Officers' Quarters: Silent revenge
by Scott Andrews 
Jul 4th 2011 at 2:00PM
Guild drama comes in many forms, and it can thrive even after people quit the guild -- with some unpleasant consequences. This week, one officer describes how an angry former member took revenge on the guild with a particularly spiteful act.
Hi Scott,
I've been reading your column on and off for a few months now and I don't know if you've covered this, but my guild is having issues with a former officer (we'll call him X Member) who /gquit of his own accord . . . X Member still has ties to many of the guild members and to some extent he is expecting us to treat him like he is still a guild member (i.e. not hold him to the same expectations that we hold all PUGs when raiding and automatically take him along on both progression raids and fun runs.) When we treat him the same as other PUGs, he takes it out on our guild in vengeful ways.
Last week he wanted to bring his slightly under-geared alt to our weekly run ... We know he knows the raid encounters as he learned the fights with us, but it's not fair to the other PUGs if we bring in someone with that low of an ilvl when we require higher for both PUGs and our own guild members ...Yikes. Normally, in a situation like this, I would suggest some strategies for coming to terms with the player in question and eventually working out an understanding. Rarely are there problems between people online that can't be solved with proper communication and compromise.
We didn't bring his alt and as a result he whispered our raid leader nasty comments and then later that night after our raid he changed the Vent password for our guild's Ventrillo ... He even told us that he did.
Now the player in question has a history of taking things in game way too personally way too quickly ... I'm acquainted with X Member and a lot of his in-game behavior and attitudes stem from issues he has outside of WoW that he can't leave at the login screen, but that's not an excuse for his pre-/gquit behavior. After Cata came out his attitudes seemed to get more and more depraved and were spreading to most of the guild as he was online more than any other player in the guild. Despite all the drama he brought to our guild most everyone in the guild harbors him no ill will, though he treats some of us with contempt ...
Being an officer, I was discussing the situation with an officer and both of us are stumped on how to deal with this former guildie who seems to be bent on taking his vengeance out on our guild. He knows who [our] officers are and what our raid expectations are and could have easily asked any of the officers why he was not taken along ... Also, X Member did not pay for our Vent server, he just has access as a former officer, and us not removing that access was a mistake.
A special case
In this case, however, I would recommend a more forceful approach: Cut all ties with this player.
The moment he maliciously changed your Vent info, he gave you every reason you ever needed to stop taking him on any runs or having any interaction with him at all. He's no longer a member of your guild, so that makes it easy.
The sense of entitlement he still bears since quitting is preposterous. How has he earned special treatment beyond not only what you expect of PUGs but your own members as well? You certainly don't owe him any favors. The fact that he expects this shows just how out of touch with reality he is.
When he was an officer for you, he did passive harm to the guild, slowing poisoning the social environment. And now he is doing active harm. Whatever is going on in his life does not excuse his behavior. He may think it does. He's wrong.
Cutting ties
As soon as possible, inform him that he's no longer welcome in your raids and (if it's even necessary) why. You don't owe him an explanation, but if you have to deal with him when you're trying to put a raid together, it will be a major distraction for you. For your own sake, then, tell him well before your next run.
Then put him on ignore and be done with him. His lack of maturity and self-entitlement issues will only cause further problems for you otherwise. No raider is worth that kind of hassle, particularly one who isn't even a member of your guild anymore.
For everyone else, there's a great lesson here: Change your Vent password when an officer gquits!
/salute
Recently, Officers' Quarters has examined how strong new leadership can create a guild turnaround, the pitfalls of promising more than you can deliver, and lessons learned from Scott's own guild demise. Send your own guild-related questions and suggestions to scott@wowinsider.com.
Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
DonNochay Jul 4th 2011 2:15PM
The mistake was not completely cutting ties with this fella. That seems to be the only solution, especially with someone that is completely mentally detached when it comes to treating others (specifically those that are apparently still friends or acquaintances) in-game with even a tad of respect. I'll be honest, when I do read this column, I never read the writers' responses, so if I'm retreading what they said, my apologies. In all honesty though, this sounds like someone that your guild shouldn't have contact with anymore.
DonNochay Jul 4th 2011 2:16PM
Oh, look, one glance after I post and:
"In this case, however, I would recommend a more forceful approach: Cut all ties with this player."
Egg. On. Face.
Oh wells.
Grubba Jul 4th 2011 2:23PM
You never read the writers' responses? Seriously?
