Being vocal and public, I am sure that some feelings will be hurt by this post. Let me apologize in advance if that is the case. I gotta be me and if I pulled any punches now what credibility would I have? I do have to say that the tone of this post is much lighter than I anticipated. Usually THIS is what I am thinking and that is also what I would say. With that said on with the show.
Man what a couple of weeks it has been. Who knew that playing a game would be so much work? As a guild Black Sunshine finds itself in an interesting position. Some of what has gotten us there is self imposed but some of the other factors are beyond our control. Let’s just say that not everyone has made it through unscathed.
Where to begin? First off, running a guild is tough. Scratch that dealing with people is tough. To all you successful guild masters out there I tip my hat, kudos! Not in all my days did I think I would have to deal with so many issues that on the surface seem very minor but they are very major to those involved.
My summation of Black Sunshine as a guild is as follows: Overall we are a guild with 20man dreams, lOman attendance and T1/T2 gear and optimization. This puts us squarely outside of 20man content and under skilled/geared for the new lOman content. I guess I can wrap this all up in one word, FRUSTRATION.
Frustration is a funny thing and people handle it in very different ways. Add to frustration personality conflicts, thin skin and growing pains and you now have a very volatile situation. I mentioned earlier that not everyone came through it all wearing the Black Sunshine tag. Understand that is by their choice and I wish them luck in their dragon slaying, but we are a few members lighter none the less.
What made the past two weeks so difficult for me was the pettiness of it all. Person A is sad because he thinks Person B doesn’t like him. Person C has a case of the ass with person D and it sours his mood constantly so he isn’t having any fun. Person D is driven and his personality can be grating (whose isn’t at times) so some feel steam rolled. Did I mention that I get to referee all this shit in whispers EVERYTIME I log on?
To top it all off, most of the guilds normal activities happen in mumble. That’s where all the groups form for running instances, PVP and Rifts. One guy says “I want to run a t2, who is in?” The group fills from those in voice chat or they may pick up one or two from guild chat. Those members who don’t log into mumble regularly feel like they are not part of the clique and are being left out. Wanna be in the Black Sunshine clique? LOG INTO MUMBLE!
It is not all bad news though! Tuck decided to grab the bull by the horns and get the ball rolling. We have found a solid path through progression and we are already seeing results. Members are getting loot and we are getting the opportunity to work as a team.
On another bright note the current group is solid at learning and mastering fight mechanics. These folks adapt faster than any I have seen in the past and that is refreshing. I can honestly say that gaming last night was the most fun I have had in two weeks. No stress, no whining and no drama. Just dead monsters and loot!
Well said , that is all……
You pretty much summed up my frustrating when I found out that rewards were going to be equal for 10s and 25s in wow. People tend not to realize how insanely complex a raiding guild can be, developing the identity and culture as well as maintaining it. In addition to the process of gearing up everyone and ensuring that everyone is familiar enough with the content, mechanics, and strategy to make a good run at it. Any problems that are present in a smaller scale simply get magnified when the numbers increase.
I’m glad to see you guys weathering the storm, I know from experience it ain’t easy. But I’m sure you guys will do fine.