Project Lore

Playing World of Warcraft is good.  Playing it as a group is better, and playing it with a group of people you actually know is downright fantastic.  If anecdotal evidence tells us anything, it is that the more comfortable the group is, the better it will perform.  This is the basic reason so many of us join guilds.  In World of Warcraft guilds are a way to meet requirements for raids, with the ultimate goal of seeing content that's unobtainable to an individual and the chance atshinies .  Being social creatures, we inevitably begin to converse and interact with those around us, but do we ever really get to know these people?

Tobold believes that "In most cases you know nothing about your online "friends", beyond that they share one common interest with you." I have to disagree.  Either I am the exception to the rule, or nearly all of the guilds I have been a part of in WoW are.  For those keeping track at home I did feel like an outcast in two of my Wrath guilds, but one of those was because all the other members were such good friends (that spoke in another language).

My current, and original 40-man, guild are more than just a bunch of online "friends".  Most of us know each other's names, our other hobbies (cars, computers, etc), our daily schedules ("he gets home at 8:30"), relationship status and our bedtimes.  We chat in Ventrilo for the sake of chatting.  We've extended our love of video games beyond WoW and into other games like League of Legends, Global Agenda and Team Fortress 2.  Together.  I keep in touch with a handful of former guildies, after they quit the game.  I have had that drink at a bar with many brothers in arms, and even hosted numerous guild get togethers at my domicile.  Hell, I had two people I meet in WoW over my house this very weekend.

There's no reason why your online "friends" needs to be in quotes at all.  In all honesty, you'll get back what you put in, just like any other relationship.  If you only want acquaintances to help you get through a challenging dungeon as you relax away the day, that's cool.  But I believe that making those deeper connections, forging online friends (not Facebook-style "friends"), makes for a better guild.  One that's less hateful, more accepting of failure, and capable of delivering more fun than just downing the next boss.

What about you?  What kind of social structure does your guild subscribe to?



In every guild I have been in there is always that one member who makes the rest of us scratch our heads.  The one players who does, says or claims off the wall shenanigans that blows everyone else's mind.  The one guildie that makes you wonder if the Internet's anonymous nature allowed the character to blossom, or unleashed him on the masses...Hmm, now that I have put this in words, there have been far more than one of these characters in each of my guild.  If you will, I would like to rephrase my previous assertion.  There is always at least one who is active at any given time. That is far more accurate. For many players, it is this kind of social enlightenment that brings them to the proverbial table every night.  Finding and hanging out with these odd beings, where the only thing in common may be trying to take down a crazed dragon, creates for some hilarious situations.  I have certainly meet my fair share of oddballs along the way:

• An incredibly shy member came to the guild party with an actual deepdive helm on his head - just like his toon. He didn't take it off for over an hour, going so far as to drink through the mask.
• At the following party the stereotypical emo, angst-filled nerd showed up in all black and wierded everyone out.
• We swore this one guildmate was practicing stand-up routines on the guild because he had a stupid amount of ridiculously improbaby stories to tell every night.
• Another told us personal stories.  Personal stories that often turned incredibly graphic and disgusting.  As well as disturbing.  We feared laws - of man and nature - may have been broken.
• My brother played a female toon that he modeled after his girlfriend.  He quickly learned the benefits of doing so.  He kept a list of all the characters he collected donations from to document the "sleeze" in WoW.
• One former member, and still close friend, has refused to speak on Ventrilo for years.  Someone swore he heard him speak once, but no one believes him.  There is also a rumor that the person in question is a female player in hiding.
• The most famous quirk of any player is a former Dark Age of Camelot subscriber who refused to purchase a mount for WoW.  The Gnome stated that the world was too small (relative to other title's he had played) to waste the gold on a stead.  To this day I still hear about the fabled mountless Gnome on the server.

I'm not gonna lie, after getting into Grandpa's medicine, I have been known to transform into one of these entities.  When I do, I tend to make ridiculous comments in an attempt to get laughs from the crowd.  And yes Pixie, I even pretended that my toon was a girl to see how my guild would react.  Apparently, I am a very poor RPer.  What kind of crazy personas have you come across in Azeroth?  Oh, if you don't know any players with erratic or unusual behavior, then you are one!

Click to read more ...