DonNochay Jul 4th 2011 2:39PM
@Grubba
Yep. Not terribly entertained with the writing style of this particular column(atleast in the past, when I did read some of the response), so I typically just read the email itself, and until now, never bothered commenting.
DonNochay Jul 4th 2011 3:16PM
REALLY!?!? DOWNVOTED? What a joke....
Krz Jul 4th 2011 3:51PM
You don't read the whole column, but reply anyway, and expect to not be downvoted? lawl
Sunaseni Jul 4th 2011 4:34PM
You come in here and shit on the floor, and act surprised that people don't like you?
Lupius Jul 4th 2011 4:51PM
We call that a sense of entitlement!
DonNochay Jul 4th 2011 6:10PM
Um, wrong? Was it not clear that I read the entirety of the email sent to the writers? Why exactly would it be necessary to read what their response is, exactly? Stop proving my point, please.
Scott Clark Jul 4th 2011 11:31PM
Downvoted for an unnecessary comment on an article you didn't read. Also downvoted for an unnecessary reply containing an unnecessary comment about not reading the article - we knew that already. Further downvoted for belligerence in the face of the consensus that it probably isn't worth posting comments on articles you haven't read. That's what your blog is for.
Arrohon Jul 4th 2011 11:56PM
First downvote was for not reading the article. The following was for trying to defend yourself even when you clearly should've known that you're wrong.
Zanathos Jul 6th 2011 12:06PM
Lol @ Sunaseni, good way to sum it up
omedon666 Jul 4th 2011 2:24PM
Ok, seriously, part of the point of Cataclysm was for players like this to feel the bite of social shunning and no longer feel the fun and success of progression with friends or people with standards.
Kick this creep to the curb, it's working as intended!
Peebers Jul 4th 2011 2:39PM
The kid's a twat. Ignore him utterly and completely. Inviting him to your raids I like taking your new gf to your ex's birfday party. Stew on it.
Microtonal Jul 4th 2011 2:30PM
Some people are just sociopaths. More than you'd think, and a lot more than most people with normal brain chemistry are comfortable with.
Cut all possible ties with this player immediately, and don't be afraid to escalate it to a GM if he continues his harassment campaign. This person is not acting in good faith.
wutsconflag Jul 4th 2011 2:36PM
Another point:
If you /ignore this guy, and he keeps messaging you or your officers from other toons, that's a form of harassment, and Blizzard doesn't take too kindly to that.
/themoreyouknowmusic
Peebers Jul 4th 2011 2:40PM
You know that guy in the well know progression guild on your server that always trashes your rep/chiev runs in trade cuz he got the hardmode chievs when they were progression? The same guy that uses uselessly large words in his nerd rants about how much more leet he is than you?
Well he's my guildie.
The prob is I want to boot him. The GM(at the time) and the rest of the core hc/progression team left the server in the middle of the night. A friend of mine won a petition to be gm, after current gm had a 30+ day absence, because they actually created the guild and gave me officerish status. The majority of the people that still log on are friends bc we were all in the same vanilla progression guild and we lvl a lot of alts. I'd really just like to shed the elitest jerkness.
Sahara Jul 4th 2011 11:13PM
Honestly Peebers, it sounds like you know what to do. This player does not sound like a good fit for your guild, and if he is trashing your guild at it's current non-progression phase, and he is still a member... there is something wrong. Talk to your GM and the other officers, present your case, and then (imo) gkick him. If he wants to be progression, there are many other progression guilds who take applications. In fact, on many applications, guilds will look up previous guilds references and GM and ask about what the player is like.
But do try to be professional about it. Even if he is being a jerk, if your guild handles things in a proper way then it will reflect well on your guild. Having a player like that as a member does NOT reflect well on your guild though. It sounds like he trashes you guys in trade chat whether or not he's still in the guild, so you have nothing to lose, imo.
Ladyfawne Jul 6th 2011 2:42PM
I work in retail management. In my book of "Work peacefully at the pharmacy", you have three chances, you blow them, I toss you. It doesn't bother me one iota.
Those are my rules and I stand by them. I'm also the last person you want to get belligerent with.
Kick the kid, Peebers, and don't let your kind heart make you feel bad about it. He doesn't deserve your compassion or patience, which could be better suited elsewhere. Why waste your time and money dealing with someone who has zero respect for you and your guild?
Show him the door, doll.
Zhiva Jul 4th 2011 2:40PM
# later that night after our raid he changed the Vent password for our guild's Ventrillo #
Why does someone who is not a guild officer even have an ability to change guild's Ventrilo password?