My experience with a raid guild on P99

[Lhancelot]

Just a forewarning, this is probably a TL;DR post for many.

Since starting on P99, I always wanted to be part of a guild where people worked together and the emphasis was on having fun with the people in the guild while gearing members mains in a fair manner. You know, people first, pixels second.

After taking a long break from the game, I decided to come back about a year ago. I began leveling older alts, and I would often run into a guy who was a lvl 60. After a couple months of always chatting with him, he always would suggest that I join the guild he was in. It was a raiding guild, and in his words, the people were great! He told me once I got to 55 lvl or so, to apply and I would no doubt find it a great guild to be a part of.

After I thought it over, and got one of my characters to 55 lvl, I decided to app for this particular guild. I ran with some officers, we did some grouping and after about the third time, they offered me a tag as an app, which then after consistent raid attendance would be upgraded to full member status (as long as I seemed to fit personality-wise, too).

What I personally found after a couple months in the guild was this:

1. I found the guild to be cliquey, where people never offered to group with others, only their pals and buddies.

2. I found that raid loot was more easily accessed to alts of established members than it was to new members who had mains with low tier gears on.

3. I found that when on a raid I was unfamiliar with, I hardly could get any direction on what or where to go from other guild members. I felt like I was inconveniencing them with questions, and rarely did anyone ever offer to explain or help me when I needed it without me having to send multiple tells to different players until one could find the time to help me.

4. I found that non-established members had to beg for the guild to help with some portion of their epics to be done, yet often times an established member would flash his brand new epic in guild chat, proudly showing it off when he already has multiple toons with epics.

Often times, in guild chat a newer member would even ask what they had to do to get some help with an epic, and they were told "just make sure you help others out, and eventually you will get help for yours." Yet, when one of the core members needed his epic piece, it was taken care of often times under the radar.

These are just some of the things from my perspective that I didn't like.

Basically I felt like there was no relationship with the majority of newer members and only the most favored in the guild were the ones that benefited the most with no concern for those newer members. I also felt like the thirst for pixels was insane. It seemed to overcast everything the majority of the guild members did, particularly the officers and guild leadership.


To finish my TL;DR story, the guy who influenced me to join the guild abruptly left the game literally the week I joined, I have not seen him since. My "main" which I used to enjoy playing I hate now, because I feel disdain and resentment towards the guild the toon is in. I don't want to be a quitter, but at the same time I honestly feel no connection with this guild whatsoever.

I realize that I am going to end up leaving this guild, obviously it's not working and I am not having fun with this guild, thus I cannot stay in it.

Perhaps I am just too idealistic? Maybe what I see isn't what others see or experience?

Obviously not every member was/is a pixel-craving fiend who cares nothing for anyone only their precious shinies. Generally speaking though, the above is my experience in totality.

My real question is this. Are all raid guilds like this? Is this just the nature of the beast? Are there any successful raid guilds with a smaller member count, that have members who actually work together who help others even those not in their special clique?

I guess basically I felt like venting a little bit, and I am wondering if others have had similar experiences as I have had. I also think that perhaps I simply aint cut out for guilds on this game or server. That's a very good possibility too.

[Erati]

what was the guild

[fan D]

yeah sounds like you got some entitlement issues, also sounds like you have a phobia of speaking and getting to know new people

you're a random person who probably isn't contributing much on raids and will never be a factor in whether the guild succeeds or fails, so people aren't going to really care about you. Especially if you're quiet and don't branch out and force the issue

you gotta do some shit on your own and not expect everything to be handed to u

[Lhancelot]

Originally Posted by Erati [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

what was the guild

I don't want to turn this into a guild bashing thing, because I understand that one's perception is often times not shared by others.

I suppose writing this post does no good at all. Probably would have been better to keep it to myself and just leave the guild, honestly speaking.

