Our server’s top raiding guild since forever recently disbanded, and while this doesn’t affect me personally at all, it did get me thinking a lot about my past guild. Now I’m sure the story is one I’ve told millions of times, and as such I don’t want to recount the specifics in much detail here. However, I find it interesting that months later, the emotions are still there.
My current guild is one that is made up mostly of the “closest” of us from that particular old guild. So, I still have my best friends with me. In a way, the guild still lives on. But it’s different now. It’s small, it’s “casual”; it’s more of a “hangout in guild chat” type of place. There are (well, were) guild raids, but we had to look outside the guild and invite our “honorary guildies” in. Not saying that is bad at all, by the way. It is just a different modus operandi. Lots of times I log on and I’ll be the only one online.
Back in my old guild, there were always people online. At least five or six, often ten or more, and usually a good chunk hanging out on Ventrilo as well. People were clamoring to get into our weekly Karazhan run; we usually wound up short some role or other (tanks or healers most of the time, natch) but the other roles would be overflowing and we’d have people “on standby”.
There were “cliques”. There were the people that wanted to roleplay and there were the people who wanted to raid, and for whatever reason we had very little overlap. The result was groups within our guild that would stick with each other and not branch out very much. But we were friendly and very welcoming and brought in people from everywhere; the tired, the poor, the huddled masses so to speak, which may have been the root of the problem, but we couldn’t help it. That’s just how we were.
There was drama, oh there was drama. Some of it coined a phrase which turned into a little inside joke: “It’s not just epics, it’s T4!” due to the issues that ensued more than once when somebody– usually a guild newbie– would throw a fit after not getting that coveted token from Curator or Prince. I can’t remember whether or not this was our fault on just not making loot rules clear enough, but I do remember the drama that ensued.
There was burnout. Officers who felt overwhelmed by their duties. Active guild members who disappeared or went on hiatus. One of these “active members” disappeared relatively early on in the guild’s youth; when he finally came back towards its twilight weeks he looked around for a day or two and realized the guild was no longer the same guild, and quietly left. He was right, though.
Because somewhere along the way we had in fact turned into something different. Like an Oscar seeing a Needlefish from behind and assuming it’s a minnow (I have seen this happen at work by the way; don’t laugh at my analogy! >.>), we had bitten off more than we could chew. Tossed a snowball down a hill and found ourselves unable to stop it.
And so it was that the guild turned into sort of a big mess and my friends started leaving one by one and then the boyfriend (and guild leader) gave leadership to me in an attempt to see if I could salvage it, but it was really too far gone by that point. Plus, I didn’t like logging into the guild anymore since it now just seemed to be full of unfamiliar faces, so I spent the bulk of my time hiding on alts on other servers. Eventually I realized that this was just acerbating the problem so I passed guild leadership to a friend, hoping things would be fixed. Again, it didn’t happen. Most of my friends had already /gquit and not long after this my boyfriend did too, and while I hung on for a while I finally, late one night, quietly left myself– one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Not long after that, the guild dissolved.
I spent a few weeks guildless as I pondered what to do before realizing that my friends were actually the main reason I enjoyed the game and so I joined most of my closer friends from that first guild in our new, small guild. I’m happy now. Guild chat is sparse, but friendly; we still have the same Ventrilo server, although it is quieter now; and the biggest job the officers have is to come up with the wittiest possible theme for guild ranks. Plus, I seem to have fallen into the aforementioned “honorary guildie” status with a few other guilds to allow me to get my raiding in. Life is good.
Still, there are times when I miss what we once were. Being a part of something huge and big and seemingly omnipresent. Feeling like I was helping to lead a well-oiled machine. The machine fell apart in those last months, which is why it all started to go downhill. But at our peak, we really were something.
It was a train wreck waiting to happen, but like your first love, you can never quite get over it anyway. So here’s to you, Entelechy, wherever you are in the nether of the past.
Though I spent a short while in a raiding guild, it wasn’t where I’ve spent the majority of my time. Most of the time, i’ve been a part of small/causal guilds.
I’ll never forget my first real guild home, . I was one of those that held on until the very end. Eventually, the current GM passed leadership to me, b/c he just didn’t have the <3 to disband it. We found ourselves at the place of origin of the guild, had a little ceremony, and disbanded it.
The memories are always bitter sweet. Its just the way it is.
Zwingli
Awww that was such a touching and sad story. Your original guild sounds alot like one of my alts Guild, Spellsligers =3 The atmosphere is fun and lai-back and everyone enjoys themselves.
Guilds are great but when it comes to raiding there will always be drama and difficulties. There is just no way around that. I have always enjoyed every guild i have been a part of, save one. Raiding is where it all falls apart.
One guild i joined was great until i hit 60. I went to MC and it was just fine until one player was afk, presumably. The raid leader waited about 15 seconds and then started cussing out the player, and was joined by several other players. It was so much hate for such a small offense. The person came back quite rapidly and was apologetic, but was kicked anyway.
Removing someone for 20-30 seconds for being afk is a little extreme, but whatever rules are rules. Its when you start being mean for little offenses that it ceases to be fun. Mind you, this was no repeat offense either.
So I gquit and hearthed. I wasnt going to be a part of that trash.
Allow me to clarify the “It’s not just epics, It’s T4!” joke, since Pike wasn’t actually there.
