A lot of people will often talk about the internet anonymity theory, and from personal experience, I find that there is a lot of truth to the theory. There is definitely something about knowing that you are 100% completely anonymous that turns some people into complete and total assholes. Why am I telling you something you already know?! (I can hear you wondering this from here!). Well, I’d like to use this post as a tale of caution for people who someday may want to consider joining a guild, any guild.
As a public service announcement, I would like to remind everyone right now that you never know who you may be interacting with, and how those people may or may not affect your future in the game! Here are a few key behaviours that are likely to get a guild application rejected solely based on how you are perceived by those you interact with on a day to day basis:
- “Everyone remembers an Asshole” ~ Confucius according to Rimar – Did you just train mobs on that guy questing that got to the quest mob before you? Did you ninja items in a PuG? Did you drop a dungeon group after you got what you wanted? Yea, these are the things that people remember about you. Maybe you were just having a bad day, maybe you are a saint the rest of the time! It only takes one time to rub someone the wrong way for them to remember you as “that asshole that…”. It could have been a day ago or a year ago, people have long memories for this type of thing; however, never fear, it’s pretty easy to fix this problem: Just be respectful.
- The Trade Channel Guy – Yea, you know who you are. You are the guy that has nothing better to do than spam trade chat all day. From being annoying to being abusive, being the trade channel guy is not going to do you a whole lot of favors when it comes time to have people take you seriously! I can’t tell you how many times we’ve asked about an applicant to hear “he’s an ass in trade chat, that’s all I really know”…and that is enough for us to know we aren’t interested. How you present yourself on an everyday basis tells people a lot about you!
- The Forum Guy – Closely related to Trade Chat Guy, The Forum Guy is often much worse, as he immortilizes his level of assholeishness for everyone to see. The forum guy is the guy that berates everyone and tells them how terrible they are. The forum guy is the guy that responds to someone who is asking for help with “lul L2P”. People will remember you, Forum Guy! Especially if you had something to say in the past about the guild that you are applying for now.
- The Best Player on the Server – Anyone claiming to be “the best” has one major flaw, in my opinion. They fail to realise that they have somewhere to improve. Someone that doesn’t recognize the room for growth is going to be someone that is never going to be “the best” of anything. Of course, they also have another thing…a huge ego! People that generally do nothing but talk about how great they are usually aren’t, well, that great! It is important to remember that modesty is also an important skill to have.
- The Trash Talker – You know who you are. The guy that has to make yourself feel better by trying to make others feel bad. The guy in the instance that feels that the only way to make your group successful is to tell everyone else how much they suck. The guy from another server that has to log in an alt on your server just to tell you how awful you are. The guy that PMs you back after you’ve rejected his application with “I didn’t want to be part of your shit guild anyhow, have fun being mediocre”…and then applies again on another character! Yea, we will remember you…and then deny your membership into our mediocre club once again!
Yes, it never ceases to amaze me that people think their behavior in game, or out, will not be noticed and taken into account when completing an application to a guild. It never ceases to amaze me that respect is apparently nothing more than an Aretha Franklin song to some people. It never ceases to amaze me that people think that skill should trump every other aspect of the game.
You have been warned! You never know who may be evaluating your actions! The internet and your anonymity really does not grant you the lack of accountability that you think it does.
Falling Leaves and Wings 
So very true! You never know when or from whom you’ll need a good word; WoW is a smaller community than most might think. And woe betide you if you try to get into a top-end raiding guild with any sort of reputation for theatrics, drama, or otherwise. Chances are, either we know of you or we know of someone who knows you, so all the claims of “I left for a more progression-focused guild” or “I was tired of carrying bads” won’t keep your application out of the trash.
RE: Remembering the asshole:
I wish there was a way to put cross-server people on my ignore list, even if they didn’t say anything. Ninjas or people that drop party right after killing the first or second boss because it didn’t drop the loot they wanted are people I really never want to group with again, but I can’t put them on ignore because to do so, I need to click on their name in chat.
RE: Trade Chat Guy:
We’ve had to remove someone from our guild for being “that trade chat guy.” Saying annoying or childish comments in trade chat while wearing our guild tag made the rest of us look bad: each person is a representative of their guild, and in cross-faction events, their server. On that note, Mal’Ganis has developed a very bad reputation as a server full of bad players (both skill and personality wise), as far as LFD goes… I hate to see a server tag labeled “bad,” but it does happen, scarily enough.
Oh fuck, I’m doomed.