Understanding it..
I’m a big, stubborn brute of a man. I learned at a young age that you can go so far to help people out but sometimes you’re wasting your time when people don’t want to help themselves.
There are lots of reasons that the guild is the way it is and central to those reasons is my own fulfilment. If i’m not enjoying the way the guild is then it falls apart. I have one person to keep happy above all others and that is myself and for very good reason. I’m the one who has been here since the very beginning and I’m the one who will always be here. It’s up to me to invite everyone to come along with us, and that’s where it gets complicated. My own happiness comes from knowing we have a big bunch of people who feel like they belong, so while my intentions are to ensure I am happy, that is all for the good of the guild.
The Dambusters guild aims to provide a platform so that people can feel at home in a community without toxicity and where there are very few limitations on the type of WoW content our guild members consume. If a few guys want to get together and start a new Rated Battleground team again then I will support them in every way I can. We have done so before and we might do again. If some guys want to do 3v3 arena then the guild has a Discord channel they can use and a pool of players they can shout to when they need a new teammate. Doesn’t mean they’ll get an answer when they shout, but at least there’s a community here to ask. There’s also nothing stopping recruitment to the guild.
Raid teams are encouraged and operate under the umbrella of the guild. This is so that I am able to maintain an element of control over how the guild name is outwardly perceived in the wider community. For example, if the raid team turns out to be a bunch of jerks then that bunch of jerks are displaying ‘The Dambusters’ above their heads and thus, I have the right to correct things. My raid leaders are pillars of the officer team who are positioned by me in order that they command respect not only within their team but among the wider guild community. If a raid leader is not performing then I have the right to express my opinions and come to an understanding or else find new people to fulfil the role. It’s my job to ensure that the officers are upstanding members of the guild and any attack on the officers is an attack on my decision to make them officers in the first place, and my management of them while carrying out their role.
I’ll say it again for anyone who doesn’t yet realise. THIS IS NOT A DEDICATED RAID GUILD. This is actually a social community guild with a subsidiary raiding scene. Mostly referred to as a Social Raiding Guild, although that’s not entirely accurate due to the fact that the structure, i.e. ranks, bank system, membership requirements are completely independent on a guild member’s interest in raiding.
Anyone may join this guild as long as they don’t turn out to be toxic. They may be quiet, they may be loud, they may be highly skilled or they may be a 5 year old child playing with their big sister. It doesn’t matter to us, as long as they behave. From this pool of people we have managed to unearth some really superb people, some of whom have gone on to be great raiders aswell.
When I assist people to implement a team within the guild, I expect these values to be made clear to members of their team. It is a large part of the role of our raid leaders to ensure that people within their team are well aware that this community isn’t designed around their desires. Members of each team must become part of the Dambusters community. Some take time to feel part of it, others feel the warmth as soon as they get that green spam when they join. I always want a big welcome for new members to aid this process.
The Dambusters harbours some excellent and highly experienced people. Some have had their own guild leadership experiences and many have experienced different types of guild leadership. This guild has been through many tough times and has always come through the other side stronger than before. I have learned never to bend my will to the whims of others because eventually the guild loses it’s connection to me and feels disjointed. I need to always maintain strong influence and that starts with the officer team. If I don’t feel supported by every officer then I’m already beginning to make plans for changes. The road to success within this guild is through strong ties with me because in here I can fix almost anything. When people start to walk away from me then the guild shifts and I have learned not to allow that. It happens.
Central to my values of leading the guild is protection. The guild has been a labour of love for 1/4 of my life so deep set within my mantra is a strong desire to defend it’s existence. For that reason, subsidiary teams within the guild must never be allowed to overtake my own vision for the guild. I’ve been burned more than once by allowing teams to feel too big for the guild so my defence mechanism when this starts to happen is to insist that the raid leaders respect the way the guild operates and in return I will always elevate them and ensure they carry out their roles with freedom.
Ironwall..
I keep harping on about us having another raid team. I face derision and disbelief from some quarters so here’s my view of it so that people know how I see it. I have deliberately decided to create a 2-team raid scene on multiple occassions since the first experiment during patch 5.4 (Siege of Orgrimmar). The common argument among my detractors is “we can’t even get 20 regulars for Stonewrought” which is an understandable opinion on the surface of it. I’m looking at the bigger picture. In fact there is enough skilled raiders within the guild to create a full new raid team that if assembled today would immediately be competitive to the current Stonewrought team. People seem to believe that they know better than I do who we have in the guild. Of course there is no likelihood of Ironwall rising up today but that doesn’t mean I won’t be trying to make it happen over the coming weeks.
People need to realise that all it takes for another team to assemble is a raid leader who is capable and willing to dedicate some effort and spend time discussing with me how best to select a team, decide on raid times and get to work. It’s not in plain sight so people can’t imagine it but remember I have done this and I will do it again. The benefits of having 2 teams is undoubtedly worth it.
Think about it, potentially double the roster pool size, more leadership, a competitive edge between the teams, constant communication between raid leaders of either team and myself as a conduit to keep things running smoothly. Raiders who can’t attend a certain schedule but who can attend another schedule. Raiders who are better suited to the other team and discussion on swapping raiders among the leaders. A Discord server full of 2 teams worth of raiders. Double Sexy Fridays where we could have up to 60 people bashing out normals then heroic farm, with potentially half of those numbers being made up of players getting to feel the sense of raiding and an opportunity to impress the respective raid leaders. Wednesday night races to see which team can blow their progressed content down the quickest. That will all happen if we can get a positive attitude towards this thing so put some faith in me because it will happen.
The Current Situation..
We are deep into a lull period in the game which is no fault of anyone in the guild. In fact we are one of the more active communities on this hige server so we can be quite proud. The raid leaders polled the Stonewrought team recently to find out who is available up until Christmas, that poll was met with apathy so we are now winding down progression raiding until after the new year. We will still be around tho, Sexy Friday will still happen and possibly gold boost runs as well as the usual Mythic+ activity. I have been working a lot but I now have a couple of weeks off work on the run up to Christmas. I have real life stuff to attend to but I also have a lot of free time so I am starting to recruit generally for the guild, not specifically for raiding. Specific raid recruitment is the remit of the raid leaders and anyone else who wants to do so is welcome to help out. I will, as always, recruit generally and will be hoping to find a gem or 2 by doing so.
In the meantime, all I ask is that everyone play the game the way you want to play the game. If this guild fits with your attitudes then great, if not then don’t make a song and dance about it, just find a place that suits you better. I will always be here trying to do the right thing for the Dambusters and we will always be around. I look forward to joining you all in game over the holidays and into next year where we will be gunning full steam ahead for Ny’alotha, the Waking City!
/Salute
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