Dark Age Of Camelot: Guilds?

Love them? Hate them? Guilds are a part of your gaming life as a player of DAoC. Love it or leave it, the guild system of Dark Age of Camelot/Shrouded Isles is an important and strongly present one. New players that don't know what's going on join them for a helping hand. Old players look for guilds that go on raids and have a strong presence in Realm V. Realm.
Why do people join guilds? Why are some guilds powerful when others aren't? Why do some people choose to stay independent? The answers to these questions depend as much on the personality of the player as it does on the way the guild system of DAoC was designed and has developed since its inception. [p]
I remember the first time I loaded up the game. Everything was so new and fresh. DAoC was the first MMORPG that I ever played for an extended amount of time, so the learning curve was a huge one. Although I've grown quite jaded with the MMORPG gaming world since then, I still remember with a certain amount of fondness the first time I played the game. The first time I saw a buff, I thought it was a graphic glitch. However, it's no fun to be a newbie. Being a newbie can be arduous. It can be tough. When you make a mistake in a group, you feel stupid too. And you know that 7 other people are sitting at their various computers, staring at the screen, and laughing at you.
For this reason, many new players flock to their capital cities at level 5 practically itching for a guild. And for this very same reason, guilds that broadcast for members in the capital cities reel in members.
However, that doesn't make a guild successful or even very large. Guild membership tends to fall as newer players realize that the game isn't for them and quit. Others leave because they aren't happy, or because they feel they should be powerleveled and twinked. Not that no guilds twink. For some guilds, helping a new player by giving them good gear and some cash to start off on is encouraged. As well it should be.
Newer members also tend to fall prey to the wiles of group members. I can't tell you how many times I've joined groups on my unguilded characters and been asked to join a group in a /tell by a group member. Here we run into a problem that I love to gripe about. But I'll get to that later. Guilds with aggressive (and sometimes rude) recruiters tend to be larger. Unfortunantely, bigger isn't better in the world of DAoC. [p]
Although on the surface it appears that a "power guild" is the best guild to join, some players find that that environment isn't for them. In large guilds, the rules tend to be stricter. And guild channels tend to be silent. Now, when I joined my first guild and saw that no one was talking, I was surprised. For me, a guild was more of a social benefit than another way to get group members for PvE and RvR. Now, not everyone thinks the same way that I do. I've met many people who feel that guilds that talk often are a little, well, loud. And fine! They're entitled to that. However, it's interesting to see that some things you expect to be true of large guilds aren't. The interesting thing is, smaller guilds tend to be more talkative. In a small guild, there is more of a chance to talk one-on-one with people in your guild.
Now, there are a few reasons that large guilds tend to be more silent than small guilds. One of them is that in a large guild, the people are busy. They're out getting a new realm rank. They're out on epic encounters. They're out hunting. Another reason revolves around the fact that large guilds don't start out that way. They start out small. Long before the guild does get large, some friendships are formed. Although the guild gets larger, some of the old members remain. Those members are often uninterested in the new members, and instead opt to chat privately with their friends. Also, some larger guilds have a policy of not flooding the /gu channel. Members are asked to keep private conversations just that, and leave the /gu channel for more pressing matters such as RvR and general questions.
Now, why do smaller guilds tend to be a little more talkative? In general, smaller guilds are based on a group of friends (hunting or otherwise) that decide that they'd like to build a family together. The small guild experience is more of a familial one- but often the benefits of a guild are lost in this experience. Some players join guilds to go on raids, on large-scale RvR encounters, ad nauseum. These players may not find themselves happy in a small guild setting. Just as those players who favor a very relaxed approach to the game may not enjoy their time in a larger guild.[p] Tune in next week for the next installment of "Guilds?" If you have any comments, please send them my way at partrige@warcry.com. I'd love to hear what you have to say.