Sepia week.
I've been raiding seriously for 2 and a half years. In that time I've left 4 guilds that didn't suit my personality or my level of dedication, been kicked out of one for not being good enough, and had 4 disband within 1-3 months of my arrival.
Last night my guild's raid leader and main tank resigned which I'm certain will raise my count of disbanded guilds to 5. Though the guild is still intact, the remaining leadership is not especially strong. The guild leader has told me before that he's been thinking of resigning and passing leadership to the raid leader, and though he does sincerely care about the guild he lacks the confidence to take charge, even though he does just fine when he does. My attempts to try and reassure him he's doing fine have not yielded much success. The guild's one officer is a special kind of despisable, managing to be passive aggressive, self-righteous, and irresponsible all at once. A real winner of a human being.
To make matters worse, the guild leader and the officer aren't talking to one another. Some bad blood many months ago where the officer stabbed the glead in the back over some girl. Up until last night, they had each other muted on vent.
In the raid leader's resignation he explained that he'd been thinking of quitting for the past 2.5 months. This, combined with the loss of two core officers in December, and the guild leader's fading interest in the game further reinforce that all the disbanding guilds I've joined were already in decline when I was recruited.
10 guilds in 2.5 years. That's too much. And while I'm far from being ready to quit the game, I can't help but think I'm never going to find a place where I can play the game the way that I want to. I need a certain quality of progression (at least 300 US, top 150 preferred) a certain type of player atmosphere (make your own goddamn sandwich you fucking sexist nerds), a 25-man roster, and raid times no earlier than 9pm. Most recently, I've decided I don't want to raid more than 3 days a week, lowering the amount of potential places I can go to to about 3 guilds, 1 of which doesn't accept women raiders.
With another guild looking doomed to expire, I have nowhere to go. And even if I did, I'm cursed as it is. Kinaesthesia reminds me again and again that I'd make an excellent guild leader, but you don't just find 24 quality raiders out of nowhere. The amount of time I'd have to spend just trying to get a quality 10-man roster together would be enormous, and likely unfruitful. Add to that the time required to write strats and put together website, and the idea becomes more and more inaccessible.
My only hope right now is that the members of this guild won't scatter by the end of the week, but having been in 4 disbanded guilds, my experience doesn't give me much hope. Most people just want to raid, and if the ability to raid disappears, so do the people. The glead and officer have taken the stance right now that they're going to talk the raid leader into coming back... despite serious health issues being his reason for leaving. Nothing about this is ideal.
So once again... Here I am, wondering if I can truly keep playing and enjoying this game when I can't even find a place to call home.
This won't solve all the problems, but Wowstead made guild website creation and management dead simple. I've always been the guy who sets up the web site for the guild I'm in, and I love getting into the nuts and bolts of site creation, but Wowstead changed my mind. It looks great, has awesome features and is very simple to use.
ReplyDeleteWow! There are guilds out there who don't accept women? Well their loss I guess. Women are awesome ^^
ReplyDeleteIs that 9 pm Eastern time?
ReplyDelete@Aaron I could never have a Wowstead website =) But maybe they've made some improvements. I don't like sites that look like templates, mostly, but I lack the web skills to do much. My favorite guild website ever was Riot Act (RIP) but I'd never be able to do anything like that I think.
ReplyDelete@Markus Sadly yes =P Usually it's a bunch of boys who don't know how to handle themselves around women and therefore blame it on the women, rather than the boys. There are plenty of girls out there who are trouble, sure, but just as many boys who fuel the fire.
@Beth Yeah, 9 EST. The last two guilds I've raided with went from 10 EST to 2 EST. I've gone as early as 8, but prefer not to because I have to rush too much in my schedule and am always ending up late to raid. That, and it's weird to raid when the sun is up. Sadly, so many progression guilds have 7 EST start times X-x
The solution is simple: Get an EU account, level a new toon to 85, join our guild (we need a good healer), gear up, get a job that lets you raid at mid day EST. You see, simple.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, best of luck to you. As for the guild that does not accept women raiders, I can only bow my head in shame of belonging to the same approximate species as them.
Lets see you could always join my guild - we are a 10 man raiding guild, who raids at 8pm est, are casual (no where near top 300), but we do have multiple women who play with us (including our raid leader) and most importantly we are fun to be around. Oh well guess we aren't one of those three guilds out there that meets your needs:) Good luck if finding them and if you need a place to hide in the mean time keep us in mind.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Kina. Build your own raid. I'm willing to put money on the probability that you'll find it easier that you think it is.
