they have a current guild member who can vow for them)
• Supporting evidence (have them post links to their profile on guru for example. Then you can get a feel of their beliefs and playstyle by reading what they had to say in discussions)
• Anything else you can think of.

Once you have it all planned out you can create an application form. Then you must decide who gets a say on new members and what weight their decision has (leader, officers, members etc)

If somebody cannot be arsed to fill in such an application form to join your guild, They are not worth it.

Once you have your applicationm form sorted out to filter potential members you can move on to improving the guilds yourself.

Do you have a forum/guild website? If not, get one, get one now. There are many options rangingfrom free hosted pre-built systems to private hosted software platforms such as phpbb3 that you manually set up yourself.
Forums are a great way to not only advertise your guild and to have a place for your application form but also to help your community grow outside the game, to share information between members, post events and to store any guild rules.

Guild rules
are another important aspect, every guild should have rules. No matter how strict or relaxed they are guidelines prevent a guild from drifting away from the origional members ideals. This prevents drama and other things that tend to kill off guilds slowly.

Events
Pre-arranged events are a great way to keep a guild active. Plan them out taking your guilds playtimes and current goals into consideration. Events can be anything. Decide who you will allow to host events. (leader, officers, members etc)

Officers
Do not choose someone to be an officer just because they are your friend or because you recruited them early on.
Being an officer is not a privilage, the real guild are your members and without them your guild is dead. Officers are there to support members by giving advice, helping out, hosting events and stopping any disputes before they cause too much trouble. Officers should be mature, calm and polite. People with a temper make bad officers and cause more trouble than it is worth.

There are many other things you can do but that should give you a good start.

Finally, If you are not willing to put in the above effort then being a guild leader is not for you. As with the role of officer, being the leader does not make you any better than the members, you are there to support and nurture your community for their benefit.
Many people decide to start their own guild for the wrong reasons, they never succeed.

I'd say we have a decent list of rules, yet we have been running full for almost 2 years. The reality of the matter is the more strict you are in whom you recruit, the less likely your members are to leave. If you are recruiting players by spamming in Kamadan AD1 "PvX Guild LF new members, we have cape, GH.." you should expect a good 90% of your new recruits to leave soon.

This is one of the things I like about Warhammer online that I hope GW2 immitates. This doesn't happen as often in Warhammer because guilds themselves, like players, level up. These levels award guilds with new perks (such as a guild hall for example). That means there is a tangible benefit to being in one guild over another. Players feel some sort of commitment to your guild and would be less likely to guild hop after putting in the effort to level your guild up.

Frankly, a lot of people who join guilds randomly and leave either want to do so because a) they want free stuff or b) they want to be in charge (thus all the newbie people in Kamadon going "who wants to join my new guild?"). The first leave your guild when they realize they can't get stuff. The second leave when they realize there are others already at the top.

It can be hard to break out from being 'another guild' to a guild people want to join. My advice would be to have around 5-10 people you know and trust who all want to help.

I recruited initial members by just playing the game, forming teams and getting to know who you're playing with. Never really spammed in outposts. After a while, you get the ball moving and you will have people coming to you instead of the other way round.

Unfortunately GW is a very different game now, personally I feel a lot of the community spirit has gone from the game and starting a guild now is harder than its ever been.

In our case, we've resorted to guild hibernation. Many of us have been playing since the start and there really is nothing left. Newer players really need to find newer guilds who are willing to do everything. Helping out is all fine and well, but after 2 years being where I am, there is no enjoyment in it anymore.

Shame really, a lot of once good guilds have similar problems, lack of content and just sheer age of the game is creeping in. Eye of the North was released a full 14 months ago, since then what?

From my own experience, I see a lot of people who want to play "this or that".

Many people want to PvP but are too lazy to keep contact with those who want to play or are too lazy to organise the team. They want it done for them... so usualy they sit there all evening and nothing happens. Then the best player gets an invite from another group and joins them because nothings going on. The other 4 that were quietly waiting on TS/vent then blame him for not having a team. "You leave! We lack people now!" Your reply: "What about the past hour?"

In PvE it's not easier to start something. Again a few people are having a conversation about GW. "GW sucks, nothing going on! Boo!" Then someone says: "Let's vanquish some area's so we at least DO something together! " Your usual respons: "NAH, Not vanquishing! - I have that area allready QQ. - I want Urgoz/Deep!". Anyway, the 5 of you can't decide. Then the one who had the idea to vanquish packs some heroes and goes on an adventure, the next starts Call of Duty 4 and you hear "YEAH, Headshot!" all the time and the other 3 are looking in Kamadan and continue: "GW sucks, nothing going on! Boo! Everyone does something alone, why don't we play together! Then you decide to make the music louder.

so i hrd guildz wur srs businz

9 guys playing togheter for 2 years(pvp). We dont have any rules, neither forum and if you tell what you think you dont get kicked. Like in another guilds if you tell the officer that their whammo build doesnt ROXXXXX SOXXXX you get kicked.

There is only so much you can do to keep players active.

The core reason why players go inactive is because there is virtually no new content. The bits of new content that do come out from time to time (ie: tonics, Mox, Nerfs/Changes to Kurz title etc.) is not substantial.

There is only so long/so many times that players can repeat the exact same dead content for and not get bored and then go inactive.

Bottomline is that keeping players active is Anet's responsibility via adding exciting and substantial new content, not the players'.

