My Corner of the Interweb

Switching Guilds

Mood: Could use a few more days of vacation...
Music: Like the Way I Do, Melissa Ethridge.
Game: World of Warcraft, Planetside, Auto Assault Beta, Dungeon Siege II.
Book: Nothing.
Muffin: None.
Punchline: The punchline is that I'm removing this next entry.

On Saturday morning, I was invited to join The Syndicate. If you go along with the hype, they're the oldest and longest running MMO Guild in existence. Truthfully, I do believe it. They are remarkably well-organized for a guild or clan, and given that they've been together for over eight years, it's a fairly impressive task. They have hundreds of members, and have corporate sponsorship and relationships with members of the game developers community.

Their membership includes airline pilots, SWAT Team members, Navy sailors, husbands and wives, machinists...in short, a large group of mature gamers.

A few weeks ago, when no one from ijsmp was playing WoW, I was having some trouble. Almost all MMOs run better when you're playing with a group of people. Soloing, while possible, isn't where I get my enjoyment. I was vaguely grumbling about the fact that I was the only one in WoW for days on end, when Abyss and Southern, two guys I've gamed with before, and friends for a while, said I should give The Syndicate a try.

They were both part of Concentrated Evil, and Southern was ijsmp-ish, WSBW, and a friend for years. So I applied. I figured if no one from ijsmp was going to play, I wanted to continue to play, and I wasn't going to go the Star Wars Galaxies route of not ever playing with anyone. Abyss explained that The Syndicate probably wasn't what I thought. I didn't ever have to raid if I didn't want to, there was no major requirements...and the folks there were pretty cool.

After looking into it, I applied. Why not? The worst thing that could happen was that I would get accepted.

Now, I'm solid ijsmp. That means that my "gaming loyalty" is with the fellas there. Thorn, Smitty, Jeho, Corporate, Tator, Nee-Hah, Billko, the rest of 'em. We've gamed, laughed, and competed with each other for years now. We're friends. Some of us are closer than others, but the truth is that I can't think of a better group of guys to laugh and hang with, online or off.

The Syndicate does not allow a member to belong to any other Guild in any game in which they have presence. Since their total reach right now is Ultima Online and World of Warcraft, this isn't really an issue for me and ijsmp. The Syndicate expects me to side with them on all conflicts regarding the Guild. I have no issue with that. I understand why this sort of thing is a policy. The Syndicate isn't exactly short on rules...but I think that their rules, while sounding a bit overly serious, are actually pretty good ideas when you have a guild with hundreds of members. It prevents the drama that all too often destroys clans and Guilds...or at least minimizes it.

Anyway, last Tuesday, I got notice that I was being considered for admission, and I had questions and such to answer, and I got asked if I still wanted to be in. I wrote to Smitty and Firethorn, and hashed it all out.

I told Smitty and Firethorn that I had applied. I explained that I simply didn't want to play WoW by myself, and it didn't look like anyone was coming back. After a conversation, the general feeling was that I should apply, and if I get in, I should go for it...no one knew how long anyone would be playing, and if The Syndicate were cool, maybe a few folks from ijsmp would apply. Smitty was apprehensive about a restrictive Guild, Thorn wondered if they were all that different from us...except that they had hundreds of people. But we agreed that it wouldn't change anything with any of us, and so I said I was interested.

On Saturday morning, I got accepted. So I logged on, and told Firethorn...who removed me from Concentrated Evil at my request. Shortly thereafter, a Syndicate squadleader invited me into The Syndicate, and I accepted. I no longer had a CE tag over my head, and my tabard wasn't green and gold. I have to admit, it felt pretty weird...but nothing changed during playing...except that I couldn't use /guild to chat with the guys I was playing with...and occasionally someone would type something in Guild, and when I'd ask what was going on, Smitty quietly passed me the message in Tells. I also mistakenly used Guildchat a few times to tell the fine members of the Syndicate out of context things.

I didn't want to make an issue of the whole shifting Guilds with the ijsmp guys. I wasn't exactly ashamed...but I wasn't 100% comfortable. I'm not sure everyone noticed...but I know Jeho did. He didn't say anything...but he said so in his blog this morning.

Now, Jeho and I aren't exactly close. We don't see eye to eye on some things. His style of playing doesn't match mine in most cases. And to put not too fine a point on it, I sometimes feel like I'm not exactly welcome to play with him. He doesn't usually communicate with me directly, and when he plans stuff, I'm not usually included, except as an afterthought, or when I'm absolutely needed for whatever reason. In short, he treats me civilly, as you'd treat a co-worker who you don't exactly dislike, but don't much care about, either.

I could say that I'm upset about this, or offended...but I'm not. Jeho is Jeho. Always has been. We're simply just not that close. In any group of friends, some folks are closer than others. I'd like if it were possible for us to be better friends, but I'm not even sure what to do about it. In any case, I only mention this because of what his perception of the situation is. While he and I aren't close, he's a pretty perceptive guy, and he picked up on it quickly...where other members of CE still haven't noticed. I didn't discuss my leaving CE with Jeho mainly because I was pretty sure he was on his way out of the game.

He believes I left CE...the truth is that CE ceased to exist. He thinks I want to raid. I don't. That hasn't changed. He also thinks that I simply want people to play with...and that IS true. While Smitty and I, and to a lesser extent, Firethorn, are increasing our World of Warcraft time, everyone else is decreasing theirs...some people haven't logged in to the game in over two months. They're not coming back.

I can't do anything I'd want to do with just three players...so I need a pool with whom I can play.

I pointed out to Firethorn that it's been over six months before we even remotely considered someone to join ijsmp. We aren't out there meeting new gamers, new players, new friends. This is not necessarily a bad thing...but it's not necessarily good, either. We should always be on the lookout for new friends and gamers. As new MMOs and other digital worlds are formed and take shape, it is friendships that make exploring and forging new ground possible.

While the core of ijsmp isn't going anywhere, it would be in our best interest to start exploring the landscape and meeting new people.

Last night, I ran an instance with The Syndicate, and made some new friends. Some of them are very funny, and very cool. And that's why we game online. To entertain ourselves, yes, but also to meet new people, form friendships.

ijsmp stopped doing that in World of Warcraft...so I picked up the ball and decided to keep it going. Yes, it's not all selfless. I DO want to keep playing, and I can't rely on the fellas to always be around to play when I want to play. But it's also so that there will be support for ijsmp in World of Warcraft. And as long as I'm playing, and I'm a member of The Syndicate, there always will be.

So in short, I'm now a member of The Syndicate, and a member of ijsmp...but no longer a member of Concentrated Evil, the Guild I helped found.

I've done the best I could to minimize the drama while trying to continue to enjoy the game, and meet new friends. I suppose only time will tell if I've been successful.

Posted by Glenn at September 6, 2005 09:46 AM