The Guild WretchedFury now accepting...

...mature non-irritating, totally cool and incredibly skilled players who may get to instance/raid with us but if you do and we kill all the bosses you may or may not get loots and will ultimately recieve minimal recognition.

PS if you are actually a member of a guild called, "WretchedFury" I apologize because I totally just made up that name.

Ah guilds...

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way."

-- Charles Dickens

Yep, I think that pretty much sums it up. However, that would be a really short post so let me elaborate. Guild drama and/or politics. It's a fact, Jack. Any long term MMO player will undoubtedly have some experience with guilds small or large and the ensuing drama associated with them. Guilds are living entities full of angst, ritual, belief, joy, ambition etc...they are indeed, human. Therefore they are both good and evil. You should be prepared for equal amounts of each.

Here's the deal. Things seem to be getting pretty serious with me and Runes of Magic - as in I may want to stick with it for a few months. So Tivy and I have been thinking about joining a guild. Yes. Just thinking about it.

My lack of guild-joining action (in so much, I have not put one single ounce of effort into it) was exacerbated by a recent vent chat with some friends; to protect their identities, let's call them: MonChiChi, Fanilow, and Jane.

MonChiChi, Fanilow and I were officers in a WoW guild for a couple of years - we shall call it, GuildX. In fact, MonChiChi is still the Guild Manager (GM). Jane is GM of another guild, which she started because she felt that her previous guild was treating newbies unfairly. What an ogre. Sadly a big ol' dose of guild drama ensued, for reasons we won't discuss here, and Jane's guild appears to be mounting a mini-coup. All for utterly childish reasons, in my opinion. I suggested a mass /gkick but she, being more level-headed than me, opted for a "cooling-down" period. Whateves. I still say boot their asses.

But really that whole episode, which is tragically common, brought on a frantic PM session with Fanilow about our own post-traumatic stress issues with GuildX. Indeed, Fanilow got so worked up she's contemplating a retreat at a Zen monastary to chant and get in touch with her inner peace. To make her feel better, I'm sending her this. Yeah. Anyhoo... Here's what we agree on: (1)Being in GuildX was mostly fun, (2) we met some excellent people; (3) we got a lot of help and generally had good if not great experiences.

However as you can see from the discussion above, being officers of a guild has some downfalls. Beyond the fact that people forget that you too are human and a gamer, you become judge, jury, babysitter etc... There are higher expectations of you because you are an officer and in some regards this is justified. I'm just saying that you should be prepared to lose some of the ability to disappear into a game and all that may mean...unless you make a secret toon or "Alt". I tried that then I remembered seeing some chatter in a guild I was in previously, about that being an "ultimate betrayal" and "OMG how could she make an Alt and keep it secret" blah, blah, spew, spew. Then I figured, in my case, it might go down like this:

"I can't believe 'Trickyfish' is really Smelt. I bet she's leveling up to join Guild 'SuperRaidHappySunshine' and we'll be short a healer for our raids and God knows we can't afford that because this guild generally sucks already. You know she shouldn't be an officer if she puts her alt in that other guild. I should be running this guild. Let's tell everyone to just /ignore Smelt even if she is an awesome healer."

Okay, I added that last bit in. Yes, this may have been rampant paranoia but I never really played my secret Alt, and I kinda liked that little gnome rogue.

Oh and if you are an inherent people-pleaser don't become a guild officer, as there is simply no way to please everyone and/or meet everyone's expectations. In the end, the resulting Machiavellian exploits, perceived or real, may become too much for any sane person.

So this is where I'm at, contemplating joining a guild after moving on from GuildX. Am I ready to deal with all the good AND the bad that comes with guilds? Am I able to simply be part of a guild and not get sucked into the politics of one? Dunno, but this is my blog and I write what I want!