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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsI am a killer of guilds
by Anne Stickney 
Jan 30th 2012 at 3:00PM
I have a confession to make: I'm a guild killer.
I don't do it deliberately, I swear. See, back in vanilla, my raid guild lost pretty much all of its officers to EverQuest II right around the time Ahn'Qiraj-40 was coming into play. So the officers who were left (and the new guild leader) decided I should also be an officer -- and I agreed, which was probably the worst decision I've made in my life. Two weeks later, the guild was belly up and I was off trying out a roleplaying server for the first time, since I now had loads of free time to play an alt.
I figured it was simply the lack of leadership experience that had ultimately killed the old guild. The officers who had been promoted weren't really officer material, myself wholeheartedly included. After losing most of our officer corps, the wind had gone right out of the guild's sails, so to speak.
But see ... the trait of guild killing followed me after that. I couldn't help it. And I began to wonder if maybe I am just a terrible, terrible choice for an officer.
I don't do it deliberately, I swear. See, back in vanilla, my raid guild lost pretty much all of its officers to EverQuest II right around the time Ahn'Qiraj-40 was coming into play. So the officers who were left (and the new guild leader) decided I should also be an officer -- and I agreed, which was probably the worst decision I've made in my life. Two weeks later, the guild was belly up and I was off trying out a roleplaying server for the first time, since I now had loads of free time to play an alt.
I figured it was simply the lack of leadership experience that had ultimately killed the old guild. The officers who had been promoted weren't really officer material, myself wholeheartedly included. After losing most of our officer corps, the wind had gone right out of the guild's sails, so to speak.
But see ... the trait of guild killing followed me after that. I couldn't help it. And I began to wonder if maybe I am just a terrible, terrible choice for an officer.
Miri over at Guarded By the Light put together an excellent, insightful look about what it takes to run a guild -- and let me tell you from personal experience, it's a lot harder than it looks. If you take a look at Miri's post, you'll see what is just one small fraction of the everyday life of managing a guild. Miri's got the right of it, though -- running a guild is very much like running a business. And really, that's what struck a chord with me when I read it.
I am not a business leader. I am not a manager, and I am not a supervisor. At least, I'm not any of those things when I play a video game. For me, playing the game is about having fun playing the game, not time management and orchestrating events and figuring out who gets what loot drop. And there are lots and lots of people out there just like me -- people who want to play simply to play. But here's the thing -- everyone's got their own unique idea of fun.
I've been puzzled more than once at the antics of Auction House players, largely because I just don't understand what's fun about selling things on the AH. I think maybe, in the end, guild leadership is kind of the same thing. Miri's post illustrates just a little of what goes on in guild management, and Officer's Quarters talks about it every week as well. I'm guessing that as far as guild leadership is concerned, it's along the same lines as the Auction House -- either you really get it and you get the fun out of it, or you're like me, simply mystified by the process and not quite sure why anyone would call it fun.
Maybe I'm not quite a guild killer; maybe I'm just the one who wants to stay behind, make sure the building is cleared out, lock the door and turn out the lights. It's not the most pleasant of tasks, but there's something cathartic about that final /gquit. I'm not really a bad officer; I'm just not cut out for the task. But ... I think I'm still going to avoid any officer positions from here on out. Just in case.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Guilds
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
Anne Stickney Jan 30th 2012 7:13PM
@Pyromelter -- It might have been an expansion or something along those lines. I'm not really certain, honestly. All I know is I definitely played a beta for EQ2, and it was pretty dreadful as far as I was concerned. I think a lot of that had to do with my graphics card though, it wasn't the top of the line, and while it played WoW smoothly and just dandy, EQ2 was not really playable at the 4-5 FPS it was giving me. Lurching around the landscape was just not fun in any way shape or form. But I did like my little mouse monk critter thing!
jude_rulz Jan 30th 2012 3:36PM
A GM from BC once said to me... "I have figured out the success to running a raiding guild"
"Oh yeah? What's that?" I said...
