LF a Good Guild

Copra over at Blog Azeroth posed the question "What is a Good Guild?". Several bloggers have already replied, but, what the heck, I'll throw in my two copper for what it's worth (which I suppose, by definition, would be two copper).

We've all seen this exchange in general or trade chat. On Bloodhoof, it looks like this (comments in bold represent the poor soul looking for the good guild in question):

• "LF a good guild"
• snide comment
• snide comment
• "What kind of guild do you want to be in?"
• "A good one"
• snide comment
• comment that starts off sounding sincere but ends up being another snide comment
• ...
• (2 minutes elapse)
• "LF a good guild"

It's an impossible question to answer because I believe there's no such thing as a universally "good guild." There are simply guilds with different goals and approaches to the game.

Soon after WotLK dropped, our guild became immersed in quite the Charlie Foxtrot over our identity. Basically, those of us who had been with the guild for a while knew what we were about - a leveling guild who raids casually and mostly just screws off in /gchat and on vent and helps our members accomplish whatever goals we have. Some newer people, though, grew increasingly frustrated that we hadn't cleared all the raid content as quickly as the hardcore guilds on our server and started raising a stink in-game and on the forums. They eventually left and everyone involved in the series of heated debates had a bad taste in their mouths over the whole situation.

For me, our guild is a good guild. I don't have time to be a hardcore raider. I work full-time, play my RL Bard class part time, hang out with Cheesi, hang out with the Baby Tank and her sisters, and actually enjoy sleeping once in a while. I like running heroics and raids, but I don't have the mental or temporal bandwidth to commit myself to raiding until the wee hours of the morning several nights out of the week.

For those who left, our guild wasn't a good guild. They saw us as lazy and unorganized. They wanted to see all the content as quickly as possible and didn't like that most of our officers had other priorities to which we needed to attend.

I don't hold anything against those guys now, after having some time to think about it. They had the wrong impression of what our guild was about. That's not necessarily their fault.

If you're looking for a guild, first you need to figure out what type of player you are:

• Do you prefer PvP?
• Do you prefer PvE?
• Are you a hardcore raider?
• Are you a casual raider?
• Do you just want to have some people around who can help you knock out some quests or simply chat with while you level?
• Do you prefer a complicated DKP system designed by a statistician, mathematician, the COO of a biotech company, and a parakeet who can whistle the theme song to Small Wonder?
• Do you prefer to simply greed on blues and roll on purples and shards?
• etc, etc, etc

After you've figured out who you are, do your homework. Most guilds have websites that should give you a pretty good idea as to what kind of guild they are. If they don't have a site, chat a bit with one of their members or officers and try to get a feel of their guild culture.

Bottom line, know who you are and know what you're getting yourself into. If the guild you're in isn't a good fit for you, don't try to change their culture or rant and rave about not getting the fulfillment you want. Just leave and find another home. It'll be easier on everybody.

And please don't say "LF a good guild" in the trade channel. Trust me, it won't go well for you.