Are guilds dead? Do veterans still play the game?

[Diplomate.2713]

Haven't played GW2 for 5 or 6 years, but recently decided to return and purchase the expansions. There's a lot of new content in the game in addition to the old one that I have totally forgotten and have fun dealing with again.

However, the thing that amazed me is that the guilds seem to be totally dead. I used to be in a fairly large guild of like 50-100 people, and when I play the game there are no people from this guild online at all. I was expecting to find a new guild through the map chat, but so far I have only seen one RP guild advertisement and it was probably in Queensdale, and a few German/French/Dutch advertisements. Back in the old days you could see people recruiting for their guilds even in the mid and advanced maps, not even talking about the starting areas that were borderline spammed by guild recruiters!So are casual guilds still a thing or are they limited to hardcore WvW/raid/fractal groups that only concentrate on those specific areas?

Another thing I've noticed is that all the friends that I used to have in the game haven't logged in for months or even for years. So is it safe to assume that the playerbase has changed completely after 2 expansions and so many years?

[Bander.5194]

After so many years I feel like it's a given that there's massive turnover, 7 years really -is- a long time.

I've been playing since release, and I still log in every day for at least a couple of hours, and I know plenty of other 'veteran' players that do the same, similar, or even more.

I've gone through a lot of guilds over the years, and some of them have died from inactivity, while others I left for other reasons. There's still plenty of guilds out there that are casual, I think the issue is that a lot of casual guilds don't actively seek recruitment in map chat. You can check the forums here for good matches that aren't only raid statics. Sometimes it just takes a little time to find a good fit.

TL;DR: Guilds aren't dead.

[Ashantara.8731]

My main guild is pretty much dead, and the ones absent are all veteran players. Many haven't logged on in almost 2 years.

[Taygus.4571]

My guilds are very much alive.

You could try posting in map chat that you're lookong for a guild or in the forum section.

You could also whisper someone if you liked playing fractals with them for example, if you could join their guild.Or if you saw someone tag up for a metaevent

Guilds change and fall apart, that doesn't mean the game is dead.

[Diak Atoli.2085]

To answer the title in order: No. Yes.

[Blaeys.3102]

When the game launched, I led a guild of 16 people. Currently, we have more than 100 active members (members who log on at least once a week). Last night, we had 24 people for guild missions. That isn't a guild record, but it is pretty solid considering the stale nature of missions in the game right now. I know of several other long standing guilds that are still going strong.

Neither the game nor guilds are dying, from what I can see.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

You may find this helpful: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/categories/looking-for-guild

Welcome return, and good luck.

[ugrakarma.9416]

On Pve crowd is common being "seasonal", the only exception is WvW crowd ironically the most neglected mode in this game.

i mean, from my friend list/guilds, the only ones i had seen consistently online is WvW ppl. Even ppl from offline WvW guilds(where leader left the game) are online on a regular basis years after years.

the pvp/pve are very seasonal/irregular sometime online alterned with long hiatus.

also i noticed something related to AP too, normally 30k+ AP ppl are always online.

[Danikat.8537]

There probably are a lot of 'dead' or very quiet guilds which are still around. I'm in one (it was the first guild I joined, and I'm the only officer who still logs in regularly, so I'm staying until I stop playing or everyone else leaves the guild) and I've left two others. Although one of them did have plenty of people logging on, they just didn't ever talk in guild chat, even when someone else asked a question.

But I'm also in 2 active guilds, at least one of which has been going for years, and recently left a 3rd (because they wanted 100% representation with no exceptions and I can't do that now - because of the other two guilds).

Which means I've also been looking for a new guild to join, and I have noticed there seems to be fewer adverts in chat than there used to be. But I've also noticed they tend to be concentrated in specific maps, which aren't necessarily the ones where I spent most my time, so I might just be missing a lot of them. I currently see them a lot in the Labyrinth (especially if a guild has organised a squad) and in maps for daily achievements (either events or jumping puzzles/mini dungeons) or during meta-events, but only rare see them in other maps. I suspect guilds are targeting areas they know there will be a lot of people, and maybe targeting the type of players they want.

I've also heard some people are finding guilds though Discord and other places outside the game, but I don't really know how that works. I've used this forum to find guilds but not Discord.

[Diplomate.2713]

Thanks to everyone for answering my questions. Judging by the number of replies, the game at least is far from dead. :)

I've already tried searching for a guild in the respective forum, but the problem is that I don't see a lot of guilds from my server (Piken Square). As far as I understand, the people I meet in game are now not necessarily from Piken as well, so finding a guild from my server to take part in WvW would be hard. So would you say finding the guild from your own server is way harder now than it used to be?

[jinxykat.6519]

My guild is extremely active. Guild leader is a lady in her 70's who has played since launch. Most members are veterans as well. (at least 5+ years playing) although my other two guilds are very quiet.

