A bad experience with a guild *warning to other players*

Ok I am not here to flame or get revenge, I wanted to share my guild experience with folks looking for a guild as a warning of what might happen to you.

I joined this guild in January and was there until last week. This guilds policy is not to sell to other guildies, but to give what you can. I thought that this was a good idea and have always given to guildies so I felt at home. The guild had a policy of getting the officers fissure armor, and I felt this too was justified because the officers have duties and are supposed to help their guildies accomplish things. So, the guilds policy was to ask for donations of ecto, shards and mats. Soon the guild also started asking for gold donations.

I donated many quality items, green items and mats, including dye and ecto. I always asked if anyone wanted to accompany me on my mission objectives tho I was not an officer. I rarely asked for any help and never needed items gold or mats as I am pretty self sufficient. I am also very friendly and chat with players when people are online.

So here is what I started to notice. The very few times I asked for help I got none. I was helped twice in the 6 months I was there. Instead of promoting people to officer who had been in the guild, the leader was promoting people who had just joined. The officers were always out doing a group thing and the only people really offering any help were the regular guildies. Also I started to notice people were offering their unwanted crap and anything of value was not being offered, but this i thought was normal because we all need money.

So factions comes out and I find three perfect weapons for warrior. I do not have a warrior so I figured hey I can sell these and buy all the skills to unlock for pvp. I asked my leader how much he thought they would be worth and he immediately asks me for the perfect 15>50 celestial axe. I say to him "Dont you already have a 15>50?" To which he got quiet and then said "Yeah I do but I want that one because they look cool". I was hesitant to give him the axe because this seemed like a matter of greed and not charity. I told him I didnt think he needed it and then suddenly in the guild hall someone said I need an axe anyone got one? and the leader said "he needs an axe, give him yours". I am pretty sure he set this up so I would have to give over the axe to prove my loyalty to the guild, and so I gave over the axe against my better judgement.

A few days went by and I donated more rare mats, dye and weapons. It seemed that everytime I said I found something good one of the officers was asking for it for free.

I started doing Urgoz and it was time consuming for me. I always asked if anyone wanted to join me but never got any replies. Finally after a week I made it through Urgoz and got the short bow, to which I excitedly told the guild that I finally farmed something worth getting. I was immediately asked if I would give over the short bow. I said that I needed money for skills and was told that if I "donated" the bow that they would give me 25k. I said "I thought we didnt sell to guildies?" they said the treasury is there for us to use. I said "What about when I see people asking for things you all flame them and then boot them out for asking for stuff?" He said that was newer players not someone who has been loyal and been around for awhile. I said I had to think about it, that it took so long to get that I didnt want to give it away.

The next day I was summoned to the guild hall for a conferrence with the leader and the officer that had asked for my short bow. I was told that I seemed to have issues with guild policy and that my ideals didnt match that of the guild. I was told that I was not helpfull enough, and that I only did Urgoz and not helped anyone get anywhere. I said I was not an officer and that I shouldnt be held to those standards anyway. I said I got a little obsessed with beating Urgoz and was moving on. They insisted that I did not fit into the guild. I said "Youve got someone who donates items and mats and when he can, his time.... so where is the problem?" I said "Why dont you admit the real reason why you are coming down on me?" I confronted them about the bow and they said "If we got the bow we would immediately ask if anyone wanted it", which I know is a lie because the leader is always saying he wants those bows. Finally the leader said "You dont fit in here I think you should leave". And they booted me from the guild.

So that is how I got snookered out of abour 250k and was left guildless. Be carefull of guilds asking for "donations".

This is one of the reasons i don't do guilds. In fact its one of the reasons is spend most of my time away from human beings. People are generally selfish, arrogant and immature and hurt you, sometimes because they want to and sometimes they hurt you unintentionally in order to get what they want. I've had a good life so far (aged 19 now) and virtually nothing to complain about yet i still have periods where I can't bear to be in the company of people because they only seem to care about themselves, which is evident from your experience.