Of course, Anet has said they won't add substantial and exciting new content to GW1, so unless that changes, keeping players active isn't really gonna happen.

Don't Spam messages in towns the guild that i have been in has grown purley from finding cool members while me and other guildies simply do missions for fun / make a new char.

When i created my warrior and went blundering around proph with my Guild leader we must have picked up about 20 peeps. i think we still have 4 of them... it was about 2 months ago. that imo is the best way to do it!

I only spammed messages in a town once and i got 0 replies and shitty members however i did get a pretty cool dude who stayed with us afor a good few months before leaving and he still talks to us all etc. Thats the kinda guildie that i would like to see more of

But yea spamming messages in towns = fail

And if someone askes to be a officer when they join ur guild say no and most likely they will leave.

Also beware of the self loving peeps who are "Lf small guild" <<< they think there pro but can't handle making there own. Seen it so many times they ragequit when u dnt make them a officer :s

- Everything is based on mutual benefit. Your local storekeeper doesn't just give you goods and you just don't give storekeeper money for nothing. Same applies to guilds. Bad guilds are those where members spam chats with requests to run their character through easy normal mode missions, try to sell their trash at guild chat and other one-sided selfish activity. When I play with others, it's for mutual benefit. 2 players and 6 heroes are everything needed. I don't drop my necro hero just because some impressionable kid wants his ninja to finish by leeching of my parties. If his skillbar is such that he can carry his weight, I'll make an exception. PUGs generally suck when leaders have no motivation to ensure that the team finishes. They're just pissing on their own cereals and who wants to be part of those groups?

The way i see it. There are about 30 well known pve guilds. Try to get in one of those for a great time. I'm enjoying myself to the fullest in my guild!

greetings Mila

On the contrary, some of our worst members were those who in their application wrote "Found you on guildwars.com/notable guilds". I followed some up to find they had hopped around these well known guilds. I think joining a guild purely based on its status without the right intentions is fail. I agree you may have to 'try' out different guilds but cherry picking from a list is not the way to go about it.

Even worse for the guild, as they tend to turn over loads of members who expect everything to be done for them. Work is required on the members' behalf just as much as it is for the guild itself. I cannot stand people who stay for a day or two, have made no effort and simply leave. If they have the decency to say why, its usually something like "Because no one was doing what I wanted".

Guilds have always had these problems. It's pretty much the game itself. You see an event or new chapter, there's interest for a week or so. Then you look at your friends list and it's just that 1 or 2 hardcore people who are always doing something, and everyone else is gone. Gaile Grey once basically admitted that this is how they make the game. They expect you to play it through once then go away until they make another game. So they're pretty successful at their model, only problem is it's fairly misleading to call yourselves in the MMO race with no fees, while intending something entirely different.

Which is why anet never advertised the game asn an MMO.

The words "no monthly fees" actually DO advertise it as such. You don't use those words unless you're implying it's compared to something WITH monthly fees.

Or they use that to further distinguish it from an MMO...

This tends to happen in both large and small guilds. I wasn't so surprised to see people come and go in a small guild but am more surprised in the larger guild, especially when this larger guild is both friendly and helpful. You got to wonder what exactly do these players want or expect. Like others have said, some expect the other players to help them, but are not willing to help out and team up with others. So good riddance when they leave.

Everyplayer who was in an outpost "looking for guild" has always left after a few days or a week. They were not always looking for free things either. Some leave because they want help and there isn't anyone to do what they want at that exact moment. (Good luck finding that anywhere).

I do believe newer and not as new players stop playing because they get stumped at what to do next - and they don't always ask for help because they don't want o look like a 'noob'. Frankly some of the players who have been playing for a while are quite nasty and insulting to newer players (Not so in my current guild/alliance where there are always people will to answer questions). I'm amazed at the insults of some to anyone asking a simple question in an outpost. Maybe this just turns off a lot of people which makes a good helpful guild more likely to keep players.

I don't know if anyone else stated this but talk to everyone. One thing I hate when I join a new guild or something is when I try to strike a conversation ppl don't talk back because they don't know me or something. Some guilds have little grps in which people only talk to each other and no one else in the guild. This is another reason why people leave.

Wow, thanks for everyones insight on this. I am experancing all of these. I have 4 really good friends that play all the time, and others play whenever they feel like it.

Also I was recruiting in towns/outposts. I stoped doing that as it seemed I wasn't getting loyal players.

This ^

Its so true that small groups form in guilds and when people are recruited they feel excluded. I've seen it happen in many guilds until I settled in Halo.

I talk too everyone, as well as most in my guild. We welcome them, ask them if they need help with something, mission, quest or something.

The problem is, I noticed, most of the time they either solo or they login whenever they feel like and don't bother by doing anything with us as a guild and mainly make excusses up everytime we ask them too do something.

I am too the point where I feel like kicking everyone out of the guild except the ones that play and do stuff, and not brag about titles, money, soloing, ectos, armor.

hmh, well thats ridicilous pretty much, atleast if they were aware what kind of guild it was, ppl should faind out more about guilds before joining,
for example it took me get into GoE 2-3weeks if i remember correct,
but since then last 6months i havent even consired leaving.

Thats why People should stop rescuiting ingame some random people if they want to make good guild..

If you dont want em to solo, just say "This guild aint for Solo players, we farm yes, just in groups, if you're not fine with that, leave.

or then you can keep em until you get better ppl