The MMO Gods hate me!
Let me explain quickly. Last Saturday I joined a pretty nice raiding guild called Conclusion. Little did I know that it would be the end of my current aspirations to become a full time raider. I managed to raid with them Saturday night, 25 man ToC, which was pretty cool. Having no previous experience in that particular instance, I think I did pretty good as an off tank.
So, I log off, because I have to do some work on Sunday. I log in late Sunday evening and everything seems pretty cool. People are hanging out. I put my name on a few raids for the upcoming week, do some inventory and quest clearing then log off. I felt pretty good about the new guild, everyone was fun to hang with, got a few tanking pointers, people seemed to be having fun together, no issues. I had to take a few quick snips from my friends in our old guild, but since they weren't seriously thinking about recruiting people to help us raid and I wanted to raid, I figured they would understand.
So, I don't get to log back in till Tuesday night because of my work schedule, but that's cool, cause there are no raids till Wednesday and I didn't sign up for any until Thursday. But, as soon as I log in, I get messages from a few people. One of them is asking me if I am going to join UO. I check who sent me the tell and it's an officer of Conclusion, except he is no longer in Conclusion. Apparently, in my brief appearance in the guild, some of the officers got fed up with the casualness of the guild leader and left taking over half the guild with them and forcing the guild leader to shut down the guild completely. So, after figuring out all this, I discovered that my friend, the person that got me into the guild in the first place had also jumped ship, I decided to leave Conclusion and join up with Underoath or UO.
But, I didn't feel right about it for some reason. Sure, the officers probably had a pretty good reason to leave since the guild leader wasn't supporting their efforts to get the guild into full raid swing again. They definitely had the right to leave and create their own guild, one that would serve their purpose and get them the gear they desired, but I'm not big on guild drama and if they did it once, who's to say they won't cause problems again or problems won't arise again. So after thinking it through, I decided my place was back with my bud's in Noobs. I had to apologize for my leaving and beg for forgiveness, but they understood and welcomed me back.
I do long for the day that I can raid and do 25 man content again. Hopefully, the Noobs will start recruiting and we'll get some additional help to see that dream come true, if not, I might try to get in on a few PuGs, although I'm sure they will be disappointing and full of know it all jerks who love to criticize rather than help people out.
Although my stay in Conclusion was brief, I do have hope that there are some guilds out there that really value the player rather than the gear that player will help them get. One of the hosts of the Banstick Podcast tweeted to me earlier:
"I don't think that there will be any loyalties until Blizzard encourages guild teamwork and goals with a system."A honest statement, I just hope Blizzard is listening.
Oh, man, that sucks: just when you think you find a home to stay it gets burned down.
ReplyDeleteI have been pondering over an idea for a post about the future guild changes in WoW. I know it's almost the same system as in EQ2, but still the implications will be far bigger because the system is only implemented now to the very much top heavy player content.
You see, the problem I see in it is the fact that while it encourages the players to work for the guild, it doesn't make any demands on the guild towards the players. It's kind of a forced labor in a situation in which the guild leader is an opportunistic jerk and the officers support him, while the rest of the guildies are dependant on the guild to do anything (leaving would cut them off of the benefits, remember).
So the system may well cause some interesting ripple effects in the social area of the game, IMO.
Anyhow, keep your eyes open, look for the sk... realm forums and remember that there is a 25man content raiding guild for you, too.
C out
When they release the next expansion and they add perks or achievements that are "Guild" related, I think that might be a step in the direction of getting guild members to be more loyal and keep them in the guild longer.
ReplyDeleteBefore it was based on personal achievement, i.e I have the piece of gear I need to do the things I want to do. But when they get items based on their guild participation, that they might lose when they leave, then they might be more inclined to stay witht he guild and work things out rather than bailing at the first signs of trouble.
I did get the entire story on why the guild broke up. The guild leader wouldn't help organize raids and his position was that they couldn't PuG any 25 man raid. So when they were always short 2 or 3 people they would have to call off the raid,when all they had to do was PuG a few people, the guild leader wouldn't let them.
I thinking, do it anyway, especially if it was for the benefit of all in the raid, who were in the guild. What is the worse he could do, kick people out of the guild? Then he would have had the situation he has now, which forced him, the guild leader, to close the door on the guild because of the mass exodus.
Seriously, some people, especially those that lead others in a guild, don't understand what it means to be a leader and to compromise.
I totally agree with that statement "I don't think that their will be any loyalties until Blizzard encourages guild teamwork and goals with a system." This is true not just for WoW but any MMO. The guild is just a glorified chat room and pretend entity until the devs reward teamwork and loyalty.
ReplyDeleteI know a system for leveling guilds is in the works for the next expansion, and I'm hoping that this will include incentives to keep people in a guild longer than the greed for gear.
ReplyDeleteIt has often been mentioned on blogs and podcasts that certain gear should be guild centric, so if you leave a guild after acquiring it, it would be reduced in stats. Maybe this would be a nice incentive to stick around and not look for a greener pasture on the other side of the hill.