The guild.

I had initially removed this post due to it pulling the Drama Llama out of the hat, and due to me not actually liking the way the post came across - but a number of people have asked me to reinstate it, as it is accurate and honest. I do so on the basis that if modified like originally intended - anything could be made up about the original contents, and that it will remain as a record in my head of what happened and why. It is technically a diary of what I see in game so... Here it is...

I have made mention of a “new guild” through the last few posts, so here is some info about what’s going on.

Several members of the “current guild” (Hereby known as CG) are unhappy with the way the guild is run, and many of the people in it. They don’t like the atmosphere, how unorganized things are, and how hostile it can be.

I was surprised to find that this is an opinion shared by everyone that I have talked to that are not considered part of the problem. The group of us have decided to splinter off and create our own guild.

Due to the close bonds with many of the members, many of us all wish to keep a character in we can play to keep in touch and work with people. This will likely not last for one reason or another, but we wish to try.

There have been some major changes lately to push things over the edge, but the guild has been in a spiraling downfall for quite a long time.

The original guild + clan founder upped and left to start a new clan.

The remaining guild founder (RGF) had a major fallout with the guild master, and quit the guild, with intent to server hop and escape the pain of seeing what had happened to “his baby” (the guild) – which is understandable.

Numerous clique groups doing their own thing, isolating many players.

The biggest factor is the RGF quitting the guild. Someone in the guild asked if he had been kicked yet (in jest? Something they overheard on TS? I dont know.) and the GM started grilling him in guild chat asking why he would think that, and wouldn’t repent. The RGF suggested taking it to whispers, and she flew off the handle (in my mind I could see her screaming instead of typing) at him in guild chat asking what right does he have to tell her what to do? (I was sorely tempted to respond to this with “Being an active member of the guild, who cares about un-necessary conflict within guild chat” but Im sure that would have made things worse.) After a minute or two of watching people pile onto him just because the GM snapped at him, I /gquit with the char I was on as I was not well and wanted peace. (didnt think about just removing guild chat from the window...)

He soon followed after their argument and I took him to the side and spoke to him to try to calm him and see if he was ok, and what happened.

During a HH run a few days later, a conversation broke out about our feelings towards the guild, and we found out from everyone there that they couldn’t care less about the guild and were only there for a core few people who they got along with, and would be wherever the people were, even if it was out with the CG.

Later that evening the RGF said to Ama he would only consider staying if he was to start a new guild. After “literally 5 seconds thought” Ama agreed this was a good idea.

She thought it would be nice to have the opportunity to do something productive for those she cares about. (Something un-achievable in the current guild, as any time someone would try to bring anything up or give feedback or constructive criticism, they would be accused of whining).

We thought about linking it back to our roots – the gaming community we have been a part of since Wows release – that was created in Star Wars Galaxies, and got in touch with the “leader” of the community.

Within a day Ama had an active TS server, forums, and last night we had the first “founder” meet with the 5 core-founders. During this we whipped a character each from the guild whilst it was quiet. (and in the process making a new recruit, as the person online was the alt of one of the raiders, who felt exactly the same.)

The last thing we want is to collapse the old guild by moving out, and taking a bunch of the core members out, but honestly, it seems the only thing the people we have spoken to care about now is about a few members - most of whom wish to join with us. As such, we have raised a few eyebrows and every one of those eyes has set sights to join up with us – and with them leaving, they will bring close friends they have put into the guild, so we currently stand at 7 or 8 signed members, with 2 more coming across soon – and we have not actually mentioned anything about it yet.

When we pull our “mains” out we will of course leave a full explanation, but also state we are not quitting the guild entirely, we still wish to play with an active char and be a part of whatever community remains.

I really am surprised to learn as much as I am about the current guild as I have over the past few days. How it has changed over the weeks/months/years, about some of the problems that haunt it etc etc. I don’t dislike anyone in the guild, but there are many conflicts within that show sides of people that I just don’t like.

We all expect to be kicked from the guild in the next few days, it seems to be a recurring theme for anyone that puts a character in another guild or who reduces their devotion to the guild.

This is a time that guilds get the big shake-up, right before an expansion. It feels weird to be part of that, but there is a warm fuzzy feeling I get at the prospect of getting a small guild off the ground of close gamers, taking responsibility and giving it our all to be the best we can be.

What are our objectives?

1) To have a rich community of decent level headed players.
2) To conquer the 10-man content Wrath will provide, and make our way into the 25mans, with intention of at least getting the easier half of the instances down.
3) To have regular guild events that don’t revolve around raiding. These are expected to be quizzes, scavenger hunts, PVP evenings etc that are financially supported by the guild bank.
4) FUN!

A big thank you must go to Matticus of the World Of Matticus blog. He has put up some fantastic guides to starting a guild, that we have used to get much of our organizing done.

I apologise for the messy nature of this post, its hard to post consistantly about something that has so much detail, whilst trying to omit many details as this is not exactly a secure blog, and I dont intend it to be. If people wish to read about my feelings for the guild, that is fine. I wont hide them, what is the point! I just dont want to unwittingly offend.

Good luck out there with whatever guild-endeavours you participate in! It can be a tough world… of warcraft.

-Velk of the Children of Twilight.