More than Raids

THE GUILD:

Disclaimer:
I guess there is always the risk when writing about the guild or things I'm pondering in guild that I may cause offence to any guildies who come back to the blog more than once. I suppose its a risk I take to amuse myself with such things as blogging and I can but hope that if I inadvertently say something that concerns anyone they call me on it.



Since the inception of the guild I have almost single handedly managed the recruitment, the raid calendar, the forums, the inguild dramas, the guild bank etc etc - part of the reason for this is because im such a control freak, but part of it is a personality flaw that waits for people to offer to do things because I dont want to impose on them. I acknowledge by holding onto things so tightly within guild that other people with different personalities may feel unappreciated or overlooked because im not fronting up and saying WOW youre awesome... Be a raid leader or manage the bank or all the other little things I could delegate.

Within the guild I have number of people whom I trust implicitly. I rely on them heavily although they may not realise how important they are to me or the guild. These people are the back bone of what makes for a successful guild environment and definetly add to the pleasure of logging in for me on a daily basis. Some of them are people I have played ingame with for sometime and some are newly discovered gems.

So recently I took a huge step and advertised inguild roles for guildies to put their hands up for - I must admit although im nervous as all get out I am a touch proud of myself for taking the first step in releasing some of the choker hold I've had over "my baby". Its a little like cutting the apron strings and hoping that you have prepared them for the outside world lol.


We have new members joining every week. We now have more than just the two tanks that I worked like pack horses in the first few months as a guild. We have awesome healers and DPS that would make you proud. Even the alts inguild are well geared.

But the guild is at a critical point. This was bought home to me when a priest DPS left recently because there were achievements and places she wanted to go and do that we just werent getting to do. She was going to join friends to do some of the things I personally really want to do. TOGC, complete Ulduar, Ulduar hard mode, Further progression into ICC etc. (I had mixed emotions when she returned - I was sad for her that her hopes had been dashed and I was thrilled for the guild that she returned)

So why havent we been doing them? We certainly have the talent in guild to complete these things.  And so I sat myself down and thought about why we were missing out on things that a good many of us would like to do. TIME was the only answer I could come up with. My controlling the raid calendar and overseeing everything left me with insufficient game time to think about other things. I had got into a rut.

When numbers in the guild had begun to increase we had alot of new 80's, undergeared 80's and 80's who had the gear but, as you see on so many blogs and posts, couldnt see the FIRE.

let me digress
With the ease that people can get a toon over 5k Gearscore simply by running dailies a good many newer players need never see the inside of a raid let alone bosses that require reactions. In  More than Raids Gearscore is somewhat of a dirty term. I refuse to install the addon as we do not use it as a measure of if a player is ready to raid. (although some in guild have the addon because of those tradehounds who want you to link GS and achievements for everything 5K+ for EoE?? FFS noobs! I suppose its a good "indication" of improvements and upgrades)
My preference is a site called Be Imba because it gives you a better picture, not complete but better - are they wearing PvP gear? have they gemmed and enchanted correctly? are they over or under hitcap? all these things give me a better idea of if they understand their toon. (without me having to understand or know all the finer details of all the classes) It also has a magic little coloured bar that shows me with the gear they are wearing what raids they should be able to complete. I take this one step further by actually trying to run with all guildies to assess and improve their ability to see the fire, get behind ice blocks, react, respond and recover from Oh bugger moments. This is how I assess who is ready for higher end content and who gets a spot in the coveted ICC boss runs.

I had set up 10 man raid groups to help members who signed up get raid aware.You may be able to get thru Naxx with uber gear and no sense but it wasnt going to wash in Toc or in ICC. It was a bitter pill for some to swallow that their Gearscore addon told them they were ready and I was saying "Nope sorry youre not". This iniative was short lived but I swear it had huge benefits.

I now believe we do have sufficient people in guild to be doing 2x ten man runs of anything and everything (We completed an EoE25, something a month or so ago that was incomprehensible) - the problem at the moment is attendance and sign ups for runs.

