Open for Business April 7, 2011
Posted by Stormy in Guild Stuff.3 comments
(Yes, I know I said I was making this announcement Friday, but yesterday life took a turn for the weirdly awesome, and frankly I can’t wait anymore. And as long as I’m here, *THANK YOU* to Anne Stickney of WoW Insider for noticing our little corner of the world. I may have had a small coronary event when I checked my WordPress dashboard yesterday, but it was worth it!)
So. Out with it, eh? Sane Asylum is now open for business. Those of you who have been following The Asylum Wall from the beginning (both of you) know that I was in an ill-fated casual guild until recently, and that after the guild broke up I did some soul-searching to figure out what I want in a guild and what I think makes a guild successful. The solution, it seems, was under my nose the whole time. Yesterday I filed a ticket with Blizzard and they gave me the Guild Master position, and today marks the official rebirth of Sane Asylum. My partners in crime, Rush and Suz, have graciously agreed to help run things, and we’re now officially OPEN FOR BUSINESS.
Why am I telling you this? Sane Asylum is recruiting. But we’re not recruiting just anyone. We’re looking for a higher class of people to play with. We’re looking for people who share our values:
- Everyone is welcome. Raiders, casuals, altoholics, PvPers, crafters, auction house junkies…come one, come all.
- While you’re in the Asylum, you will be treated with respect. Behind every WoW character there’s a real human being, and we will ensure that you’re treated with respect at all times. We don’t tolerate racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. Sane Asylum is a safe haven, and is LGBT friendly.
- From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. We love people who are willing to use their various professions and their vast knowledge of WoW to contribute to the success of the guild.
If any of the following describes you, then you’re the kind of person we’d love to play WoW with:
- Trade chat makes me crazy.
- I grow weary of racist/sexist/homophobic remarks in-game.
- I like playing WoW with people who know their class, and yet also enjoy playing with people who may know the answers to any questions I have.
- I speak in complete sentences and I’m smarter than a fifth grader.
- I enjoy one or more of the following: Aaron Sorkin, Broadway, blogging about WoW, politics, snarky jokes, Monty Python, Kevin Smith and/or Christopher Guest movies, playing WoW with fun people.
- I’m looking for a guild home where I’m noticed, appreciated, treated equally, and where I spend just as much time laughing at /guild as I do playing the game.
The particulars:
- Sane Asylum is currently Guild Level 17.
- Horde side, Garrosh-US.
- All classes and all levels welcome.
- I can’t promise any raids right now. We’re working on it.
- Sign up for a GuildLaunch account if you don’t have one already, then head to http://www.saneasylum-garrosh.com.
So…there you have it. My big announcement. I’m excited! Let’s do this!
Wandering… March 12, 2011
Posted by Stormy in Guild Stuff, Personal.1 comment so far
A month makes all the difference, I guess. A month ago when I wrote my previous post I was an officer in <Sane Asylum>, a medium-sized social-guild-that-raids. I picked up the occasional raiding spot when I had the time and energy and there was a spot available. I did a random on my priest every day. I was working through Tol Barad dailies going after one of the new spectral mounts. I was putzing around on a baby paladin, herbing on my druid, and generally having as much fun as one can reasonably expect to have in Azeroth.
Then the world caved in.
Here’s the long, rambling background: A year and a half ago when I started playing WoW, I joined a guild made up of players who had a common thread: they were all members of another (non-WoW-related) website, who had banded together and put together one of the largest and most successful guilds on our server. One of the founders of the guild was also an officer and healing lead in another hardcore raiding guild on another server, and last spring that guild broke up. She mentioned her other guild, and many of the folks from the hardcore raiding guild came to our server and to our guild. All was copacetic until this summer, when several of us became more and more dissatisfied with the machinations of our guild leadership. Long story short, there was a blow-up in early August and several of us left. We founded <Sane Asylum> by the skin of our teeth, back in the good old days when it took ten people to sign a guild charter. Several weeks later, the remainders of the aforementioned hardcore raiding guild left and joined us.
We founded a guild based on the idea that everyone in our guild was equal, irrespective of race, gender, sexual orientation, and most importantly, the way they play the game. Bleeding-edge hardcore raiders were welcome to join us, but they were told up front that we were not A Raiding Guild. Casuals, altoholics, serious raiders, auction house fanatics…everyone was welcome. Everyone had a place. Raiders were welcome and raids would happen, but we set out to make sure that if you were in our guild and wanted to raid, we’d make it happen. Your personal success in this game was second to the idea that we’re a casual guild of players enjoying content…together. Somewhere along the way, we lost that. The hardcore raiding folks demanded a set raiding schedule with set raid teams, the original founders and officers said no, that’s not what we’re here for.
Things came to a head two weeks ago today when our GM and Other Old Raiding Guild GM got together in Vent and there was a blow-out. I was online but not in Vent at the time, and had no idea this was coming until I saw “OldGMFriend has left the guild.” followed by an endless stream of “OldRaidingGuildMember has left the guild.” All at once, in the space of ten minutes, fifty little daggers. “Friend has left the guild.” “Guy you killed the Lich King with has left the guild.” “Woman you considered a good friend has left the guild.” “Friend’s husband has left the guild.” “Original guildie who brought all these amazing people to your server has left the guild.”
Two weeks later the damage is irreversible. Two of our three officers, the two people I left my original guild for, have quit playing WoW entirely. He’s still listed as GM, but he hasn’t been on in a week and she hasn’t been on since the day after the split. I log onto my druid every day and check the roster, and almost every day there are new /gquits. Because I’m still friends with everyone on both sides and because I really don’t have a dog in this fight, I pulled my priest out of Sane Asylum and put her in Old Raiding Guild’s new incarnation. For a few days after the split, my friends in the new guild made a good effort. I got a few whispers asking me if I was okay, and I was invited to do a heroic, which I now look back on as a pity random. But I don’t belong there. I’m not a hardcore raider. I don’t have the reflexes, the lightning-quick thinking, the situational awareness, the inside-and-out knowledge of my class and everyone else’s class necessary to be a progression raider. I’m an altoholic who plays at all hours of the day, not a hardcore raider who logs on twice a week for three hours to raid and then goes away.
I’ve been trying to find things to fill my WoW time. I putzed around on my now-72 Alliance priest on Emerald Dream, and it wasn’t any fun. I rolled a toon on Proudmoore and applied to Taint, and didn’t get in. I rolled a toon on Zangarmarsh and joined <It came from the Blog>, the WoW Insider guild (and I must say, Robin Torres is *amazing*)…but it just wasn’t home. I’ve gotten the most enjoyment out of repeatedly soloing Magister’s Terrace on my priest for the mount and pet, and because Tormenta of the Shattered Sun sounds so damned cool. But I log onto my toons on Garrosh and I just feel…adrift. My old guild has one guy who’s on every day leveling his mid-70s shaman, but I don’t really know him. The Old Raiding Guild’s new incarnation feels cold and inhospitable, even though I know and miss everyone there.
And so…I wander.