It made my stomach churn reading that post. Not just because you lost a tonne of gold but because it represents the people in the world we have to live in. It was the same story in Temple of The Ages where someone was scamming people out of ectos... that old 8g instead of 8k trick. How do people sleep at night knowing that they stole from some kid that possibly spent hours obtaining the items? Beats me.

Anyway, you probably felt like crap but all I can say is, I care. Be happy, be guildless!

wow, i never knew guilds could (or do) really sucker people like that. if your interested i could invite you into my guild. we have a few of the same ideals as the other guild, but if it gets abused by anyone, including officers, i kick them(im the leader). we dont give the REALLY rare items away for free and i cant expect that from anyone. i bought a 14^50 gold celestial sword from a member when factions first came out for 300k, which we both agreed on. our officers and alot of our members are very helpful in farming, AvA, pvp, and both factions and prophicies pve.

Wow it seems that you find rare and valuable times by the score. "I found 3 15>50 perfect axes and 2 perfect swords and then I beat the game and got a green perfect bow and then I had 50 ectos and donated 500k gold.

Im sorry but this is just dumb. You give away countless things to people you dont even know in real life? Why do you tell them all when you find something? Why would you stay at all in such a stupid guild? You seem to play a lot so why do you care? You said you didnt even have enough gold to buy skills and yet you give away all that crap?

That's just messed up. Why exactly does a guild have to provide all that for officers? What exactly do the officers do to deserve all that?

If guildies wish to give or sell stuff to guildies, so be it. If they wish to sell on the market for the cash they need, so be it. Guilds shouldn't be making their members shell out cash or materials at all.

We collected donations for our guild hall and some guildies went out and bought NPCs for it and others have donated gold towards another. The key word there is *donated*, they gave what they could or wanted to, no requirements, and there is a public record of it so everyone knows if it is used for something else or whatever.

My general perception is that people are generally good and there are a few bad apples that are like what you described.

in my guild, i expect the officers and myself(leader) to help ALL members regardless of their status(be it officer or member). we are all PVE guild , so we regularly use our chat chanel for meetings to farm or do missions to help members elevate their level with out expectinbg anything in return and demanding rare items or materials to remain a member. i purchsed the hall, but the members of the guild added vendors, without anyone asking or knowing who purchased them. that is why i love my guild and if you need a good, fun solid pve only guild look us up. we would be delighted to have you as a member. good luck on your future endeavors.

thanks for your replies and offers of guilds guys. its funny because i just joined a guild today and after i posted this got an offer to join from the leader who already invited me

I like guilds, I like to chat while I play, and I like to share. That is what makes this game fun, making friends and helping people out and enjoying a community.


makosi I have felt like you do at times, but really life is all about getting what you give out, and if you are standoffish people will give you the skeptical eye. Im talking about "the real world". The best lesson I learned in my 34 years on earth is that I have to trust myself before I can trust others.

master of puppets you actually have a good point; I do have lots of gold and yes I am a fanatic about playing. The issue I had is that I am not running around in fissure armor like the officers in my guild were, and I knew that they farm all the time but save the good loot for their fellow officers not us players. I could afford to give the axe away so I gave it away, tho I fear it is worth more than I figured it to be. I ran 5 chars thru factions and three in a row I did the seeking the stars mission and got a perfect drop, so easy come easy go I guess. I have since bought all the skills in the game and have some 200k left (after selling the urgoz bow).

I also wanted to say I am not bitter and still trust people. This particular guild experience really got me because I had been there for so long and it was so obvious why they were booting me out. It also bothers me because they talk about "the lord" and Christianity all the time like they are so loving and compassionate, and I thought they were good people.

Sounds like our guilds are alike. I've never heard of officers *needing* Fissure armor. I am the leader of my guild and I know that I and my officers help all of our guild members. People ask if anyone might have something, but no one demands anything. We do have a policy about selling to guild members (we aren't a built in customer base for your uber gear) though.

altho being helpful and friendly is fine, but giving away top items like that would just be abused more and more... you'll definitely be at a disadvantage

i've prolly sold waay cheaper or given away enuff ecto and shards to my guildmates to have my own fissure! Leaders +officers are there to SERVE and help not to be Served otherwise ur just a slave!

