Guild Wars 2

Yes, they are. My friends and I started a guild with the intention of keeping it small, but it ended up a little /too/ small and we’re now really just down to the core of us as the few people we managed to recruit dropped off or went inactive. Now my boyfriend and I are just trying to find somewhere to go for the social aspect we’re missing.

It’s a combo “problem” of guilds being super easy to create and thus the over saturation, and the successful guilds boasting 4-500+ people in some cases.

Guild dynamic is very different from other games I’ve played so just trying to learn and adapt.

Could be your recruitment style or effort? I don’t mean to sound offensive or anything but I’ve grown my guild to 30 members in 2 weeks with those similar methods. Mind you I do have 5 irl friends in it, but I started with just one of them at the beginning. Keep trying man it can be done!

I am also a guild master that has had pretty good luck so far in recruiting for our little Forbidden Family. It seems though that there are just SOOOOOOO many guilds all of which seem to be offering the same things in the same way and its nearly impossible to tell if they are really going to provide those things or not. They all say “Close tight nit group” “more like family” “blabla benifits” “blabla active, growing blabla”. Dont just say these things but practice them. People can tell even from the outside if you are honest and sincere in what you say about your guild.

All i can say is dont give up. There are SOOOO many people playing. With numbers that large odds are that you would find some people (quality over quantity) that would fit well in your little group and be interested in being a part of what you are creating. Especially with server transfers still free the chances are pretty good.

Or… Since we are all pretty new to eachother and to the game you might want to consider for a while at least trying to join another guild with your little group. There are alot of good guilds out there im sure. You could take some time to get used to the game and learn a little about how another guild runs things and then later down the line give another shot at being the master of your own guild.

I fear with the ability to have multiple guilds it really does take away alot from the feeling of community among guild mates. There is no loyalty or feeling proud to be a part of something. If there is one tiny little thing someone doesnt like, having multiple guilds allows them to quickly walk away without giving any effort to stick around and work out the issues. It makes guild hopping so much easier and sadly more common.

I would very much like to see ArenaNet rethink the idea of multi guilding, but i dont forsee it happening. For now you can use that to your advantage though. Keep your guild you created for later and see what else is out there and gather ideas on how to make your own better.

I wish you and your little group all the best of luck in making it work out. Just try not to be discouraged :P Running a guild is not an easy task. It takes alot of dedication, effort and time.

Mithion,

YES, there are too many guilds. In a number of dungeon pug groups last week this was the topic of conversation. Guild merger will get you a better guild quicker but will take more effort (who gets to keep their guild, who are officers, which website is kept, voice chat, etc). Joining an established guild (which is easy to find via these forums or via gw2guilds.org) is even easier and will more quickly result in happiness. Didn’t find the right guild the first time? Keep looking.

I’ve been putting a lot of effort into recruiting for our mid sized guild recently. First, most people want an active guild, not a growing guild (this eliminates at least 80% of guilds…and only large guilds are possibly active). Second, most people don’t want to leave their world (this eliminates 80% of looking for guild posts). Third, many people want “top” or “competitive” guilds (so if you and your friends are very talented or dedicated then perhaps you can grow in this way.

Take a look around in game. How many people don’t have guild tags? I’m a very active player and I’ve counted 14 people without a guild in the last week (I didn’t include noob zones…a lot of people forget to “represent”). That is very few available players.

As another person said, whatever you do, try to keep your current guild (at least it is free bank space…I’m surprised Anet did not include a guild maintenance cost…).

It most certainly is flooded, and your story is very close to mine. I think things are still sifting out and people are finding what they really want to do with the game. Plus, there aren’t very many current reasons to care about what guild you are in for lot’s of people. Also, probably too many ‘groups of buds’ trying to start their own guild and just hurting the chances for other small guilds.

I knew it wouldn’t be easy from the start. We don’t really lack anything other guilds may have, except a very active and numerous player base of course. Just a disclaimer, my guild size is technically past 30, but the “true” size is not nearly that because of non active/non representing players. We are proud of what we have accomplished so far, and looking very forward to what we will in the future. I don’t plan on stopping with GW2 any time soon so we will keep trying. Eventually, things will work out I am sure of that.

