Monday, May 7, 2012

Guild Woes

Maruka has been in the same guild since...well, it's been years. Almost since the inception of the guild. The hubs and I were one of the first members if I remember correctly. At the beginning, this guild served our purposes. It's a social guild and since we weren't interested in raiding, it was great. The GM is really nice. Extremely nice. The other people are nice as well. We chit chat and whatever. I like almost all the core members of the guild. You know there's always at least one person in a group that you find annoying. Overall, based on social aspects alone, I would give this guild a 9 out of 10 rating. We get the occasional whiner/beggar/person who takes advantage of the guild bank/nasty mouth guildie that I usually suspect is actually ten years old, but drama is at a minimum.

Saturday night, we actually had nine people on at the same time. Lately, the average has been about two, lol. One guildie kept asking us to get a group of 85s together to run Naxx. I'm at the point with Maruka that I am totally uninterested in running old instances purely for achievements. And as an 85, what else is there? I certainly can't use the gear. Plus, when I see the gear drops that I missed out on, it puts my panties in a twist. So I said that in the most gentle way that I could and this started a conversation about wanting to start running Hour of Twilights together as a guild so that eventually, maybe, possibly, we could actually start running level appropriate raids. Sounds like a positive move forward except for the fact that I brought this up about a year ago and nothing ever came of it.

I'm trying to figure out what the problem is here and I really think it's me. I'm trying to mold this long established guild into something that I want which isn't right. It's not my guild. Yeah, I'm an officer but that's mostly just a courtesy title more than anything. I've thought about shopping for a new guild, but I'm reluctant to leave the familiar behind. I also don't want to offend the GM and I'd really miss quite a few of my guild mates. It's a conundrum and I have no idea what to do about it at this point. 

My Ideal Guild

  • Family oriented = 99% adults, not using foul language simply because it's funny, not condescending, superior assholes.
  • Inactive members (people who haven't signed on for months leaving no word as to when or if they'll be back) get booted. 
  • Guild repairs have a daily cap. 
  • Guild bank withdraws are allowed on tabs with every day stuff with a daily stack cap. Personally, I don't like making deposits in a GB if I have to ask to withdraw a stack of wool cloth for tailoring. At the same time, I think it's shady when a guildie withdraws stacks of cloth, leather, ore, and herbs, all in one day.
  • Groups are organized for running regular randoms, heroic randoms, AND raids. At several level intervals. Not everyone is a level 85 for cripes sake.
  • There's a guild website and/or forums that is actually useful and it's utilized by members.
  • Guild activity perks such as helping out with riding training costs. 
  • Ranks that actually make sense or no ranks at all.
  • And for my sanity, I need a guild to be low pressure. Organized with some expectations, but low pressure. 
Until I figure out what to do, I'll probably just leave well enough alone. When I really start to get frustrated, I'll just stop playing Maruka for a year or so and use her as a bank toon again, lmao. Oh wells.

6 comments:

  1. You'd love the guild/kin I'm part of in LOTRO - meets your wishlist entirely. Not sure it being in LOTRO is much good though :-D

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    1. Lmao! Nah. Not so much. But it's reassuring to know that such a guild does exist even if it's in LOTRO. Gives me hope that I might be able to find what I'm looking for someday.

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  2. Honestly my only suggestion is that if that is the type of guild you are wanting, then go off and create it yourself. Having lead guilds for over 10 years, I will tell you that the type of guild you are wanting, is very time consuming for someone to actually lead. All those things you tick off do not magically happen on their own, and quickly it becomes a second and third job for the folks leading something like that.

    Leading a guild is an extremely time consuming and thankless job. Most of the time you get nothing out of it but a good deal of heartache, drama and frustration. Low pressure + constant activity just don't happen in the same sentence by my experience, at least not without a cruise director type person trying to make sure something is happening. While I agree the type of situation you are describing would be awesome, but in many cases it is having your cake and eating it too.

    Basically I challenge you to go out and build this guild, because it will take someone supremely devoted to this vision to make it happen. It will take someone willing to stay up sleepless nights to make sure things get done. I lead a guild similar to this for seven years, and it damned near broke my sanity. I can barely stand to group now days, let alone raid, after having to be "on the job" every moment I was logged into the game.

    The problem in any guild is that 10% of the people do 90% of the work. For those 10% the game is usually not a very fun place. Everyone wants an environment that caters to their needs, but no one actually stops to think about what that means for the one doing the catering. I hope you take this post in the best possible way, because I don't mean it in a scolding way. After spending so much time in the hotseat, just trying to throw it out there that it is not terribly fun to be the one making sure everyone else is happy.

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    1. Nope. You are exactly right which is why I said that I know the problem is with me. You are also correct when you imply ;) that I have no idea what it's like to run a guild let alone a successful one. My list was more of a wish list than an actual list of expectations.

      I've been online since the early 90s. I know that the majority of people online, even if they're perfect saints in real life, are asshats. They hide behind the anonymity of being online and act like that gives them a license to do and say as they please. This effect is a bit magnified within an MMO setting. I've witnessed enough drama and dramatic exits in all the guilds I've been a part of over the years to realize how hard it would be to organize people into raiding groups and then make them act like beings more intelligent than apes and get along with each other.

      I've considered starting a guild many, many times but have NO desire to do so alone. First and foremost, I'm a mom and then a wife. I can't devote the amount of time it would take to run a guild and still take care of my family like a responsible adult. And I am a responsible adult. Also, I don't have the gold, lmao.

      You weren't being critical at all, just realistic and I wasn't offended in the least. I sincerely appreciate the feedback and the interaction.

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    2. Running a guild does take time, but not so much that you can't still be a mom and a wife :-) I think the hardest part is getting set up with the website, charter and then building a member base. When our guild first started out we had exactly 10 people in it. Well...technically 2 but we had friends move from another guild into ours to raid with us.

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    3. To start out, I don't think time will be an issue. And the more I think about it, the more I realize that it would be controllable by keeping member numbers down. Which, with as many guilds out there as there are, I don't think will be a problem. Like you said, I think it will be actually *getting* people to join. Anyway, it's all food for thought. Thanks for the insight.

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