I'd never join a guild that REQUIRES you to give anything to them that has money value.

Its just asking to be taken from and kicked when you no longer give.

Wow that opening post is crazy. There are guilds like that?

A few weeks ago, a member offered to give out amber when it was still quite expensive, but I insisted to buy it from him instead. Officers and leaders are there to help and occassionally give out things to people they trust, not to collect things from members. At least, that's how we work.

Anyway, good luck with your new guild!

I try not to sell anything with my guildmates, but sometimes we INSIST that a person take money or something for whatever they give. XD If i do sell anything, its with a very severe discount. If its within the guild, money shouldnt matter, but demanding things like that really sucks.

My guild we do have an inventory for everyone. Everyone "donates" what they want mostly crafting materials since that is usually what people are looking for when trying to get armor. We dont force them or any of that, we have 2 accounts strictly for this purpose. We are a laid back group of 50 and we all reap each others benefits.

We do not allow buying/selling at all between each other. We collect the collector items (blue weapons) for our guildies and then they customize it until they get that perfect weapon they want.

Our guys can only donate the low end materials/dyes for the guild. The 4 officers that have access to the storage know not to accept any high end materials. Other than that anyone can get materials. They all know about the inventory char and they all take advantage of it. They can give it to free up space and such. For example... when prophecies came out we were not hurting for crafting materials since we had plenty in storage to give to all members for thier armor. We like carrying 1000-2000 of the mats thats needed for armor. We actually had left overs that we sold to the GW community to make money for the guild to get our NPC's in our GH. The only bad thing is when we have no room for more to come in we have a hard time refusing it.

Toffin ~

I just wanted to say thank you guys for your support. I was feeling really let down and Im glad a lot of you agree that I was in a bad guild, thanks

These newer guild leaders think "ZOMG! I'm teh LEADER Fearz Meh!@!!" all too often.

Makes it harder for newer smaller guilds to get any respect.

I didn't exactly have the same experience, but one experience i had, it was the first guild that i stayed in for a period of time. It was actually my second guild i joined because i only stayed in my first one for a day or so. Well anyway, that guild was nice, they weren't exactly experienced people but they were a group of people who worked together and played together, and get together for LANs and stuff, so my friend and I joined their guild.

They were a nice bunch of people, and like the OP, I had a habit of giving stuff out to people, and I went rune farming a lot before so I had a lot of runes to give out, major runes when they were still not a bad price to sell etc.. I did that out of my own personality and my then guildies didn't demand anything, they didn't exactly accept what I had to offer as well. Later on, I started donating materials in bulk because it was taking up storage space and I had a lot and that was when wood planks went for 10g each. However, the guild leadership (the guild leader was the wife of an officer of the guild) said they had to go take a break from guild wars.. and the guild eventually died down. I had to leave the guild due to inactivity.. I then figured, contributing so much for your guild wasn't exactly a smart move, because there are always times when you feel the need to move on, move on to another guild for various reasons. Although, in my case, the guildies were very kind, and very cool people and not exactly the same as your case but just that, if you decide to give to your guild and donate stuff to them, you will need to remember that there may be one day when you will leave them, maybe because there are problems within the guild, maybe because you want to pursue your own goals which the guild is unable to offer to you...

I also figured out that, if the guild leader is a female, she is more likely to be more trustworthy than a male guild leader, mainly because females, I believe, are less "evil" and won't try to scam their own guildies out of their selfishness.

why did you stay in this guild for so long? -_-

Females play GW???????????

Talk about greedy, this is why I go into more PVP oriented guilds that PVE. Even though I PVE, some guilds as you just joined was powered by corrupted guild leader and maybe the officiers were friends of him in real life. To give officiers FOW armor is just wow, I mean that's worst than EBAYING the armor, but to receive donations from guildies, is just wow.

