No leader likes to contemplate it, but sometimes people decide to quit their guild. Maybe they are quitting the game, or perhaps they want something different, but quitting a guild can lead to drama, bad feelings, and burned bridges. Over the years I have seen everything from people disappearing in the middle of the night to big drama-filled goodbyes to sad departures by people who will always be welcomed back in the Cats. I think it’s impossible to quit a guild with absolutely no repercussions at all, but with the right approach and attitude you can definitely minimize any conflict.
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There is one universal policy about leaving a guild, no matter what the cause: any guild leader worth their salt wants a minimum of disruption to the rest of the team. If you can help them with that, it will go a long way towards making everyone as satisfied as possible with the outcome. That means no lingering drama posts on the guild forum, and no hissy fits in chat. When you do go, make a clean break and wait at least a couple of weeks before popping back on the guild website to say hi. Consider actually /gquitting during off-peak times to reduce the number of alarmed witnesses.
I think there are two basic reasons that people leave a guild: they want to move to a different guild (usually with “better” progression), or they are quitting or reducing their gametime in general. Honesty is the best policy — be straight forward about what your reasons are. Don’t make up crazy stories. To be very honest, people who are quitting WoW or going ultra-casual will get much better treatment from me than people who are hopping to a more progressed guild, but if you’re going to do the latter at least stand up for your reasons.
If you are looking for a new guild, don’t start applying before letting your guild leader or favorite officer know that you’re looking. GLs on the same server talk more than you suspect, and we have a sixth sense about these things. Part of our job (as recruiters) is to keep tabs on all the usual recruitment avenues, so there is very little ground that we don’t cover. Being honest, while difficult, is better than being caught.
And keep in mind that, in my experience, people come back to the guild or to WoW about 90% of the time. Perhaps you won’t come back to the exact same role, but history shows that you will likely want to come back in some capacity, so don’t burn any bridges.
So, in conclusion, five tips to quitting your guild:
- Talk to your guild leader or favorite officer first. Give us a chance to fix things!
- Be honest. Have the conviction to stand behind your reasons. Act professionally, and your guild leader should respond in kind.
- If you start “secretly” guild shopping, you will likely be busted.
- If you’re quitting WoW or reducing your game time you’ll probably be coming back at some point, so don’t burn any bridges!
- Remember that your guild leader wants this process to go as smoothly as possible, so any help you can give along those lines will count for a lot.
** Note to my guild: no, no one is quitting. That’s why I decided to write this post now!
Herding Cats is the blog of Liore, known in the real world as Jessica Cook. She writes mostly about MMOs and RPGs, and believes in 
“And keep in mind that, in my experience, people come back to the guild or to WoW about 90% of the time.”
LIES!!!
Hah, you’re one to talk. You’ve quit WoW and come back so many times I never remember if you’re still guilded or not. ;)
SB is worse than I am… >.>
Additional follow-up. Love the new layout.
Protip: When you do a huge long melodramatic farewell scene and say how you’ve left your WoW gf/bf behind, seen the light, need to take a break and get your headspace back, etc etc etc over guild chat and then show up *the next day* in a new guild, with the gf – expect to be /ignored and or laughed at.
Moral of the story: If you’re going to leave, do it openly and *honestly*.
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@Oriniwen
Oh man, those crazy gquits are such a pain at the time but they make for great stories later. We had one guildie, much loved, who suddenly declared after a raid that they were being relentlessly stalked on our server and had to transfer immediately… to another guild that was about 4 bosses ahead of us. Mmhmm.
I think I followed most of your rules of quitting. Hope you guys are doing well! I’ve moved to the Medivh server (though my Druid still remains on Uldum), in case you care. :)
I’ve yet to see someone come out and say as they’re gquitting: ‘I’m leaving you guys to get loot trained in a more progressed guild.’
I say and you’d say that honesty earns more respect, but in reality someone saying that will generate some very bad blood indeed between guilds.
So let’s face it, no matter when you leave or how you do it, there’s no way to leave a guild to a ‘better’ one without being a dick. I have no respect for guild hoppers anyway; where’s the pride in helping your guild progress if they got there without you?
Well.. I don’t disagree with you. I have had at least one situation where someone left for a more progressed guild, and managed to still be able to come back to us a couple of weeks later when they realized they made a bad decision. That was on the weight of years of being an active Cat, though, so it was a pretty unique situation.
Usually when someone leaves to a more progressed guild, acting honestly and forthright will mean that I merely will ignore you. Acting like a jerk means I will try and blow you up with my brain when I see you in Dalaran. ;)
So, in this same vein, here's my situation: advice on handling this gracefully is definitely appreciated.
I had a guild disband after moving to a new story. Took some time off from wow and came back to find a new one. New guild has helped me gear but hasn't been responsible for everything, I pull my weight, and usually quite a bit more. I farm and I've been a good citizen and a good guildie. But there's a clique in a guild of 250 members that's about 13 members deep, and that that clique thats making some progression but asking for patience from the rest of the guild for….something. We have more than enough talent to run 2 10 man groups and a 25 every week, but we don't, so I've been pugging.
I'm a healer and I've got a chance to move to a guild with my old mt and get in on consistent 10/25 guild runs. I don't really care about progression honestly, I just want to raid. That's why I'm leaving the guild.
So am I going to get lots of angry in game mail? Is there a way to help mollify the amount of drama I create besides /gquit at 4am?