ReplyDeleteCould you use the building process as material for your blog ?
Tell Kina he has to help. He won't be doing much now that Vodka progress through all the content :)
We're a shade outside your pref's (~600 US), but we'd meet your other criteria (a 25 man guild that runs 9-12 EST T-Th, is generally fun, and offends everyone equally. AND we'd love another priest). Feel free to broaden your search (:
ReplyDeleteIf not, I really enjoy your podcast and I'd be happy to come over if I knew you were making a guild (although given your background, I doubt you're hurting for priest applicants). Best of luck, Dawn - we'd be sad to see you go.
One quality of a good leader is the ability to delegate. You don't have to be good at websites; you just need to find someone who is. Making a core group for a guild is not an easy task. It may take weeks to put together the top 10 people for the guild. Each should work well within the group, but also bring the outside skill sets that you need to prosper. IMO these are the people you need and they should not be the same person if possible...:
ReplyDelete1) Guild Leader -- This person needs to be like the CEO of a company. Strong, opinionated, generous, fair (big deal here), approachable, but obeyed (need a better word here)
2) 2nd in command -- Needs to be a duplicate of the guild leader. Willing to follow but also willing to lead when needed. Should be given oversight on some of the other positions below.
3) Discipline -- This can be 1-3 people who know how to create rules and adhere to policy. They should also be flexible enough to know when to bend or break rules.
4) Banker -- This person is responsible for maintaining the bank and its rules.
5) Recruitment -- Again 1-3 people for looking at applications and deciding who should be brought before the officers for approval.
6) Event Planner -- Task with organizing events including meetings, social events, raids, achievement parties, dragging (where you drag lower level toons through dungeons for gear, loot, etc)
7) IT -- Website, Vent/TS, Guild postings on other websites, etc.
8) Training -- This person should be able to explain things. Sounds weird, but someone who knows the mechanics of wow and can give advice on bettering your toon, finishing bosses, leveling, raiding, etc. This person might not know everything, but they should be able to research and find out.
When you can get these people together, you can build a strong, survivable guild. People can do multiple roles until a full time person is found.
Another suggestion is to not use too many people you know IRL. While it seems cool, something always happens outside of WOW that translates to in-game drama.
RULES – You should have rules for the guild in place. (that is easy) You should also have the consequences for breaking the rules laid out as well. This includes Vent rules, forum rules, etc.
Just my 2cp
I'm also going agree with Kina, I built my 10 man (working on the 25 man now) from scratch. We're not the same caliber as you but it's possible. Starting a guild isn't easy but I believe in you! :P
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Podcast and good luck!
Keep your feet on the ground.
I think it is absurd that guilds don't accept women raiders. I'm male, but some of the BEST raiders in my guild are women.
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming you at least talked with the guys in that guild? With your resume, they would have to be pretty stupid not to give you a try.
ReplyDeleteI'm also a female gamer, so I totally feel your pain on the whole preconception thingy; but I've never had a guild turn me down without a shot.
Imperative of US-Zul'Jin (Guild I'm currently in) might be what you are wanting (US 53 3nights/wk). I'm not sure what time zone your referring to but we raid 8:30-midnight EST. Imperative-guild.com if your interested.
ReplyDelete"1 of which doesn't accept women raiders."
ReplyDeleteMother of mercy. Any reason? They're shooting themselves in the foot by automatically turning down good raiders. I'm aware that maybe female gamers might GENERALLY be less competitive than male gamers, but fuck, if it's a good application, it's a good application! Ridiculous.
Best of luck to you. Sometimes it's good to take a break and come back reinvigorated to play again. I've missed several tiers of raiding because of this, but it's a game, not a job.
I think a realm change might be in order, you can do research on what realms have most people and how many are alliance/horde. You can also see how many people are in guilds or not, hope this is of help :)
ReplyDeleteMy guild personally is struggling to find any one dedicated enough to even play more than 2 days a week, so were strugling to get up the guild levels due to lack of numbers, and with everyone going for the level 20+ guilds it makes it harder for the newer and smaller guilds to attract anyone :(
The not accepting women is absolutely insane. My best healer is my fiancee. She owns the charts in every raid she attends. The guilds that dont accept women have some core issues that they need to work out, and don't deserve to have a player such as yourself.
ReplyDeleteWhile i cannot say i have an amazing guild you would love to join, i do wish you luck in your search for a new home if it comes to that.