All By Myself

When the borders between sanity and insanity come into view, it's time to take a break from whatever scary obsessive task you're performing -- you know, like endlessly grinding explosive snotlings for a backpack which NEVER DROPS FOR ME.

So /logout, followed by the near-unfamiliar character creation screen.  I've been tinkering around with the idea of trying out Destruction, y'know, just on the side, and after talking with Keen and Snafzg while making ChaosCast, I felt convicted to give the Squig Herder another go.  That was my #1 most desirable class I wanted to play when the game released, but circumstances threw me on Order's side, and there's no option for a goblin to defect to Sigmar's good graces.

I didn't really dive far into it, just messing around in the starter zones, but it definitely felt lonely.  A lot of that was due to the lack of a guild text scroll, which got me thinking about something I've been meaning to discuss.   What is WAR like for people who either choose to remain guildless or have yet to find a good guild?

Pre-launch, the mantra that Mythic kept throwing our way was that, to really get the most out of this game, we had to join a guild.  Guild's offered so many more options to the player -- claiming keeps, recall scrolls, heraldry, banners, etc. -- that it was silly not to at least associate yourself with some large gang just for the goodies, if not the social experience.  There were, of course, the features of a guild that come standard with every game, including a support system that is somewhat obligated to help out, company that's just a few key clicks away, and a group of people that share like-minded interests and goals.

For me, I simply cannot play a MMORPG guildless.  I really can't.  It kills any long-term residence in a game if I fail to find a group of folks that share my sense of humor and casual approach to play.  Even though I'm sometimes a pretty introverted person, I need people around, in real life and digital life.

What do guildless people -- who choose to stay that way -- get out of a game like this?  You'd have to be strongly motivated to play and advance your character with specific goals, I'd imagine.  Maybe you'd view the game much like you would a multiplayer Team Fortress map or something, where you're just in it for the action, but not the socialization.

On the other end of the spectrum are people who join guilds yet play solo 99% of the time.  People like this get belittled because they're obviously not getting the whole point of playing a MMO ("that's what the second 'M' stands for, duh!" is something you hear a lot), but I do understand why they do it.  These are people who don't really want to be grouped up all the time, yet they crave the social connection, turning a MMORPG into a single-player game with a multiplayer chat window.  That's still an important function of a guild, in my opinion, because the only -- the ONLY -- thing you will ever take away from these games in the long run are the relationships you build.  Nobody will care ten years from now what gear you get or what raids you farmed or how many Tome unlocks you finagled.  If anything, ten years from now, you might still be friends with the people that you met in these games and forged memories with.

So I can't see why you'd play without exploring that opportunity.  Do you play guildless?  I'd love to hear your perspective!