Guilds have no identity in WoW

[Xenryusho]

going by this logic, guilds were completely meaningless in any expansion before cataclysm including classic WoW, but that cant be right. considering that if you weren't in a decent guild you weren't killing rag, clearing black temple or killing heroic lich king. so if those guilds were meaningless, then by extension all of the feats they accomplished together were also meaningless and making virtually the entire game meaningless. perks dont make a guild special, the people in it do. the fact of the matter is, perks were taken away because they detracted from that. a guild is simply a group of friends trying to accomplish a common goal, it doesn't need to be bedazzled with special perks. your simply complaining for the sake of complaining at this point.

Guilds in vanilla and bc had identity because there was a server community where the guilds actions and achievements could bear a known reputation. That's gone now so they need something else.

[Jakisuaki]

WoW as a whole has moved away from the concept of guilds and more towards single-player "multiplayer" content like all other modern mmos. Look at Dungeon Finder, Group Finder and LFR, they all remove the need for a guild. It sucks.

[Kaldriss]

guild identity is up to its members. create inside jokes and memories. thats guild identity

[clevin]

The thing about guilds is that they used to have an identity on their server. We used to have people join in part because they'd seen the guild tag around since launch. Add to that that you used find it much easier to run 5 mans and especially raids if you were in a guild.

Most of that is gone now. Between guilds forming and dying a lot, server transfers, server merges and LFD/R, there's MUCH less reason now to be and stay in a guild so guild identity is lessened.

They could add things like guild housing etc but all of that is a bandage to conceal that there's much less reason to bother being in a guild, much less a specific guild.

[wombinator04]

I very much liked the guild leveling and perk systems. Added a bit of fun and flair to guilds. I would like to see those return in a big way.

Also would like to see a lot more guild achievements, especially ones with rewards.

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

Not sure I understand your concerns OP. Guild identity starts with the people in the guild, especially the GM and officers. It's a community, and is defined by how the members interact with each other, the activities they group for, etc. Some guilds have few group activity and feel lifeless; some are just for weekly raids and are very business-like; some are social hubs with friendships being formed and people who miss each other when they're not online. I formed friends in my guild back in WoLK who still keep up with me today, even though we're in different guilds now.

As for Blizz's part, I remember them doing a lot to reward players for joining guilds and doing stuff together... back in Cataclysm. Not so much since. In fact, they've removed a couple of the guild perks awarded back then. I believe most players enjoy the game more when they find a guild that suits their playstyle, and agree Blizz could do more to incentivize looking for and joining that group.

[Deleted]

Something that has bothered me for a while is that Guilds lack any sense of identity in WoW. I'm talking in-game of course, not looking up guilds on external sites on Wow-progress.

Cata, MoP and WoD all gradually made guilds worse and promoted "playing with friends"-design (which in Blizzard talk means pugging with randos) instead. This has, in my opinion, been the absolute worst thing the dev team has ever done to the game.

Unless you're raiding mythic, there really isn't much need to join a guild. And if you do, your guild has little means to make you stay. It's been incredibly hard to keep smaller "casual/social" groups together - all you can really offer is a... uh, tabard and possibly a guild chat without idiots (that is a big perk, mind you, but not one that is easy to market). For all the rest - pugging is superior.

Now - Legion and Mythic+ has to some extent invigorated this old groudpillar of MMOs - going from being all but crumbled pile of stones, we're back to a stage of "well.. it seems to be standing up without support..." - but I'm not sure if the effect is actually by design or just a happy coincidence that comes from the atrocity of trying to pug M+ and getting your keys depleted (and of course now that is "fixed" so - even this perk is gone - back to fulltime pugging)

I'm not sure why Blizzard has been so hell bent on destroying guilds - it goes against all common sense. Smaller social groups should be what the game is all about. Humans don't function well in groups over 150, pretending to be "friends" our brains are not designed for that. Promoting the "pugs = friends"-idea as a "player community" is incredibly flawed. The Monkeysphere is real and designs like that don't work.

And sure enough - the general "WoW-community" is well known for being one of the worst around. Comparing this to games like EVE that actively builds strong community relationships based on guilds (corps/alliances) - the community over there is actually fucking fantastic.

I wish we could go back to the age of shared raid locks, even for Heroic - or alternatively, I wish Mythic could be flex sized so we didn't have to try to maintain 20-man active rosters on half-dead realms. I wish they'd add more "flare" in-game to guilds and give us customization options to show our affiliations/identity. I wish the game would be built for these types of social groups.

But it's not.. so.. meh.

[brob]

guild identity is up to its members. create inside jokes and memories. thats guild identity

agreed.

you dont need to have blizzard give you permission to take over a town. you just need some imagination and good old fashion fanaticism.

if you do the BARE minimum with your guild and just raid and do some dungeons of course its going to be lacking in identity.

