Guild mergers you have been involved in. Were they successful?

[Richardbro]

I have been in a few guilds that have merged with others and usually it does not go well. In 2013, we had 2 10 man guilds merge into a 25 man guild and it was honestly quite bad. There was drama between which of the tanks would stay tanks, raid hours, and more drama. After 2 weeks the guild collapsed and everyone left.

What are your guild merger stories?

[Toybox]

We had five or so players join during HFC as the result of them calling it quits on being able to get into mythic with the guild they were running (small server/lack of talent).

The plan was for them to run a second team under our guild banner, which they did successfully up until a point. While we had 7/7M EN on farm, they couldn't get past Ilgynoth. In the end, despite them not improving, pretty much everyone who wasn't in that five was told they'd no longer be raiding, and the five (some of whom had "officer" spots at that point) joined our main roster. Some of them made it undoubtedly stronger, but there was one of the new officers from that guild who was just atrocious. I'm talking less damage than me over a night of Odyn progression despite me playing tank & him playing DPS

The whole thing left a sour taste in my mouth. Firstly because 20+ people were left homeless because they called it quits on their team again after being frustrated with the lack of progress, & secondly because we were seemingly doomed to take a deadweight character or two to the raid. I ended up leaving for a top 200/300 guild (for this & other reasons) & saw out the rest of Legion with them, which was great fun Now I'm back in that old guild however, as the slight adjustment to leadership plus a much better roster has led to a much more enjoyable raiding experience with a bunch of lads I get along with, so I guess it all worked out in the end.

[aeuhe4yxzhds]

Never had a normal merge be successful. Merges where you wanted to recruit a few players and kick the others out, bascially to waste their time? Yes, that has worked.

We had five or so players join during HFC as the result of them calling it quits on being able to get into mythic with the guild they were running (small server/lack of talent).

The plan was for them to run a second team under our guild banner, which they did successfully up until a point. While we had 7/7M EN on farm, they couldn't get past Ilgynoth. In the end, despite them not improving, pretty much everyone who wasn't in that five was told they'd no longer be raiding, and the five (some of whom had "officer" spots at that point) joined our main roster. Some of them made it undoubtedly stronger, but there was one of the new officers from that guild who was just atrocious. I'm talking less damage than me over a night of Odyn progression despite me playing tank & him playing DPS

The whole thing left a sour taste in my mouth. Firstly because 20+ people were left homeless because they called it quits on their team again after being frustrated with the lack of progress, & secondly because we were seemingly doomed to take a deadweight character or two to the raid. I ended up leaving for a top 200/300 guild (for this & other reasons) & saw out the rest of Legion with them, which was great fun Now I'm back in that old guild however, as the slight adjustment to leadership plus a much better roster has led to a much more enjoyable raiding experience with a bunch of lads I get along with, so I guess it all worked out in the end.

Does having a B-team ever work? Unless the guild is extremely casual normie level.

Didn't work for me. We had to run with two teams in nighthold since we couldn't fill out our mythic team with decent players so it was basically carry our socials and alts with mains so some could get bis items, like that damn draught. Of course one team barley could make it, even with balanced roaster and raid leader trying to lead two raids at the same time

[Razion]

Guild mergers are never successful. I've been in a few.

My first raiding guild merged with another on the pretense of helping us progress. In truth, they wanted to poach members for their raid team. The poaching was successful. We lost a feral druid. (But at least we got Undying out of it.)

Second time, different guild, merger was done because both guilds wanted to perform better and believed together they'd do much better. Initially it worked well - the guild members got along great. Our guild had deferred leadership to this new guild to make the transition smooth. This is where my knowledge of the merger goes away. On our end, things were smooth. But the guild we merged with was apparently in the middle of a civil war amongst its own leadership... or something. Needless to say, despite a really successful initial tier with tons of amazingly impressive progress, apparently the inward structure lacked the leadership to keep going. I think if my guild leader had the backbone to push to lead instead of them he would have led all of us far better than whatever hodge-podge group-leadership thing the other guild had going on, because it obviously didn't work. No idea what happened to the rest of the guild, they were good people and great raiders though. At least we got Cutting Edge Will of the Emperor out of it, so that's something.

