Guild Poaching

01. 27. 2023

So I was sitting around Orgrimmar molesting my favourite orc when I got a whisper from a guy from another “relatively” well-known guild on horde side.  I say “relatively” because I guess they aren't on the PVE progress thread and haven't got much of a wow-one.com forum presence, dunno if they have forums/website or if they're just a guild that recruits via world/trade chat.. and we haven't had any communication with them.  Either way, I've seen them around a bit.

The conversation went a little something like this…  I've blacked the person's name out to save his dignity.

We're a pretty straight-forward guild.  We have pretty good relations with most of the other guilds on our faction and out of respect for that, it's not something my guild would ever consider doing.  If a player applies to our guild from another guild then that was his/her conscious decision to do so without direct influence so I guess that's cool.   But this guy thought, because his members have been approached by other guilds, that it was cool to start doing it himself and to a completely innocent guild.  Rather than dealing with the problem directly with other guilds and trying to build relations with them, he figured he'd just do it himself.

I dunno how you guys feel about poaching.  I know most of my members would likely shun any such endeavors to recruit them elsewhere, perhaps with some light trolling included in the mix, but it's the audacity I guess that angers me most.

We're not the most progressed guild on the server – we've just cleared BWL, pushing through the content at our pace.  We aren't at the gear level yet to compete in the higher leagues of the table with other guilds, where I know this problem is only likely to get worse.

I don't see the guys and girls in my guild as “property” to the point where people are infringing on my territory and I feel the need to protect them – I guess it's more like – you're going out with a girl and you're happy in  your relationship (yes, I'm a chick but I'm using a guy-girl example as there are no girls on the internet) and another guy comes along and tries to seduce your girlfriend into running off with him.  He might not be better looking than you, fitter or funnier, but the fact that he had the cheek in the first place to approach your girlfriend would probably make you pretty angry.

How do you feel about guild poaching?   Has it ever been a problem for your guild?