Alicia Costello

Guilds: The Intentional Utopian Communities of Azeroth

My original interest into the relationship of online gaming and utopia first arose in class when we discussed the idea of the city as a meeting place for subculture, and then the subculture forming a utopian community. My question began as, “Can a Massively Multiplayer Online Role- Playing Game (MMORPG) game be considered a utopian community?” I was very interested at the social dynamics of those who choose to be in an online world instead of a real-life world, and I wanted to see what these gaming communities, specifically the largest MMORPG[i], World of Warcraft[ii] (WoW), had in common with utopian ideals and practices. I began to look up many articles on WoW, fantasy, game and utopian ideals, of which I found a fair few related in some way or another.  I began to have doubts about my project when I found that as I read more and more, I had less and less to say in conclusion. I also had a nagging dissatisfaction with the idea that I was trying to find utopian constructs in what is first and foremost a game. Then I realized that my analogy of the city was incorrect. At first, I had city:internet::subculture:WoW. I was looking at this all wrong; the city represents a world, and the subculture represents a group. But WoW is not a group; it is another world. I needed a subculture within the world of Wow. That is when the idea of studying the guild[iii] as a subculture came into being. I now had city:WoW::subculture:guild. This seemed like a better fit because the guild is first and foremost a social organization. The game aspect was also better placed in that now, the social organization is not the game but a collective attempting to progress in the game. Now, I could look at the game as a metaphor for life, and the guild as a metaphor for the utopian commune. Thus, I adjusted my question to “are there parallels between utopian communal practices and common guild practices, in short, are guilds a proper example of a utopian community?” And now I was able to research properly.

 I then started researching on the Wow website, reading their beginner’s guide[iv] to the game. It was apparent through this guide that guilds are a large part of the game. The website explains that, while guilds are optional and a player can remain solo throughout the game, guilds help the player to level up[v] faster and access items unavailable to individual players. The website explains many varieties of guilds, but does not go into depth with the descriptions. I then went to the WoW discussion board, where they have several forums devoted to guild discussion and guild recruiting. Here I noticed two different types of guilds seemed to be active, the first of which is primarily focused on progressing through the game( “hardcore,” “raiding”), and the second is primarily focused on community and socializing (“casual,” “social). Most interesting to utopian studies are the progressives. Like communal utopias, these guilds work together to achieve a goal of personal and group betterment.[vi]

The first noticeable commonality is that membership in a guild is predicated on one’s ability to work with and in the guild in a harmonious manner. First, the individual: the utopia in Looking Backward allows citizens to choose jobs with prescribed roles and has grades within to encourage competition. Likewise, gamers must choose a race—either troll, gnome, dwarves, etc—and a class within their guild (healer, priestess, leader, fighter, etc). Like Dr. Leete’s utopia, characters can then work on “leveling up” to 85 by learning how to use the various powers of their class and race to defeat bosses. At any level, the individual may choose to join a guild. The first basis of joining a guild is that the class, or skill set held by the avatar is needed by the guild; guilds will generally put out a Recruitment list of what kinds of classes they need.[vii] This allows the skill sets of the community are carefully designed by the guild leaders. The very strict admission based on class and level is more selective than most physical intentional communities.

The second noticeable commonality is that guild membership is optional and, like those joining a utopian commune, the choice to accept belongs to both sides. There are no automatic guilds; both individual and guild must shop for the best fit.[viii] In the larger raiding guilds, interviews are expected; trial periods are allowed. This type of process mirrors most joining practices for existing physical communes.[ix] In addition, most raiding guilds will have hours set for raiding, which members are expected to be present for. Individuals who have a reputation for guild-hopping[x] or negative action toward the guild in any way as described above will be outright rejected by the guild masters.  In this way, guilds become intentional communities in which both individual and community intentionally bond together for the betterment of both.

 Once a part of the guild, members are expected to adhere to community rules and mission statements, both formal and informal. The research in “From Tree-House to Barracks: The Social Life of Guilds in World of Warcraft” by Williams et al suggests that these communal agreements “were nearly always understood to exist on at least an informal basis (e.g., “just to help each other”) but were only codified in about 50% of guilds.”[xi] Likewise, anti-communal actions are frowned upon and serious or repetitive infractions could lead to being “kicked” from the guild, but it is “relatively rare.”[xii] Guilds do not have to be nice or friendly: rogues form communities to benefit themselves when they see fit or to inflict major harm on unsuspecting guilds. The ideal objective can either be very harmonious or very discordant; every guild’s ideals are different and the guild leadership is allowed to build a guild based on his ideals.

The most important responsibility of membership in guilds is the proper handling of the “loot” in the guild bank. Like in More’s Utopia or Bellamy’s Looking Backward, the monetary system is in the hands of the leaders. According to the WoW beginner’s guide, “this bank is shared between all guild members with guild bank privileges (as set by the guild leader)….You can deposit gold in your guild bank; that way, all guild members can pool their resources and help each other out with repair bills and other expenses.” This sounds incredibly like many of the physical communes in America today and specifically the method employed by Dr. Leete’s utopia in instances of “excessive cleaning or renovation”[xiii] or having one’s expenses watched and guided by the state, as in the case of his “reckless spendthrift.”[xiv]

My question was, “Are there parallels between utopian communal practices and common guild practices, in short, are guilds a proper example of a utopian community?” The answer to my question is yes; I have presented many strong correlations between utopian communities and WoW guilds. More research may answer other correlations in leadership, and places where the utopian communities and guilds diverge, such as in punishment. If the bond presents an even stronger one than it already does, much more needs to be researched into the world of online utopias. I would also love to do a study using the webseries The Guild, written and starring a former WoW addict.[xv] Guilds are first and foremost social groups that individuals invest time and resources into to achieve a better result, both for the individual and the guild, with many friendships gained along the way. Guilds seem to be vehicles where the motto is “we’re stronger together than we are apart” and they operate on that basis. Who knew that even in the fictional land of Azeroth, a level 85 Blood Elf Priest could find community and friendship.