The State of Casual Guilds across all Live Servers

I would be interested in hearing from the other casual guilds on the various Live servers (non TLP as TLP has far different population levels).

I run the largest casual guild on Xegony at the moment our online number of toons peaks at around 60+ toons at one time during prime times EST/PST. Tonight as I post this just after the Thanksgiving holiday we only have 45 toons online. The second largest casual guild is 4 to 5 times smaller with a usuall 4-12 or so toons and the rest of the casual guilds occasionally have more then 4 to 8 toons online where as they all used to be very active in the past.

Is the casual game all in one person guilds now?

What are things like on the other Live servers?

while i haven't been in a casual guild the only guilds i have ever been in were raiding/pvp guilds because that is what my desire to do when i maxed the level

you have to keep in mind a casual guild is not for the full time players as in the players that play 5 -6 hours plus a night and treat EQ as it were a part time job.

while i could be wrong but a casual player might put 8-10 hours a week in the game and the casual player while they want the high end gear and equipment they don't want to or don't have the ability to put the time in.

TDS killed my old casual guild. When TDS launched it was too "hard" for them so they just stayed in gribbles until they maxxed out then quit the game.

We're doing fine. We are actually the largest casual non-mandatory raiding guild on FV. Our averages are always between 60-80 people.

Since I support those who improve EQ (in contrast to many Tradeskillers and avaricious merchants wanting only to profit from other players and boxers who admit the difficulty of finding groups by boxing yet would play a merc in preference to inviting the /lfg) a couple of questions if you don't mind -

What expansions do you raid? Is it based on "cherry picking" older content for highly desirable items or gearing up not max level players?

How often do you raid?

Do you have a raid alliance or do semi-open raids?

By "casual non-mandatory raiding guild" do you mean no attendance percentage minimum required or you don't have to attend a raid if you are online during one?

Does your guild make a special effort to help players with lower online time progress in group content?

Do you see success primarily as body count of people wanting a guild hall or providing an organization that makes fun times available to players who can't mange to do that kind of stuff alone? In short, what do you offer that you believe makes your guild successful.

IMO casual, family, and lower tier gilds are an important part of the game. They make it possible for those with lower online time and newer players lacking a social network to progress rather than drift aimlessly disappointed with their ability to find adventure.

The Eternal Darkness ranged from 30-60 individuals online every night prior to the TLPs, currently sitting at around 10-15. We are a non-raid guild that focuses on new/returning players. We lost half to a Ragefire, and the other half to raid guilds. I'm sure the new TLP will do even more damage. Being a feeder guild isn't easy, a lot of heartbreak. I don't recruit anymore.

yeah you are wrong on that... many of the casuals in my guild put in a lot of time on the game.

Actually we concentrate on grouping and run weekly grouping events.

What about any other casual guilds on your server? are there many left with significant numbers?

How are the more casual guilds doing on your server? Any idea?

The other guilds such as Insanity & Rise of Valor average about 8-12 people online. There is another guild called Realm of Redemption that gets around 17-18 people, but they are trying to become a high end raiding guild, to which the server population will not support.

1. We currently raid mid-tier ROF & NToV for farming. We don't cherry pick our targets. Our targets are chosen based on how much fun we will all have and what we can do to help our team mates with gear. We are planning on moving into CotF within the next week or two.

2. We raid once a week currently on Saturdays with a open poll going on our website to determine if a 2nd raid day will be added.

3. We do not do alliances any more. All our events are in-house. We have helped 3 guilds total now in the last year. Valhallah, Fire and Fury, and Insanity. We now focus on ourselves and will no longer partake in any joint guild events or extend ourselves as we once have in the past to help other guilds. Every now and then, we will allow guests to join us and even have a chance at loot. However, if they want to regularly join us, they need to apply with us.

4. Casual non-mandatory raid guild means exactly that. We have a home for people who either want to be a casual player, or people who want to raid. No one is judged. You do not have to attend raids to maintain a good standing membership with our team.

5. Regarding helping people progress with lower online time, we do it all the time. However, we are not a PL guild and we aren't a babysitters. That means we will help people, but they must actively participate. Not sit in POK or the Guild Lobby getting task adds or use other means to try and take short cuts.

6. Success is measured by many factors. Obviously we are successful because of how many people have joined our guild. What truly makes us successful is our Guild Charter. That document is the very definition of who we are and what we stand for, and is what has drawn people to our team. This is why we are popular and trusted, because players know we do not condone any type of predatory behavior thus attracting like minded people. It has taken 5 years to make our mark as legitimate, and people know we aren't fly by night. People also know that we do not take the loyalty of our members for granted. Everyone is equally appreciated and recognized. No one is treated like a number, and something like this cannot be duplicated or faked. We as a whole are a great family, and are always happy to bring another individual to our family as long as they understand they are an extension of who we are. This is what makes us exclusive and our team mates are proud of that. At the end of the day, what we offer is fellowship. Something real, something genuine, something that use to exist in the old days of EverQuest, something that I vowed a long time ago to try and bring back into this game.

In closing, we do not take our success for granted. We are grateful to have such an amazing team, and our team knows of our gratitude. Our team knows of our sincerity, and our team knows we all take care of each other through the good times and the hard. That is what it means to be a Knight.

Anyone that drives faster than me is reckless. Everyone that drives slower than me is a menace.

The Uncommon Few is small guild. We have about 2 to 5 on at a time. I have found that we get returning players who play for a few weeks or months, and then don't return for months. At the moment our policy is that we don't delete anyone from the guild roster which stands at about 125.

