An actual guild.

In december, a few friends of mine started a guild. They asked me to join and i did. They were all good pve players but had little or no experience in pvp, which meant, i was the only one who could lead a gvg match and start hoh groups. So i decided a week ago to join a hoh and gvg guild that did a variety of builds so that i could work around my guild members strengths. I sat in HA for about 30 minunets and saw a bunch of guilds saying that they gvg and hoh daily. So i joined a few of them as guests. Not one of the 6 guilds i have been in has gvg or hoh'ed everyday. I wasn't on the whole time but i asked the other people if they did anything pvp related and they ALL said no. Point is how many guilds these days are honest in recruiting? I know most are but how could so many be unhonest. I mean your wasting time and money recruting if you lie. Chances are if you are lieing, [i know there is alot of people who are honest] the people recruted aren't goin to stay for very long..........i dont know if this is the right place to put this. lol

Given the way GW is set up anyone and everyone has a guild. It does not take much in the way of resources to start a guild. I agree with you that many guilds out there either don't always paint an accurate picture of what the guild does or they don't have enough player base to really do the things they want to be able to do.

The best advice I can give is to choose your guildwisely. Look for guilds who have been around for a while. Most established guilds/clans from other games tend to have detailed websites and forums. Some guilds even require an application process. If a guild tells you things that sound too good to be true, it is usually the case and I would avoid those situations at all cost.

Ask questions to the guild officers. Your trying to see if the guild fits your playstyle as much as they are trying to see if you fit into the guild.

Personally I would never join a guild that someone was spamming asking for recruits. Think of the cohesion of such a group - you really cannot expect much. Start a guild with friends or find an established guild as Detrick suggests. Other things I think are going to be a waste of time in the long run.

One very important point raised by Detrick: ask them questions, cos it's not just a matter of "Do I fit in your guild?" it's also a matter of "Does your guild fit around me?"

To me, scheduling is very important. You might have 50 members, but if no one's on at the same time, it doesn't really matter. Also, people who show up for scheduled activities demonstrate their commitment to the guild.

Shrug part of it is the mentality of the players.

Everyone wants to be in a top ranking guild with 50 daily active members, that plan to go on for the long hall. Everyone wants to be a primary GVG player in these guilds. They don't realize that those guilds dont recruit because there is no purpose for them to recruit. They already have what they want/need. None of these guilds is going to take a rank 11 player who's done a few gvg's either. I think everyone knows by now that a 5 yearold can get rank 11 IWAYing each day for a month.

Realisiticly you will either find a guild that has a decent ranking, and needs a few more players for there GVG squad, or you will find a guild that has alot of members, and they lose nearly every GVG they enter.

I think the playerbase expects to much of the current guilds for there skill level. I've recruited 2-3 guys myself that said they where insanely awsome players, who turned out to completely suck, and have to be trained from basic's. Now i've played MMORPG's back when they where text, and pk was taboo and new. Back then you stuck with one guild, and worked tword a common goal together as friends. in guild wars you have a huge turnover. You have far to many guilds to choose from, and most people leave within a week, because they didn't find exactly what they wanted, and figure that there are tons of other guilds out there that have what they are looking for.

I've been very lucky with the guild i'm with. We do not have the high turnout problems, however we are more picky on who we recruit as well. I think the answer lies in the people who join the guilds being a bit less picky, and a bit more commited. No, no one wants to stay with a guild that never gvg's if you plan on gvging. However, how many of those guilds have 4-5 guys online that want to gvg? If people spent as much time trying to build up a guild rather then cycling through them, You would end up with a bunch of good guilds with enough to gvg.

Here is a serious question for all those looking for guilds. How many of you are looking for a tag and a cool cape? And how many of those are looking for a group of friends who work together and try to build something? Are you looking to just be in a GVG? or are you looking to be a part of a team? I think guild wars would benifit from a guest search for GVG cause i truely belive that most people just want to guest in a gvg, rather then be a part of a team. They would rather play a GVG then build a guilds rating.

But to be honest, i don't think you will ever find a guild that has a rank of 400+ thats openly recruiting. Most guilds will say they peak at 50, or 200, though opening day of a ladder can make that claim.

2 nights ago i kicked around 15 guys from my guild that where always on. It was because they never wanted to be a part of the guild, they never responded when we needed extra's for GVG/HA/PVP/PVE. This however is exactly what i'm talking about. We are activly recruiting now, but we are not going to recruit someone based on rank, or how great of a player they are. Anyone can be taught how to play guild wars well.

