Lechuza
New Member
I've noticed, both on these forums, and in Guild chat, some confusion / frustration with people's perception as to what is going on with our guild.
I've been thinking about this myself, and I'd like to share these thoughts with you all. I'm not speaking as Lechuza, the guild member or Guild Officer, but as Rudy, a member of this community who is both very happy here, and very concerned about our future.
My WarcraftRealms profile shows that I joined this guild at level 14, on Oct 30, 2007. As you can see in the report, I have never been in another guild on this server, nor would I want to. Another thing, to those who don't know me well enough to know this, I am too frugal (read: cheap) to spend the money to transfer a character ($25 per character adds up when you have a wife with a hobajillion alts), especially when I can level a new toon to 70 in a month.
Since I've been here, I've enjoyed the company of everyone in this guild, and a lot of great people on the server.I actually joined the guild two months before my profile shows, visiting here from my first server while looking for MSC, a Christian guild I had researched. I went back to my original server and spent my time leveling my dwarf from 40 to 70 there. It took 2 months to reach 70, then I came back here to Blade's Edge and never looked back. As I've mentioned in other threads, I've not always been happy with the server in general. The economy is poor at best, and I find the language in Trade to be really, really unsettling.
Even so, I think of this guild as my WoW home.
When I originally joined, I believe that the guild was raiding. I was just starting my character then, so I could be remembering it wrong. Soon after my return, a large number of guild members left for one reason or another. I had no relationship with anyone yet, so I don't know details. What little I do know, is that most members made the mature decision to put Real Life over this game. If it ever comes to that, I'll make the same choice. After that, the guild didn't have enough people at a high enough level to run any end-game content.
The participation in this guild, and the number of members, seemed to dwindle overnight. I know that the guild leadership was, and is trying to rebuild the number of active members to a point where the guild can, together, enjoy end-game content.
So, with very little experience in this game or this guild, I was asked to join the leadership of this guild. I've tried to help as much as I can, but I can honestly say that I have no idea what to do in this situation.
The first issue I see us struggling with is one of identity. If you ask everyone of our guild members how they perceive the guild, I believe you will get many different answers. Because of that, I believe that we also have many different expectations. This is frustrating, at best, and ultimately leads to dissatisfaction. People leave to find what they aren't finding here.
At this moment in time, I believe that we can describe our guild as a "social / casual" guild. What I mean by that is that we are a group of people who use our guild to chat, be friendly, and occasionally come together to group. We are not progressing past that as a group, and the truth is, THAT'S OK, if that is what the guild wants. Everyone plays this game for their own reasons, and has their own measure of success. Personally, I think that building a great set of friends would be a triumph on it's own merits. On the other hand, I want to see what the developers have put ahead of us.
I would love to see this guild meet everyone's expectations, to be everyone's idea of a success. I don't know if we can, especially if everyone's goals are different. I believe that we need people to express themselves on several key ideas, so we can decide on what we need to do. Remember, there are NO wrong answers here, but a YES or NO response is not acceptable. Neither is "I'd like to have fun / enjoy myself": that is self evident. We need to know what everyone wants. Tell us, in your own words, how you feel about these issues, and feel free to add ANYTHING else in your response.
I will put my personal thoughts on these points in a reply following this post.
On a final, and personal, note: I find it difficult to believe that we, a group of people united by a love of GOD, and having so much trouble building a guild that grows and thrives, especially when I see people so full of worldly ideals thriving in this game. We know that the CGA is full of our brothers who are doing just that. Other servers in this game have multiple Christian guilds, and other games have Christian guilds that are thriving. I believe that we can as well.
I've been thinking about this myself, and I'd like to share these thoughts with you all. I'm not speaking as Lechuza, the guild member or Guild Officer, but as Rudy, a member of this community who is both very happy here, and very concerned about our future.
My WarcraftRealms profile shows that I joined this guild at level 14, on Oct 30, 2007. As you can see in the report, I have never been in another guild on this server, nor would I want to. Another thing, to those who don't know me well enough to know this, I am too frugal (read: cheap) to spend the money to transfer a character ($25 per character adds up when you have a wife with a hobajillion alts), especially when I can level a new toon to 70 in a month.
Since I've been here, I've enjoyed the company of everyone in this guild, and a lot of great people on the server.I actually joined the guild two months before my profile shows, visiting here from my first server while looking for MSC, a Christian guild I had researched. I went back to my original server and spent my time leveling my dwarf from 40 to 70 there. It took 2 months to reach 70, then I came back here to Blade's Edge and never looked back. As I've mentioned in other threads, I've not always been happy with the server in general. The economy is poor at best, and I find the language in Trade to be really, really unsettling.
Even so, I think of this guild as my WoW home.
When I originally joined, I believe that the guild was raiding. I was just starting my character then, so I could be remembering it wrong. Soon after my return, a large number of guild members left for one reason or another. I had no relationship with anyone yet, so I don't know details. What little I do know, is that most members made the mature decision to put Real Life over this game. If it ever comes to that, I'll make the same choice. After that, the guild didn't have enough people at a high enough level to run any end-game content.
The participation in this guild, and the number of members, seemed to dwindle overnight. I know that the guild leadership was, and is trying to rebuild the number of active members to a point where the guild can, together, enjoy end-game content.
So, with very little experience in this game or this guild, I was asked to join the leadership of this guild. I've tried to help as much as I can, but I can honestly say that I have no idea what to do in this situation.
The first issue I see us struggling with is one of identity. If you ask everyone of our guild members how they perceive the guild, I believe you will get many different answers. Because of that, I believe that we also have many different expectations. This is frustrating, at best, and ultimately leads to dissatisfaction. People leave to find what they aren't finding here.
At this moment in time, I believe that we can describe our guild as a "social / casual" guild. What I mean by that is that we are a group of people who use our guild to chat, be friendly, and occasionally come together to group. We are not progressing past that as a group, and the truth is, THAT'S OK, if that is what the guild wants. Everyone plays this game for their own reasons, and has their own measure of success. Personally, I think that building a great set of friends would be a triumph on it's own merits. On the other hand, I want to see what the developers have put ahead of us.
I would love to see this guild meet everyone's expectations, to be everyone's idea of a success. I don't know if we can, especially if everyone's goals are different. I believe that we need people to express themselves on several key ideas, so we can decide on what we need to do. Remember, there are NO wrong answers here, but a YES or NO response is not acceptable. Neither is "I'd like to have fun / enjoy myself": that is self evident. We need to know what everyone wants. Tell us, in your own words, how you feel about these issues, and feel free to add ANYTHING else in your response.
- Guild Identity
How do YOU see our guild? Should we stay at this level of progress, or would you prefer to move to higher instances and raids? Why or why not? - Guild Responsibility
What do you feel the guild (both leadership and members) should be doing for it's members? What can we (both leadership and members) do differently to provide a better environment? - Guild Roles
On the other hand, what should individual members be doing to build the guild up? - Guild Leadership
Who would you like to see in or out of guild leadership (since I am not acting in an Officer capacity here, I can't say that this will make a difference. But I think it's important to see what your true feelings are here.) - Guild Participation
How can we re-energize the leaders and members of this guild, and what can we do to build each other up and encourage each other, both in and out of the game?
I will put my personal thoughts on these points in a reply following this post.
On a final, and personal, note: I find it difficult to believe that we, a group of people united by a love of GOD, and having so much trouble building a guild that grows and thrives, especially when I see people so full of worldly ideals thriving in this game. We know that the CGA is full of our brothers who are doing just that. Other servers in this game have multiple Christian guilds, and other games have Christian guilds that are thriving. I believe that we can as well.