What was the age group? I mean I wouldn't doubt older people doing this, but was it a younger aged group, where all they wanted was kewl items and take everything for themself?

Female guild leaders are not the always the more friendly than a male guild leader. It's like saying a female is less likely to rape someone than a male, it's about the same. True a female guild leader can be friendly and more kind. But if friends with the male guild leader stronger bond. If a guild asked for this much to you, with nothing in return, LEAVE, and don't have regret. You helped them so much, with nothing in return.

It seems to me that the OP was simply being a good member of a bad guild. He acted in good faith & he did question the whole situation when it became obvious that it was shady. And...he was booted for it. Better to have been him than the twerps that done done him wrong, yup.

In the words of the OP's name sake:

We're not scared to lose it all
Security throw through the wall
Future dreams we have to realize
A thousand skeptic hands
Won't keep us from the things we plan
Unless we're clinging to the things we prize

Yeah reading that story made me think wow I would of been booted on the first instance of them asking for ecto ect. Im a self sufficient person too and just like you want to fit in as a good member/officer of my guild, but though I like the guild Im with Ive made it clear to them that unless they truly need something dont expect any charity from me. I show up for gvg, help members with missions, do other ect things so its not like I hate these people. This story just made me think the nerve of some people to play the emotions of other people like they were with you. If you think they werent realize you gave them materials,gold, and weapons you went out of your way to get and they conned it out of you playing the guilt you wanna be a good member card.

*offtopic* your title made me think the opposite you were leaving because they werent bending over backwards to give you the leet uber weapons.

I stayed in this guild mostly from nostalgia. See, I had been in this really cool guild for a long time and made lots of friends, but eventually it became sort of corrupt and everyone quit. I stopped playing for a few months and when i came back to the game an old guildie whispered me about this great new guild that everyone joined, so I joined it. Anyway it WAS a cool guild but eventually people started leaving because of bad experiences and I was just too stupid to notice. I figured the guild was still ok tho and stuck around. I had actually been thinking of leaving when I was asked to donate the 15>50 celestial axe req 9 but hadnt quite commited to the idea. When they started harrasing me for the Urgoz bow I knew it was time to go.

I feel badly for the other people in the guild still, and the new players, because they talk a good game about peace love and bortherhood.

The leader is about 32 I think. He is married with kids and is always going thru some sort of health problem, which draws everyones sympathy and loyalty.

The TS password was actually "One in Christ", thats how supposedly faithfull they are.

Oh and the GL was male.

this thread made me feel sorry for a lot of people and angry at a few people

In this case I would have to advise mob justice enacted upon your ex-guild. Mob justice FTW.

Wow is that how PvE guilds are? I mean if I was in a PvE guild like that I would leave immediately and plus them asking you for things and not getting any help back? why did you give them a perfect 15^50 axe which you couldve gotten like lots for it? why would you join a guild with a stupid rule on getting the officers there stuff while they just sit and drink lemonade all day waiting for the members which was you considered a slave get thigns for them? Heres a tiop never join or stay in a guild that begs like that -.- those are people you shouldnt be with if they ask to buy soemthing form you its fine but if they demand for those things then leave if they threaten to kick you then leave before you do -.- You couldve had Fissure armor yourself instead of those retarded Officers? why Feed them with suck great items -.-

I can guarantee all PvE guilds are not like that. MINE is definitely not. I have no idea why one would stay in a guild like that. It's actually kind of pathetic that a leader and his officers would act like that. It sounds more like a cult than a guild.

Hmmm... a cult you say. *Rushes off to make a new cult... I mean guild*

Well, the idea is that if you stick around long enough and help, that you get rewarded with a promotion and fissure armor. Tho I had been there for 6 months no one ever approached me with a promotion, so it probably doesnt hold true....

Ah, that makes a bit more sense.

*sighs* Unfortunately for you these things happen. It really does suck. Our guild has a semilar policy but it doesn't include rare, hard to get items and we NEVER ask for gold donations! We store materials of all sorts EXCEPT ecto and shards or other really hard to get materials. We let the guild know that they are welcome to contribute to storage but it is NOT demanded in any way. However if we have a guildie who has done nothing to contribute at all with his time, materials, or any such help we ask that he pays the minimum when taking materials or that he promptly recover anything that he may need.

