> Kinda curious how other guilds are able to keep going strong?

Speaking personally, the guild I'm in is the New OutRiders, and has been around for the better part of a decade (started on the old INN network in Ysebrius) and currently has duchies (branches) in AC, UO, The Realms, and on 2 servers in EQ (The Rathe and Xegony). I think for a guild to truly last that long it must have a core belief and stick to it.
Our main tenets are to have fun and help others in whatever game we are in. Granted, there are more rules than that (after this many years, you seem to collect rules like dust-bunnies under a stove), but that's the main gist. Part of the helping others comes into play in our decidedly neutral (although mainly viewed as a "goody" guild) stance on alliances (we are friendly with all, but form no formal alliances) and allowing all alignments/races/classes admittance (the main impact of allowing "evils" comes from their in-game playing RP and out-of-game literary RP, while we don't condone PK, KS, duping, hacking, or other things that folks try to loosely claim as role-playing).
You also need to be organized, with a definite command structure. We also have an established heirarchy that starts at Squire and goes all the way up to the ruling High Council.

For a guild to truly last, it must be more than just a group of friends that got together so they could have a fancy chat channel. There has to be more of a goal, more of a unifying theme that makes others *WANT* to join your guild. There has to be more of a purpose.

*sighs*
I've spent the past 6 hours debating politics and theology, I just don't have the energy to make my thoughts as cohesive as I would like tonight. Sorry :o(
If you would like to know more about NOR, simply go to http://www.newoutriders.org :o)

-=B=-
The Rathe

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