Why do people hesitate about merging Free Companies?

[AccountBanned]

I see a lot of people who have really small FCs that honestly will never accomplish a static group or be able to accomplish endgame seriously. I(we) often try and get those smaller FCs to merge with ours since we have a medium-sized one already but they often decline with little or no response. The most used of these rare responses is that they've played with those people for years and don't want to leave them. I understand this reason but we're trying for a full merge and everyone is welcomed but that point never seems to matter.

Some of us are really curious why merging seems like such a bother to some people. I personally see this as a big "win" for everyone involved. Are people really having fun with 4-7 people which may or not log in at the same time?

I guess I'm just frustrated that nobody sees the value in this...maybe I'm missing something Are other servers merging with success or finding the same hesitation?

[Arriverderci]

For me, small close knit groups tend to have less drama, and much more fun and create closer friendships with just a few.
Larger FC's, more drama, people don't talk, no bonds formed.

[Eclipsed]

having played MMO's for almost 14 years now, I will say this : I have never ever seen a merger go well. It always goes something like, small guild A wants to do something so they merge with medium guild B. They get glamoured by the fact that they are finally going to get to see endgame, and accept what seem like reasonable terms and conditions when looked at in their hopeful eyes. Reality hits fast and guild A finds that guild B only really needed a few of their people and most are just left out in the cold and those promises of "rotating people in so they can get a shot" quickly are forgotten. Guild A's officers are never really accepted into guild B's leadership clique and they are merely given the title until the few that B needed are thoroughly assimilated into their guild and forget they were ever in A. In time people from A get frustrated and go off to do their own thing.

Mergers just don't work.

[Swishytail]

Well, it depends on what you want to do I suppose. I can see both sides of the coin here.

Sure, smaller FCs make it easier to bond and what-not, but if you are thinking about doing
end-game activity such as Coil and/or Crystal Tower... it's going to be nearly impossible to
do these things with a 4-6 man FC when only 1-2 people are logged in at a time. Unless
you decide to pick up pugs or use the duty finder.

Larger FCs make it much easier to get groups together for end-game activity. My FC is 70
people and we do 4-mans as FC, Coil, Primals, etc. Takes 3 minutes to form groups and do
it all together.

To each his own. I personally prefer larger FC.

[GameGeeks]

For me, small close knit groups tend to have less drama, and much more fun and create closer friendships with just a few.
Larger FC's, more drama, people don't talk, no bonds formed.

To be fair, there's a chance a large FC group could be using voice chat. Not hard to forget about the text chat using that. Would explain no talking.

[darkstarpoet1]

one issue is when you merge groups you have to worry about the groups not meshing. some groups are more hardcore and some are more social. when running your own fc you can place people in it that fit your play style. if you merge into another you are agreeing to fit theirs. i've been part of a few ls merges in 1.0 most recently and none of those worked for any extended period of time. all it takes is one person in your group to get annoyed by one person in the other group and a major rift is created and it's never put back together.

[Madjames]

Im going to start an FC in around 3 months from now. Me, my wife, my friend of 5 years in wow, and my friend of a year from SWTOR/Wow are going to be joining it. Im going to be the FC leader and my wife the co-lead. Other then that, I could care less who joins or not. We are not hardcore and are happy to just pug endgame stuff. Other then that, we have no interest in joining any other FC at all. The reason? We all have been burnt way to many times in wow by power hungry guild leaders/friends that shouldn't even be called that If others want to join us and have some fun, that's fine. None of us will be subjected to being able to be booted. None of us will need to worry about the guild leader and his small elitist group of people, disbanding the whole guild just so that small elitist group can go join said large FC/Guild to go to hardmodes that none of us are interested in. All of us will be in charge and the guild/FC will be ran how we want, and not someone else.

[RemiRoss]

Because it's their Free Company. They're in charge, they make the rules. When they merge with your Free Company they're just another peon.

[Arriverderci]

To be fair, there's a chance a large FC group could be using voice chat. Not hard to forget about the text chat using that. Would explain no talking.

Some people, like myself, do not prefer Voice chatting.
I also don't like FC who need some sort of Voice Chat for a requirement.
This game can do fine with just macro's and typing.
I just grab a few of my FC...like 3 of em most of the time and we DF or just ask around.
-Shrugs; It depends on what you wanna do, or run your FC.

[AccountBanned]

All of us will be in charge and the guild/FC will be ran how we want, and not someone else.

and not to totally disagree with your logic

but you found your wife...you found that friend in wow that you've played with for 5 years...and the other friend.... You've found people that enjoy the game and interests that you enjoy. You gave these people a chance to come into your life and things worked out well, right? We've all been burned when reaching out for relationships for whatever reason but what if we just gave up and never tried...You wouldn't be married right now if you gave up

There's FCs out there that have elitists in it...maybe FCs that only have 1 elistist and maybe some that have nothing but.... However, there will be some that have people just like you that are looking for people just like you to be friends with in the game for years and years.