Third time, same initial guild, different merger, the guilds merged due to difficulties recruiting. Things were a bit more lax this time, we figured last time the error was trying to be too ambitious in our progress and not looking for a team that fit ours personality-wise. Figured we could train up worse raiders better than trying to blend personalities that weren't meshing. So we found this guild, which our guild master thought was a good fit. Frankly, don't think people were actually getting along on the whole - I think my guild master was swayed by the atmosphere of the guild, but I'm not sure the rest of us were. Ultimately there was a pretty big gap in goals and motivation between the two raid teams. Even though we joined on the pretense that things would be lax and progression wouldn't be a focus this time, the other guild really did want to push more because of our higher history so I think due to these differing expectations the merger ended up not being successful. At this point I think there was a break-up with realm and faction swaps. Recruiting was probably even harder after that.

[Airlick]

I've been in one regular merger in TBC, and if I recall correctly, the guild survived for about a year after that. Many of us didn't think it was going to work out, but it was mostly a last resort for both guilds, since we were on a dead server. In the end we stopped raiding anyway and I quit, but that's because of dead server, not issues with the newcomers. There was zero personal drama, but our leaders set up all the terms before the merger and it was actual mutual help, not hostile takeover.

[Toybox]

Does having a B-team ever work? Unless the guild is extremely casual normie level.

Didn't work for me. We had to run with two teams in nighthold since we couldn't fill out our mythic team with decent players so it was basically carry our socials and alts with mains so some could get bis items, like that damn draught. Of course one team barley could make it, even with balanced roaster and raid leader trying to lead two raids at the same time

For us it was more of them being their own guild under the umbrella of our guild, with their own raid leader, officers, tactics etc. There was no co-leading or anything like that, just a place to send the players who didn't quite make the cut in the main team but were still good enough to do mythic. It's just that, over time, the good players leading that team got frustrated & saw an easy way to get into our team, bringing one or two slightly awful players with them because they were part of that core.

While it didn't work from a raiding POV in the short term, we're pretty much in contact with everyone from that lil team 5 years later, with one of them even in the raid team So not too bad in the end, I suppose. At the time however it was incredibly frustrating for me, but it was probably just the straw that broke the camels back.

[Hellobolis]

guild mergers never work. guild absorptions (potentially disguised as mergers) can work.

but you're 10x better off just poaching members of other guilds.

[Azerate]

Been in 2, both worked.

One in Wrath (ICC). My 10 man guild merged with an ex-25 man guild that had somembers quitting so they stopped raiding. We filled the missing spots in their roster. We proceeded to do 11/12 HC back then during the tier, was pretty good.

In BfA, BoD times, our guild almost died and we found another one that had a similar situation. It wasn't really a proper merger I guess, we retained our in-game guilds, but we have a combined discord server and have been raiding successfully ever since. It's a more casual heroic raiding this time around though.

Mergers are just like husband and wife guilds. You only hear about the ones that went wrong, meanwhile there's probably many that actually succeed. If you have to choose between disbanding your group of friends and merging guilds, I'd always recommend trying to merge - you have nothing to lose and a lot to gain.

guild mergers never work. guild absorptions (potentially disguised as mergers) can work.

but you're 10x better off just poaching members of other guilds.

There's literally no difference between a merger and absorption. Unless you're petty enough to fight over who gets to keep their guild name. And one of the two guilds basically has to. Unless you want to do something as pointless as making a brand new guild instead of just inviting everyone from one to another.