The guild was short a third healer for Kara, so we pugged a tree druid. I’m afraid I can’t recall his name at the moment. As per usual, I thoroughly explained the loot rules for everybody before we began: we don’t roll. When something drops, if you want it, you tell me. If more than one person wants it, I will make a decision based on how big of an upgrade it is for them, and how much loot they’ve already gotten compared to their competitors. It’s unusual, but that’s how rolled, and we were always certain to explain it before we got anybody saved.
Things were fine as we made our way through the first half of the instance on our way to Curator, and the tree druid we had pugged got 2 epics off of previous bosses. When Curator died, he dropped a druid Tier 4 token, and the PuG was quick to say that he wanted it. I don’t recall who it was, but one of the other members of the raid, a member of Entelechy, also wanted the piece. I don’t recall how big of an upgrade it was for either of them, but the PuG had gotten 2 epics by that point, and the guildie had gotten nothing at all. So I gave it to my guildie. I might just be embellishing the story in my mind, but I believe it actually replaced a green for my guildie, so it was quite an upgrade.
The PuGged tree druid promptly throws a hissy fit, accusing me of favoritism. I reminded him that the loot rules had been clearly laid out, and that what I had done was exactly what the rules indicated SHOULD be done. His response was that we should have done a /roll for it, because “It’s not just an epic, It’s T4.” and without waiting for a response, he dropped group and hearthed.
Amusingly enough, one of the guild’s officers who had been absent invited him to our raid the very next week, and I promptly kicked him right back out of the raid again.
I stand by my decision and still use roughly the same loot policy, though if I’m running in a group of 3 or more PuGs, I usually go with a random /roll instead, just to avoid unnecessary drama.
And there you have it. Pointless explication of a single line of Pike’s post.
Currently going through a disband (actually not sure if you are talking about our guild in your open statement, if you are talking about Silver Hand), I hope and pray we can look back on it as fondly as you do yours. I’m happy that even though it’s sad to say good bye it’s ending on good terms and some are even staying together in a new Guild that we formed.
No matter if you are #1 or #40 on a server, when a Guild ends espically one together that long, it is a sad day. You are saying good bye to people you spent every day with for a long time. People that you have come to look to as friends and family.
The beginning of the end of Entelechy sounds sounds disturbingly like atmosphere of my guild. Damn, is that a bell tolling?
I joined the Knocturnal Knights way back in ’05 when I saw their Guild Recruitment message and liked the sound of their name, and I stuck with them pretty much right up until the bitter end when every Kara attempt ended in failure, stuff happened, and quite a few people “RageQuit” (I think that’s what it’s called). I switched to Horde for a while, then went back to Ally and joined the Guild my former Guildies were now in. But even if many of my old friends were there it just wasn’t the Knocturnal Knights, it wasn’t the same. I went back to the Horde where I played out the rest of my 6-month Sub, then let it lapse. And that’s how I quit after 3 1/2 years in WoW.
I must say, I took a few weeks off here & there, and when you log back in after a month away, to see Guild Chat light up with people YELLING your name the second you log in, that’s why many of us continue to play. For some players a Guild is little more than a means to an end, but for others, a Guild is Family.
Just have you and your buddies transfer to my server and you’ll have a kind of environment that promotes that closeness.
We are one of the oldest guilds in our server, if not the oldest one. What has kept us together has been our friendship, both in game and RL.
We prefer recruiting a group of friends, rather than a known “skilled” individual because it’s just more fun with friends, I say!
Our stubborness paid off as Blizzard went into the 10-man design. It’s been great.
I’m sure if some of you came to our server and sought us out, your time wouldn’t be wasted.
hehe, see how important my guild is that i’m shamelessly trying to recruit on this blog? =P
I relate alot to what you guys are talking about =)
I think it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain a guilds original direction especially if there is a large increase in membership.
I’ve come to realize that sometimes with a smaller guild it is easier to maintain the primary focus of the guild. It’s no fun for officers or GMs to log in feeling the pressure is on them at all times. Guildies need to be supportive of the guild objective and officers need to be firm about what is and isn’t acceptable within their guild. Easy to say I know, but much more difficult to maintain.
Guilds will never be drama free but hopefully when issues arise they are dealt with quickly to move forward in a positive direction.
Reading this post made me remember my original guild. It’s amazing that nearly a year from quitting it, I still feel an emotional attachment to the people there and what we once were. I’m now in a guild that I love even more and where I can raid as much as I like but I still feel sad for the demise of that guild. Maybe it’s like your first relationship, you put so much of yourself into it and try so hard to make it work… you’re just devastated when it all falls to pieces.
I am seriously old, so it seems, and remember the long hours of raiding with guild members in Everquest. It was truly for the friends that most of us stayed and played; we knew more about the workings of our guildmates’ lives than their kin.
After 6 years or so with some of the same people you start to consider them family. I was invited to several weddings of guildmates around the country. When I lost my job some of my guildmates offered me a place to stay until I could find a new one; they’d never met me in person before. And when a guild member said she had leukemia, several guildies offered to donate bone marrow if she needed it.
Now days there seems to be so many shiny new games to play and people come and go so quickly. Its hard to build up the commitment and familiarity that led to those kinds of close ties.