The Burning Crusade -- you vs. your guild
New races, new (to your chosen faction) classes, 10 more levels. That's the short-form of what The Burning Crusade is going to deliver to us, come January 16th. Many guilds are focusing on the push to 70 and refining strategies for 25-man raiding. Many players are understandably eager to try out the new races and classes available to their chosen faction. Can these two goals mesh, or are we going to see a shift in the player-guild dynamic?
My earliest guild wasn't started to beat endgame content. It was there for a group of people who enjoyed playing in each other's company and so that these people would have an easily accessible pool of resources for leveling and grinding up to 60. When we hit 60, the usual drama set in, as not everyone hit the level cap at the same time. Some people got bored or frustrated with the lack of progression at 60 and went off to look for raiding guilds. Others were happy just hanging out with friends, and still others were a bit upset that they were left behind and were feeling pressured to level to 60 so the guild could progress together.
Now that the expansion is going to be upon us, I see the potential for the same type of splits amongst guild memberships. Some are going to want to power level to 70 to get back on the raiding wagon, while others will start fresh new characters that they hope to one day get to level 70. Then there are those people who want to savor the new content and while do a bit of leveling and a bit of playing around with the new low-level content.
There have been discussions in the guilds I'm in. There's still 40-man content to be beaten, but could we do it better with a few shaman along? Who gets one of the coveted 25-man spots, and will we reserve spaces for those leveling up Draenei? Will the guilds even survive the expansion, or are people being lured to the opposite faction or the idea of changing your main character to a new class? These questions have come up a lot, and I'm not sure there are solid answers yet. A guild has to have goals, but it has to have membership that works towards those goals. With so many options in The Burning Crusade, I have to be concerned as to how the people I play with want to proceed.
Where do you sit? Have you thought about what you want vs. the goals of your guild? Has there already been discussion in your guild about what to do when the expansion is released? I'm curious to know if guilds still see the endgame as the real game, or if there's an appreciation for the new content as a whole. Sound off below.
