Trying to Understand the Function of Guilds

Credit goes to Dr. Jenny Fremlin

If you've stuck around with me long enough, you know that I have questions surrounding guilds. If you don't raid, what purpose do they serve? I was in a guild for a pretty long time that was a 100% social guild. We occasionally ran raids as level 85s but it was strictly old content because hardly any of us were experienced raiders and hardly any of us were geared to run Cataclysm (at the time, this was the most current expansion) raids. There were times where we couldn't even manage to get through Cata heroic dungeons as a guild without wiping repeatedly. It was sad. From what I could tell, the most active members were primarily interested in PvP and were geared and experienced as such. The husband and I were looking for more than that. While we occasionally enjoy PvP, our primary focus was social and leveling but we were very interested in learning how to raid. This was something that our guild and more importantly, our guild manager, was totally uninterested in. Rather than try and bend the guild to fit us, we left. It was so far from being personal. I really miss those people. But being in a guild that didn't fit us, that we had outgrown, led to dissatisfaction with WoW in general.

After Pandaria came out, we left the guild and paid for a realm transfer. We decided to found our own guild. Our entire purpose was to have a place for our alts and a bank that we could do with what we wanted. After leveling the guild to 25 and more than just two members to level 90, we plan on recruiting. What we're looking for in members is as follows:

• Fun people that enjoy playing a game and not analyzing it to death.
• Respectful people that understand that when you're running a level 85 dungeon on normal with bad gear, it's because you're trying to get better gear for cripes sake. 
• Respectful people that understand when you're in a level 85 dungeon with bad gear, that you probably don't know all the fights because IT'S A LOW LEVEL DUNGEON THAT YOU'RE TRYING TO LEARN AND GET BETTER GEAR.
• Fun people that are interested in being respectful, social, adults who are interested in playing a game.
• Fun people that are looking to learn together.

I know. I'm idealist and probably unrealistic but my husband and I can't possibly be the only gamers out there that are like us. I remain hopeful.

The other day, @Matticus posted this on Twitter:

Everytime I leave my guild alone for more than a few days, I dread to see what trouble they get into upon my return.
— Matticus(@matticus) May 15, 2013

 It led me to wonder, what are other guilds like? Guilds that have actual leadership and direction? I really think this is an aspect of MMOs, and not just WoW, that I have yet to experience.

I found this paper that was written in 1996 about MUDs which was entirely too interesting especially when comparing it to the current gaming experience of MMOs. Essentially, nothing much has changed in what the gamer is looking for in the 17 years since this was written. You should read it.

I would love to hear about other people's guild experiences.