Being in an excessively large WoW guild
I am part of alea iacta est on Earthen Ring (aka, the guild from The Instance). For the past year and a half, this was my guild of choice, going into no other. Thus far, I've submitted four toons to the guild, (all current) a level 77 druid, 72 mage, 62 death knight, and a 25 paladin (which turned into my bank alt).
AIE right now has more then 4000 characters. To get a perspective, that's larger then all of the Penny Arcade Alliance guilds put together. Heck, the amount of characters at my druid's level all could run an old world instance.
So what is it like? First, this is a casual guild. We all talk casually,making jokes, cheering about acomplishments (not nessisarily Achievements) and progress however we can in whatever area we want.
Because we're a large guild, that green text is ever crawling. It almost never stops, people are on all the time. It got so big, we had to build two seperate channels for people looking for a group or an officer.
The forums turned into one of the most important organizational tools, probably more so than in other guilds. Because we're so large, to build any pve or pvp raiding groups requires everyone be on the same page. Heck, we organize events like the Running of the Beef and crafting fairs through the forums. In part because those events can be larger than a raid will allow.
I think because our guild is more casual means our progression is not too quick. The groups vary in how quickly they progress, although I don't think any of our groups was running Black Temple or Mt. Hyjal regularly before 3.0.
The thing was, our guild was a kind of mini-realm. There was all sorts of people in it, some very good players while others didn't compete at all. Some people could be seen playing almost all the time, others (like me) play every so often. We've had people who needed to take a break (or like Leo Laporte, needed to quit) for one reason or another, but most have been able to balance WoW with the other aspects of their lives.
And heck, we got great officers who make sure no drama of any kind pops up. We have no hate in the guild. Except for the Alliance. Especially gnomes. We all could punt gnomes all day and never get tired.
If there's one problem with the guild of our size, it really is like being on a realm without a guild at times. Notably, when looking for tanks and especially healers. 5-man guild runs are often a friendlier form of PUG.
I can also imagine people not liking a large guild. It becomes a bit tough to really get to know other members when there's 100+ others on at the same time. If you consistantly run with people, that's one thing. But the use of the addon Identity is almost required, since people often have two or more characters in the guild, especially the officers.
But I have been enjoying the experience. Heck, I don't think I would still be playing WoW if it wasn't for this guild.
AIE right now has more then 4000 characters. To get a perspective, that's larger then all of the Penny Arcade Alliance guilds put together. Heck, the amount of characters at my druid's level all could run an old world instance.
So what is it like? First, this is a casual guild. We all talk casually,making jokes, cheering about acomplishments (not nessisarily Achievements) and progress however we can in whatever area we want.
Because we're a large guild, that green text is ever crawling. It almost never stops, people are on all the time. It got so big, we had to build two seperate channels for people looking for a group or an officer.
The forums turned into one of the most important organizational tools, probably more so than in other guilds. Because we're so large, to build any pve or pvp raiding groups requires everyone be on the same page. Heck, we organize events like the Running of the Beef and crafting fairs through the forums. In part because those events can be larger than a raid will allow.
I think because our guild is more casual means our progression is not too quick. The groups vary in how quickly they progress, although I don't think any of our groups was running Black Temple or Mt. Hyjal regularly before 3.0.
The thing was, our guild was a kind of mini-realm. There was all sorts of people in it, some very good players while others didn't compete at all. Some people could be seen playing almost all the time, others (like me) play every so often. We've had people who needed to take a break (or like Leo Laporte, needed to quit) for one reason or another, but most have been able to balance WoW with the other aspects of their lives.
And heck, we got great officers who make sure no drama of any kind pops up. We have no hate in the guild. Except for the Alliance. Especially gnomes. We all could punt gnomes all day and never get tired.
If there's one problem with the guild of our size, it really is like being on a realm without a guild at times. Notably, when looking for tanks and especially healers. 5-man guild runs are often a friendlier form of PUG.
I can also imagine people not liking a large guild. It becomes a bit tough to really get to know other members when there's 100+ others on at the same time. If you consistantly run with people, that's one thing. But the use of the addon Identity is almost required, since people often have two or more characters in the guild, especially the officers.
But I have been enjoying the experience. Heck, I don't think I would still be playing WoW if it wasn't for this guild.
posted by SeanM at 2:15 PM
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