What are Guilds?

A WoW guild is like a club of players. There are many types of guilds, depending on what they aim for

• social guilds - focus on socialising
• leveling guilds - focus on helping each other level characters faster
• national guilds - focus on various activities between players of the same non-British/non-US nationality
  
• hardcore guilds - focus on helping each other get better and better gear, high expectations, for veteran players and characters at maximum level
• other types

As a beginner, your experience will be greatly improved if you join a guild of the first three types. Fellow guildies can help you learn the ropes of the game better than any guide and can provide assistance with quests or dungeon runs. Plus you get a social feeling that makes the game what it is.

In order to find a guild, I do not recommend asking for one. When you are in a city you will often hear on general channel people advertising their guild, saying which type it is, what it is aiming for and what kind of players they are recruiting. That is the moment when you will need to whisper the person making the announcement, ask him a few questions about the guild and then, if you like the answers, ask for an invitation.

After joining, some things will change:

• you will have access to the guild bank, which is like your regular character bank, just larger
• your guild's name will appear below your character name
• you will have access to the guild chat channel (by typing "/g" you can also say whatever you want in guild chat yourself)
• if you buy a guild tabard and equip it, the guild's logo will be displayed on it for everyone to see.

The guild bank is a place where you can deposit items that you wish to donate to guild members who may need them more than you do. You can also deposit money, thus giving it for guild purposes. The guild can sometimes allow for your gear repairs to be paid from the guild bank deposits. You may also, subject to the rules of the guild master, get items out of the bank for your own use. It is very important that you do not forget to contribute yourself to the guild bank if you get things from it.

You can press 'o' at any time to see guild members (both online and offline) and to check on their notes (many put notes with their professions so that you know what they could help you with).

Guilds also have calendars that will alert you if someone creates an event at which you are expected to participate (such as a guild dungeon run). You can also check out those events and sign up for them if they are not invitation based.

What people do in their guilds varies greatly, but most likely you will have a strong support group in your guild, at least as getting advice goes.

If for any reason you do not like your guild and wish to join another, simply type "/gquit" (note: you do not get a confirmation message for this, you directly quit the guild if you type it) and you will leave the guild and be free to join another. If you leave your guild, it is usually decent to let the guild master or one of the veteran members know that you will do so and optionally say why.