Nothing pains us more than to see people leave, especially when it is so rare to encounter that chance combination of skill, dedication, and friendship. We have fallen far from the edge of hard modes and progression, clearing ToC25 one night and then struggling through Kologarn the next with four empty raid slots and three fresh level eighty players.

Though I will admit we yearn for the days when Wrath was fresh and everyone busted at the seams just for a chance to wipe on Sarth 3D, we still manage to smile, if only for the chance to encounter another long term friend with skill, even if they’re currently tanking Thorim adds in blues and 27K health.

The most important aspect of a guild is its character.

Your guild members could raid with any other guild doing the same content as you, but they stay with you because of your unique guild atmosphere. Now I don’t know whether that atmosphere is created by the members who have become more like a pillar the guild stands on than individuals, by things like the name and tabard, by the policies you stand by, or by something else, but whatever it is, it’s lasted this far and you shouldn’t let it slip away.

If you abandon the characteristics which make you individual, you’re no longer yourself, and the same goes for your guild. As guild leader, you’re in a unique position to keep these traits going strong, even in hard times; so long as you don’t waver from your position, the guild will keep strong and pull through.

Yes, it’s hard to accept that people will sometimes want to move on or away from you, even those people who you thought never would, but it does happen – indeed, it happens to every guild. People have different needs which can and will change, but that doesn’t indicate anything wrong with you, your leadership or the guild you lead.

Vel.
Veliaf´s last blog ..Past Plans

But that’s fine, was just clarifying what I said. I hate trying to get posts of that size off in a rushed manner. (Not that I intended it to be that long when I started it.. But then.. I hardly ever intend for comments to get that long. It’s a real problem sometimes! )
Naithin´s last blog ..DC Boss One Shot this Week

There may be other errors in there as well – still in a rush, just between classes, waiting for bus to transfer me from city campus to Tamaki campus – but hopefully rest of it at least reads well enough to make sense. If anything doesn’t, lemme know.
Naithin´s last blog ..DC Boss One Shot this Week

But raid attendance has been down, and we’re either calling or undermanning raids when we should be working on new hard-modes. It’s very frustrating, in part because it’s so inconsistent: last week, we did Heroic Beasts of Northrend, I Choose You, Steelbreaker!, and Three Lights in the Darkness. This week, the guild 24-manned Onyxia and ToC on Tuesday and broke into 10-mans on Wednesday.

Thanks for the fresh perspective. ‘Tis appreciated.

Surreality is not by any stretch of the imagination going through this, either now, or in the recent past. Heck, you mentioned the fallout of this already with the amalgamation of those few raiders from several other guilders that were for some reason or another still heavily ‘into it’ into a new guild, just so that they COULD continue.

Far ‘better’ guilds (from the hardcore / progression perspective) have already fallen, case in point: Fires of Heaven. Although I understand they have taken strides to reform and rebuild, they fell some time ago. From having been 1st horde / 2nd server in progression at one point.

I know that I haven’t been with Surreality long yet myself, and I also know that my time ingame hasn’t even been all that much due to the necessities of life at this point in time, so I don’t get to see every little thing that goes on by any stretch, nor do I have the benefit of understanding firsthand how things have been going over a long stretch of time.

But I do know that the issues you’re ascribing to your leadership decisions over time, well, shouldn’t be.

This is not to say that a different style might not achieve ‘better’ results (Again, speaking purely from a hardcore/progression stance) whereby you drastically lowered standards for recruits (character/personality wise) and accepted a far, far higher rate of attrition, higher levels of drama, people staying until they get their legendary (or it becomes clear they won’t get it) and then transferring, etc etc etc.

But I just don’t think that’s worth it. Especially when you factor in the increased risk of total meltdown that such a guild carries with it.

I know having fairweather raiders is highly annoying. I think we both know that come Icecrown, even without doing any more recruiting, you’re going to have 30+ people every day you raid wanting to go along. But as annoying as this problem is, is it more annoying than the problems and issues that come with an ever rotating door of people coming in and out of the guild?

I don’t personally think so. But in any event – boy I’m rambling, sorry! – the main point I want to make with all this is: Don’t blame yourself or your decisions which lead to this point. You’re not the only one with these issues, even amongst those who chose to go the ‘other’ route.

Reading this entry of yours though most certainly gave me a far keener insight in why you miss linear progression so much. I joined the raiding scene quite late in the game. I was present – on and off – for vanilla BC, but I never hit cap until BC hit. I had an alliance warrior I was playing on Dark Iron, and I was about 44ish when BC landed. Finally decided to catch up with friends who’d been playing with more regularity than I, and sucked it up and powered onto 70. From there I mostly instanced and PvP’d. I went along to Kara a few times, but that was it.

About mid BC is when I rolled my druid on BDF, and then I raided through Kara, Mags, Gruuls, ZA.. But that was about it, honestly. After 3.0 hit, my druid was considered geared well enough that he pugged through a number of the other raids as well, but scheduling almost always saw me missing the second (or third in some cases) nights of the raid, which infuriates me still to no end. I saw through most of SSK, Hyjal and BT before Wrath, became a favourite of Shieldwall – whom I haven’t seen at all since BC! Where has he gone?! Anyways – and had a lot of fun in the process, but never really ‘got’ why people complained so hard about Wrath progression (other than that it was over so quickly. )

But now, you’ve given me a bit of insight into it, so thanks for that at least! I think overall, I do still prefer having the means to catch up after a hiatus, or seeing an alt to a reasonable level of gear without expecting to be carried through whatever the ‘current’ level of raiding for your guild is, but I do at least understand a little more where those who experienced the linear progression raids of BC are coming from now.