My wife and I left a guild over some policy drama between the officers (us) and the GLs, which couldn’t be resolved. We took a break, and a few months later, friends of ours from the same guild started talking to us about leaving and starting a new guild. Feeling positive, I started a guild for them on another server, and we started dicking around for fun. Got a vent server and the works.

Then one or two holdouts who had complained about rerolling convinced us to help them start another guild on our original server, and build it carefully to be the guild we were all proud of. Sadly, somewhere in that first month or so of building it up, our visions diverged, and my wife and I ended up leaving, with more drama than I wished for, and ending a few friendships I’d cherished.

We took an extended break, closed our accounts, and quietly started looking for other ways to have fun together. A couple of our closest WoW friends stayed in touch, and finally one of them convinced me recently to go back to our little starter guild for fun, and that’s exactly what it’s been. I’m not even tanking; I’m the guild healer, and still I’m having fun, playing it my own way and enjoying the company again.

I may never get to see 25-man content, and will consider myself lucky to make it back to 10-man content in time, but I know for certain that I’ll never join another guild that puts raiding before friendships.

Anyway. Raiding and progression with SASU = much fun and goodness. :D But it’s difficult to find a great group of people like that, and I count myself very lucky.

The first one I joined said they would rush me through kara to gear me up for SSC/TK. That didn’t happen, and after I left I said my apologies to the GM and he sid it’s ok, the guild was essentially dead from day one anyway.

The next 2 guilds I joined just didn’t have much life to them, no socialising in /g at all.

Then I found my current guild, Cymbrogi (pronounced coom-bro-gee, means “brothers in arms” in welsh) which raids around the time I want, is filled with very friendly guys and is only just starting SSC/TK (gruul down twice).

So far I am making lots of friends in here, although I am still just a trial since my schedule has meant I have only been on one kara raid, and then only up to opera.

I have had friends that /gquit and join guilds that are progessing faster than my current guild. Some stay away, others come back. My guild is a Raiding Casual guild, as opposed to a Casual Raiding guild. Raiding is important and structured, but the casual aspect of the game is a very close second. A lot of people go to a harder raiding guild and, although happy to be moving on to SSC, are kinda bummed because their new guilds are just not very friendly usually. They always complain about constant QQing in raids over gear and, as one person most aptly put it the other day, “Their mutual selfishness is all that holds them together.” In other words, each person is their for selfish gain, and in order for them to get what they want they put up with each other for a few hours a night.

You complain too often about not winning a roll on a boss drop in my guild you will soon find yourself not getting invites to the runs. If you roll on stuff that you don’t need that someone else does, you’ll get uninvited fast. But if you can be cool about it, roll when you need, accept when there are others who aren’t as well off as you and they might need more than you, then your turn will come and you will get the drops and gear often enough to progress.

So, we’ve downed Gruuls once. We run one or two Kara groups per week, have downed the first three bosses in ZA. Sure, I’d like to see all the good stuff to come. Just not enough to bail on folks that have helped me get where I’m at, and who I trust to do their job well, and who I know won’t toss the guilt trip at me if I say, “Hey, those boots are a vast improvement on what I’m using now.” There is some trust and comfort in that.

Briefly, I became raid leader because I did all the above and I pushed people to do it. With me, we hit Curator and downed him.. once. After that, everyone wanted in, blamed me for not letting them in, a bee farted and it’s Kiki’s fault!

So I quit being raid leader and I quit the guild because I was being told it’s my fault that we weren’t progressing. I tried organizing runs into instances and heroics. No one could be bothered. They wanted it handed to them on a silver platter.

I quit because being a raider and raid leader in that guild was going to make me leave the game. I took my ‘raiding’ alt and I went into a progression guild with her. I still did 5-mans and heroics and ventured into Kara with my main guild, just not with my warlock (usually).

I will say one thing.. since I left (and a few other people who were self-propelled but not able to carry the whole guild with them), they got off their asses and have progressed. Was it a wake-up call? Mebbe. Was it just timing? Mebbe. Who knows! But they’ve downed Prince a few times now as a guild. (Which is absolutely awesome for them!)

Kikidas is currently guildless due to “Big Blow Up” … twice. :( It’s depressing having to look for another guild and make new friendships and “prove” myself, all over again.

My other alts are having fun in my main guild, which is what I want for me and for them. :) Kikidas comes along occasionally to blow things up where applicable.

Shameless plug http://purrfect-kitty.blogspot.com/2008/03/guild-progression.html

Excellent post :) To me, progression isn’t about the whole “we’re better than you because we’ve cleared BT”. It’s about the feeling that comes when, after a month of wiping multiple times on one encounter, you finally get to the point where, inexplicably, everyone suddenly gets it. Things click into place, and you see that dang fish’s health bar going steadily down. You don’t dare get too excited because people could still lose it and we could drop a whole platform to a spout, or one of those annoying cleaving melee adds. But no, things are really working, we’re almost there, and then finally, he’s dead. Those weeks and weeks of “learning” have finally paid off and we have conquered!

That feeling right there is why I raid, why I stick with my guild when “that guy” has gotten on my last nerve, when I’m down to my last 100g because I’ve had to spend so much on repairs. I love new shiny purples as much as the next girl, but even loot is secondary to that sense of accomplishment.

I wish you best of luck in your endeavors with Gruul and starting the 25-man content.. may that feeling soon be yours!

Wish you were European so I could join you in game ;)

I can relate to your crankiness. While I enjoy joking around and having fun as much as the next guy, I also realize that there are times when people need to get down to business (in real life too, not just WoW), and it annoys the hell out of me when the goofing off starts to do nothing but waste my time. I think the line that separates a guild that has fun raiding and one that lets things get too out of hand is having a group of players that understand that there’s a time to STFU, get serious, and listen to whomever is in charge.

That’s tough to achieve in a game… a game that people play for fun… usually to escape from real-world responsibilities for a while. I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have ended up in a situation where my guildmates know where to draw the line between having fun and just plain wasting time. I wish more guilds were like that so that people weren’t so turned off to raiding or made to feel like raiding is a second job.

Whatever happens with the new additions to your guild and your new raiding schedule, I hope it works out in a way that keeps the game enjoyable for everyone, and not just the hardcore few or the ones who only want to get online and dick around. GL!