Hyacinth,Oct 3 2005, 07:56 PM Wrote:The question of guild direction is important. We need to recognize that individuals have different desires for gameplay. Can those differences be accomodated in one guild? After all, that's part of why there are different guilds out there. I like to believe that there is room for "daily" raiders and those who don't want to raid every day, but would like to join a group a few times a week. To do that, we need to be tolerant of the desire to form a raid, and tolerant of those who want to do something else on some evenings. That also means that some days we may not get a raid group together.
Right now, we have some people on vacation and school pressures keeping others offline. That means the group is smaller than it might appear. That too is a reality we need to face. Judicious recruiting can help increase the pool of individuals that will be online, and thus the raid groups can be more predictable. Recruiting of good individuals may be the right answer - providing a solid network of people that can join for a raid, or for more casual gameplay.
Will we be a major MC raid guild? Honestly, I care about that less than having a network of individuals that I enjoy. Cyr would like to build the group to MC capability, and it can do so with time and care. But if we want to build the group skills to that point, it will take patience and instruction. It will take carefully guided raids where group expectations are laid out prior to each encounter area. It will take leadership from those that do want to build an MC capability. And it will take careful recruiting.
I'd like to see Moonwell Dancers be able to accomodate social gaming and the raid groups. I'd like to be able to join a raid group with guild members a few times a week. I'd also like to be able to play solo, with an alt, or just with a smaller group of friends on other days. My schedule is not going to be bound to Monday and Wednesday as open days. I don't want to have to commit that if I am online any other evening, that I will be in a raid group. Can we make Moonwell Dancers a guild that is capable of supporting this? I think the answer is yes.
The 7PM time can be a general meeting time for anyone who wants to go into a raid group. Most nights, a group should be able to be formed, as it has been. Those who don't want to join, should not feel pressure to join. Also, people should not actively recruit for instance runs at 7PM, although again, there will be some casual groups that will overlap for folks who don't want to do the raid run. With good membership, this should not be an issue.
Raid leadership should rotate - it is not fair to expect one or two individuals to always organize and manage the raids. We need a solid cadre of leaders - folks like Keshi, Zia, Friz, Cyr and a few more who will lead the raids. This will help provide variety, as well as a deeper bench of leaders.
We can not be a guild of all things to all people though. For individuals that want to have 15-40 person raids each night, we have a long way to go, if ever. There are guilds that are far more aggressive at raiding than we are. Those that are looking for that sort of very high-intensity experience may be better off in one of those guilds. I personally would like to keep the more casual and friendly atmosphere that characterizes Moonwell Dancers.
Let's hear your thoughts. What do you want from Moonwell Dancers?
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Lots of good stuff here.
1) I think we need to recognize the nights we're not going to get a raid going and be done with it. In all reality, we should have called 'no raid' last night.
2) Recruiting is a big issue. I, personally, am completely against *open recruiting* w/o some kind of screening. Miser does a sponsorship system, whereby people apply to them, and then the guild raids with them, and the person doesn't gain entrance unless a ranking guild member agrees they are worthy of sponsorship. This kind of carefully screened approach I could live with. However, with 3) below, it's a moot point.
3) Yeah, 7 PM will be a general time nightly for raids. No guarantees that a raid will make that night. If we don't have the numbers by 9:15, disband and go on, I think. No pressure to join, no criticism of other people in other instances or whatever. Someone build a rogue, please. Z will be in a raid guild with this one.
4) However, you can't have your cake and eat it, too. ZG and MC are out of reach for MWD with the above setup, most likely. We have to plan accordingly. You can't recruit, if you don't deliver any regular raids.
So, you come down to recruiting and delivering raids, or keeping it as you are, and forgetting about regular raids, only raiding when someone is willing to lead one and deal with the frustration of forming a full raid one night in three, maybe. I don't think you can do both. YMMV.
Regardless, with the clear statement above, I think it's time for Keshi to apply to raid, but I'll be like Monkee..building an alt here, and raiding with MWD all the time, but not expecting MWD to take part in anything they don't want to.
--Mav