[Hellobolis]

There's literally no difference between a merger and absorption. Unless you're petty enough to fight over who gets to keep their guild name. And one of the two guilds basically has to. Unless you want to do something as pointless as making a brand new guild instead of just inviting everyone from one to another.

in a merger there are usually a bunch of agreements about sharing leadership and most importantly: not kicking people. never works out. the reason guilds like that need a merger in the first place is because they bleed members but want to keep the stuff that causes the member bleed to stay intact. usually there is a big debate about who gets to keep the guildname (read GM spot) and eventually the people who didn't get to keep it will feel shafted. everybody knows that how it will turn out too and that's why they argue about the guildname in the firstplace.

guild absorption usually goes more like "hey our guild is dying and we notice you have had to cancel some raids lately, can like 10 of us join yours?". those usually work out better.

[Progenitor Aquarius]

I think this never works. Because the structure of both guilds that are about to merge is always problematic in the first place. Then you experience something similar to a destructive gravity pull. Instead of one problem you will have two.

I have been there. If the guild is bad in the first place, no merge, no server transfer will ever help.

[Wramp]

the guild im currently in is a result of a merger between three guilds actually, and we are going on 2 yrs strong now. I guess we are the one success story?? weird, but not totally surprising - the two factors that might have made a difference in my case: neither of the merging guilds had tanks that needed raid spots, and secondly, one of the guilds was a just a few friends (12 ppl total) with no real aspirations in the game.

didnt see the post above me with another success story, but we are few and far between :-)

[Azerate]

in a merger there are usually a bunch of agreements about sharing leadership and most importantly: not kicking people. never works out. the reason guilds like that need a merger in the first place is because they bleed members but want to keep the stuff that causes the member bleed to stay intact. usually there is a big debate about who gets to keep the guildname (read GM spot) and eventually the people who didn't get to keep it will feel shafted. everybody knows that how it will turn out too and that's why they argue about the guildname in the firstplace.

guild absorption usually goes more like "hey our guild is dying and we notice you have had to cancel some raids lately, can like 10 of us join yours?". those usually work out better.

Yeah, so basically people who can't work out a proper agreement like adults will have issues with their mergers. Exactly my point.

the guild im currently in is a result of a merger between three guilds actually, and we are going on 2 yrs strong now. I guess we are the one success story?? weird, but not totally surprising - the two factors that might have made a difference in my case: neither of the merging guilds had tanks that needed raid spots, and secondly, one of the guilds was a just a few friends (12 ppl total) with no real aspirations in the game.

didnt see the post above me with another success story, but we are few and far between :-)

There's probably quite a lot of times when mergers do work out well, but no one's gonna post about it a lot on-line, that's why it looks as though all mergers fail.

It's only logical, guilds often die due to people simply going inactive. In WoW's life cycle there are some downtimes when a lot of people are taking breaks and leaving the game. People that want to keep playing with their friends naturally try to continu doing that and often mergers with guilds in similar situations are the best solutions to go about that.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Yes... and no.


This reminds me of really the only one I was apart of back during WotLK during Trial of the Crusader and ICC.


My guild was sort of medium sized at the time. Will call this guild "Guild A" for this story. We mostly had people leveling characters but there was a core 5 - 6 of us that did stuff together. One of these core people were friends with somebody else who was in a raiding guild on the same server ("Guild B") and this Guild B were also a close core group that had been raiding consistently since vanilla WoW. Since my guild wanted to raid more often, and Guild B lacked consistent people showing up to their raids, it was a no brainer. So we merged and made "Guild A-B" and it was good then.


After a couple of months, it was apparent that the people from the Guild B portion were only going to stick to playing with each other (lul) and not really anybody else. They did not interact with anybody else in the guild that was from Guild A or who joined the guild after the merger. We officially had 1 raid group and it mostly consisted of the core people from Guild B and whoever else they brought in who was geared/experienced. These people weren't always members of this new Guild A-B.


It was becoming apparent that the people from Guild B who were running the raids (original GM from Guild B became official raid leader, will call him "Douchebag") were not going to take other people into their raids... they just wanted their close, core group. Here is when it gets spicy.


There was an argument in guild chat one day. One of the members was complaining that he wasn't getting into guild raids and was being told consistently to be "on standby" in case they needed him... but never did. Like, standing around aimlessly in game for like 2 hours just in case or whatever (do solo stuff, no group content).


