Changing Guilds

January 11, 2011 | Nick Yee

Data source: Core survey data set of 1040 participants. Guild affiliation extracted from the Armory.

The Armory keeps track of the guild a character belongs to. Over time, we can therefore count the total number of different guilds a character has been observed in. For this analysis, we looked at the maximum among a player’s characters (i.e., one data point per participant). The chart below shows that, over a 5-month period, roughly 50% did not change guilds, 25% changed once, and the remaining 25% changed more than once.

Across both regions, men were more likely to switch guilds than women. Consistent with the days played analysis, we find that women are more loyal and engaged to both the game as a whole and to social organizations.

And across both regions, younger players are more likely to change guilds (r > -.14, p < .01 for both).

comments (9)

posted in Findings

Comments (9)

February 6th, 2011 at 8:40 am Posted by Tweets that mention Changing Guilds | PARC PlayOn 2.0 -- Topsy.com

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Darren Green, PlayOn 2.0. PlayOn 2.0 said: Data on changing guilds over a 5-month period. Interesting gender and age differences. http://bit.ly/hW2XM6 [...]

February 27th, 2011 at 11:00 pm Posted by Christine

I find this data to be pretty strange, as most people I know have been in 10+ guilds…

March 7th, 2011 at 6:35 am Posted by TheOtherWinter

@Christine, I would find *that* more strange. The majority of people I play with well enough to know their history? I doubt they’ve been in even five different guilds over their total history, male and female alike. If I assume the five-month period the researchers are looking at are the most recent 5 (more or less), I’m probably the only one who has been in multiple guilds (3, trying to find a place to call “home”) in that time.

March 26th, 2011 at 4:14 pm Posted by Bokai

That’s why we need quantitative data instead of anecdotes. My main has been in the same guild for more than 5 years now, and I know people who change guilds almost monthly.

March 28th, 2011 at 2:12 pm Posted by BMA

I for one prefer to remain unguilded on the majority of my characters, but I often sign charters for people who ask in a friendly way. Next time I log that character on I leave the new guild…..but this sort of thing means many of my characters have probably belonged to at least six guilds – but never for long.

Just mentioning this as it’s not linked to loyalty or being engaged to the game/social organization.
Thanks

March 30th, 2011 at 12:35 pm Posted by ChristineB

Over this 5 month period we’ve gone from one the end of one expansion to the start of another, ie: end of casual endgame raiding and pugging to competitive new, hard content.

I know the only reason I changed my guild was the lack of any sort of guild effort being put toward the new raids a month after Cata came out.

March 30th, 2011 at 1:40 pm Posted by Frank

I wonder if the new expansion guild benefits slowed guild turnover?

April 2nd, 2011 at 7:09 am Posted by David Gibbons

The other factor to consider is when the guild itself dies, and one has to find a new home.

October 28th, 2011 at 10:00 pm Posted by Borderlad

I’m curious as to how a “guild change” was defined.

Was it simply the act of joining a guild? Or would a character have had to previously be a member of a different guild within X amount of time in order to be counted?

I wonder whether any characters joining their first-ever guilds got counted as “switching,” or whether something in the method excluded those from the count?