Hi guys, this is probably very relatable to any semi-hardcore guild, but around 10 people in my guilds’ raids are a weekly revolving door of incoming and leaving people. To most people this may not be a problem, but let me tell you why I dread it everytime.
I may have some social anxiety, especially when it comes to meeting new people (especially 10 at a time, who are often from the same guild and therefore some kind of comfortable around each other already). It takes some time getting to know and love my guildies, and these 10 new people by the time I do will be out the door again.
The first raid is 40 clowns trying to out-funny each other with ‘jokes’ trying to show how nice of a guild we are. Usually this wears down after one raid or even after 1.5 hours when everyone is tired of one-upping each other and thinking we all are Bill Burr. Don’t get me wrong, I like the normal banter, but this kind of ‘funny’ is fake.
Often the newcomers were part of some other guild, which is the reason they are already clique-y and more likely to leave after one week (seen it happen now a couple of times). We would be more likely to retain individual recruits, but I guess for officers it is easier to replace 10 people at a time then poach one.
Just made this post to vent I guess, having a steady raiding team is kind of a utopia as every week people will leave in semi-hardcore guilds like mine, and these people need to be replaced again.
This is what you get for playing 16 hours a day for months or even years at a time.
You dont even actually meet those people, see them as annoying voices in your head which you should simply ignore.
Also going outside once a week for starters can be good to re-socialize yourself, maybe even meet a woman and who knows…
Unfortunately that’s life in a larger raiding guild. Ultimately it’s quite difficult to keep 40 people on the same page and raiding together continuously, so there’s always got to be a flow of new people coming and going.
I generally think recruiting large groups is a recipe for disaster though, and you are quite right, it’s easier to retain a single entity than a whole group.
As someone who also struggles with anxiety, I completely understand your pain as interacting with new people can at times be really draining.
I think this will be the case in almost any raiding guild you join, so I’m not sure you’ll be able to avoid it. I think talking about it will help you contextualise and deal with it though, and I’m sure a lot of people will resonate with your feelings too.
Some things are projected a little here. I don’t play 16 hours a day, maybe 3-4. And I wouldn’t call my guild toxic, however I’ll give you some truth here because some of our officers can be a bit rage-y or tough love, so I can believe we may turn off some players unfortunately. I got to know them and can look through this kind of thing, but there sure are some times where I myself have doubted the warmth of at least the guild management. Like sometimes when you do a good job you’d get praise and other times you’d get cut off when talking to officers. The grass isn’t always greener somewhere else though, and as long as the fellow raiders are mostly cool you can deal with a tough leadership.
Edit: I can see the connection of the above with the revolving door issue though. I am contemplating whether it would be worth talking to some of the guild management about this approach. As in being more warm and forgiving. Any thoughts on this - how to handle it or to even do it at all?
If my guild members have a problem I encourage them to tell me honestly, bluntly even what the issue is and ask if I can offer a solution. Sometimes just airing their doubts helps push away some of their unease when they realise I have a plan in mind to counter their issue.
If your guild leader/officers refuse to just listen to issues from their members, then that’s an issue on their part, not yours.
My previous guild broke up in early January, as many people simply didn’t return from the winter holidays and the officers decided they no longer want to play Classic at all.
Many of us applied to my current guild and I remember cheering in discord and guild chat as my former guildies joined the new environment one by one. In the end, 9 of us migrated. Over the next month we passed our trials and became full members, again cheering mightily as each of us got the rank bump after one raid or another.
Of course we stuck together in the first weeks, as human beings tend to when entering a new, potentially threatening environment from a familiar one. But now, over 2 months later, the lines in the sand are all but gone and we are all spiteful crustaceans.
What I am getting at, as others have already suggested, and as your second post shows you know deep down yourself, is that the problem lies with your current guild and it’s leaderships, not the players who wisely choose not to stick around in a toxic environment. You should consider either bringing it up with your leadership, or moving on yourself. Just keep in mind the former may result in the latter anyway, just in an even more unpleasant fashion.
I wish you best of luck! See you in Naxx.
Guild in Classic/Vanilla are aids. Need to have ~50 players that are reliable is impossible unless you play in Hardcore guild or if you have been lucky to get into a guild that have gathered mass-people on release and have 2/3 roster.
For a normal guild, you’ll be hit by something that is called the unreliability of human. They think they do, but they don’t. They think they can farm consumables/enchant, but they don’t have time for X reason. They stop the game at some point, they leave the guild because of X, they go in raids without any enchant or consumables and they think they can get carried by others players because “the content is easy”. And often, you can’t replace them, because it’s difficult to get new player in Classic. So, you have to deal with them.
Wait The Burning Crusade, with 25 raids-man, it will be a lot of easier to gather 25 players that will think they do and they will, and all thoses dad gamers that you have to carry will have to go back where they should be : in casual guild.
Wow relationships are very much real buddy, my best friend and an “uncle” to my kids is my former GM from WotLK, we raided together for 4 years before ever meeting irl. Now we travel to meet up at least once a year. With families.
If you have folks leaving every week then there is clearly an issue in your guild somewhere, maybe you and the officers should have a chat and see what you can do to change things.
I think it also has to do with a lot of people just wanting to try raiding. I know for sure in the past many never even tried due to 1) Know not have the time in the long run 2) Thinking its too difficult for them.
