Guildless in Guild Wars

It's the strangest thing. When you're playing a game called Guild Wars, one would expect to spend a lot of time in that game playing with a guild. Yet somehow Guild Wars 2 has quickly developed into my favourite duo game. I barely have contact with anyone in the game save the people that I occasionally bump into while exploring - and that contact is usually superficial.

It's not that I consciously dislike the idea of playing in a guild in the game. On the contrary, it has activities especially designed for guilds (which I think is pretty unique - or at least, it's something I haven't seen in any other MMO so far) that I'd love to try out some day. Some day, I say, because I'm having too much of a blast exploring, resulting in me procrastinating actually looking for a suitable group of people to hang out with. 

Our current team of explorers: Ravereth (left) and Rheiya (right)

Oh, we have tried. There was the obligatory huge guild that recruited through whispering random people. "You can ask everything you want and we'll help you." I joined, even though I knew better. I managed to stay for two months or so. To be fair, I did get answers to questions in guild chat every now and then, and there were some nice people, although I was told "Google it" several times as well. Eventually I left because I couldn't endure the cringeworthy political discussions in guild chat anymore. It was a typical big guild with a lot of young players and I had to face the fact that I just don't have the mental energy anymore to deal with the lame jokes. I want to login and actually want to read guild chat instead of developing the reflex to hide it. Also, I need to hold onto those precious brain cells!

Intermezzo: Conrad needs to make a remark on my ranger's appearance.
Conrad: "She looks so mean!"

Me: "She is killing an elk. What would you look like when killing an elk? 

You should know, you're the Swede."

Then Conrad and an old friend from Lord of the Rings Online created a guild, just so we'd have a place to hang out and easily connect if we'd want to do some dungeons. It's a five man guild, and although we did actually group up a lot for a month or so and even tried some fractals, things seem to have died done a little, with just Conrad and me logging in regularly. I must admit that I'm enjoying exploration in Guild Wars 2 more than doing dungeons. Help, am I going 'casual'?!

Are guilds different in Guild Wars?

Maybe it has to do with the game's content as well. In other MMOs, we've always ended up in a guild because we wanted to try endgame content. Guilds in such MMOs function as a platform from where it's easy to organize a regular group of players coming together. In Guild Wars 2 there are no raids, so the demand isn't there. As far as I know, guild runs don't rely on repetition and learning that much, so it's not necessary to have a regular group of more or less the same players to be successful (correct me if I'm wrong). Hence I wonder: does this influence the nature of guilds in Guild Wars 2? For instance, do guilds generally have a higher casual factor? Do people make different kinds of bonds in the game because of the different activities they take part in?

Being (practically) guildless, I do get the feeling I'm missing out on some things. I'd love to meet people that are enthusiastic and want to take us along to try guild runs or structured PvP (which I still haven't given a try!). It's a long shot, but I'm going to try anyway: are you in a guild like that and would you welcome us? I'd love to hear about your guild! Conrad and I are playing on a European server (Aurora Glade, although I guess that's only relevant for WvW).

P.S.

And yes, I couldn't stop myself from posting some pictures of my ranger Ravereth. I always get excited when I find new armour, so I just had to take her out of a photoshoot when I got to level 60 and could wear this cultural Norn armour (I did one with Rheiya too, but that's for another post). I hope you enjoyed them, even though this outfit is more sexy than what I usually go for. I'm already happy at this point when outfits don't show extreme cleavage or underwear (do you dare open that link?). This is what she is wearing:

Outfit: Soldier's Predatory Vest - Strong Privateer Gloves of Vampirism - Soldier's Predatory Leggings - Soldier's Predatory Boots (Norn Cultural armour tier 2)

Dyes: Moss, Pottery, Brass