It just seems that people care more about ranks of the players and the guilds rather then a place where they actually fit in.The guild tells you that its a rank XXX guild, who GVG's all the time, You tell the guild "hey i'm a rank XX player" the recruit you, you play with them when its time to gvg, they lose a few or can't get a GVG group going, and you decide it's time to find a new guild. Of course neither of you want the other to discover your dark secrets. The reason why one guild is rank XXX is cause they only GVG'ed 3 times with 4 guests that where really good, and the reason why your rank XX is cause you where fame farming in IWAY groups, or you bought the account on ebay.

Very good and inspiring thread. Shadex had some encouraging words for old and frustrated guilds like the one I'm in.

There are a lot of Guild leaders out there and very few Guild Leaders if you know what I mean. I've just started the steep learning curve on that myself, but I'm lucky in that I'm stepping up from a great officer corps with a great player group. The previous Leaders are also all still there to help me. If you have folks in a guild who actively do not want to be part of the group, why on earth would they stay? I think a good leader will engage those that are on the border, and pull them into the group... like reach out and communicate and stuff. That is however from the perspective of a NON competitive guild who is neither a pve guild nor a pvp one, we are a guild for our members.
I think in a pvp guild its a little less complicated, a little easier, more like a group leader in a pve mission or halls. Call target and spikes, train folks, arrange schedules...

Join some Koreans, they GvG daily.

I know where you guys are coming from, but i also disagree with some things said.
I recently created a guild because my last guild was so inactive, only 2 of us were on at all. Now, what you're saying to people is to disregard my guild totaly because it's only a day old, and i only really know two of my members.
The thing is, i do want to become friends with my members, because i'm that sort of person, and having said that all my members seem to be friendly and talkative, even though we hardly know each other.
I have 14 members, and each and every one of them is so enthusiastic about gvg and pvp. We're not exactly the best at it, but we're all willing to work towards getting better, and that's the sort of guild you want. A guild who's members are willing to get better, not a guild who're the best.

I liked what you said about the guild being teamwork, and not capes. So far i've had at least 10 people say no to joining my guild because they don't like the name, or my cape's not their favourite. I mean, one even said no just because i'm 16. His exact words were "I don't wan't to play with children, if i did, i'd become a nursery teacher."

Also, your comments on most guilds having a member cap at around 50. I agree that's good, since too many people, and half the time you don't know anyone who's on. But the thing is, most people only want to join a guild who have 40+ members. They ask "how many in your guild?" and say no just because i have 14 members. I mean, if the game was full of those people, no one would be in a guild.

And ranks. If you base your recruiting on rank, your members become numbers, and not friends. I agree totally with you on this.

You say to create a guild with a group of friends you have. I say, sure, have a few friends, but also invite others to make new ones.

If you're to lazy to read all this, or didn't get my point, i'll summerise.
-Older guilds aren't always the best. They're the ones most likely to have inactive members.
-Entheusiastic guilds are better than godly guilds, you can help make it grow, and know you've helped create it that way, instead of just being a leech on a fully grown, and superior guild. You may not GvG and HoH everyday, but if it's at least once a week, isn't that good enough?
-Teamwork is what you need, not descrimination. You can't base a guild on age, gender, member number or age of members.

If i seem like some weird person rattling on, fine, but this is what i think.

Also part of the problem is that there are a whole mess of people that are wanting to gain enough members for GvG and PvP but the good players will only go to strictly PvP guilds, and guilds wanting to learn can't find anybody to teach and lead.

Teaching new folks to PvP is a lot of work and a lot of investment of time. Most folks who can teach it also want to play a bunch with good folks, so they have a tendency to seek out like players rather than try to seek out new people to PvP and train them up. Probably the best way to grow a guild is to have a bunch of relatively new people make a commitment to learning and growing together. This is how we grew our second PvP guild.

I agree with Detrick Sky, but I guess it depends on what reasons are you joining a guild to begin with, some don't want to be serious or pvp some just want a temporary free ride, etc. I personally like steady guilds, which may not necessarily mean an old established guild, as I've seen many 100 member guilds with 2 active members, the funnest ones may be the 10 people guilds with 9 active members. I have been playing mmorpgs since the very first one, meaning the first massive one, the first one with over 1,000 people online at the same time, and in the mid 90's the insanity of over detailed guild web-pages and even storylines was too much, I'm not into all that but a well planned page is always a good idea in my opinion.

