The inevitable guild decay has occured a little sooner than I thought. It imploded tonight.
Two hardcore raiders (our raid leader, and the drama mama which reminded me of Ayls' with none of the loyalty) forced the issue.
See, as far as I can gather from the behind-the-scenes stuff that was fairly well hidden by guild management, and just listening to the guild officers talk on Vent, and the one preliminary tell sent to me the last raid by the drama mom, there had been plans to create a sister raiding guild to our current casual guild.
Except the guild officers wanted to make sure our current casual guild was being well looked after by a new leadership before all flocking over, so they wanted to wait a bit, do a proper announcement, and so on.
Meanwhile, the two hardcore raid nuts were busy politicking with all the other AoC guilds to siphon off the hardcore raid fanatics.
And tonight, what happened was that the drama mama started sending individual tells to her 'allies' to leave the guild and join the new guild. They all left obediently, in a drove, which started to puzzle the more casual guildies and provoked a lot of questions to guild management...which took one look, and went "wtf? what's happening here? didn't we ask them to wait? after all, this is killing morale."
So the guild officers went to talk to the two raiders, and also asked some questions of the people who left (who pointed them back to the original request from drama mama). And apparently, the raid leader essentially told the guild leader to go fuck himself, he was no longer the leader of the new guild, you can't control what I do, and so on.
Badda bing, bada boom. That was the last straw. And now all the guild officers have decided to call it quits in AoC, not join the raiding guild after all, and move to Warhammer.
This kinda makes it a moot decision for me, and I made a snap one on the spot. See, it goes like this:
I do know how to handle drama mamas and basically wiggle my way into their good graces, but I don't see why I should bother. Especially on this one, who seems to be a master instigator of poisoning people against each other in private tells. I can smell the signs. I got enough tells from her to know. This one will bring drama wherever she goes.
Meanwhile, the raid leader is an okay kind of guy, but he was a hardcore raider that joined the guild as a second-generation sort of thing, in order to raid. That's his priority. The more the casual raids fail, the more he's going to get driven up the wall, and start chewing the ceiling. Especially if his ear is being poisoned.
He also has very little real clue as to what is involved in tanking in AoC, and has been demanding things in a very WoW-like fashion. He believes it's all about gear. Well, news for you, bright chap, they're going to NERF the gemmed out gear very soon, and all the invinci-tanks are going to be not so invincible anymore.
As much as I'd like to learn from a senior tank the ropes and all, I seriously doubt that it's going to be worth my time to stay and struggle to make ludicrous raid day requirements. (It's apparently a mandatory 5 days now, says our disgusted guild leader. Which is obviously impossible for me. I was thinking 3 days a week would be pushing it.)
Besides, I'm not sure there are any senior tanks left. Our MT left in a big spat with drama mama, remember? The invinci-tank from Radical Dreamers took one look at the gem nerf and left for WAR. (I know, I was bored enough to go sign up on their guild website and read the public info - mostly because it was just after the joint raid which downed the big K and I was curious to see if they posted any celebration threads.)
I have very little confidence in Funcom itemization now, anyhow, and I'd rather give them about 6-12 months to struggle through the hard times (if they don't go bust immediately) and improve it like Vanguard before I come back to mess around.
And of course, drama follows those who create it. I'm not going to be a fool and join a guild which was planned to be called Malicious Intent, so said the drama mama in a private tell on the last raid night. (That just stinks of poison, come on.)
So screw it. I'm done with AoC raiding. And shortly, I will be done with AoC.
I'm going on to WAR, and I'm going to tag along with the guild management and company whose well-thought-out posts and general handling of the guild were pure quality, even through ridiculous behind-the-scenes raid drama.
I checked my subscription. It expires Sep 25 on a three-month billing cycle. I'm not going to be an idiot and cancel immediately - because it apparently locks you out of the game in a day or two. (Go Failcom!)
What I am going to do, before Sep 8 (and early access) or Sep 23ish for WAR opening day, is play in a solo casual fashion, my HoX. I want to see the new solo instance before I go. Or some of the newer group instances if I can find some kind of PUG or lowbie guild (if there's anyone left) group for them.
I'll run around and take some farewell screenies too. Because AoC really is beautiful.
Then once I'm done with that, by Sep 20th or so, I will cancel the subscription, five days before the next billing. That has to be enough time for it to take. If not, I will jolly well contest the next billing, that's all.
I gotta do SOMETHING to keep me occupied between now and when I can log into WAR again, after all. :) It's, like, 14 days. Argh! :P
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