Funny, the only guild I represent ALL the time is the one guild that doesn’t harass me if I stand down/represent other guilds. Though they asked me once why I stood down, and it was because they wanted me to do fractals with them.
Now I had 5 guilds, left 3 and joined another owned by my RL friends. Putting me in 3 guilds, one for generic fun, another for wvw, and finally, my RL friends’ guild.
Now my RL friends that play this game are few and they’re not online at all the times I’m on, nor am I on when at all the times they are, we have different schedules and now we live in different cities. Why would I represent their guild when I’m doing WvW or something else with my other guild and none of them is online? Or why should my “big” guild harass me if I’m doing stuff with RL friends?
I like all three guilds and I try to contribute as much as I can to them. And because they don’t hassle me for not representing, I find it enjoyable to be with them. Because they enjoy doing things with me (dungeons, wvw, events or w/e). The simple reason is that they don’t demand it.
If I were to lead a guild, even though I decided NOT to, I would allow people to represent whatever guild they like as long as they keep up with important events. Or something among the lines of: “If you’re in WvW please represent this guild”. Maybe a thing like “At least hop on TS/Vent/Mumble so we stay in touch” or “Log on forums on the days you can play”.
But then again, one of the BIG things I like about GW2 is that I do NOT need a guild to advance my character. I know it sounds selfish or disloyal, but it is the truth. But looking on the bright side of it, my guild is no longer another job or homework that I have to do. My guild is just a nice community that I get to know and do fun things regularly with. You know, “fun” is the thing we tend to forget having once “hardcore” starts to play and guild-drama kicks in.
Which reminds me, this system is really similar to the Linkshells in Final Fantasy XI. And as far as I remember, drama did not happen because people had multiple linkshells, it happened because of loot or attendance to the all too important events that felt like jobs. (Specially with how that game had VERY limited loot opportunity as world bosses had kittenedly long respawn timers and could only be claimed “tagged” by one alliance/raid). Of course, there were the times when people did those events (Dynamis/Limbus/Wold Bosses) with other linkshells either taking the claim from their original linkshell or putting their, probably key, character on rediculous CDs, but that IS a loyalty issue and loyalty, no matter what game/system, is a kickable offense. But thanks to GW2’s system, there’s no such situations which you could put your guild in a disadvantage like that.
Honestly, it isn’t much of a problem. Some guilds offer you 100% guild buff up time but expect something from you in return. So it’s all about how a guild wants to operate. As long as they are open about it, I don’t mind. If I apply to a guild, I will tell them I WILL represent other guilds and if they say it’s ok I’ll join. Otherwise I won’t. On the other hand, I expect those guilds to NOT kick me for representing another guild after telling me that they do not mind. If you do not want a guild that demands 100% representation, leave the guilds that ask for so (Or don’t join at all). That’s what I do. Does it make me disloyal? No, I consider myself loyal to whatever guild that I play with and I would dedicate a lot of my time for such guild.
Anyways, I typed too much :p…
Have a good day
Chevalier