Joining a guild was one of the targets I had set for myself in Guild Wars this year but I can’t say I spent tremendous thought or effort in scouting around for one to join.
However, I got a guild invite last month from a player whom I helped on two back-to-back missions, and after asking a few questions about the guild focus and prerequisites, and learning the playerbase was comprised mainly of adults, I accepted the invitation on the spot.
One of the reasons I was reluctant to join a guild previously was I frequently take breaks from the game lasting weeks and most guilds kick out members who are inactive. I was assured that that didn’t happen in the guild I joined and this was easily confirmed by looking at the guild list after I joined. The guild leader hadn’t logged on in a week, one officer had been away for a month and one member had not been on for three months. I was further assured that there would be no hard feelings if I should leave for whatever reason.
All things considered, it seemed less a guild with a rigid ruleset and command structure, and more a loose affiliation of friendly, laidback players who by sheer coincidence happen to have the same cape on.
I found myself immediately dealing with one new thing after another. That long-ignored Guild channel tab had to be activated, I had a Guild hall to visit and explore, and I had to get used to capes on my characters.
The main problem right now is that I’m in a different timezone from my new guildies and it’s likely we’ll be able to hook up in-game only on weekends. I do hope we’ll be able to get together to tackle some of the elite PvE missions as I haven’t touched any of those.
The green and the wet
Having acquired the Guardian titles for Tyria, Elona and Cantha for my Mesmer as well as the Protector titles for Elona and Cantha, I’m now trying to earn the Protector of Tyria title to complete the Legendary Guardian title.
I don’t anticipate any difficulty whatsoever acquiring the title. It’s just kind of hard to work up the enthusiasm to replay them in Normal Mode. Beating up Level 6 Bosses does nothing whatsoever for me.
I try to help other players as much as I can and I found myself accompanying a player who seemed to be very new to the game. I can’t be absolutely certain he had just begun playing, of course, but there were certain signs, certain giveaways that hinted perhaps he wasn’t exactly a veteran.
For one thing, he thought Koss and Dunkoro were other players.
Take a moment to let that sink in.
The other giveaway was he insisted he didn’t need any healing because he was playing a warrior/monk. He would later confidently announce he would also be healing the bonus-critical NPC.
When asked how long he had been playing the game, he quickly moved to assure Koss, Dunkoro and myself that he had another level 12 character.
We finished The Great Northern Wall and Fort Ranik together and I was chuckling throughout the course of those missions.