Since it’s been two weeks since Cataclysm release and because I feel like doing a shameless plug for our guild on Silvermoon-US, I figured I could do a quick update on what’s happening with our little crew of casual, but murderous, pirates.
Recruitment, wich has been my main worry for the past few weeks, has picked up a bit thanks to a few bloggers and real life friend who has joined us. I did manage to recruit a few locals from Silvermoon but the retention rate among them is very low for reasons I will touch on later on. Still, I feel we have gained valuable members over the past two-week, people who won’t jump ship for no reason and people we can build an awesome guild upon.
On the guild progress side of things we now have a few 85, enough to field a full 5 man wich hopefully, should allow us to do a few guild heroics in a week or two once people have geared up. With people like Pid (The Meatshield) and a few friends leveling characters at a nice pace, I’m starting to see a day not so far away where we’ll be able to do groups run of heroics without any real problem and even 10 man raids if it’s something that people are interested in, wich they are if I go by what I’m being told.
For the killer question now, wich level is Walk the Plank? Level 2, getting close to 3. I wish I could say I’m surprised but I’m not. Since we have quite a few people leveling up right now, since we are not doing instances runs as guild group on a regular basis yet (read heroics here) and since we’re being true to our casual, no pressure approach, the guild experience suffers as a result.
And this is where our retention problems with local recruits come from. Unlike bloggers, readers and real-life friends, these people don’t know us and for them we are but one in many casual guilds. Even worst, we actually mean it when we say we’re a casual guild and we’re not promising raiding or pvp. When a member asked earlier this week if we would be raiding and how often, I gave him my usual answer that I would try putting a group together once I felt people were geared enough but it would be completely optional and only once a week. He left the guild later in the week.
So does it mean that our casual guild is doomed to disappear? Quite the opposite in fact. It will take us a lot more time to get those levels and all these nice perks but I feel like we have a much more solid foundation, one that is built on great people who understand that WoW is a game and that the point is to have fun. I know that when people log on, it’s because they really want to, not because they feel forced to.
My name is Pid and I approve this message. LoL
Seriously though, at my age (gosh do I sound old) it is nice to have a guild that is interested in playing this game for the fun value, as opposed to using it for bragging purposes.
It is nice to see coherent conversation in the guild chat not l33t speak or harassment. People answer questions when you ask and you almost always have someone say “hiya” when you log in.
Keep sailing Walk the Plank!
My take: if you are truly casual, you needn’t even worry about people leaving. They can stay if they like what they see, or leave if they don’t. As a casual guild it should matter little to you either way
Agreed, I’m still detraining myself from years of hardcore gameplay. I’ll get there!