I'm fairly new to the MMO scene as I've never really been a gamer that liked playing with others. After having a blast in the beta weekend event, I want to jump in to everything Guild Wars 2 has to offer. So I've come here in hopes to have a question or two answered from others that have been in the genre far longer than I.

What exactly are the benefits of guilds? Are they strictly PvP/PvE, or is it just a mass of people in a somewhat club like group? How hard is it to manage a guild? I was thinking of starting a guild with two other people, and hopefully growing from there as I meet new people, but a friend of mine has said that new players should probably join an already existing one before managing one. Is there any truth to what my friend has said? I guess I just want to play with other like minded gamers, but the stereotypical xbox live and PSN gamers have ruined my outlook on finding others to play with in-game. Also, I noticed a lot of people not communicating with others. Is this normal? I'm not a very chatty person, and found this weekend more fitting for me since I didn't have to chat all that much with others.

And thanks in advance.

@Spiritgod: Guilds are basically just a gathering of individuals that have similar goals and get along with each other. They can be whatever they want to be, they don't necessarily have to be shoehorned into PvE or PvP only. It's a good way to game with friends and make new ones.

If you are new to the whole MMO experience, I wouldn't recommend trying to run a legitimate guild. Imagine babysitting a bunch of people and dealing with all of their complaints, because that regularly happens in guild leadership. You are the mediator that solves problems and makes decisions. I would recommend just joining an existing guild to at least get a feel for how things function. Plus it is nice to have all of the perks of a guild without the drawback of having the responsibility of being a leader. As far as trying to find like minded people and avoid the xbox live kiddies, that stuff is really a shot in the dark. You just have to keep looking until you find some awesome people and keep in contact with them once you find them. You'll learn to use the block/ignore feature quickly to filter out the annoying/immature souls that plague every multiplayer game.

I would be remiss if I didn't plug the Giant Bomb Guild Wars 2 guild: Lincoln Force. You can give us a shot and if you don't feel like it's a good fit, I don't think anyone would be offended.

@Spiritgod:

Yeah, I would agree with what @Subjugation said above.

If you don't already know, I'm one of the guild leaders of the Lincolnforce guild so I guess I can speak from experience on this one.

Here are some things to consider when thinking of being a guild leader / some things I've noticed:

• You spend a lot of time on administration - for example, I spent my first two hours of the beta making sure everyone was organised and cross referencing rosters. I talk about this on The Lincolncast like half way through.
• You need to have (or develop) a good idea of the game's guild mechanics before getting into it. For example, though I didn't do much of it in the beta as it wasn't permanent, we need to do things like spending the Guild's reputation-based points on bonuses for guild members, managing guild storage, figuring out what permissions you want for members / what they mean and how many ranks you want to implement, etc
• If you look at these forums, you can see how much me, @Dark_Lord_Spam and @RobbieMac do in terms of gathering and distributing information to the guild, setting up things like the Beta, and carrying out general support tasks like that - it's not a small amount of work, and the time involved does add up.
• You really do need to be an active member - perhaps amongst the most active in the guild - if you want to keep on top of everything and be there when people need you (or when decisions need to be made).

There are some positives, though:

• It's very rewarding, and there is a sense of accomplishment in seeing the guild grow and thrive.
• You meet some cool people, which is especially awesome when you've never heard of them before.
• You get to make choices which allow you to be surrounded by like-minded folks and can (quite simply) boot out the bad apples.

A lot of the above isn't TOO relevant if there's only the three of you, but if you're looking to expand, it becomes so quite rapidly. Oh, and remember you can be a part of multiple guilds across your account (it isn't even character specific) and you can even choose to represent any one of them at any given moment.

Fell free to join ours and see how we do things then use that experience to make yours even better.

Thanks guys! I think I'll take the advice and just join the Lincoln Force guild. I don't know how productive I can be within the guild but I'll do my best, while also learning the ins and outs of everything that revolves around being part of a guild.

@Spiritgod: Just to reiterate one of the points that cynic made, you can be a member of multiple guilds in GW2. This is important because (since it's so quick to create a guild in this game) you're able to be part of a fairly small friends/family guild to play casually with and lend assistance to while simultaneously running with a larger, more active guild for playing competitive modes and high-end PvE content i.e. dungeons.

Also, if you want to join LF, we're happy to have you. :)

Thanks again everyone! How do I join Lincoln Force? Do I just need to wait for the game to finally release and join that way, or is there a pre-game launch list I need to sign up for?

@Spiritgod: Just make a post asking to join on the main guild thread (it's a sticky in the forums) and Robbie will add your name to the OP.