Anyway, my alt a 38 Druid recently joined a guild that I thought was going to be ok. I had seen the gm on his alt for a few days questing in the same area as me and we grouped a few times even running the Stocks together.

So I joined. Since then I have been leveling (10 since I first met him) and am really disappointed in the guild. For the last few weeks only one, at most 2 other members are online at a time. Typically a 70 warlock and maybe a real lowbe 7-10 level. (BTW the guy I originally grouped with has only leveled up once) So of course I keep seeing all the join guild channel spam and see over and over guilds that are advertising helping leveling/running instances etc. Now I am having second thoughts.

Since I rarely see the GM online anymore I cannot even discus this with him. I don’t really want to ninja quit but I do want to advance my play experience and I just don’t think I am getting the benefits of a guild with them.

The only consolation is that I really haven’t made any friends/commitments with them.

By this point my friend and I were a bit burnt out, the guild started loosing level 70s and our kara team and a half fell to half a team. And neither of us could face the work it would take to strengthen the guild again. We talked about it and decided to step down and let someone else take over from here. So we ended up guildless, we picked a guild to join, my friend joined and I applied (i work, he doesn’t).

Its now beginning to look like I probably wont get in as they have enough feral druids and as resto I’m under geared.

However taking the step away while very very very hard, has been a growing and positive experience. The weight of GMship was very heavy and I’m a lot more relaxed and less stressed playing now.

Go for it. Its best to follow your heart and take the chance. Your friends won’t stop talking to you and worst case you will still get to hang out with BRK and chat with friends on private channels.

If it’s any consolation, I decided to have a go at making my own guild to see what it was like. So I went ahead and moved Dura over to this new guild (leaving your/our guild). So if I can move Dura and set up a whole other guild, you really needn’t worry too much about leaving… onwards and upwards ;-)

We will always use the chat channel. It’s been great for those rare moments when we actually manage to coordinate something across all those time zones.

Oh, and Ina and I do know your name. I don’t know why we’ve never used it in-game. I’ll use it next time =)

/hugs
Tikky

Like you, I began playing WoW as grief management. My Neice took her own life a little over two years ago. Sadly, dealing with grief from a suicide is extremely difficult…not just because of the additional emotions that have to be dealt with in reguards to suicide, but because of all the chaos and drama within our family that has been caused from her death. After a year of trying to help my family with their grief and ‘mediate’ them and their differences with how they dealt with it, I was wore down emotionally and mentally and got back into WoW as an escape mechanism.

At first, it was just my husband and I playing babies (new chars) by ourselves and it was what I needed at that time. No people to deal with, something to get into and occupy my mind to keep it off of ‘everything else’. But, then, BC came out and my husband wanted to level his rogue to 70 and raid with our long time guild. I had a level 60 Druid and he talked me into leveling with him. At first, I felt I wasn’t ready to ‘deal with people’. But, he assured me we could level just the two of us and I could ignore guild chat, for the most part. So, I started playing my Druid and found out I really did like her (I hated her before…when the game first started and had quit after a year.). Honestly, even though I didn’t feel ready for it, joining the guild and interacting with more people helped to pull me out of the depression I didn’t even realize I was in. As time went on, our Druid class officer switched characters and I was made the new one. I didn’t feel ready for that, either, but it was something I needed (without realizing it) to pull me out even further. Blogging on my Druid blog helped as well.

When dealing with grief, the inclination is to pull back within yourself. Honestly, that is needed for a while to help you process and accept it. But, eventually, you do have to start taking steps to reconnect with others. With me, it seemed that each new thing that required me to interact with others happened before I was ready. However, looking back, it happened exactly when I needed it. Kinda like that saying, ‘The teacher will appear when the student is ready.’ so do events that require change when change is needed.

So, in summary, join the guild, stay in the chat channel with your friends, and slowly get used to being more involved with others. Also, come here and blog more about your experiences! It helps. :)

/hugs

Heh–yep, those are the boots in question. Good to know I’m not the only one out there with that problem. After last night’s 3 hour 28 minute full clear of Kara (!!!!) once again didn’t get me the boots I want ( http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28746 ), it looks like it’s time to go do BGs long enough to get the PvP boots.

Alnitaq and Cieiti

There are the things you need to remember.
1. What kind of guild do you want? What type of experiance are you looking for? Does you current guild satisfy those needs? Does your possible new guild satisfy them better? – These are the most important questions to answer. Its your 15 dollars a month. Playing the game the way you find most satisfing is the most important thing.
2. True WoW friendships don’t care about guild. This has been proven to me by the recent issues with my guild. I now have friends spreadout in several guilds and I keep pretty close contact with them through a private channel. Even the people that are not in that channel I don’t have a problem talking with. Who cares if they helped you out with a quest or an instance? That was their own choice and as long as you are willing to return the favor most of them won’t care that your not in their guild.

I’ve had a couple of strange Guild events in my WoW “career”, and thought I’d share them…

When I started playing, I knew noone else on the realm – a couple of RL friends played, but were pretty hard core, so I was very nervous of playing in their company…

So I started up, with a Druid as it was the class that appealed to me most, and played through a good few levels guild-less.

Then I was invited to a guild and thought it was great – people to talk to and everything… The guild was pretty easy going – but then I was only level 40-odd, so was having fun running around questing – not really any need for much help…

Then, all of a sudden, the guild fell apart – I still don’t know why, to this day – and as I was the only member online at the time, I ended up as GM… I was unwilling to let it fold, but also didn’t have the ability or time to keep it going, so it languished as a shadow of it’s former self for a while – a guild without direction or motivation – and with few lvl 70s!

After a little while, I discovered forums and found a new guild… And then had the trauma of the whole /gquit thing…

So I joined a good guild, and got to level 70, and read all the blogging world had to say about druids…

My new guild feels like home, but is falling apart a bit due to the need of some people to raid – my RL commitments mean that I’m unlikely to join in with that, but i’d love to – but hopefully we’ll still have something of the fun and friendship that’s in the current guild anyway… Old members who’ve left still /w me to ask how things are going, so hopefully i’ve left an impression!

Lost my point somewhere up there, I think, but my advice is… Don’t worry about it – it’s only a game and those who do care about what you think won’t judge you for trying something different!

If your hear to raid and progress and pvp.. then joining BBB’s guild would be the right decision.. if you play to chat and quest and farm. Then stay where you are!

I know people who stay in guilds that have been farming karazhan and only kara for months.. but they are their cause their all friends.

I left that guild because I want to raid and progress. I konw that I will keep in touch with those old friends, but ill make new ones.

It will be rough for the first couple weeks.. but you said you had a chat channel for those friends of yours. Theirs no reason to be in a guild then.

Hope that helps..