We take all dyes except black! If storage gets too full we sell off some of it (this is how many of our guild halls NPCs were aquired). The difference is that many of our guildies we have known for a long time, even if not in real life. Yes a lot of times the officers will be off doing something as a group and unable or reluctant to help. Mostly cause we are burnt out bigtime!

We've had a few new moochers. We request that whoever brough the moocher to our door pay for any losses whenever they can and to be more cautious next time. (Once that was me and I paid the biggest fee -_- for my blunder!) Never ever EVER should a guild FORCE you to be that way. Giving should be of your own accord!

We always help the low lvls but we request that they attempt it several times on their own the first time through before we assist in any way shape or form. We just had a guy who is the brother of a long time member ask for 10k, it was given and the leader said: Pay me back whenever you are able.
Guy: What if I don't >_>
Me: *bells whistles and a million signals go off*
Leader: You will be able to eventually, so don't worry.
Guy: Ok!

....This says to me that the guy has no intentions of paying off the debt and its counted as a loss but also a wait and see. He's new and his brother is a good guy we've known for a while, so if nothing else his brother might make up some of the cost even if he shouldn't have to.

If you are new in any way it should be the guild helping you, but not showering you with gifts.

Again I am sorry this happened to you but its not unheard of. Any guild that requires you pay your way in or offers you officer status from the start is also not the best one to go into. They either have a scam running or you can bet the guild will go bust after a few weeks possibly as long as 2mths.
Better luck next time hun!




(And for the record, I am a female and my husband is our guild leader - I am in charge of communications and damage control if something goes amiss >_>)

*Jaw drops* It's rather obvious the officers are abusing their position...

You should try and reflect on them by showing how you feel in your position. And.. WHY did you even tell you got a good drop, if you know you have to give it away!

To the OP.
Im sorry but i read your post in disbelief that someone would want to be a part of a guild where the leader and officers are treated like some godlike figures, giving them greens and gold weapons just because they "think they are cool". You should have left that guild the minute they started asking for donations for ecto (also unbelieveble). If they want fissure let em get it themselves.
No one in Guild Wars is more important than anyone else (except Gaile maybe xD ) and I would not treat anyone as if they are.
I hope you learn from this.

Holy crap what a lame guild ... my guild would never do anything like that so you should know that there are plenty of decent guilds with decent folk out there.

in OUR guild, everyone helps everyone, anyone who wants to donates to the guild funds to buy all the NPC's for the hall (only 2 left), we PvP and PvE, we all sell and buy from each other we just dont rip each other off and we usually give each other discounts and we help newer guildies out by loaning or giving them money. Our guild leader is a guy to.

Thats really screwed -.-
I think that, no matter the guilds policy, you are still the one in charge over your drops and items. So if they want you to donate, u should be deciding yes or no, and what you'll be giving.
I've been a guild leader, and i never asked for anything, exept for an occasional helping hand. I dont understand that some guilds make it a "rule" to donate stuff!

If they want money, go farm then!

Except that Fissure armor is not a reward...

I could see the officers getting 15k armor in a PvE guild, perhaps, but FoW armor? It's expensive as hell and far uglier. What it should be is a status symbol, but of course eBayers ruin that. Anyways, good luck on your future endeavors, and I hope this nonsense never happens to anyone.

Wow. I just read the first couple replies to the first post. Reading that first post made me sick. Good luck finding a better guild man. There are many benefits to joining a good one, but they aren't always apparent. Also, people you know irl are much less likely to screw you over. Finally, your style of play seems to generate great profits. I'd really suggest donating materials and cash if you can afford it, but keeping anything good you may find and selling it. I definitely would not broadcast it if you don't know the people. The most expensive thing my guild asks for is collector drops like Avicara scalps and thorny carapaces and such, so when someone needs a perfect item, we can get them a collectors one.