Highlight of the Week
This week I’m taking a look at another WoW Insider post about how to leave a guild. I take this as my highlight for a couple of reasons, first because it ties in directly with my Repairing Gears topic for this week (which will be up tomorrow) and second so I can relate some experiences I’ve had in guilds, as player and officer. Why? Because I like telling stories and most of you are far to addicted to the internet to turn away without at least taking a peek at what I have to say.
In the past I told about one of my guild horror stories, this is an extension on my belief about what a guild is. Let me prefix this by saying that I have been before, and currently am, an officer in a guild. Currently I am an officer along with my two closest friends, and we basically only have a “Guild Master” in the sense that one of us has that rank, in reality we share responsibility for the guild. On the other side though I have been an officer in a guild before where I was an officer by title only and held no real effect on what would happen as far as policies go. In both instances though being an officer led to a greater feeling of responsibility for the success or failure of the guild as a whole.
The topic from WoW Insider is about how to leave a guild, and if there is a right or wrong way. Let me say this: As an officer, any time someone left a guild it was a personal blow, and often a big loss of morale for the guild as a whole. As a member there is no right way to leave a guild and the excuses given are almost always poor.
When I say “poor excuses” I’m talking about the “don’t give me that load of crap” that I always want to say to people when they write in guild chat that they are leaving. The most common excuse I’ve seen is “my friends have started a guild/are in X guild and I’m going to go with them”. That excuse is stupid. In fact, as an officer, it is an insult to my intelligence that you would dare say that. Maybe I am unnaturally loyal to the idea of a guild, or maybe the fact that I hold any loyalty at all is unnatural, I’m not sure.
A lot of you probably are reading this and saying “that sounds like a legitimate way to leave a guild to me” if that’s you allow me to explain myself further.
When a person says “I am going to X guild with my friends” or “My friends started X guild and I am going to go there” this is essentially spitting upon every person in the guild. It’s saying, “remember all that time we spent playing together? Well it means nothing to me, you people were no more than a means to an end, a way to get myself loot”. It’s possible that is taking it out of context, but I’m not convinced that it is. To take each side individually the “my friends are in X guild I’m going there” side of the argument is frustrating because, most likely, your friends have been in that guild for a while, and if they haven’t why didn’t they ever try to get into the guild you were in? Is it because this guild was good enough for you “for the moment” but you really only wanted to use it as a stepping stone so you could move onto a “better” guild? That’s the impression I get every time it happens.
Now the “my friends are starting X guild and I’m going to go help them with it” side. Really? Your friends are starting a guild and you are leaving to help them? Once again, why didn’t your friends join our guild, we probably would have accepted them (especially given that they are already in with other guild-mates). This to me says that the leadership of this guild isn’t good enough and my friends and I think we are better than you, so we are leaving, thanks for getting me all my great loot, for helping me run all those instances, for leveling with me all that time.
To put it simply, there is no right way to leave a guild, but if you are going to do it, especially where I am an officer, here’s a little advice: Do it quickly. Say what you need to say to the guild and then /gquit. Don’t offer your help, or give insincere thanks for all the time because it means nothing. If you really had any gratitude at all you wouldn’t be leaving. And after you are gone, don’t whisper me randomly to help you out in A, B or C instance because I will say no. You showed no loyalty to me, and I will return that by showing absolutely no loyalty to you. Enjoy your new guild, and use them until it is convenient to leave, as soon as you feel you’ve milked them for all they are worth.
guilds, gquit, leaving a guild, WoW insider, Highlight of the Week, guild officer, guild leader
January 31st, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Well as always you know I’m in agreement 100% with you. Why I feel that way is fairly complex but needless to say I have yet to find officers as good as the ones we have; and its certainly not through lack of looking.