There are lots of reasons why people quit. I was in a good (though small) guild, with really great people (one of my closest RL friends still plays). What finally did it for me was a LONG planes raid that lasted till well after sunup. After that, I threw in the towel--I decided a game that demanded that sort of dedication wasn't worth playing. I haven't been back since, nor do I think I ever will. It's been long enough (well over a year now) that I feel safe in saying that.
As for guides and GMs, my experiences with them have always been positive. I don't know if you ever read Lum the Mad (or if the archives are available), but a mole in VI once got the story out on how they operate. They have tiers of GMs there, and a certain Sony guy (don't remember his name, but he was SONY, not VI) had a bad habit of chewing people out in front of everyone else and firing people on the spot (also in front of everyone else). Humiliation was apparently how he threw his weight around there. From what I read happened, he was the type of guy who would have been disciplined or fired at other organizations for unprofessional behavior (I've had Lockheed ethics training and he fit the bill for one of the training CDs--we had an ethics hotline for people like that; every phone had '333' stickered on it). Anyhow, the skinny on Lum was that the GMs, though paid pennies, were afraid to make ANY decision that rocked the boat, as it might put their jobs in jeopardy. That meant nothing got passed up the chain, and, importantly, word of this problem never left this guy's little fiefdom. Hence, his superiors never learned about it until it broke on Lum. (The word afterward was that the Sony guy was going ape trying to find out who leaked the info). Basically, I don't think you can blame the GMs, they were paralyzed by their need for job security. If anything it reminds me of the line from Real Genius: "When you're smart, people need you." GMs aren't in a position where they're needed--that's not to say they're dumb, but the point is to get yourself in a position where your bos(ses) dare not mistreat you like they were.
WC
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