Building A Raiding Guild: View from the Cheap Seats

Head over to Karthis' site and read Building a Raiding Guild and then come back to me when you're done.

As most of my readership knows, I'm a member of Karthis' guild. Heck, most of you found me from his blog. The following is the view from the cheap seats.

I joined back in Oct. At the time, I had a painful separation from my previous guild. They were "casual" raiders too. It wasn't going well. It was an awesome group of people, but they were lost. They wanted to progress, but not change. There's a lesson there.

Because I was a class rep and a raid coordinator who "took" 4 other raiders with me, it was a messy break-up. All told, three of us were officers. We saw the writing on the walls. No progression to be had here! It was painful because I was close to the guild leader and we've never spoken since. Since we had friends in QSS, we decided to give it a go. I'm glad we did.

Note: I never want to be "leadership" again!

As a group we came in "middle of the pack." Yet, for some reason our crew seemed to be an infusion for them. The guild's two main hunters were feeling burned out and were losing motivation. Too many huntard apps and not enough respect. The three (and later 4) of us clicked perfectly. Game on!

Not long after we joined, bosses started to drop. QSS was on a roll and we were along for the ride.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere in QSS was good but admittedly confusing. It was clear in guild-chat that there were two camps of people: The serious end-gamer & the casual player. I'll be honest here. The end-gamers did not give our casual players enough time or respect. The casual players were completely clueless about how frustrating they made things for the end-gamers. It was a bad mix at times, but it was also a fun place to be. For all the troubles, we were a good casual guild that raided. It was what I was looking for at the time.

Then Karthis came along and changed the entire flavor of the guild. I was very concerned. I was finally making friends and understanding the clicks. People were going to be kicked out of the guild. I didn't think that was right. I was scared that I had joined a new guild just to see it fall apart around me.

Thankfully, the guild split has come and gone. Instead of falling apart, QSS is thriving. Since the beginning of December, we've cleared 11 new bosses. We're planning a "first look" pull on Vashj and folks are actively working on their Black Temple attunements. We are getting "noticed." Real raiders are app'ing with us. Not bad for a guild that was struggling to get by Lurker at the beginning of November!

This is what Karthis and the rest of our leadership have accomplished for us. They realized what "we" wanted and changed to get it. They learned the lesson that my previous guild failed to grasp.

This is the part where I very respectfully point out some of the negatives to Karthis' great experiment as a warning to those of you out there thinking about trying it.

From the prospective of someone who stayed and feels generally respected by leadership, I'm ecstatic about the decision to split the guild. If I may sound extra harsh for a second, from a raider's prospective, "those people" were dead weight. How much do I think about the "sister guild?" Well, that's the thing...

There's nothing that tells me that we did right by Serenity. I wouldn't notice they even existed if it weren't for the fact that I joined the joint chat channel. I only did that to be a team player. And on the joint channel, what do I see? I see the guild leader and people from QSS who are making a show of support. I don't know that I've ever seen actual members on that channel, but I know they exist!

The other day, I was doing a stack of previously ignored quests in Netherstorm. I saw a few members of Serenity running around too. They weren't on the channel. I didn't know them. Sadly, I felt no compulsion to even acknowledge their existence. Frankly, they were just competition for my kills.

Again, this is not to say that Serenity can't or won't work. I've known the guild leader for a while now. He's great people. He and his wife are perfect to lead a social guild. I'm not privy to "management" decisions. Joint-guild Karazhan runs might actually happen. They may be a huge success for Serenity & for QSS member Alts. I just don't see the inter-guild "marketing" to prove it. The chat channel has become one more thing on my window to ignore.

At the end of the day, leadership made the best decision to advance us as a raiding guild. But before trying it, ask yourselves what you want your guild to be. Realize that you will hurt people's feelings. Know that the whole sister-guild thing could take more work than you realize. Know that you could split the guild and still not succeed.

Note: I mentioned the part about being glad I'm not leadership, right?

Finally, an extra thank you and an apology to Karthis. I didn't warn him this was coming. I hope he doesn't feel that I was questioning his decisions. I love what he's doing to QSS. It's totally working. I just hope the same can be said for Serenity.