Most of my characters on Firiona Vie are in Prosperitas, a non mandatory raiding guild that had server firsts for CotF and TDS and are currently working on TBM. There is a raid attendance expectation for the raiding core (members are given warning if they fall under 20% RA for a 30 and 45 day period), but I'm able to be a regular member of the guild and contribute at a casual level. The raids are too late for my wife and I, but I'm able to raid when my schedule allows it and I'm able to be a member in good standing to work anything on a group level. That said, I haven't done much of anything on Firiona Vie since Lockjaw opened. Prosperitas, though, does have a healthy population of a solid raid core and people like my wife and I that are members that don't raid often or at all.

On Lockjaw, my wife and I have characters in Ragnarrok, also a casual guild that does some raiding. No mandatory raiding here, either. It might be the largest guild on the server now (1500 members I think) and I can't remember a time that we've had less than twenty people on (I play off peak hours, too).

Ring of Valor, on the Bristlebane server, is one of the largest casual guilds in the game. We accept all classes level 85 and higher for our family membership. We host non madatory, roll on the loot, Arx raids for these members Thursday and Friday nights.
www.ringofvalor.org

Never knew you all were non-mandatory or I would have made mention of you guys. That is good to know. Prosperitas is good people.

As opposed to detailed ads for guilds even if Battleaxe asks for it... I was looking more for numbers of casual guilds and their respective sizes on each server which I appreciate that some have provided so far.

I think a lot of raid guilds are going non mandatory on raids just to get more people to join and get numbers up. At least I am seeing this on Xegony. This may be part of the reason that non raiding or light raiding casual guilds are disappearing but I also suspect at lot of it has to do with how Daybreak has managed things.

A lot of it is what they've done to CoTF. People in my guild have a lot of fun leveling all the way through RoF and hit the wall after. There's not enough groups, mercs can't handle it very well if your molo, the rewards just aren't worth the headache. I realize some will say get good, stop crying, blah blah blah, guess what, not everyone or every class is uber. Those that make it over the wall generally start looking to raid, those that don't start showing up less and less till they fade away. Now that a lot of guilds are non-mandatory, or even hosting open raids, it's easier for them to snap up people who have skills. Bottom line, CoTF and TDS are an insurmountable hurdle for a lot of people who might have otherwise grown into a very skilled player, but got frustrated instead.

Yes, Gribbles were crap, but it was a life line. Dead Hills is now dead, CoTF is Dead, TDS is dieing if not dead. Casual players are the lifeblood of this game, they keep casual (feeder) guilds alive, love em or hate em. Get rid of Gribbles entirely, increase the xp in CoTF, reduce mob difficulty, and quit worrying about "giving people handouts", because the stream is drying up.

Well, that seems to be targeted at me being its the only detailed question that was asked to which was granted a detailed answer. You can't ask a question as a OP and then expect to control or dictate the dialogue to a specific format. The real world doesn't quite work that way.

The question Battleaxe had asked was suggestive as to how we retain a high population with our team. The context of my reply was not an advertisement, it was an explanation to why we do well.

Here is the ultimate bottom line. It is better to simply enjoy the game rather than delve into the science of why the guild or server populations goes up, down, sideways, etc etc. There is an abundance of well known and unknown variables that factor in to the reasoning of the server & guild population swings that would just take too long to dissect.

I conceded to the ultimate fact that people will go wherever they are the happiest, and they will play on whichever server of whichever game that they enjoy the most or not play at all. It is as simple as that, more simple than any statistic.

As I answered in my original response to your initial inquiry; we are doing fine. Our average is 60-80 people, 88 on this last Saturday night. I expect we will see 100 on average before Spring as it is a fair assumption that 1/3 or approximately 30-34% of the FV server population is in KOI.

I play in a casual guild on Roxx's server. (BC) However I play fairly late hours so may not have a very representative count. I generally log in between 9:00 and 10:00 P.M. Pacific Coast time.

In general we have between 6 and10 active players logged in (10PM Pacific) with at least that many more in the guild hall or other. I personally have been slacking on TBM and only finished a few quests, but I am flagged through Combine in TDS. For TDS flagging I'd say about 75% of the flags came from help within the guild, but I'm not sure if I would have felt the "push" to get through Caverns if it hadn't been for friends in raiding guilds.

What expansions do you raid? Is it based on "cherry picking" older content for highly desirable items or gearing up not max level players?

1) We will open raid with several larger guilds. No official alliances.

How often do you raid?
2) The official guild MOTD invites us to join open raids Friday Nights and Saturday mornings.

Do you have a raid alliance or do semi-open raids?
3) No official Alliance but there are two larger casual guilds that are definitely friendly for our players and give us an equal chance of loot. One is currently raiding COTF and just entering TDS where we are given equal DKP earnings and biddings. One is more of raiding for fun where we hit anything and all loot is random.

By "casual non-mandatory raiding guild" do you mean no attendance percentage minimum required or you don't have to attend a raid if you are online during one?
4) No official raids let by our guild to require attendance at.

Does your guild make a special effort to help players with lower online time progress in group content?
5) Our guild is always happy to help out guildies. I think since we're smaller no special efforts are required. We do have a few members who seem to three or four box and keep more to themselves but I know I wouldn't have gotten through as much TDS as I have without the guild.

Do you see success primarily as body count of people wanting a guild hall or providing an organization that makes fun times available to players who can't mange to do that kind of stuff alone? In short, what do you offer that you believe makes your guild successful.

6) Well it certainly wouldn't be based on body count. I think our guild is successful because I can log in and find a guild group, within a reasonably short time. I have enough divergent tasks that it seems I can often help myself when I help guildies and vise versa.