Personal Experience

[Jupiter]

Recently I've been thinking about what an amazing guild HLR has been for me. I had created a guild out of curiosity more than anything during one of the beta weekends last year and as more of our real life friends/family got into Guild Wars, we grew to a whopping 5. We were helping each other out and enjoying the casual gaming feel of our self-paced guild. However there was that true Guild feel that we were missing. Yes, it's great to be part of a group of friends that play and wear the same cape, but it adds a new dimension to Guild Wars when you group with people purely out of affinity for the game.
When we met up with Triia and Crimson through a great Thunderhead Keep experience (yes those do happen here!) we were debating between remaining "friends" and joining them. GvG was something we knew we'd never achieve with just the 5 of us, as was having our own hall. Obviously we chose to join and at first I was ok with it. Then as time went by I grew to absolutely love it. To be tossed in with people from all over the globe and find the differences and common threads, was great, and I am an introvert! There are so many people to learn from and so many people to help and we're not even a large guild. Everyone has been extremely friendly and easy to get to know and I hope that I've been able to contribute and carry my weight. I have the freedom to be myself, play at my pace and even ramble on the boards and in game. So thank you all for being part of this guild and I hope any that are looking for a well rounded, accepting guild either to join, ally, or just be friends, HLR is so worth it.

I thought it might be good if we had people post why they joined or what they like about the guild.

[Malae]

Who wants to follow up a post like that? Awesome stuff Jupiter Guess i'll give it a shot.

I joined the guild a few days after my birthday, I had just recently bought Guild Wars and was instantly hooked. A friend of mine was a member at HL2.net and had joined this guild, he had another one of my friends join the guild also, so this was obviously the logical choice. Even though both of them stopped playing shortly after, luck had thrown me in with the HLR and I've never regretted a second of it.

I've been in a few clans/guilds in my gaming experience, and this, by far, outshines all of them put together. This is an absolutely great group of people and i've never been happier gaming online. It's been such a unique experience and we have so many great moments left to create

If awesome (and extreme) people are what you're looking for in a guild, don't bother looking elsewhere

[Triia]

I guess my personal experience would actually read like a history of the guild. I'm actually the fourth leader of the great Republic... and a temporary one at that!

I joined the Republic very shortly after its founding by Mistress Ritz more on a whim than anything else. I'd never played any online games and was a little nervous about joining up with completely random people. I kept mostly to myself as Ritz left, turning the leadership over to Rico the "Pantsless" Barbarian, who in turn resigned due to other obligations, making Nul Chaos our new leader. The guild was very quiet over the summer and I even considered leaving at one point but my overdeveloped sense of loyalty helped me stick with it. Logo, Monkey and I were usually the only ones on at any time so we had our own fun with Grand Adventures and working our way through the missions.

Towards the end of summer our membership started grow and I logged on one day to find myself promoted from officer to leader. Nul left a message that he would be gone for a month and left me in charge as the temporary leader. I was stunned but figured I'd try to do a few fun things with the guild while I was in charge. I'm still working on it after about eight months and with the current postive atmosphere in the guild, I'd like to think I'm doing something right.

I can't really take much credit though because there are so many great people in the guild that it makes my job very easy. I think Jupiter summed things up very well and I feel the same way. It never ceases to amaze me that mainly due to chance, we've created such a cohesive, friendly guild. Every time I read a thread about someones frustrations with their guild, I'm thankful I decided to stick with the Republic and the wonderful group of people that make it all work.

/typical long, rambling TriiaPost

[Delor]

Lets see...

I purchased Guild Wars on July 5th 2005, the day after my birthday. I then proceeded to play with a couple friends and formed my own guild, though I can't remember what it was called. We stayed at 3 members for a few weeks and then Ironman purchased the game and joined us because we knew him from America's Army, a logical addition to my small guild. But alas, Karnij Kauzer and Tark the Tough became inactive, and Ironman was logging on less and less. I was the sole active member in my guild. It was then I handed the leadership over to Ironman, and went out on my own. I fought valiantly in many pick up groups but couldn't get that warm fuzzy feeling that came with questing alongside your comrades. I eventually decided I could join another guild, and try to see if they were worthy of my greatness, but no. Two guilds failed me in less than 48 hours, due to lack of interest in me. They had seemed nice when they were trying to build their numbers, but didn't want to quest with me once I had joined. It was then I started feeling woeful, and what better place to go when feeling woeful than the Fissure of Woe? I had no where else to turn. I joined a couple of pick up groups, and had mild success in smiting my enemies, but no success with finding a constant group of friends. I decided I should join a goup heading back in that consisted mostly of members of some guild. They seemed to have many jokes, and to be fun loving, all the while smiting my enemies alongside me. I began to question about their organization, asking many questions about policies and domestic relations. It was then that I recieved an invite into the glorious republic. Should I accept it? They seemed like nice people, but I had just had a couple bad experiences with some guilds. I decided not to hold other guilds mistakes against them, and accepted the invitation. I was not dissapointed. The guild had active, friendly members. They had a guild hall, in fact the same guild hall my small guild had once owned. I finally found a place that I belonged, where the people felt the same way about this game I do, [glow=red,2,300]pure hatred of every mob in it.[/glow]