Guild mergers and alliances can be hot beds of trauma. The guild I‘ve belonged to for a year has been through 2 failed mergers and is currently on the brink of a 3rd failed attempt. This makes me sad. Although I’m currently taking some time away from the guild, I’m still emotionally involved and friends with all the people there.
It’s a great guild with a lot of lovely people and good opportunities for all to experience Azeroth as they wish. There are 6/7 10-man raiding teams raiding current and older content and a recently reformed 25-man team who raid twice a week, plus plenty of alts for levelling with, lively social banter on the chat and lots of skilled friendly players to do BGs, run HCs with, give advice and so on.
The incoming guild is a raiding guild who are looking to build a stronger 25-man progression team and want to use our players to do so, working towards a 4-night 25 man programme, which would clearly offer all those not able to raid the current 25-man schedule the choice to do so. They also contain a healthy number of players who have been long-term members and/or friends of my guild, so they know the strengths and weaknesses of both guilds.
Both guilds are home to sane, reasonable people who want to make the most of their time in Azeroth and achieve their goals.
The merger/alliance (no one seems clear which it is at the moment) should be a smooth, graceful amalgamation of two of the best guilds on the realm. Unfortunately, it’s not been that way. A vocal contingent of my guild were not interested in the merger at all and when guild2guild was implemented, a certain number of them muted it, thus ensuring they didn’t even get to know the other guild prior to anything going any further. The silent majority who had qualms, but did not speak up for fear of rocking the boat, have been drifting along with the merger. Those of us who want the merger to work, have been left feeling embattled and worn out by trying to assuage fears and lay down the benefits of the merger for all.
Now, largely due to too much talking about the wrong things and not enough action on the important things, the merger is on the brink of collapse and with it, the strong possibility that at least one guild could fail, if not both. I don’t want to think about the bad blood that could emerge.
Whilst this makes me sad, I have effectively done little to stop it or assist in a smooth merger. My /gquit of just over a week ago was not a sudden decision, but I felt I had no other option. Having vented my frustration and feeling that change was too slow to come, if it ever came, I’ve taken myself off into the wilderness.
Whilst I’m still hopeful that the merger will progress as planned, I want both guilds to flourish and I’m enjoying raiding opportunities with both, the friends I've made are still there and we still have a good time (heavens, they keep me sane!), this wilderness has a strange and alluring emptiness to it.No obligations, no requirements, no expectations, no drama.
Deme the Deserter.
*Disclaimer - this is just my PoV and shouldn't be construed as a guild PoV. I speak only for myself.
I try to keep still and not think about the risks too much. By my own doing I cam to realize that I need to make a choice who of the 25m teams I want to raid with and stick with that decision. So I did.
ReplyDeleteIt might be me, but I have not yet noticed much of the experience they supposedly brought in. The raid reports on the site are fun and informative, but every other raid group shares their experiences as well. When it comes to class specific questions asked in gchat I have yet to see our alliance members answer it. It's usually a monkey that comes to aid. Gchat is generally mostly silent on our friends’ end. Then again, I might be on on the wrong times.
A failed merger is not a failure if we would decide it after drawing the conclusion it isn't working. I recall that was the entire premise of this operation: don't rush it, do it step by step and evaluate as we go. I am not saying it isn't working; I am saying that the things that might be working remain invisible to me.
ReplyDeleteWhat does however worry me is a tendency that is popular in today's political landscape as well: there are no shades of gray, only black and white. Some people intentionally make it appear there are only two sides, us and them, and that there is a need to pick sides. My own words might be read as such an attempt, but that is not my intention. All I want to say to monkeys, is to make up your own mind and do so with facts, not fears or rumors.
And don't forget we are all people. People wanting to have fun playing a game.
Oh, and Karazhan misses you. Your optimism and spirit. It's like a sports car with its engine removed.
ReplyDelete@antikris I'll be raiding with them this week. :) Thank you for your comments, guess I need a bigger comments box :)
ReplyDeleteBeing in a guild is such a fine line to walk normally, adding an entire group of strangers to the mix is just like adding vinegar to baking soda. I am very pessimistic about guild mergers/alliances since the basis of most guilds is purely self preservation and aggrandizement. Your recent adventures with guild mergers has not seemed to change my mind very much about the whole idea.
ReplyDeleteThe problem, as always, is the people. People suck. People who play Warcraft tend to suck even more. This is an easy out, but it is the correct conclusion. As a guild master in a past life, I can sympathize with the problems and admire the balls it takes to try a merger of this kind. Even though the outcome will probably not be surprising, I hope it smooths out before it blows up.
I honestly don't have much hope for guild mergers or alliances anymore..
ReplyDeleteBack in the BC days (after our former glory in the vanilla days) my guild merged with another to fulfill that 25 man void. Needless to say lot of people left including myself after I essentially had my guild stolen out from under me.
A new server, new character and new start. My guild was literally 4 players and more of a chat and way to avoid random guild invites. Later my guild managed to get in a GREAT guild alliance. It was awesome 3 guilds who got a long great and learned to cooperate well with each other. We had a looting system we could all agree on and everyone was happy just to play, until one day where the majority of players from one of the guild decided to up and leave the guild to join a top server guild because they now had the loot to do so from the Alliance.
The guild not involved in the drama decided that an alliance was too much risk after those guys had left and basically came to my guild and asked us to merge with them if we wanted to raid (my guild was a whole 4 people).
The merge lasted 1 whole day. I eventually quit after arguing with an officer about how I felt his pornographic animated avatar was not appropriate for the younger members of their guild (some were 13). He didn't agree with me and was very rude about it. I left the guild and the others left as well of their own accord.
Now I just PuG, it sucks.. I don't get to raid like I would like to (raiding is fun) but at least I'm not committed to drama.
Thank you all for your comments. Unfortunately the merger has failed and in a far more dramatic why than those previous ones. Another blog coming.
ReplyDelete