He replied "Find other people that are as addicted to the game as you are"
Sadly, it's true... Then, he quit about weeks later :P
wodentoad Jan 30th 2012 3:42PM
I watched my first guild begin to implode. I left to join a spin-off and it curled up and died a little later. The guild that spun off from that one and another, died. I left and took a couple of buddies with me, changed realms and sides, and brought out a stillborn guild. I am become death, destroyer of guilds.
Vincentmagius Jan 30th 2012 3:41PM
A friend and I try to be in the same guild. For some odd reason, we are only together when the guild is about to go into a death spiral. When we are not in the same guild, it's fine.
We've decided if the current one dies, we are never to be in the same guild together. It might be OK to group or raid together. Maybe stay on the same server. Never in the same guild.
skippy88 Jan 30th 2012 4:10PM
I don't know my track record is pretty horrendous.
1st Guild - Became officer under a new GM and we died 3-4 weeks later
2nd Guild - Became officer unknown to me (Yes I said unknown) and a week later they asked if I wanted to be an officer (Hello already am) . I quit the game a week later and a couple of months they were dead.
3rd Guild - Joined as a low level player and tried hard to get up to max level so I could raid with them. I just entered Hellfire Pennisula and everyone left. I left too and the guild basically died.
4th Guild - A guy from the 3rd guild asked me to join saying they were a PVE guild but not a week later overheard the Guild Master and the 2nd in Command say they were going to make the best PVP guild ever. I quit and a few hours later the guild was done. Yep, who knew I could kill a guild in a week.
5th guild - I will admit this one lasted for almost a year. I left and 2 months later they had died.
My main is in a 6th guild and I am no longer playing WOW. The guild "raiding wise" sucks so if I ever come back I will leave it. However, they are still very much active. On second thought maybe I shouldn't come back.
Priestess Jan 30th 2012 4:12PM
I absolutely cannot believe you posted this. Because I think you stole my WoW life!
I have just been handed leadership of a guild, and now it's dead as a doornail. It was on the blink before, and I was basically the last person in the boat.
So, dear Anne, if you are like me, you probably got promoted because you're nice, you like to play well with others, and you help out. You're sociable, friendly, and likeable.
And, if you are like me, you are also terrible leadership material. I'm finding that I am, and I'm beginning to believe that as it relates to WoW, it's in large part because guild leaders need to care about the content, not just the people. Really good guild leaders care about both, and are good at both. But people who are just very good people people don't seem to make very good leaders, especially when they didn't ask for it.
Now granted, that's a batch of blanket statements, and I know there are fantastic exceptions, especially in RP or primarily social guilds. I'm just finding that to be the case for me, and apparently it's not just me! I never wanted to lead. As one of the other officers said before becoming GM himself and then promptly leaving it to me when he left the game, "You are not a very good leader, but you're an excellent assistant."
As an empathetic admonition, don't take it personally. I'm trying not to. I agree with your observation that perhaps we just try to stay around to leave things in order. And that does seem to make it look like our fault. I'm trying not to take it to heart. I too am looking to step out and play anonymously for a while. No more dead guilds under my belt, for as long as I can hide from being a nice and useful person.
I'll wish us both luck. I think we need it.
Priestess Jan 30th 2012 4:24PM
So you know, this game knows when you are mad at it. After leaving this post, I logged in all dejectedly to do my dailies alone in my sad abandonded guild, and the WoW universe left me a Fox Kit. You can't bribe me, WoW! You can't! Do you hear me?!?!?!
/grumble grumble
Starlin Jan 30th 2012 4:14PM
There's no reason to get superstitious.
Amaxe Jan 30th 2012 4:21PM
Well my 10 toon guild will never break up or have drama...
...such is the advantage of a vanity guild where all the characters are mine.
/duck
Artemisian Jan 30th 2012 4:21PM
.... guild killer here ...
