At our “FYNG: Love Edition” event, everything revolves around love, friendship, and gaming. Therefore, we talked to a guild leader from WoW about her family guild that also meets in real life.
Interpersonal affection can take many forms. In gaming, it manifests through couples who meet online or through deep friendships that last for years.
MMORPG guilds are the perfect places for such friendships to form. Many of us can surely attest to having met good friends in games. This is also the case with a guild leader from WoW.
In an interview, she told us how she came to lead a guild with 71 members and about the real-life meetings that her guild organizes annually.
The path to having your own guild: “You were always labeled as the newcomer”
MeinMMO: Hi, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers? Who are you and what do you do?
Michelle: Hey! My name is Michelle – short Mimi – 25 years old and self-employed in the field of financial consulting outside of the online world. In-game, you can find me under the name Peristax or alternatively with the battle tag Perista#2418.
MeinMMO: Tell us more about your relationship with WoW: When did you start playing the game?
Michelle: I started playing at the end of the addon “Warlords of Draenor” in 2016. Since my mother also played WoW, I wanted to check it out and joined the same guild as her. WoW quickly captivated me, especially since my best friend had started playing again after a long break.
The guild in which I started playing showed me that the WoW community also had family-oriented players with whom one could quickly form friendships. Even today, I am still very good friends with many of them, even though the guild unfortunately disbanded. The friendships are one of the most significant reasons why I am still playing WoW today.
MeinMMO: How did you become a guild leader?
Michelle: The guild where I started unfortunately disbanded about 1.5 years later. We then tried to rebuild the guild. However, the conditions on the server were not very good at that time. There were simply too few new players on the server.
As a result, a few of us started playing on other servers together. That’s where I met my current life partner. We continued to play in other guilds, but kept noticing that you were always labeled as “the newcomer” and no one was really integrated into existing groups.
So, you continued to run with random people and got extremely upset when things didn’t go as planned. Eventually, I got fed up and decided to start a guild again where there’s no direct formation of cliques, where people know each other and just can have fun playing together, even if “new” players come. So, we founded the Shadow Warriors on Eredar back then – under which you can still find us today.
“What can’t be resolved online will be settled at the guild meeting over a beer”
MeinMMO: What do you enjoy most in your role?
Michelle: The most fun comes from progressing together with my comrades. The guys and girls really help me unwind from my relatively stressful everyday life. You learn so much from the people, form friendships, and always meet new people.
Of course, not everything is perfect, especially when so many gamers are in one place, there is occasionally potential for conflict. But I believe that’s exactly what defines us – we are a chaotic bunch that can stick together in the right situations. That’s what I always tell the applicants during the interview.
MeinMMO: How much work do you have as a WoW guild leader?
Michelle: Most people probably think it’s a lot of work. But it’s actually not that bad. I have good “officers” by my side who take some tasks off my plate and support me.
They serve as another point of contact for problems and questions alongside me for our fellow players. Otherwise, I am available for our guild members in the evenings on Discord and organize our raids, event nights like twink raids or M+-evenings, and I also take care of recruiting new members.
MeinMMO: What skills do you think a good guild leader should have?
Michelle: Definitely good people skills – it helps me immensely to assess whether a candidate fits my group or if I’m just bringing unrest into it. Of course, that’s never a 100% guarantee, but it can help avoid a lot of discussions and problems in advance.
Otherwise, a certain level of organizational ability is necessary for events in-game or offline – like our guild meetings. As long as that’s desired by the guild, of course. Additionally, one should be able to deal with conflicts and problems and resolve them.
MeinMMO: Guild drama is a problem that probably every MMORPG player has faced at some point. How do you handle problems in your guild?
Michelle: In our early days, there were often problems – partly because we accepted every new player who wanted to join us. At that time, we had a different drama every few days. However, we quickly learned from that and also kicked out players who didn’t know how to behave. Insults and personal attacks are absolutely unacceptable and have no place with us.
Since we started conducting personal interviews with every new applicant on Discord and introduced trial periods, we have been able to almost completely eliminate these dramas. Sometimes there are still smaller discussions. We address those promptly and talk to those affected to find a solution.
The fact that almost all guild members have met privately and in real life makes things easier here. Therefore, our philosophy is “What can’t be resolved online will be settled at the guild meeting over a beer”
Guild meetings in real life: “We have members scattered across Germany and Switzerland”
MeinMMO: You mentioned your guild meetings earlier. What exactly can our readers expect from them?
Michelle: We do a big guild meeting once a year in the middle of Germany. For this, over the last few years, I’ve been searching for group houses, mostly with the girls from our team, and we’ve written dozens of emails with booking inquiries. In the first year, we had some planning difficulties due to Corona – but we found a solution there as well.
We have members scattered across Germany and Switzerland. From Kiel to Zurich, through Hamburg, Trier, Dresden to the depths of Bavaria, our members are spread out. To make it fair for everyone, we look for a place that is relatively central and thus easily accessible for all members.
Of course, anyone who belongs to our guild and looks forward to meeting us can participate. This year we will spend 4 days (Thursday to Sunday) near Frankfurt and are excited to grill and drink a beer or a wine and have fun with everyone.
MeinMMO: Tell us about your favorite experiences from such a real-life meeting. What stands out most in your memory?
Michelle: The first guild meeting in the guild’s founding year was incredibly funny. Gamers know the situation – you only know the voices and names through Discord, and then you see everyone together in real life. The voices and faces never match the first time, leading to very funny constellations.
The first evening has always been an absolute blast; we laugh, drink, dance, and scream together until we eventually fall asleep from exhaustion late at night. Some miss half of the next day in the morning until they’ve slept off their hangover. The funniest photos are taken when the group of guys crawls into Woodie’s bed in the morning for cuddles.
MeinMMO: In your opinion, what are the most important things to keep a guild together over many years?
Michelle: The personal relationships among the members are crucial; they need to enjoy playing together. This also strengthens the sense of belonging. Apart from the guild meeting, guild members often come to visit us at home and spend a weekend in our guest room.
Joint activities also keep people together. Even if we feel like there’s no more content in WoW, we can meet up on Friday evenings on Discord, with the camera on and a good drink. There’s been more than one instance where someone has fallen off their chair in front of the camera. That can happen even in the best families.
Finally, the guild always thrives on one thing – its members. We regularly expand our guild with new people who want to join our crazy house. With our mixed age range and diverse personalities, we distinguish ourselves as a guild.
We want to maintain the old spirit and feeling of WoW in our guild by having a community that plays with each other and not against each other. This is exactly what makes an MMORPG.
MeinMMO: Do you have any final words for our readers?
Michelle: First of all, thank you to everyone who has read this far. If someone now says, “Hey, awesome! I’ve been looking for something like this forever” and wants to check it out, feel free to contact me on Battle.net or in-game.
But be warned, the Bazingas fly low in the Thunder Dome – you have to be at least as crazy as we are and be able to throw back some bad jokes. Because our guys can be quite good at that sometimes. It’s basically a rite of passage.
We sincerely thank Michelle for the interview and wish her and her guild much fun, both in WoW and in real life.
Do you have any exciting stories you would like to share? Or do you know someone who would be suitable for an interview? Send us your suggestions at [email protected].
Do you know your guildies from MMORPGs or other online games in real life? Tell us about your meetings in the comments.
