Forum Post of the Day: A tale for guild leaders
I admire the creativity of many World of Warcraft players. In a post in the Guild Relations Forum, Cathôde of Frostwolf, told a tale of Artimus, who single-handedly brought success to a struggling guild. The author acknowledges that it is a fictitious story, but it is a compelling read indeed. To get the complete story, you must read the first four posts in the thread.
This brief work of prose, entitled A Tale for Guild Leaders. Describes how Artimus, a Warrior newly indoctrinated to a guild used patience and common sense to help his guild become successful in both raiding and PvP. Even when some decisions forced the guild to take a step back, it came out better in the end. An example of Artimus's wisdom is exemplified by a one-week suspension from raiding privileges from a young man struggling with his girlfriend:
"True, and true. I should add to that that real life obligations are more important than online gaming. However, they are not the only ones among us with real life obligations. Because they are unorganized, we all have to spend more time waiting around in raid zones, meaning we have less time for other areas of play, meaning now our WoW time is coming into conflict with our real life time. By removing them from our raid for a week, I have both given us a week of fast raiding, and given them the time they need for their girlfriends and families. We will both benefit from this week, I assure you."
The story reads like a shorted version of Richard Bach's classic Illusions. I admire the focus on patience and focused priorities. Badhabits of Stromrage offered a counter story from alternative perspective where Artimus's true motivations may have been masked. The original poster readily accepted this alternative view. The thread is overall a good read, and it's heartening how the commenters have responded both positively and negatively to it, but with a surprising degree of civility.






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Harlequinne May 31st 2008 10:51PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Tzu
'Nuff said.
Destra Jun 1st 2008 4:37AM
"An example of Artimus's wisdom is exemplified by a one-week suspension from raiding privileges from a young man struggling with his girlfriend"
But the kid only got a phone call from his girlfriend, and had the nerve to answer when he should apparently have been focussed entirely on WoW. It never said anything about relationship struggles that I saw.
If I ever suspended someone's raiding priviliges for something that petty, I'd imagine I'd lose all respect from my guild, and rightly so. It's an interesting read, but honestly the main character sounds like a bit of a jerk.
Raegn Jun 1st 2008 6:48AM
True, but the story presents the protagonist as being somewhat omniscient. Though most other people may not understand his motivations, it turns out okay in the end. It’s really what short stories like that are about. It may not be true to life, exactly, but for a short story of its length, it does its job fairly well, I think. Extending disbelief is a prerequisite for many short stories and assorted fiction.
Unknown Jun 1st 2008 7:15AM
Wow never thought i'd see one of my forums posts cited on wow insider.
~Badhabits
Beep Jun 1st 2008 12:56PM
Shorted?
uncaringbear Jun 1st 2008 10:23PM
This is an interesting piece of fiction. On the surface, Artimus appears to be a person with his guild's best interests at heart. However, read between the lines and it becomes apparent that he is inflexible and clearly only wants to push his own agenda. It's anyone's guess what his motives are, but more likely than not, he is a sociopath. Well written!