It happened to me again. Before the European server for Albion Online went live, I was looking for a guild. Thanks to my job in Switzerland and my girlfriend, my gaming time is limited, so I was looking for something relaxed. I ended up finding The Black Angels, a guild for all experience levels and playstyles. At least, that’s what they claimed.
A month later, they announced a focus on guild PvP and introduced a minimum level of experience points. A level that I hadn’t reached in the past few weeks due to work and the Destiny 2 expansion, and one I couldn’t reach on short notice. After some discussions with the members, they’ve at least decided to create a second guild under the same banner for less active players. Dodged a bullet there. Starting next week, I’ll be mostly done with Destiny 2 anyway and can focus more on Albion Online.
But this isn’t the first time this has happened to me. It didn’t happen in Eve Online, but I was also better at gauging what the plan was there. But I had the same problem with Destiny 2. The clan, The Hive, describes itself as a “core” clan, meaning somewhere between hardcore and casual. I guess I’m just too casual after all. At least, I found it strange to be chewed out during a beginner raid for not having my build fully complete. It was only Sunday evening, and they told me to just farm the armor until Thursday evening—the next attempt. On average, it takes 20 hours to get it. Sure, like I’m going to play 20 hours in three days. And I’m not going to be yelled at, which is why I’m no longer in that clan.
It seems there’s often a gap between expectations and reality. Some people have a lot of time and are happy to invest it in gaming. I don’t have that time, and I also want to do other things. Of course, this means I can’t have grand ambitions, and I don’t. I just want to game comfortably, and tackle some more difficult content every now and then. I’m willing to invest time for that. But the tone and the expectations just have to be right. Ten hours a week is doable, not 20 hours in half a week. At least not on short notice.