Guild Wars 2

Hi, I’m here to ask some help from you guys.

So I’m a guild leader on Yak’s Bend server. I have a guild with 25 people. The problem is that there is virtually NO ONE who speaks in the guild chat and it feels pretty empty… I know, college started, less time to play and stuff, but really, I don’t think this is normal.
Also, people always forget to represent the guild, which does not help us to get influence and grow.

Because of this, people often leave the guild because there is no one except me chatting.

So what I want to know, is how you guys overcame these problems and became bigger.

I also want to add that I am very dedicated to my guild and I try to recruit everyday, but everyday some people leave, so the guild is not growing at all.

I lead a guild on sanctum of rall, unfortunately, you’re going to have to do a lot more work than what your doing. Just understand not everyone can keep up with a guild, it is A LOT of work.

Often times the problem is theres tons and tons and tons of smaller guilds out there, between 5-30 pleyers all trying to recruit players to join them. When everyone goes fishing at the same time, the fish get pretty scarce.

Have you given any thought to merging with another smaller guild, and combining your resources? Or perhaps, absorbing into a larger guild? Or maybe join an alliance of guilds who share a voice chat server, for easy group match making? You could also consider moving your guild to a different server, although there is no guarentee you wont face the same problem on that server.

When you get to the point where you lose more members then you can keep up with, you either need to recruit like a mad man, or consider one of the options above.

Best of luck, I hope things work out for you.

Guild that prospers into PVX without asking help from random people-

1. You can do this by yourself, but it’s gonna be 3 times harder
2. Establish cores and co leaders to help you grow
3. Tell people to represent or get kicked (No reason why they shouldn’t represent, if they leave then that’s their loss, not urs)
4. You as a Guild leader have to be more active then you are. Until things are finally growing, you have to put 110% into this.
5. Have people help you around guild whether partying/recruiting/wvwving.
6. boost your morale and help others level (but make sure, no leechers in guild)
7. Did I mention “represent”?
8. You have to establish a Heirarchy or Ranks and let people know that you’re serious about making this guild become bigger.

Hope that helps.

Let me toss a thought out there… you recruited by pretty much asking, “Who wants to join my guild?” Am I right?

If so, you are pretty much reaping what you have sown.

Had you recruited by asking, “I want extremely social, chatty members…” you might not have recruited 25 people in the same period of time, but I guarantee you would have had a more active guildchat right now.

The thing is that many leaders expect is that their guild is growing fast to where they want them, many thing “if i once get this number, everything gets rolling”, which is a big mistake.

I have a small guild aswell, 7 active people. Well, 4 of us been playing mmos together already for a long time so we made that guild and had a fine core already.

We dont just recruit anybody, and well, kick people quite fast when we realize they are not really active or interested. the people that joined us and stayed, are active on chat and even voice chat.

We dont hurry to grow, if we find people that want to come along with us they are invited of course, but we have no rush on that.

I do much the same, Cruzyo. I guess the biggest difference being that maybe because I started recruiting earlier, I now have over 90-plus members who are active every 24hrs on our forum, and in game, too. And all share the same sort of friendly and caring philosophy I have. People think guilds like ours don’t exist, but clearly they do

Indeed, as guild leader your most valuable attitude has to be patience.

If you’re not patient with what you build, it will fail and fall apart faster than it took to grow. I had that in another game where the approach was to become strong and powerful as fast as possible, the sacrifice was a good chemestry between the people.

It grew within days, it held for weeks, it fell apart in hours.
And as guildleader its always terrible to see something you put effort in to fall apart, thats why i changed my approach completely, I wont care if i stay with these few guys for weeks before we find other people to join, I know these guys will be loyal and that’s what matters more than numbers.

If the people you have surrounded around you are loyal, the number does not matter anymore. It can be 10, 20, 50 even 100.

I think another thing to consider is how new the game is – I would think it would be pretty rare that an individual will spend their entire time in a game’s lifespan with the same guild. (Not that they don’t exist!)
As per Cruzyo’s advice, patience is key, we’re only 2 months in!

I wouldn’t begrudge any transient members at this point because the game is still in flux – a lack of subscription means there are plenty of casuals only now putting down the game for new releases, transfers are still free and with guild bonuses being server specific some players might not feel it worthwhile settling down just yet, I have members who quite literally burnt themselves out and are on hiatus.

In the mean time, keep at it. As some have said the number of players to recruit are rare but you’ll not find any if you don’t promote at least a little. Only other thing I can suggest is to keep building your contacts! (Which imo is a lot harder now!) If you don’t have a lot of people in-roster but can still field a dungeon team it may go a long way in creating incentive for members to stay.

However, if those college players were anything like me they are doing the ‘afk’ playing while studying and I usually felt too guilty to chat much in those cases heh.

Also remember that GW2 is a little different of a game than what most people are used to. The combat style is so dynamic and it is constantly keeping you on your toes. I find i have the same problem of guild chat in game being mostly dead because people are having a hard time stopping to type without dying. Most of our conversation happens on voice chat.

