An Accusatory Slash and Five Harsh Letters

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I posted a month ago about the difficulties that Shadowgarde was going through as this tier of raiding winds down. I'm sorry to say that things haven't gotten any better.

Since that post I feel like I've tried everything I could think of to get my guild raiding again. I attempted to recruit and organize a new raid team, which proved only marginally successful. We did manage to get a few raids off the ground by utilizing a fairly random cross-section of PUGers as getting guild members to show up was near impossible. The results were not quite disastrous, but hardly high-end progression. I really felt like we were spinning our wheels and sliding backwards.

Short of cattle-prods or cash bribes, I don't really know what else to do to get people motivated and raiding again. Shadowgarde has always been a casual and social guild that raided, but it seems as though almost all of the core group of raiders have drifted away from the game or from raiding to other things, so staying is not an ideal situation for someone who still has the Progression Bug. Moving my main to a more active raiding guild was the logical choice, rather than trying to turn a guild into something it's not.

However, I am glad that I decided to try to get raiding back on track. I feel like it would have been discourteous to sneak out in the middle of the night when our raiding stumbled without at least giving it a solid effort to turn it around.

Typing /gquit felt decidedly harder than I thought it would. That slash at the front of the word seemed very accusatory, and the five letters that followed it have a nasty, unsavoury look about them.

END OF AN ERA

"Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So... get on your way." - Dr. Seuss

I admit that I've been quietly shopping for a new raiding guild since I wrote Unfamiliar Waters, just in case things didn't work out. Even before writing it I had started paying attention to the Guild Recruitment spam in Trade Chat again, and I had been checking out the odd guild website but not really finding anything that really intrigued me enough to put in an application.

However, the real impetus to actually make the move was when my good friend and Shadowgarde guildie mentioned to me that he was thinking of finding a more active raiding guild as well. Having some support really kicked things into high gear, and two days, one Mumble interview and one exceptionally smooth run through five of the Blackwing Descent bosses, I am now a member of Mountain Top. 

Mountain Top is a new guild created by a couple of people that I've come to know from the WoW Twitter community: Gniesha and Mylindara. I approached Gniesha (who is a regular reader and commenter of Battle Medic and Dear Dwarfling, a blogger, and a very flirty Twitterer) about her new guild and before long, we were in their Mumble channel chatting away like old friends. These folks seem like a lot of fun to be around, and seemed to be genuinely excited about having me come on board, which fells really great.

"We will stomp to the top with the wind in our teeth." - George Mallory, English mountaineer who died climbing Mount Everest.

One of the nice things about joining a newly formed guild is the opportunity to get in on the ground floor. While it seems as if Mountain Top's goals and attitudes are compatible with my own, there is a much greater chance to have an influence on the direction of a new guild than there would be if I joined up with a large guild that already had their culture, policies and attitudes established for a long time. This new guild will evolve and grow as it establishes itself, and I get to be there from the beginning (well, practically, they started two weeks ago) to see where it goes and perhaps nudge it's direction now and then with a suggestion or two. That's almost as exciting as starting my own guild, but without all the paperwork and ulcers.

A POTENTIAL CATCH

If there is one thing that I'm worried about, it's that their raiding schedule is not yet set. When my guidie and I talked about leaving Shadowgarde, we made a pact that no matter where we went, we would go together. His schedule is even more hectic and uncertain than my own, so finding a raiding guild that will not only welcome both of us together, has the attitude and skill we are looking for, and yet still works for both of our schedules is a daunting challenge. Time will tell all, but I'm hoping Mountain Top is that guild.

Mountain Top