What is a Casual Guild?
A Casual Guild is a Guild in which members are free to pursue any activity they wish. Be it PvP, PvE, RolePlaying, or just Chillin in a City. We do not force people to raid, or have a slave master follow you around whipping you ensuring you are leveling, or gathering trade materials, or whatever. I am very much personally against any such activity which would force guild members to partake in it – except for obvious communication related things, such as signing up on the forums and such.
Most players in such guilds will be focused on their own tasks, and/or helping friends and guildies at their own free will. The difference here between a casual guild and a hardcore guild is that the help is given by members on their own free will. There are many hardcore guilds which will force players to help others. The theory is pretty much as follows: ‘If you are online, you must be helping or questing or improving your character/the guild in some manner’. This is not a system which we will ever use in this guild. You pay for your account time from Blizzard, and you are free to do with it what you please.
Therefore, While Guilds do exist to help each other out, and provide a stable group of friends, the members of a Casual Guild should always be treated as other people who have their own priorities. While yes it is nice and often preferred to receive help from Guild members, you should not expect that there will ALWAYS be someone to help bail you out if you get stuck.
It is highly recommended if you are planning on a difficult quest or series of quests, to plan ahead, and read up on what to expect. Assemble some guild members or friends and plan to run it at a set time. That way you are prepared and likely will not need the Guild to come to your rescue. I understand that this is more problematic for the higher levels at this time, as the leading edge of the Guild is progressing further away from the main hump of members, but there is not much I can do about that. We can only wait until the vast majority of players begins to hit those higher levels to be able to safely say that we should be able to support anyones help quests if they indeed get stuck.
Being one of the only level 70’s so far is always stressful. Yes I wish to quest, yes I wish to run heroics, but I have no one to do that with. But to me, the Guild is more important anyhow. I am constantly getting requests for run thrus and help, and sadly I must turn most of them down. I spend a majority of my time, often 12+ hours a day dealing with guild related issues, it is a full time job! I write articles, I offer advice, and I answer questions. I also teach, train and test my officers, and meet with them regularly. This leaves not much room for me to actually play the game. I am lucky if I actually get an hour of play time in a day! On top of this, I also have, like all of us, Real Life commitments (work), and Real Life friends (and my wife, who enjoys my attention every now and then) which I must socialize with. Since I have a dual computer setup, I am often online in WoW while I am talking to friends, or working. Alot of people falsely assume that I am free and available when I am online, but in fact I am usually fairly busy.
To me, The Guild is important, it is my baby, but it is impossible for me to physically help everyone. I wish I could, but I can’t. Therefore I usually spend my time on guild issues and let the officers do the helping when possible. Running a guild is a full time job, those who don’t believe me, should try it 
Many try and fail. There is constantly an issue to deal with, a person asking to join, or for information, another Guild Leader looking to set up inter guild events, etc… I enjoy this. I enjoy being busy with issues regarding the management of the Guild. Honestly, The game itself, is not really overly enjoyable to me. I have been plying for over 3 years, and I have found that I enjoy the social aspect a lot more then the game aspect. This is why I am a Guild Leader. I do what I am good at, and what I enjoy. As I said above, I also enjoy grouping with ’same level’ members to complete dungeons.
That being said, I personally also do not mind helping Guild members out if they are stuck, and I am free to help them. Feel free to ask. and if you wish to pre-plan something and invite me, keep in mind that with me, issues can come up at any time, which will detain me. This is my personal burden I must carry, and I am sorry if some Guild members feel like they are being ignored because I can not help them. Being a Guild Leader, especially a Guild Leader of the largest and quickly becoming the most well respected Guild on a Server is not easy work, and it will often tie me up. Hopefully our members will be able to level up and we will all be able to help each other.
Tonight I had planned to spend a night with my wife. A night she has been looking forward to. While she does play wow as well, I am often so busy with Guild stuff to spend much time with her. A member of the Guild asked me to help him with a Quest. I know the quest well, and I know it was hard, but I also knew that I had previous commitments. I told him I would love to help but I have a few things to do first, one of which being spending time with my wife. He went ahead without me, and got stuck on it, as it was too difficult. He then asked in guild chat for someone to come help him, and referenced me specifically. My reply was apparently a little offensive to him, in saying that I could not bail him out of something he didn’t bother to plan ahead of time for, and he should pre-plan a group well in advance so everyone can plan their night around it. Afterwards the member became confrontational in whisper and I had to deal with him trying to insult me and inferring that I was a shitty guild leader, just because I told him I couldn’t bail him out in Guild Chat. By the time I was finished dealing with him, my wife was already asleep, and my Real Life plans were shot, and my wife was not happy.
We all have lives outside of WoW. Our own priorities should always be respected before your in-game priorities. Real Life is more important then some quest in the game. Please remember this.
Thank you,
Roadwolf,
