As most of you all know, currently my main MMO of choice is “Guild Wars 2.” It’s a great game and I have a lot of fun playing it with the people I know. To be honest, even if I didn’t know anyone in the game, even though it wouldn’t be the same, I’d still have fun with it. The game has so much to offer that I just absolutely love playing it.
A while back I ended up joining a guild on my home server (Tarnished Coast) that was very active when it came to role-playing, had over 40 members (most of whom were active), and was not afraid to help people level, run dungeons, or even do some player-vs-player content. I mainly joined because I was encouraged by a certain individual who vouched for the coolness of this group of people, but I had no qualms with joining and, as it turned out, they were a nice bunch. Quite regularly they would hold special “story events” where one of the players acted as a Dungeon Master and told a fun story for everyone to take part in, and even if you could not make it to stuff like that, these people were always having fun talking in guild chat and were willing to just enjoy the game with you. Yet, things began to slow down over the holidays (understandably) and less and less people were regularly online as Thanksgiving passed and Christmas approached, and then after 2013 had come into being people were away from the game citing the fact that they were going back to work (again, understandable), school, or whatever else.
This was fine with me for a while, but once January rolled into February and the situation was seemingly in decline, I wanted to know more. Well, the other night, one of my casual acquaintances in the guild mentioned that the leadership (most of them, anyway) had taken it upon themselves to just withdraw from the game stating that they were now “waiting for Neverwinter Online to release.” On top of that, some of them had gone back to playing “Champions Online” or “All Points Bulletin” without so much as dropping a note in the guild menu in game. Obviously, they weren’t exactly waiting, but had also grown bored of the game. Yet, this bothered me for a few different reasons. First, it’s kind of strange to say that you are waiting for a game that isn’t going to come out until at least July of this year, if not later (Q3 was the last rough approximation I heard from the Alpha Newsletter). If you are “waiting” for that game, why not continue to spend time in GW2 with your friends there? Second, it’s kind of odd to say that you are waiting for something when you up and decide to just go and play something else. And then there is the fact that not only did they just abandon ship with their community in GW2, but they didn’t even bother to designate someone as a leader so that they could keep the guild afloat for those who wanted to stay on.
In this case, unless we can somehow get in touch with these people outside the game and get them to either shut down the guild formally or designate a leader, I’ll just have to pack up shop and either make my own guild or join another community. In GW2, at least, this is a bit more transparent because you can belong to up to five separate guilds, so if one guild goes kaput it’s not the end of the world (or at least it shouldn’t be). Then again, though, being able to join multiple guilds kind of does one of two things: It either decreases loyalty to any one guild, or you opt to represent one guild as your primary one and, by extension, your membership in the others is rather limited anyway.
So, yes, it does make me mad, but I will get over it. From what I have played of the alpha of “Neverwinter Online” (which I feel I can talk about now due to their open beta weekends), the game is good and will be enjoyable for anyone who enjoyed “Dungeons & Dragons Online.” There is a rich world and lots of fun game mechanics. Yet, still, it’s kind of crappy to just up and abandon a game that is out and is fun for one that isn’t even out yet!
Ah well… /endrant
Time to start your own mega-guild…
Maybe one day! I don’t like having to do all the work for a large guild. I’ve done that in the past quite a few times, but eventually it becomes a chore and takes away from the fun of the game. So, we’ll see, I guess!
Do you have any friends that are in fun guilds in GW2?
Nope. I just play casually with a couple different friends who aren’t roleplayers.
That makes sense. These days, now that this larger guild is pretty much done, that’s kind of what I do. I am a member of a couple other guilds (though I rarely fully represent), but when they are on I am fine with running WvW with them, dragging them through dungeons, or whatever else.
We should do some WvW together sometime, then!
We should!
Yep. I don’t blame you getting upset. To decide to leave the game to play another game, or wait for a game yet to be released is one thing – and that’s fine, people do it all the time. But if you are a community leader, particularly a leader that is part of a large, active guild, then it’s rude in the extreme to simply disappear without some kind of notice.
We had that happen with a player in SWTOR recently – he burned through the Trials and due to his activity and helpfulness was granted a position in the Dark Council as an RP Master in the Council of Juggernauts. Then suddenly one day he just disappeared, no notice, nothing – we found out a couple weeks later he had left SWTOR and was playing GW2 pretty much exclusively.
None of us really minded him going off and playing what he wanted of course – it was the complete lack of intention to inform us that ticked us off. He didn’t even need to do it in game – a simple “Hey, I’m leaving to play GW2, good luck!” on the forums would have been enough.
I agree completely. I generally am okay with people doing whatever they want, so long as they are at least up front about whatever that is. Obviously, how can I get mad at someone for saying they want to go and play or do something else? It’s their life and they can do what they want. However, just like in your situation, if someone doesn’t have the common courtesy to spend 5 minutes to tell you that they are moving on, well, that’s just rude. If you want to quit and do something else (or do nothing, maybe you are just burned out on online gaming?), that’s fine, just let someone know.
But the whole thing about quitting a currently-active game and saying you are going to wait for a game that is probably 6-9 months out still? That’s silly.
But, worse yet, since I know through other people that these people in question went back and now are playing Champions Online and some game called APB, that means they not only didn’t have the common decency to spend 5 minutes telling people officially what was going on (and that they were either appointing a new leader or folding the guild), but they were lying to the people who they did tell they were leaving (saying they were waiting, when in reality “waiting” meant going off and playing totally different games).
Ah well…I just don’t get people like that, I guess!