Despite the title, and despite the content, this is a relatively positive post. Just sayin’.

The game is very cyclic. I’ve said this all along, and I’ve come to accept that most of the time, most raiding guilds will have a use-by date that they will reach, and no matter how successful they are, how good the atmosphere, how long the relationships, how aggressive the recruitment – sometimes there’s just no way to salvage raiding, because the announcement of a new expansion plants a seed in the minds of a lot of raiders.

I remember standing at Thorium Point, with 35 people online, and having to give up. Guild split. Heartbreak.

I remember standing in front of the Sunwell, /dancing with SOS members, hoping we had enough priests for Felmyst, and having to give up. Guild disband. Heartbreak.

I remember standing in Dalaran, after two raid leaders leave in quick succession; having a bit of an exhausted cry and giving up. Rival guilds sent condolences through PMs, and my awesome guildies pulled together enough people to go back in.. but it wasn’t enough. No disband, but we shrunk down to only a handful of friends. Heartbreak.

And now, again, attrition claims enough people to make it too difficult to keep trying to LK25 heroic.



Lol fail

T-minus not-very-long before the vultures start circling, and post harassment on the realm forums.

But hey, what can you do. We tried, and we didn’t get there. We’re by no means special; this is happening (and has happened) to many guilds out there. The expansion is coming, the current content is losing its lustre.. now is the perfect time to take a break, go play StarCraft, get some sunlight, etc. I know that we’re not a “fail” guild. It’s sad that we didn’t get there, but we didn’t fall apart in the process, at least. I’m happy for the guilds who got there (or will get there soon). Mostly though, it’s not the Lich King that will kill guilds, it’s attrition. That doesn’t make a fail guild, it just makes a tired one.

If powerhouses like Death and Taxes can die from a slow bleed, then none of us are immune either.

Obviously, I have that heavy feeling still, the heavy feeling that we (the Management) failed our guild. We couldn’t get them the LK kill. It’s great that we got there, after almost faltering before (but taking a break to recharge), and I’m proud of that. We were at least attempting LK. But we couldn’t get them the kill. We couldn’t fix the leak in the boat.

Of course, it’s not specifically the fault of the officers, it’s a team thing. But I do shoulder a lot of the responsibility and wish I could have fixed things. Unfortunately, when it gets to the point that veterans are tired and need a break, it rattles the confidence of the rest of the group, and people start slacking. Not logging on for invites – staying on alts until they see that there’s enough people online, for example. Only problem with that is that if everyone thinks that way, then nobody will log on.. The frustration builds, the bickering starts, more people leave because they don’t like the atmosphere – which isn’t our real atmosphere, and that is always acknowledged in the farewell posts – and so the leak continues.

I’ve been saying for a long time that there will come a time that we should just stop. Stop pushing. Don’t drive the guild into the ground.



Boss kills in under 30 minutes or they’re free

Sadly, raiders of today (*waves walking cane around*) just have no stamina. Gone are the days of working on a boss for a month or two. I guess that’s not necessarily a BAD thing, but the upshot is that Blizzard’s “entry level” content and content-for-everybody meant that a lot of people grew accustomed to being able to blaze through bosses in an hour or two, rather than a month or two. Again, by itself, not a bad thing – but the problem lies in the last few not-so-easy bosses. The raid butts its head up against these walls, the wall won’t fall in a single night of attempts, and people decide that it must be an insurmountable hurdle.

And they either quit, or go join a guild who has already climbed the wall.

Only 418 guilds have killed heroic LK25. That’s pretty tiny. But I still think that many people have it in their heads that it should be a lot more easier to obtain than it is.



Live to fight another day

Molten Core: guild split
Sunwell: guild disband
Naxx: verrrry shaky ground
Ulduar: all but disbanded

Molten Core was a different guild.. but the TBC and WotLK ups and downs were with my current guild. History tends to repeat itself, and I was aware of that as we went into ICC. I didn’t want to be a defeatist of course, we have done very well in ICC and led the way for a long time. Lots of good times and triumphs. But I knew that once the expansion was announced and details ramped up, that once we were down to one or two bosses left and the content was becoming boring for some.. I knew it would only be a matter of time. I didn’t want to be Keeva the walking death knell, but yeah, I called it.

You can’t force people to want to play. If they’re tired, or bored, there’s only so much you can do to re-energize them.

We tried, in Sunwell. In Naxx. In Ulduar. It ended in disaster, with the guild pretty much exploding all over the place, and the officers with ulcers (or gone).

So this time around, I said no pushing. If we get to the point where attrition is starting to bite, we’re not going to go on massive recruitment drives, we’re not going to push our guild and ourselves to breaking point in order to get that final notch on our belts. “I would rather stop short of our goal and have the guild survive,” I said. I knew that at the very worst, the guild would be forced to “go back to” 10man raiding – and while didn’t say that in public because I didn’t want to discourage people from reaching their 25man goals, secretly I would have been thrilled to go back to 10mans. We had so much fun in TOC as a 10man guild.

It’s sad, I wanted to finish one patch/expansion “properly”. Although, I am not really the hardcore raider I once was. I’m not much of a fan of hard modes, to be honest. Some of them are fun, but most of them I just refer to as “more-annoying-mode”. Redoing the same boss, just made more annoying. Often causing more pain than the belt notch is worth, and fast-forwarding our attrition due to burnout, frustration, and boredom.

We’re just short of the mark. But this time, we’re not going to die (in a spectacular display of fireworks). Inexorable guild is Inexorable. By refusing to push the team (and the guild) to breaking point, we will live to fight another day.

Attrition has defeated our 25man raid team – but this time – we’re not dissolving, disbanding, exploding, dying, etc. The true stalwarts remain, and that makes me very happy.

A few of the old core will seek their HMLK kill elsewhere. Me.. I don’t care about it so much. I’ll go back later, in Cataclysm, and do it “for lols”. Two days ago I finally got my Ragnaros and Ossirian kills on Keeva. I’ll get the notch on my belt eventually.. I don’t particularly care about being able to trumpet that I killed X boss before Y date. For a lot of people that is a badge of honor; I care less and less these days about elitist badges of honor based on how speedily you kill something. I do not believe that killing C’thun or KJ or HMLK “pre-nerf” (etc) makes you a better (or more fulfilled) player.

I’ve changed. I’d rather see the content and enjoy the ride. I like progression, but I’d rather be 45th on the realm ladder and 3789th on the world ladder, playing with good people and having a great time – than 1st on the realm ladder and smothering myself with heroic mode stress and attrition pressure. Nuts to THAT.

For now, our 10man teams will keep working on HM LK, and we’ll regroup and see how many raiders we have, perhaps run some no-pressure 25s for gear, alts, like we did when we took a bit of a break a few months ago – 25man raiding without the must-do-heroics stress.

I’m sad to see people go, and sad we couldn’t get the HM LK kill that people wanted. But it feels good knowing that the guild itself isn’t (and never was) in jeopardy, this time around.



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