[ImpTaimer]

Guilds need an identity? They already have special perks for being in one. You're punished for not being in one.

Server communities have no identity in WoW anymore, therefore guilds have no identity. It's that simple.

Guild worship is retarded. I'm not going to join a guild because it's successful if the guild leader is a fuckwad.

[Kidoeng7]

Something that has bothered me for a while is that Guilds lack any sense of identity in WoW. I'm talking in-game of course, not looking up guilds on external sites on Wow-progress.

The only sense of identity a guild has aside from its members and member ranks and the guild icon when you open the guild tab.... that's literally it. How utterly boring. Each of my toons are in a different guild and it doesn't even feel like they are, since there is ZERO guild identity in the game.

Since they removed guild levels, there hasn't been anything special about being in a guild to be honest.

I would love to see more focus on building a guild community next expansion. Something that makes each and every guild distinct and unique. Perhaps different guilds have the option of choosing a buff that members that that effect gameplay or something. Perhaps a zoned guild hangout lounge that is customizable and unique with building options.

In my opinion a lot of things changed, the game had a way better community in the earlier expansions before the whole lfd or lfr even showed up. People needed to actually be polite to get invited back to a group for a dungeon or raid meanwhile these days i rarely see some kind of interaction during a random HC.
Also with the way raids work nowadays with the flexible number for raid members (mythic excluded) there are way too many Normal or Heroic guilds around so you can swap freely.
I miss the good old days when we used to fight for the ironforge bank spot and the banter between our guild and another.

[Orangetai420]

This would probably never work in practice - it would be really cool if we had Guild Talents. Similar to the guild perks, but the guild gets to vote on them or the GM can pick (depending on the setting).

- - - Updated - - -

Server communities have no identity in WoW anymore, therefore guilds have no identity. It's that simple.

This is a good way to summarize the problem.

[Deleted]

Don't join shitty guilds.

[CarlingBlackLabel]

They could tie pvp in pretty easily as well.
GvG RBGS and the weekly winners get their name + standard in the capital cities in their battle group.

While I have no love for PvP, I do think that this is a great idea!

[Joeydivision82]

Something that has bothered me for a while is that Guilds lack any sense of identity in WoW. I'm talking in-game of course, not looking up guilds on external sites on Wow-progress.

The only sense of identity a guild has aside from its members and member ranks and the guild icon when you open the guild tab.... that's literally it. How utterly boring. Each of my toons are in a different guild and it doesn't even feel like they are, since there is ZERO guild identity in the game.

Since they removed guild levels, there hasn't been anything special about being in a guild to be honest.

I would love to see more focus on building a guild community next expansion. Something that makes each and every guild distinct and unique. Perhaps different guilds have the option of choosing a buff that members that that effect gameplay or something. Perhaps a zoned guild hangout lounge that is customizable and unique with building options.

Yeah it's a shame that guild offer nothing other than a group of people to do organized raiding with, and a small community of friends to play with.

My guess is, you joined one of those 400+ member guilds and no one talks, right? Try finding a raid team guild and you'll see how different things can be.

As for the guild levels, let's be honest here, once a handful of guilds reached 25, no one joined guilds that weren't 25, so that become worthless pretty fast.

[Lochton]

Vanguard did player housing right.

Guild houses in the real world. You'd fly by and say shit that castle looks amazing and go take a look. Wow's devs are old fogeys for ignoring this feature

I would love guild housing but fear the whine-fest of the people whom whined the loudest about the Garrison.

[Deleted]

Guild levels never did anthing good for guilds, only made every moron want to create a new to leach gold of the gold perk.

Guilds lost its value with cross realm and dunegon/raid finder, like every other good social aspect of the game.

[Lochton]

Guilds in vanilla and bc had identity because there was a server community where the guilds actions and achievements could bear a known reputation. That's gone now so they need something else.

They didn't have identity more than just who they were and what they do, just like now. Really, there wasn't any 'Wow-factor' of high end guilds other than what was told about them in posts and chests, which already can be done too. Identity is more than just being around, you have to add to it. Now, wearing a guild tabard adds identity, guild banner too. A guild base would be great. Now a days, we permit ourselves to spread out. We have people talk about guild identity, yet not long ago this forum was talking about being a member of multiple guilds at the same time - removes identity too.

The identity a guild could have 'back in the days' they still have today, except that most players don't really care.

[ItachiZaku]

I'm assuming What Does Dog Think is still the best guild on my server, but I honestly haven't a clue.

[Lochton]

Guild levels never did anthing good for guilds, only made every moron want to create a new to leach gold of the gold perk.

Guilds lost its value with cross realm and dunegon/raid finder, like every other good social aspect of the game.

So many people earned millions of gold on Perk guilds. Shame..

[Laerrus]

I am fine with this as long as they don't bring back the cash flow perk. It was extremely annoying getting spammed by guild invites on fresh and unguilded alts.