First one fell apart due to GM's personal difficulties, many of which involved me ... /cough. Second one fell apart due to a schism in the members, of which I was in the splitting-away team. The one that formed from that ended up being a lame duck because I got a tad too personal with the GM, who turned out to be kind of nuts, and that blew up in my face.
The lesson I learned after all of this: stop dating tanks :( It was a bad time for me, and I did some stupid things. Unfortunately the people on the other end did stupid things too, so it ended baaaaaadly.
Pyromelter Jan 30th 2012 5:15PM
Not sure why dating tanks would be any worse than dating dps'ers or healers. Unless you end up with a life-partner type person, dating usually ends up bad in the end, and stupid things go along with that, that's just kind of the nature of it. As long as you learn and grow, and don't do anything stupid that would require jail time or a restraining order, no need to beat yourself up over it. We're all looking for love (or a roll in the hay, whatever your pleasure) in the places we enjoy being, and WoW is no different.
BTW don't take this the wrong way, but since the internet is so anonymous and I can't tell your gender from your screen name, I can't help but think if this is a girl-boy, boy-girl, boy-boy, or girl-girl thing. (/ducks!)
Artemisian Jan 30th 2012 6:20PM
Not particularly worse, but I've found tanks have a tendency to be GMs, so that's where the issues start. I've certainly learned my lesson - a nice steady RL relationship for two years now, and my guildies are mostly RL friends too.
I'm a girl, so they've been boys :P You've ducked, so I really feel obligated to throw something now ...
Pyromelter Jan 30th 2012 9:35PM
Ah yes, GM significant other issues definitely cause friction. Even just being in the same guild with my girlfriend during Wrath (I was just a raider, not an officer) was a bit stressful, since she was not very social with the guild and wouldn't stick up for herself, so I had to advocate for her, for example to do the Shadowmourne quests in ICC when it would slip the minds of the raid leaders.
Legendary quests are yet another headache that Raid Leaders have to deal with.
You can throw anything at me, I'll dodge it, I was the Bombball champion in 5th grade. (Bombball is like dodge ball, except there are no teams, and there is no out of bounds area, an every-man-for-himself dodge ball-like deathmatch).
Sansarya Jan 30th 2012 4:24PM
I've been in the same guild since I joined in Dec. 2005. I've been an officer off and on, but we're not serious about anything, not raiding or PVP or achievements. We just hang out, do a few dungeons now and then, and everyone works on their separate goals (mostly collecting pets and mounts and completing holiday achievements). Sometimes we get more serious people involved and they either assimilate to our slacker agenda or cycle out to more committed guilds.
Pyromelter Jan 30th 2012 4:25PM
"I just don't understand what's fun about selling things on the AH."
The fun part is the next day when you loot a few thousand gold by clicking on a mailbox.
Saeadame Jan 30th 2012 8:09PM
That is definitely, definitely it. I only recently started trying to make some money, and I seriously log in the next morning before I leave (I didn't bother before because it wasn't enough time to do anything) to be like "I HAZ MAIL! I HAZ MONIES! MANY MONIES!" (it's not even that much I make like a few thousand at a stretch max, but it STILL FEELS SO AWESOME.)
Khevyn Jan 30th 2012 4:32PM
Just don't kill your current guild. ;)
Anne Stickney Jan 30th 2012 4:37PM
Oh don't worry I've already told them no no no no no not being an officer no no no. XD
Pyromelter Jan 30th 2012 5:17PM
They tried to make Shade a leader,
And she said "No, no no!"
xretsim2142 Jan 30th 2012 4:43PM
I am the Herald of Death for guilds unfortunately. I join a guild and couple of weeks go by and then guild drama, gf/bf drama, people getting bored, merging of guilds (Broke up since a conflict from both gms and officers), guild stop raiding and now recently people left to play Star Wars...
I can't seem to stay on one single guild for more than a month or two before something happens... now I'm a hobo by choice to save other guilds from my bad luck (total of ~8 guilds)