On Friday March 4th 2011,1 downloaded and installed Rift. After stumbling around for a day and a half, I decided that a guild might be good idea. On Sunday the 6th I started the Black Sunshine, on the Kelpmere shard (server). Today, Black Sunshine is a level 4 guild with approximately 300 members. We are one of, if not the largest guild on the shard. As my old third grade teacher would say, we have made ample use of our time!
As many of you know that the majority of my WoW characters are in Face on Fire on the BloodScalp server. The guild is a fairly tight knit group of players and to get into the guild you have to fill out an application. For friends and family it is a formality but it is defiantly not an “invite everyone” type of guild.
On the other hand, I have one toon on the same server who is in a different guild. I added him to that guild to observe the differences between the two. Leveling Guild is the exact opposite of Face on Fire, it is a completely open guild. Everyone in the guild has the ability to invite new members; it is basically a free for all.
The kicker to this is that both Face on Fire and Leveling Guild are both level 20 guilds. They are practically neck in neck in the guild leveling process. In fact more often then not, LG is ahead of FoF. How is it possible that an unstructured free for all can compete with one of the top horde guilds on the server in guild leveling? The answer is simple, numbers.
Last check FoF has a membership base of approximately 200 players. LG has over 900 members. While FoF gets their guild levels with focus and determination, LG approaches the process with brute force. It is simple really, the more people that share the load, the work becomes easier on everyone. While FoF has to work to obtain levels, LG gets those same levels by default.
Of course LG opens themselves to guild issues and drama that FoF can deftly avoid. It is also true that there is no micro managing a 900+ member guild. In a guild that size there is bound to be an ass hat or two running around making the guild look bad and trying to keep track of all of that is impossible.
Purely on a guild level comparison, which is the most Goblin friendly way to a max level guild with all of the max level perks? If you had to start a new guild on a new server and wanted all the perks which way would you go? On Sunday the 6th I decided that brute force would be the best approach.
Because the game is brand new and I went onto the server blind I felt hand picking the members would kill the guild leveling process. Hell everyone there is new, determining who is a FailPlayer and who isn’t is almost impossible at this point. The way I look at it, let’s get as many people as we can to help with the heavy lifting. We can clean up the joint once we figure everything out.
So there you have it, we now have a very large and very active guild in the newest MMO out there. We have every intention of seeing what end game content Rift has to offer so raiding is definitely in our future. Feel free to look us up if you happen to be wandering alone in Telara. Anyone in the guild can invite you; all you have to do is ask!
It’s true, it’s hard to get a compact group to compete with a guild of 800 people. But in WOW at least, it’s not THAT big of a difference, we’re about half a level to a level behind guilds like Soul Swords who literally have 700+ members. We’re in the home stretch now, where really it’s not as important either. We’ll hit level 25, then any earned XP/rep after that is pretty much useless.
The thing I’ve always disliked about such massive guilds is that there seems to be a real disconnect with members, there may be some interesting people that everyone is aware of. But most of the people are interchangeable, of course the people really are different unique – but you won’t know that. Because, you can never really get to know everyone in a guild that big.
Guilds are fairly social animals and that’s how I like mine. Otherwise, I’d just play with myself
I hear you play with yourself alot…..
@ Khaas – Actually FoF has done a tremendous job of knocking out guild levels, I think they can go toe to toe with any other guild out there. You are correct that there is some inherent disconnect in large guilds, it comes with the territory. My motives were purely Goblinish to be honest. I want the perks and I want them as soon as possible. With Rift being so new, copying FoF’s success would be impossible unless FoF made the move in its entirety.