I became the guild leader of my current guild by default. I didn’t ask for the job, as such, it kinda just landed on me. It suits me to a point – I’m a bit sad about trying to keep the guild vault organised, I’m naturally a little bit bossy and occasionally a bit stroppy (having kids will do that for you!) and try to be straightforward about who I am and what I believe to be right.
The guild used to be in a guild alliance with another that was approximately the same size – both of us struggling to get enough for 10 man groups up. It seemed natural to club together and for a while, and on the whole, it worked well. However – it was an absolute nightmare to administer. There was always someone from one guild or the other than annoyed people, there were often people from the other guild who, when their complaints weren’t heard or dealt with how they liked in their own guild, would come to complain to me about them instead. It got to the stage where, every evening when I logged in, I would simply stand still for hours on end and talk to people, trying to solve problems.
In the end, that guild alliance broke up – the “other” guild merged with another, meaning that they no longer needed ours in order to run 10 mans and indeed, they occasionally had enough for 25 mans.
The whole experience though, rather than causing a mass exodus from ours, brought us closer together and gave us the push needed to “go it alone”. We regularly get enough (just!) to enter the 10 mans, and are slowly progressing and having fun. And to make things even better, now I can log in, say “hi” in guild chat and on the majority of occasions just get straight stuck into gameplay, which is such a relief.
Unfortunately, I do sometimes feel that I have to give the guild a nudge. Usually it just about runs itself – the majority of members are adults who don’t need to be told what is and what is not acceptable – they’re a good bunch of people who all have the same or similar goals and who can sort any minor problems out for themselves. Which means that when I do feel that I need to sort something out, it feels like I’m interfering – should I just leave things “as is” and hope they sort themselves out, or should I deal with it before it causes problems?
I have kids and, as most parents will know, there are certain times when you can just leave them to it, but other times things start getting “just a little” out of hand – and you just know that if you leave it, one of them is going to end up crying, or something is going to get broken (or both!) – which then involves a huge amount of drama, slamming of doors, sulking, etc. So you step in before it gets to that point and stop it – they may not like you for it, but its certainly better than the alternative.
But I’ve also got to take my own mood and feelings into account. Am I wanting to step in because its the best thing to do on the whole, or because what is happening is just annoying me? If it is annoying me – is it just me, or are other people feeling exactly the same, waiting for me to step in? If I do something, are others going to be surprised or shocked by it, or happy it has been dealt with?
Sometimes, it would just be nice to have some interaction I guess. Or someone else to do the hard stuff!
You know that point in time when you talk to your kids and they just stare past you? Well online, they could even have gone for a cuppa, and you wouldn’t know it!
I just wonder sometimes – do people not complain about stuff because they have nothing to complain about, or because they are worried what my reaction could be, or because they simply don’t care? Or are they storing up each little bug of annoyance, each one too little in itself to do anything about, but eventually something will be one too many annoyances and they will just up and leave without saying anything? I also worry that I’m a complete idiot for being worried about people NOT complaining!
(I’m not comparing the guildees to a bunch of kids by the way – just giving an insight into why I do what I do, when I do it!)
*sigh*
Sprowting Words 