Do not rush to join a guild. RP with them, get to know them, their style of RP, see if they look like what you are looking for. It’s a safe way to avoid getting disappointed with your choice.
If you do join a guild and end up disliking it and wanting to leave, that is fine. It is a trial and error with guilds and your enjoyment is the most important thing. My only advice is to let the GM know why you are leaving before you do rather than just leave without a warning. It is not really necessary, but it’s the polite thing to do in my opinion.
Vacian, I don’t know what the situations with you have been specificly, but from what you’re telling I’d say you have nothing to worry about. RP is supposed to be fun and enjoyable, ideally so for everyone. Perhaps the only problem from DM/GM perspective is that when you get engaged in guild RP and become more important (or should I say integrated) part of it, then leaving can mess things up for other roleplayers in the guild unless you give people some sort of closure.
From what you’re telling about being respectful about leaving and not always having time to RP however, I wouldn’t see an issue. Sometimes people can take it personally that GMs/DMs would wish to find few more engaged people. And they may want to find them -without- wanting to “sacre off” those people who are less able to attend to RP, but still do it when they can. Then there are guilds who are just impersonal or expect unrealistic things from their members. I agree with what you said about being passionate in RPing something, but ultimately all passion or lack of it people can control is their own. If you take many tries to find your place, it’s your way while others may be more determined in what they want.
Also when it comes to OOC connections, usually when you leave a RP community/guild and you’ve had positive experiences with some people, those connections can last beyond guild membership. Like why not if you enjoy RPing with another person?
Perhaps the only issue when I’d say “guild hopping” is bad is that if someone joins your guild/RP community just to cause havoc and undermine your efforts to build community spirit, then leaves. You don’t sound like that kind of person. I’m gonna second on Matheson’s and Uruk’s advice.
There’s not even really any need to give an explanation for leaving if you’d rather not.
A quick IC mail saying thank you for opportunities but you feel your fortunes lie elsewhere etc, is all that is needed. Let’s IC interactions still happen smoothly and no bad feelings.
A good, confident GM shouldn’t really need to ask this and only respond, keep in touch and never feel like you can’t approach us anymore. Of course you’re free to give feedback if you want, but I always think, if you’ve nothing nice to say… just don’t say it.
Most of my characters are guildless because A) most guilds expect you to be active, B) I like having different characters, but not all of them would fit into any one guild, and C) ownership and should your time be divided between two groups they will expect you to represent them.
There are one or two that have been accepting of my sporadic activity on any one character but I’m so used to logging in and finding that I have been made guildless that I’ve opted to save anyone disappointment. Sadly, without being able to invest the time required into guild roleplay, WoW has become a very lonely game.
Keeping on topic, I would say guild hop at your leisure. Life is short and there is far too much variety in the RP scene, it sometimes surprises me that people bury themselves within a niche. Guild hopping becomes a lot more interesting too when you can write it into your character’s journey, with a chain of events leading to the departure, cause and effect hand in hand.
As a guild leader, I think communication is key. It’s why I always ask new people what they’d expect from us as a guild, or what they disliked about previous guilds they’ve been in. By asking things like that, I can advise them a bit if our guild would fit them or not. If people are used to 4 events a week and basically 24/7 RP, I’ll immediately tell them that even if we wanted we can’t realistically provide that, due to RL. I also ask about the character, to see if it fits our theme. I’ve never believed in ‘trial’ members, I try to make new players feel like they’re fully a part of us right from the start. When you’re in, you’re in. Thankfully my intuition tends to be spot on, regarding whether someone will fit or not.
I’d never enjoy it when people just leave without a word, since that makes me clueless if I failed them as a guild leader or if it had any other reasons. Luckily I’ve found this to be very rare! I think the important thing is to just always be open. If you leave because you like another guild’s outlook better for your character, just tell them honestly! I think most guild leaders would very much appreciate it. And remember, guild leaders are just players just like yourself. Some may think themselves amazingly important and kings of the world, but ultimately a guild is the total sum of its members, including you. But yes I’d also advise the same as many others, take your time! Don’t rush into guilds snatching you off of the streets, set out for yourself what you would like and more importantly what you would absolutely dislike, and then don’t lower your own standards for anyone.
Oh ha I’ve always had a completely different idea of what context ‘member poaching’ was used in. Like, it’s a thing of honour almost. For example I would never try to fish up a player who’s already in a guild, since that would be ‘poaching’. Or like, if a guilded player contacts me about joining, I’d ask if he’s leaving his old guild on good terms, so that they won’t think I’m a ‘poacher’.
Notice however - many guilds say one thing during recruitment - and another turns out to be the everyday truth. In that case, don’t feel bad to leave. Commercials doesn’t always reflect the truth.
Recruitment message space is limited though, but I’m politely assuming you also mean stuff like forum posts and Argent Archives pages. Of course everyone wants to make their guild ads and pages appealing to their target audience. Some guilds deliver better what they promise, some fail utterly - also circumstances play big part in it. No person nor guild is flawless however, this I can say both as a guild leader and a member of few other RP guilds.
Guilds generally won’t mind you hopping if you tell them in advance that you’re still looking for the perfect guild or if you tell them why you’re leaving when you leave. The only guilds I’d avoid are guilds just starting up, as I’ve seen a lot of guild masters start up new guilds, get a load of members and start catering to them just to find out that they’re guild hoppers and they’re leaving.
![:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:](https://d1bg94bbsh66ji.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye.png?v=6" ":stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:")