I chimed in and was talking about forming raid group 2, as we had so many people in the guild not getting into the raiding content. Other people began speaking up too, but the people who came from Guild B began to say things like "there will be no raid team 2" and "you guys just need to be on reserve" and things like that. Arguments ensued.


So finally, Douchebag said the very first thing in guild chat I had ever seem him say in the months after the merger: "Is there any way to put guild chat on ignore"


...and that was pretty much the final straw. I was much younger back then and I took that as the final straw, as well as a lot of other people. We all left in the days after, made a new guild, and was able to raid consistently.


Sorry for long post but this was a certainly an experience I had back then, lol.

[Zantera]

The guild I'm in now is actually a guild I moved to as part of a guild merger and I'd say it worked out pretty well. At the time of the merger I had to take a demotion as I was officer in previous guild but naturally as you merge 2 guilds you gotta compromise a bit and I was fine with that. I'm now back to being an officer and we have a lot of players still with us. Some fell off the wagon along the way, not really cause of the merger but just cause of the nature of the game.

The biggest issue with guild merges really is the clashing of 2 different types of guilds and the personalities within. If you can overcome that and you have the right people from each guild be officers and make it work then it can definitely work. The issue is some people have some sort of ego in terms of "we need to use OUR rules not YOURS" and things like that. You really gotta lose that "us and them" mentality and just think about the greater good of the overall team.

[Isilrien]

Yes, it went well. However, I've only been a part of one merger and it was in EverQuest, so that may be one reason why it went smoothly.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Most guild mergers are just scams where one guild is doing a hostile take-over of the other guild through the backdoor. I've seen it from both sides, so sure it can be successful, depending on what your goal is. Guild alliances are usually the better way, as you keep your guild bank and you can check if the people mesh together well, before one absorbs the other, because that is what is ultimately happening here.

[Puri]

I was in one during wotlk. We sucessfully raided together before, and everything was fine. The two guilds were roughly the same size, so we decided to merge into a new guild (because one absorbing the other was not acceptable to either). But then it was a constant struggle for power, and it became a big rivalry that made the whole atmosphere extremely toxic, even though we happily played together before.
It failed miserably, we went back to our old guilds and abandoned the raid group.

[Rustedsaint]

Been apart afew aswell as guild splits/absorbs
The last one I was in from lasted from 3/4 of last tier of bfa till afew weeks ago but problems were hand from the start. Long story short, favouritism is bad, raid leader dps who is bottom of the meters as the easiest class is worse and going hardcore when it clear the majority of people are casual is even worse.

[Coolascancer]

most of mine were in Vanilla to form 40 man raid groups- they worked out pretty well although there was this long epic like story of the officers taking down the GM after a while and taking the guild from him... so in the end it burned but not until we raided together for a long long time.

Some remnants from that guild reformed and merged with another guild and we raided until the end of vanilla together quite successfully. I would wager that most guild mergers do not end well though.

[glowpipe]

In legion, our guild was struggling. We kept trying to recruit people to fill our roster, but had issues due to dead server and lack of progress since we couldn't find new raiders. I was eventually contacted by an officer from another guild about a merger. They also needed more players. They were around 11-12 and we had around 12-13 players at the time. We were in the process of finding out the best way of doing this and they were ready to give us equal leadership in the new guild. Went back and forth with my people and were finalizing this. Out of the blue i got a ingame mail from a whistleblower in their guild, one of their officers. They had no intention of merging with us. They were going to invite all of us with on the premiss of a merger with equal rights etc, but they had already layed out elaborate plans on how they were going to trick us into thinking we had power, which we wouldn't have, in that guild and then start kicking the members they didn't want and just keep our best raiders. I was talking to that dude who blew the whistle and he even showed screenshots of some discord messages etc about how they were going to fuck us over. I am so glad he did that, because after this, our guild managed to get back on its feet and its doing great today.

Nedless to say, any mention of a merger now days is just instantly ignored. Never going to happen while im gm of my guild