[fan D]

these people who are getting gear on their 2nd and 3rd alts before you are deserving of all of it. these are the people who are responsible for your guild to get any loot at all, they do all the work. you would never ever be able to kill one of these dragons without them tracking and socking it for you.

i can tell by your attitude that you're not much of a player or bring much value to a raid, you should be lucky to get anything at all tbh

[Shodo]

I can't speak for the "top tier" raid guilds, having never been in one, but outside of that category I can't really downplay how happy I've been with <Paradox>. We don't have the numbers or levels yet to hit the competitive raid zones like VP or ToV, but we do a great job of focusing on getting members Thurg gear and epic pieces, dungeon crawling, and other things. You might be a good fit for us if you don't mind missing out on best-in-slot gear (we hope to take a shot at that stuff some day though).

We also cooperate with guilds like <Super Friends> and <Azure Guard> that are more established to take on content we can't handle on our own. I haven't gotten to attend the joint-AG stuff myself but I've never had a bad encounter with their members, and our officers say good things about them. I have had the opportunity to raid with SF on several occasions, and they're always both friendly and knowledgeable. So if you still want a less "hardcore" attitude but would like better gearing opportunities than <Paradox> can currently offer, I would recommend checking out one of those two guilds (I don't know what their app needs are, I just know they're great).

[supermonk]

its unfortunate you feel this way as a new member, most end-game guilds are like this i presume though. the reasoning is because there are far too many instances where an app turned member would gear up and leave guild/quit. therefore, overtime guild members are less inclined to help green members on requests. honestly, if you just stick it out and prove you're an asset or prove that you're not going to ghost after you get X item, i'm almost certain the amount of help you will receive will increase over time. it's nothing personal really, but the more friends you make in guild and the more you help others, the more people will be inclined to help you down the road.

[vincenzo]

OP and fan D must be in the same guild

OP: join a smaller knit guild that is trying to break into the raiding scene so you can establish yourself as a core member as opposed to a fringe nobody. Elitism aside, the top-end players on this server have seen so many people come and go that you are just another statistic to them. Unless you have something special that distances you from the pack I would suggest avoiding the highest tier raiding guilds if your main goal is to have fun and form relationships.

[Lhancelot]

Originally Posted by fan D [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

yeah sounds like you got some entitlement issues, also sounds like you have a phobia of speaking and getting to know new people

you're a random person who probably isn't contributing much on raids and will never be a factor in whether the guild succeeds or fails, so people aren't going to really care about you. Especially if you're quiet and don't branch out and force the issue

you gotta do some shit on your own and not expect everything to be handed to u

I can see and understand your view, particularly when all you have to go on is the post I wrote. Obviously I couldn't go into all the details or the post would have been even longer.

I have no problem giving my time or ingame items to those who need and did so while in this guild. For instance, I had items that were no-drop pieces for epics that I gave to others in the guild (not sell) instead of MQing them for money like most people do. I didn't broadcast this in guild chat though, either.

As for "branching out and forcing the issue", I have no problem being social but you are right about me not forcing issues when I want something. I never been the type that "forced the issue" to get stuff and so maybe that's part of my problem too. I feel like if I give my time and attention to others without them begging for it, this should be reciprocated. If I have to "force the issue" to get the help of a guild, guess I don't need to be in a guild.

[Nune]

People who put more time and effort into a guild will be better received in said guild than someone who's soaking DKP and logging off or someone new. This entire server is cliquey, that is in no way unique to any guild.

If you and 20 of your friends showed up to a party, would there not be a handful of the 20 you have better relationships with and likely spend more time conversing with? Instead of partying, its playing EQ. It's just human nature.

As far as giving loot to "established" members alts vs. needing mains, you've narrowed down the mystery of which guild youre speaking of because that is business as usual for a handful of the guilds here. Raiding guilds generally: Dont have the guild members / schedule to do big boy targets (casual) so it's more laid back - or - Youre a top end raiding guild and the games taken much more seriously. I find 0 entertainment in staring at a camp waiting for __ hours for something to pop, throwing a shoe at it, running in a circle for 15 minutes and zerging it down in 12 seconds. But I'll never get top end raid gear because of that stance, so thats my volition.