A philosophical question
With apologies to the classic:
If a guild member /gquit’s and no one is there to see it, is it a stealth quit?
My WoW life has reached a new low here at the end of the year. I’ve briefly written a couple times before that my guild was slowly dissolving after some key officers left to form a more hardcore raiding guild. Numbers had been dwindling and even during core playtimes there were only 6 or 7 guildies on usually, with only 1 or 2 of them being 70s.
So when I logged on a couple days ago and there was absolutely no one from the guild logged on, I just went ahead and quit. I wasn’t trying to avoid confrontation or questions, it just felt like time.
I still enjoy this game a lot and may apply to the new guild I’ve found, but for now I’m having some fun with alts, enjoying some time off with my spouse and looking forward to a new year.
I’m looking forward to working out a play schedule with my spouse that works for both of us (she isn’t a player and doesn’t like computer games in general), and finding a new guild. I have so much work to do – it’s amazing how quickly you can fall behind in this game.
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, no matter how it is celebrated where you are or by your faith. Here’s wishing all of you a happy and prosperous 2008!
Adventures in Azeroth 
It’s kind of like that question “if a tree falls in the woods and no one’s there to hear it, does it make a sound.” 🙂
I can sympathize with you and your guild issues. I did the same thing with my last guild. Logged on early and /gquit, but I did have a very long chat with my GM about me leaving.
After I quit though, I don’t think anyone in the guild realized it until 2 weeks later. 😛
Good luck in the New Year!
It’s normal for a Guild’s mission and/or the guildies’ motivation for being in a guild to change over time. The guild I’m in right now just had a series of key guildies leave which shook things up a bunch. The Grand Master of Alts, Gitr, is going through this right now (http://www.gitrknowswow.com/2007/12/17/looking-for-guild/). And I think it’s particularly hard if you have alts (I’ve got quite a few).
Of all my alts, there’s only one guild I’m in that is phenominal. The bulk of them are at or very near 70. I’m 26 and was at 19 for a while banging out battlegrounds. They’re about raids and more end-game activities, but I never feel like I’m just “hanging around.” I get to help out in other ways (“Hey Og, what should I sell this for?”) and they’re just good people.
Good guilds are hard to find. Harder to keep going. Takes strong leadership.
Anyway I think the hardest part is actually typing in /gquit.
/philosophically distant look
/say Change is never easy, but there’s no growth without it.
/stopmacro
You need to find a nice casual guild – I’m lucky to have a nice big guild, though we’re still working on Kara.
A /gquit during a guild meeting is rather a dramatic move. I’m not one for drama. If I need to move on, I will, but I’ll do it when there is the least drama, preferably alone. I haven’t been a guild officer in ages, I don’t dip into Guild resources, I wasn’t given special attention to getting geared up, so my departure, if I depart, is pretty much my own business.
Now it’s nice being in a guild. I’m much more active with my Horde-side guild than I am with my Alliance one. I can’t imagine being without these guilds, or ones like them, in size and capability. Both are in Karazhan. The Horde side in a very organized approach (and clearing it in a night), and the Alliance side casually.
But the wife and I also have two private guilds, both Horde and Alliance side. The only members are her and my alts. Advantage? We have no guild drama, but we get a guild bank. 100 gold and we have a common bank between our characters. All my motes and primals, or crafting materials in general, go to the the alt, and the alt stocks up our private guild bank. Her characters can access it for crafting without me being on or waiting an hour for the mail, and vice versa. (And it provides much needed additional bank space for the mains. And if you think the guild bank tab is a lot of space, it fills up really quickly!)
I just wanted to jump in here and update my comments. Upon reading your comments and my original post, it kind of sounded like I was complaining about my (now previous) guild. I wasn’t.
Elite Defenders grew out of Best Destiny and both were great guilds, a lot of fun and loaded with helpful people. They are the only two guilds I’ve belonged to with ED growing out of BD. So I really feel like I’ve only been in one guild.
Anyway, I completely agree with Og that sometimes goals change and that can impact a guild. That’s exactly what happened here when some of our best officers wanted to start a more hard-core raiding guild. I wasn’t on when it all happened but I assume they were up front with everyone. I know that after the fact there was nothing but best wishes for everyone and mature discussions on how to move forward.
My decision to leave was a combination of my limited play time recently along with the very low numbers of 70s left in the guild. It’s not that I’m not willing to help lowbies, I just saw no opportunity for raiding in the near future and that is one of my goals. Plus, it was obvious that the guild was slowly dissolving as everyone moved on to other guilds.
For me it’s a good position to be in. I’m playing around with some alts on my own, and have the opportunity to find a great guild to help me jump back onto Amanna.
Personal goals change and will change over time for the player. Guilds grow and change over time that also affects its members goals and outlook. Everyone decides to join the guilds they join at their own choice for their own reasons. When your goals change and it affects the choices and reasons why you play the game realize that when its time to move on its time to just go ahead make a decision and just move on. That too is a choice. There will always be other things to do.
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