Yes I am a noob when it comes to MMOs. The Old Republic is the first MMO I ever truly got involved in. I tried LOTR and some others but just couldn't get into them. However I am loving TOR. Anyways being new to MMOs I have never understood, what is the point behind guilds? Sure you can form a really large group and work together for each other's benefit; but what ultimate benefit does it give you for purposes within the game itself?

 

Additionally what's the best way to join a guild that will help with your intentions rather than just joining the random Bob who asks you to join their guild for their benefit?

 

Thanks!

but what ultimate benefit does it give you for purposes within the game itself?

 

Operations.

aka raids :-)

 

It's end-game dungeons/instances/areas/quests that could be done only by group of 8 or 16 top level persons.

 

Solo levelling in TOR is easy, comfortable and very interesting.

Flashpoints, even hard mode, could be done in random group gathered via group finder or general chat.

 

But operations need hard working and hard training together.

Ok I can see that then, I never understood Operations but it makes sense to have such challenging objectives at lvl. 50 / end-game content.

A guild is like your mountain climbing club or your group of friends gathering to do RC racing in real life.

 

A guild is a bunch of people sharing the same interests in the game and helping each other, or just enjoying being together and chatting about the game or even about the fictional life of their characters.

 

Be aware that SWTOR is really two different games, before 50 (leveling) and at 50 (endgame). People will not look for a guild for the same reasons.

 

While leveling, a guild may help you learn how to play, help you with difficult missions or with crafting materials. It's also great to discuss the dialogue choices (although beware of spoilers). It may also be easier finding people in your guild to do flashpoints. Sometimes instead of a guild, you'll just have a leveling buddy who will play his character with yours.

 

Endgame a guild provides the infrastructure to gear your character for operations and complete them. It's almost military like for some guilds, and for some other guilds the atmosphere is more relaxed. Also, with fellow guildies, you would get to discuss how to optimize your character and how to be the best you can be.

 

Warzones can also be much more organized when done in guild, with elaborate tactics and strategies, and you'll often get more support as well.

 

Finally, guilds can also be great for roleplaying, and grouping characters with a similar background (for example a guild of smugglers, or jedis, or troopers).

 

It's difficult to find the "perfect" guild, just like it's difficult to find a good group of friends in real life, but once you find one, it'll feel like a second home.

Edited November 2, 2012 by Oggthebase

Edit: Oggthebase wrote it in a better way than what I did. Edited November 2, 2012 by Rassuro

A guild is like your mountain climbing club or your group of friends gathering to do RC racing in real life.

 

A guild is a bunch of people sharing the same interests in the game and helping each other, or just enjoying being together and chatting about the game or even about the fictional life of their characters.

 

Be aware that SWTOR is really two different games, before 50 (leveling) and at 50 (endgame). People will not look for a guild for the same reasons.

 

While leveling, a guild may help you learn how to play, help you with difficult missions or with crafting materials. It's also great to discuss the dialogue choices (although beware of spoilers). It may also be easier finding people in your guild to do flashpoints. Sometimes instead of a guild, you'll just have a leveling buddy who will play his character with yours.

 

Endgame a guild provides the infrastructure to gear your character for operations and complete them. It's almost military like for some guilds, and for some other guilds the atmosphere is more relaxed. Also, with fellow guildies, you would get to discuss how to optimize your character and how to be the best you can be.

 

Warzones can also be much more organized when done in guild, with elaborate tactics and strategies, and you'll often get more support as well.

 

Finally, guilds can also be great for roleplaying, and grouping characters with a similar background (for example a guild of smugglers, or jedis, or troopers).

 

It's difficult to find the "perfect" guild, just like it's difficult to find a good group of friends in real life, but once you find one, it'll feel like a second home.

 

This is well said. I agree.

From Personal experience:

I started soloing SWTOR last December and was kind of burnt out around June.

That's when I joined a guild. I would recomend it to everyone.

I had 2 alts that were outfitted totally wrong.And I couldn't finish my story line.

The members of the guild were very patient and eventually helped me to get 2 alts to 50

My payment to them is to help others the same way.

This is directed more for the players looking at finding a guild and not for the OP since he has probably made up his decision already.

 

If you do get to that point where you are looking for a guild to join, make sure that what the guild has to offer is what you are looking to join. Too many times have I seen players join one guild just to leave it because it did not fit their needs and then it just turns them off from the guild finding completely.

 

The different types of guilds available would usually (but not always) fall into the following catagories:

• Hardcore - Geared toward endgame content, these guilds will have the players which tend to have a gear requirment to join. They will also have set raiding days/nights where the members are required to attend at a minimum a certian % of the raids. The players of these guilds are usually geared with the best gear in the game and take on the newest content at the earliest stages of release and attempt to go after the "world first" type achevments.
  
• Causal - Geared toward a laid back atmosphere, these guilds tend to cater to those players who are just looking to have a good time with the game. They normally do not have a level requirment to join nor have any requirment to log in to the game.
  
• PVP - Geared toward the PVP aspect of the game, these players do not usually focus on the PVE areas of the game. They usually have set teams which focus on the PVP ranking system and open world PVP when available.
  
• RP - Geared toward a dungeon and dragon style gameplay where the majority of your ingame time is playing "in character"

 

If you are still stuck with finding a guild that suits your needs, you can always try using the Ideal Guild Quiz. With this quiz, you can compare your results with what the guild leader answered with. This way, you can see which guild you are most compatible with in relation to what the guild leader looks for in a guild.