If you have a voice chat server for your group you will tend to have alot more conversation. This is why, even though voice chat is not a requirement in Forbidden, we still very strongly encourage it. Pressing one button to talk while your rolling and dodging is MUCH easier than trying to stop to type.

Also you might wish to lay down some rules with them about representing. I personally believe the ability to have multiple guilds in GW2 takes away from the quality of members. Takes away from the feeling of being a part of something. Takes away the loyalty. Sadly it seems to be allowing for people to guild hop with no penalty, making it extremely difficult to keep members active in your guild. For this reason Forbidden has chosen to be an exclusive guild and thus far we have had no problems at all with representation (except the occasional time someone makes a new alt and forgets to represent).

That also may be another reason why your guild chat seems dead. If people are not representing they are not able to see your guild chat and thus have no idea there is even a conversation happening. You are the guild master, you are the one putting together this group of people. You are the leader. Sometimes people need a little direction. Dont be afraid to give it to them.

Also as i said to another person who posted a topic very much like this one:

The game is still very new. Maybe it would be beneficial for you to take some time away from trying to build your own guild and go join another guild to get some ideas on how they are working things. Look for some examples of how someone else is doing it and succeeding so that you can alter your own approach to also be successful. Who knows, maybe in joining another guild you will find what your looking for without having to put in all the work to make it yourself.

Either way i do suggest keeping your guild around. If nothing else it will be free storage (if you have the guild bank already) for now. And later down the line when you feel your ready to give it another go (being all that much more wise) it will be there waiting for you.

Good luck Vegetation!

I could write an essay but I feel like all that needs to be said is your guild is your members. If your members are quiet, keep-to-yourself kind of guys, then so is your guild. Spend more time recruiting, and really pick out the kind of people you want. That’s what I did. You have to get lucky too, and find those special social butterfly kind of guys that will also play the game for real. They’re harder to find than one may think. Once you find a few, the guild will grow exponentially. I run one that is 29 members. It’s 29 by choice, as recruiting is now closed to weed out exactly those people that you mentioned. Out of our members, about half of them are online nightly and yapping away on guild chat/forums/mumble. I am very happy with that but I also got lucky in finding some awesome people.

Do not throw applications around because then your guild just becomes a stepping stone. Do not go up to someone and be like..hey this person plays GW2! Time to invite. They will have zero dedication to you, your guild and your goals. Spend time with them, play with them and get to know them to make sure they’re the kind of players you want. It takes a lot of dedication and time. I literally spent hours with each member when my guild was brand new. It took me dozens of hours of not leveling but just socializing but in the end it was worth every second.

Cruzyo.7304:

The thing is that many leaders expect is that their guild is growing fast to where they want them, many thing “if i once get this number, everything gets rolling”, which is a big mistake.

I have a small guild aswell, 7 active people. Well, 4 of us been playing mmos together already for a long time so we made that guild and had a fine core already.

We dont just recruit anybody, and well, kick people quite fast when we realize they are not really active or interested. the people that joined us and stayed, are active on chat and even voice chat.

We dont hurry to grow, if we find people that want to come along with us they are invited of course, but we have no rush on that.

Same for us. Some of us have been playing together through several games. Some we met on the forums of the last game we all played. But when we recruit, we never advertise. We meet people in game and invite after a bit. Or I’ll run across someone here on the forums that that looks like they might fit our bunch.

That said, OP, you might spring for a vent or TS3…they are pretty inexpensive these days. Not everyone will use it, but its there and really handy for dungeon crawls. Even if someone’s home situaton won’t allow them to talk, they can listen to instruction. Plus there is the social side of being able to talk and joke around while you’re questing anywhere in the game.

Hey Vegetation,

The issue can be caused by many elements, as recruiting members does help get new recruits high, you also need to get a bond with them.
Either teaming up or talking with members can increase this bond a.k.a socializing.
When they get to know you, some might want to help out or will just start conversations on their own.
This will create some new space for you to focus on recruiting, instead of 24/7 keeping your members busy. You want to put effort in the active players.

Also keep in mind that random recruiting brings all kind of players in your guild.
You might notice these typ of players;
- active players: these players will most of the time say something in guild chat and like to do thing with the guild.
- the shy ones: players who hardly say a word and are mostly playing by themselves, which eventually leave the guild or stop playing the game.
- trash players: these are the kind that join the guild and never or rarely appear online.
Of course I made these 3 types up but you get the idea

So what you want is:
- put effort in the active players. socializing with them and teaming up.
- recruit active members who represent the guild, which can be done by either focused recruiting or offering something unique within your guild.
- Learn from other guilds, have a look at some/all populair guilds and their points and see what they do different from you.
Than you just mix your points/believes with some points from a strong/fun/active guild and voila you have created your own unique way of recruiting/points of interest which if you play it smart will give you a nice base for a strong community or a group of friends.

Kind Regards,
Kistumeo