alt="WoW Guild Header" />

Being part of a guild is an important
thing in World of Warcraft. While you can certainly play the game
solo, there are many things that require a group and let's face it,
the game is just better when you play it with others. Once you find
that guild that is exactly right for you, they become your friends,
confidants, and perhaps even something like family. So when a guild
falls apart, it can be pretty devastating (my wife cried when our
original guild finally collapsed) and leave us searching for answers.

While we can't pinpoint the exact
reason every guild falls apart, if you look hard enough at the
stories of dissolved guilds, there are some pretty common patterns.
Below you will find five of the top guild killers in World of
Warcraft. Some are more preventable than others, however, all can be
deadly to a guild.

Drama

In an ideal world, drama would be
something we left back in high school. Unfortunately, that simply
isn't the case. No matter if it is drama over loot, who got in a run,
or if one player is being treated better than another, drama often
rears it's ugly head when you put players together in a guild. Drama
can be caused by one bad apple or by a combined group and no matter
who the perpetrator is, it can be deadly for your guild. While it may
seem easy to shrug it off and let drama run rampant, it really needs
to be nipped in the bud. If not taken care of promptly, drama can
breed and spread until you find your guild falling apart around you.

Lack of Progression

We join guilds for various reasons,
however, in the case of many, we join guilds for PvE progression.
This means joining up with a group of people and getting out there,
killing that super hard boss, and collecting the loot. Sounds easy
right? Wrong! While it is not as common today as it was in times
past, the term “guild killer” applied to a boss is something many
of us can recall with a shudder. Prime examples of these types of
bosses are C'Thun and Yogg-Saron. Both difficult encounters that made
many a guild base their heads against the wall so many times they
totally fell apart.

alt="Yogg-Saron" />

Both the bosses in the examples above
are pretty notorious for their abilities to dissolve players to
tears. However, no matter what boss or achievement you are stuck on,
a lack of progression can cause tensions to run high. People get
angry, frustrated, and start to wonder if they should be looking for
a spot in another guild. While the flames can be subdued for awhile,
if progression isn't made, these feelings of animosity will quickly
spread and overwhelm your guild, burning it to the ground.

Poor Leadership

Every single person in a guild is an
important player. However, someone needs to be in charge. Just like a
company, without some kind of leadership, nothing is going to get
done. Officers should be fair, unbiased, people-friendly, drama-free,
and ready to devote a good portion of their time to managing the
guild.

Many players want the title of officer
just have it. They aren't ready for and don't really want to take on
any of the work it really involves. Others start out as good officers
and then slowly lose their passion for one reason or the other,
except they don't give up their officer position. Then there are
those who get put into this position and we never can quite figure
out why.

A prime example of this was seen in one
of my old guilds., There was an officer who was nasty, lazy, and
downright abrasive. One of his worst stunts was to take money from
players to earn them a guild spot. The second he got their money and
invited them to the guild he would automatically kick them again. It
was embarrassing for the rest of the guild members, gave us a rotten
reputation, and I believe by not removing this toxic officer, a
direct cause of the downfall of this guild. Without a doubt, having a
strong, good, and long-lasting guild requires the right kind of
leaders running the show.

Burn Out

There comes a time in nearly every
players life when they realize that they are no longer enjoying the
game they love as much as they used to. Things aren't exciting
anymore and just logging in is a chore. This of course is common in
WoW players who have been playing the game for years. Even if your
guild is healthy otherwise, it stands to reason that after awhile at
least some of your members may experience some burn out.

Burn out typically results in players
taking a break which range from days, to weeks, to even years.
Sometimes when one player takes this break, it sparks other players
to realize that they are also feel like the game doesn't hold the
same appeal for them. If enough players, or ones that are essential
to the function of the guild vanish, keeping the guild alive can
become a struggle. It is not uncommon for a player who took an
extended break to come back and discover the guild is no longer
raiding or even disbanded totally. Unfortunately, there is little one
can do to prevent cases of burn out and the exodus of players who
experience it.

Real Life

Real life is the mortal foe of every
gamer and is often a prime guild killer in World of Warcraft. Unlike
in game events, when real life events occur, we just can't ignore
them. This of course means players are pulled away from the game and
if this occurs often or in just the right sequence guilds can fold in
on themselves quite quickly.

alt="Twins" />

I experienced a great example of this
when in a previous guild two officers were a married couple. They got
pregnant, found out they were having twins and when the babies came
they found themselves without time to play. At the same time other
players changed jobs, moved, or had other important life events come
up. The guild dissolved and there was no one to blame, we all wanted
to play together, life just had made it impossible. Real life is a
sneaky foe that cannot really be fought when it comes to the downfall
of guilds.

That concludes our list of the top 5
guild killers in World of Warcraft. What are some things that have
caused the fall of guilds you have been in? What do you do to prevent
those situations from happening again? Share your thoughts with us in
the comments section below!


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our World of Warcraft Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

About The Author

Amunet, also fondly known as Memtron, is an organic life form best known for its ongoing obsession with Blizzard Entertainment's numerous properties. To that end, Amu has authored hundreds (thousands?) of the most popular World of Warcraft guides, editorials, and Top 10 lists on the planet. When not gaming and writing, Amu is busy chasing after her three children in a perpetual loop of ongoing disaster.

Comments