So on the forums I posted for input on a proposed raid calendar - no input yet but this is what was planned :

1. Monday Night : Fun Run : A selection of old worlde content -   to start at 7-30/8pm Server time.
2. Tuesday Night :  Ulduar :   This Raid is to improve and enhance guildies raid awareness and ability ( Not to just complete boss encounters quickly) to start at 7-30/8pm Server time. ( this is where Cat can assess your raid awareness - without assessment you dont get into ICC boss encounters)
3. Wednesday Night : Weekly Heroics -  to start at 7-30/8pm Server time.
4. Thursday Night : Double Banger:  OS and ONY(10/25) :  OS raid at 7.30 Server time and then Onyxia at 8.30 Server time
5. Friday : Toc 10 :  to start at 7-30/8pm Server time.
6. Saturday: ICC10 : Rep run : Rep run on Saturday Prior to 7.30 boss encounter  ( Boss encounter may be attempted bearing in mind that this will then lock you out of the new raid ID for the evening Boss run)
7. Saturday: ICC10 : Boss run : to start at 7-30/8pm Server time.
8. Sunday: Naxx (10/25) :Naxx Super Sunday 10 man event  or a Naxx 25.( good for achievements and practising your raid skills)

we also run 4 social events in guild:

• Battle cheeseburger which is a pvp event in Gurabashi arena 
• Darts which is where level 1 toons commit suicide by jumping off high things, whilst trying to land on my carcass 
• Ratrace where teams race thru a lower level dungeon to kill a boss and return with specified loots - points are awarded for speed and for volume of loot. 
• Scavenger hunt was to be our other social event but we havent run one yet due to lack of signups.

Not to forget the guild lottery, the forums, the recruitment, the actually getting to stop and talk to guildies,  oh yea and me having time to do some of my achievements - yep TIME: it all takes so much.

So as I said now more than ever I need to have faith in the special abilites others bring to the guild to manage and run these events so that I can focus on some of the other things for those who have put in the hard graft and earnt the badge to attend ToGC, ICC progression runs and things in Hardmode.

Its a very difficult balance to keep in guild, to manage peoples expectations of things they want to do, things they can do, letting everyone have a shot and  not having the better raiders jump ship out of frustration that our progression is slow. or the dreaded burnout that everyone suffers at some point - be it from the grinding, the raiding or the expectations - of others and themselves.  I am not sure how other guilds manage these things and seem to learn something new I have overlooked  EVERY week.

Ponderings??

• Do I cut back the amount of things in the raid calendar and perhaps just have one or two KEY raids and leave people to pug everything else? but isnt that why you join a social raiding guild to avoid having to pug?
• Do I split the guild into two raid groups again? and then how do i do this? The ready for anythings in one and the up and coming in another and deal with the sulks that person xxx didnt get in the former group? or split the skill level evenly and again hold back those who are more than ready. And who do I entrust with the role of scheduling raids, managing them etc etc for one or both of the groups. It is a big commitment for one person and history shows me that the more people you have managing things the less that actually gets done. 
• Am I trying to make the guild be to many things for to many people? What exactly do the guildies want???I guess when i started the guild I didnt think we would ever have over 200 toons! So I didnt think too much about having so many people wanting so many things.  I thought it would just be awesome to get to a point that we could do some of the raids on 10 man and maybe, just maybe 25mans ( Achievements dont you know!!) I didnt really think a whole lot further than what sort of people did we want in guild, what sort of behaviours would be acceptable and how would the dynamics of things like loot work. I decided early on i wanted a FRIENDLY guild. I hate having to /gkick or decline applications but have done so on a couple of occassions where people just didnt fit the mix.

 GUILD DEATHS
 There seems to be a couple of common themes in the death of guilds:
Infighting of officers/gms or other key members
GM's leaving the game or reducing their game time (aka Lack of direction)
Lack of raids/events
Departure of key members/talent pool

Obviously this is something I want to avoid. I would like the guild to succeed, both with longevity, with reputation as a guild people want to join and also with progression. I guess I do want More than Raids to be ALL for all. But how do I manage the next transition so that it works?