Teamspeak/vent

tools of the Gods for guild health and that family feeling

Inactivity IS a problem accross the boards, until Factions comes out is my guess. Guilds need some rules (too many is bad), one that I think is good is an inactivity rule. Some sort of deadline for timing out. 1 week? might be too fast, a month? also a system for folks who know they are taking a break and coming back to comunicate this and either stay in (but everyone can know their status) or just be welcomed back as soon as they return.

Kura, you are absolutely correct in that there is a TON of age discrimination out there. I know lots of 12 year olds that can play a circle around me though, heh. We have several under 17s and I'd never have known if I didn't know, you know? Age bias is as stupid as well frankly any other discrimination. Conversely there are a ton of 25 year old babies too, I was one (way back then, heh). Play with a new member/guild, if they fit cool, if not cool.

Everyone wants to be in a competitive guild since the GWWC, its like job interviews with companies that are already overstaffed though. Make a team, play in team arenas every night until you get 8-10, then practice in halls and gvg as much as you can if your goal is to become a competitive gvg guild. Don't even expect the existing pvp guilds to welcome you in. They basically all know each other, and some Johnny off the street will be looked at hard before even being considered as an alternate. Only exception is to get into someones Smurf guild. This isn't necesarily a great idea tho, because as you'll get a lot of gvg time, you may not enjoy a single minute .

I think it right to say "join a Gamming community guild" (as long as they don't play WW too, you will never see them in GW )

These Clans and communities have the player base to keep a healthy guild going and active. And they get allong well, too.

Our guild has to restrict age, though, for legal reasons. It has been in the TOS of our forums for years that anyone under the age of Thirteen wasn't permited to join forums without parental consent. We had a legal scare a few week ago because we were lax in inforcing it. An Outrages parent with a mentally instable 12 year old threatened to sue us because she went through the wrong channels to request her son be banned from our gaming server (we have a private mod of another game). That crap is out there.

I am a 22 year old going on 3, and I'm a guild officer and forum admin, LOOK OUT!!!

Doesn't that sounds like an oxymoron? Most top guilds seem to have fewer than 15 members, and there is usually a core of about 7-8 that is the main GVG team. I don't know of any top GvG guild that has /that/ many members. Or if they do, they certainly don't let all of them GvG, just a select few.

AIYEE - I just spam: looking for fresh meat, if you got what it takes and thats a sense of humor you will loooooove us! - PM me for details


I actually got a few good friends now in our guild with this line =P

Not too sound too harsh, but I read this as:

I want to join a ready made PvP guild/team so that I can get a free easy ride to rank/fame/rating ...w/e

Is that the truth? Probably not. The OP is most likly a player that just loves to PvP.

We've been doing alot of interviews as well for our new guild. We've turned down a lot of players. Why? Well honestly they just seem to want everything handed to them on a silver platter.
Most of them feel they should be able to:
Log in .
Say I want to HoH Now.
Have 7 of the perfect builds to fill a team jump up.
Set up in a few mins.
And win the HoH.

This is fanstasy land.
When asked if they know how to infuse/bond/heal/protect they say "I never play monk, I don't have the skills unlocked."

So now they are special and never have to monk. Then we ask what other classes they DO play, only to find out they only play ONE class..and it's a warrior...always.

(sorry I went off on a rant)

Many of the top teams / guilds have played with the same 8 players for months. They usualy schedule their playtime with specific days for HoH/GvG/AB...

Being in a "good" guild is advanced citizenship. Your going to have to work at it to get any rewards.

You could find a guild that seems pretty good an help build it....or you could keep hopping from guild to guild hoping to get lucky.

My suggestion would be to post on the "looking for guild" forum very candedly about how you want to PvP everyday! NO LIES!
LOL

I wish you luck on your search.

(not going to bother with proof-read I can't spell ><)

The very first guild i was in i was the Only PvPer and alll i got was grief when i tried teaching i was nice but there was NO dedication. I tried showing them basics but noone cared so i gave up. I tried for two months and finally couldnt sit anymore and left.

I recently started my own PVP ONLY guild. So we willl see how that goes...

problem with starting up any guilds these days is that all the active players have settled into relatively established guilds that are likely to stick around. players in a new guild suffer from the problem of unrealized expectations and quick turnover when things don't go their way. its impossible for a bunch of random players to form an effective guild, without dedication from all members.

i'm surprised that there are relatively few massive pvp guilds, since this is the action most casual pvpers are after, but can't find in small pvp guilds.

at this point, most new players (without a core group of friends) looking for a guild should join a large and well established guild. the success rate of start up guilds is one in a million, and its not worth the time to guild hop, looking for that perfect guild (which is probably full anyway).