[FrigginPaco.4178]

Individual guilds may have come and gone as is the way with this type of game. However I will say that the guild system as a whole, has suffered immensely over the last seven years. I have seen a lot of other games do better things with their guilds and interface more with the game as a result.

It boggles my mind this game can be called Guild Wars and have such a non emphasis on guilds or their alleged warring. In fact, it is just call back to something that happened in the history of the game before the events of GW1, a "point" that is always brought up by people who are satisfied with the guild system as they stand.

[Danikat.8537]

@Diplomate.2713 said:Thanks to everyone for answering my questions. Judging by the number of replies, the game at least is far from dead. :)

I've already tried searching for a guild in the respective forum, but the problem is that I don't see a lot of guilds from my server (Piken Square). As far as I understand, the people I meet in game are now not necessarily from Piken as well, so finding a guild from my server to take part in WvW would be hard. So would you say finding the guild from your own server is way harder now than it used to be?

If you want a guild for WvW specifically I recommend asking in WvW maps. Either just asking generally or looking out for commanders who do a good job and then asking if they're in a WvW guild and if they're recruiting.

Outside of WvW maps are shared across all servers in a region and guild members on different servers can play together everywhere except WvW so most guilds won't worry about which server their members are on because it doesn't matter to them. (One of my guilds has members who play WvW on different servers and they find it highly amusing when they fight each other.)

[ugrakarma.9416]

@Diplomate.2713 said:Thanks to everyone for answering my questions. Judging by the number of replies, the game at least is far from dead. :)

I've already tried searching for a guild in the respective forum, but the problem is that I don't see a lot of guilds from my server (Piken Square). As far as I understand, the people I meet in game are now not necessarily from Piken as well, so finding a guild from my server to take part in WvW would be hard. So would you say finding the guild from your own server is way harder now than it used to be?

u probably had the hiatus before Megaserver system, with megaserver theres no more population split in pve system, the only pve population split is between EU and NA..., the servers only matter for wvw now.

[Ayakaru.6583]

Most guilds nowadays are bulky friend lists, or dedicated for a type of content like raids or wvw.Because of that, there's not as much advertisements anymore.

Well.. save zchech guilds, or polish guilds. You'll get 10 invites a day from them

[ugrakarma.9416]

About find PVE Guilds Ads in game: the most actives ones like advertise a lot in world-map events, like AB meta, Tangled Depths, Teqatl and all others... also theres some randoms guilds ads on Lions Arch/Divinits Reach, but in these cities is more common find small guilds/RP guilds. in "farming maps" like Silverwastes u tends to find more(ofc) ads of farming guilds.

About find WvW Guilds Ads in game: the peak of activity is WvW reset at friday, u wil find lot of active guilds recruiting.

About WvW reset: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Server_resetFriday 15:00 UTC-3 (roughly) — World versus World reset for EU servers (the exact time varies from week to week). [2]Friday 23:00 UTC-3 (roughly) — World versus World reset for NA servers (the exact time varies from week to week).

[Gregory.3710]

I am still in the guild I joined when I first started playing GW2. Not many people log in, but there is a handful of players still active.

I started playing GW2 on day one. I think maybe even a Beta version if there was one?? I play with irregular irregularity. I'll play 5 days a week for a few months, then take some time off. I didn't really like the maps in HoT, so took a lot of breaks during that time.

[Dante.1763]

The guild ive been in for the last 4 years is still highly active. The guild i was in since the start is still around too, and that guild had a bunch of players playing since pre release like myself.

most vets i think come and go with the games content releases, where new players have alot of content to do still so they play more.

[Tzarakiel.7490]

Recruiting is simply too tedious. Recruiters burn out and guilds die as the fresh blood dries up. If Anet wants guilds to be more active they need to add ways for guilds to recruit ingame without spamming map chat.

[Daddicus.6128]

One big change a couple years ago (at Heart of Thorns time) was to guilds. Guild halls require a massive commitment to complete now, so small guilds are pretty much a thing of the past.

I recommend finding a new guild and go from there.

[Westenev.5289]

Guilds die, and the more active players move on. It's unfortunate, but it's to be expected.

But I have noticed there isn't a lot of recruiting going on in level 1-15 maps, if you compare it to the days of HoT.

[Vayne.8563]

My guild's alive. YMMV.

[DietPepsi.4371]

Been playing the game consistently for 7 years since the Betas , and I'm still here.

[Dante.1508]

They aren't dead, but its very different to what it was at release... The social side has evaporated and everyone seems to be forced into Discord...

I hate Discord.. So much dramas and backstabbing there, epeening, porn memes.. So i mostly Solo quietly these days..

[Donari.5237]

While there's no real time table on it, at some point they are supposedly going to be doing away with servers entirely. I mean, there will still be NA/EU, but no named WvW servers. WvW will be converted to a guild system. Details are in the WvW forum section. That's a good ways off though by all indications, so for now if WvWing in Piken Square matters to you, check the resources others have given above.