Hail All,

We have had a major exodus of higher level players from our guild as well,
Excalibur on Xegony. Also a friend of ours is in Dark Legion and receently
internal strife has conspired to turn him into the new guild leader for
them. I think the old leader left or quit the game. He was asking us the
same questions you have.
When this summer rolled around, there just seemed to be lots of unrest in
people. We in Excalibur have clamped down very hard on admitting new members
after the guild grew quite rapidly in spite of some efforts we made to
control the growth. We also had a couple people tenatively joined who nearly
ruined our rep overnight. We prefer to have a guild where we all know and
respect each other. Excalibur is an old guild and even has real life
meetings twice a year for those who can make it. It's also mostly adults,
even old folks like me, (35). It's based on the principles of honor and
chivarly, www.orderexcal.com if you are interested in reading further. While
I am relatively new to the guild, some folks have been in for many years and
gone through many games. We still have some active members in Illusia.
Lately, many folks in EQ have had to reduce playtime or stop for RL
reasons, some are a bit bored and split their time with other games, and
this meant we have fewer folks available for the big stuff. This prompted
the departure of most of the higher levels for the latest hot guild on
Xegony. Most stated their reaosn was to be able to do the big things. This
isn't the first time it has happened. The previous summer almost the same
thing happened, those folks that left ended up as some of the first Inner
Circle members. Lately the guild list is about equal to my friends list, but
we had lots of complaining when the guild seemed huge and no one recognized
anyone on chat. Now we're much much smaller and people complain we can't
'do' anything. I just don't think there is a perfect answer and I think most
guilds probably go through these shrink and swell cycles for the same
variety of reasons. My biggest barrier to 'doing' things is time, not guild,
so I see no need to change guilds. I am happier with the small guild on the
whole, there's much less whining and complaining at least. Then there's the
matter of my solemn oath of honor to the Queen. We're not the roleplay
police but I really do take the principles behind it all seriously.
Being in a guild seems necessary in EQ, it classifies or identifies you to
some extent to people who don't know you personally. My advice on being in a
guild is be in one you personally are happy with, whose goals are similar to
your goals, and people you can have fun with. After all, EQ is just a game!

(offical title time)
Lady Brilinnia Ban'Sidhe,
Knight Marshal, Order of the Rose
Excalibur, Xegony