If you don’t think it’s worth it, form up with another guild. You would be doing a great service to all us small guilds by doing this. Not saying you should, just if you no longer want to put out the effort. This goes out to all other guilds with the same issue to. Which I know, there is a lot. Other than that, all I can really say is good communities don’t form over night. It’s more about making friends that play at similair times and in similair ways that your guild does than anything.

I understand the concerns about the “value” of guilds. Certain functions we know are coming (guild halls, for example), but I don’t know if they plan on changing the cost and other things.

While I can’t really speak from the perspective of a small/new guild, I can say that since we moved to GW2, we have found more members by playing and speaking with people than we have by “static” recruiting in cities, zones and websites. And the ones we recruit through playing tend to stick more than those who responded to a recruitment message.

Aside from the people who’ve brought in personal friends, most of our new members joined us after one of ours helped them out in a zone with a vista, a tough skill challenge, that last POI they can’t get, or answered questions they had. Those moments provide a great opportunity to chat and get to know someone, and a chance for you to show the kind of guild you are.

Either way, I wish you and all other guilds out there all the best and good luck.

WE, the small guilds, will continue to have problems recruiting so long as John/Jane Doe would rather become a nameless cog in a 200-400 member guild then join a smaller guild, help it grow, and earn a solid spot within the guild while making friends that wont turn into one of the dozen cliques existing in large guilds.

You just gotta keep working at it and the more members/activity you get the easier it will be to gather more numbers. Set some goals that can be achieved without needing 100 members and make sure it’s part of your recruiting ad. That way when new members join they can see how close the guild is to it’s next “milestone”.

Raine Akrune.8416:

WE, the small guilds, will continue to have problems recruiting so long as John/Jane Doe would rather become a nameless cog in a 200-400 member guild then join a smaller guild, help it grow, and earn a solid spot within the guild while making friends that wont turn into one of the dozen cliques existing in large guilds.

You just gotta keep working at it and the more members/activity you get the easier it will be to gather more numbers. Set some goals that can be achieved without needing 100 members and make sure it’s part of your recruiting ad. That way when new members join they can see how close the guild is to it’s next “milestone”.

Well stated, Raine. Regarding p.1 – I think that problem is also a valuable recruiting filter in and of itself. And as for p.2 – agreed. “Know thyself” as some famous oracle has stated elsewhere.

I personally did quite a bit of recruitment here on the forums as well as in game, for a “group of buds” as Sprinkles called it. We did pick up more valuable players (ones that would actually get in vent with us, or join us on quests/dungeons) via in game routes versus the forums, but still couldn’t get a decent core group.

Part of the problem we had was the fact that the quality people looking for a guild were in the same boat as us. They were already in a small guild, and didn’t want to move from one small group to another, just to have to find and get to know another set of people to “see if they fit”.

I ended up stopping recruitment, which then made some of our members slowly trickle to other servers/guilds/games so the two or three active players left (me included) decided to look elsewhere for a home.

In actuality, I believe many people in this post have good points. I know it stinks that you cannot get recruitment numbers up, getting quality players that will stick with you. Sometimes it is best to reach out to other guilds, even the smaller ones, to see if you and your other members would fit. I know as a guild leader/officer it stinks putting a ton of work into a site, guild maintenance, data research and so forth for it to just flop, but all that work you do can be transferred to a new guild, allowing you to show them how dedicated you (and possibly any following members from your original guild) can/will be.

I think I may have ended up rambling a bit there, but hopefully I covered a point or two. :o)

This hasn’t been my experience, but I have used multi-guilding as a selling point in my recruitment post since day one. I also got VERY lucky and hooked a champion recruiter who took it on himself to help me out in the early days. I watched him, learned his tactics and improved my own skills quite a bit.

When I left GW1 our tiny little guild had 5 members that still signed on once in awhile, and 3 who played regularly. From that point, in just a little over a month, we’ve gone to 94 active, vivacious, lively members and I’m enjoying them all very much. This forum is the only place I’ve recruited since launch. Never in town, pugs, or /map.

With multi-guilding I go so far as to encourage players to make AI their “mistress” guild; have a home somewhere else and come visit us when there’s no one around at home. Come in, have a laugh or two, feel free to leave when you’re ready. But so far no one is leaving. They just hang out and keep on laughing.

All in all I believe the players are still out there. It’s just a matter of finding the right ads to pull in the ones you want.