Moving Forward/The Future, the Tindi flame war and more...

I thought about posting this on our forums, but I thought that I would make you all click a link to read this...mostly so you could laugh at my inability to spell the server name upon launching the guild...and so some of our newer peeps could see some of the guild's history. I just said peeps. That's right homes.

I've been thinking a lot about the discussions of "progressing" and whatnot. As I think about the future, I think our goal should be to build a core of players for WotLK and taking down Naxx 2.0. That's not to say that I'm throwing in the towel on BC. Far from it. I think that we have a very talented core of people--and more importantly, a friendly and funny group of people. If we had the group that we've had at BC launch, we would have been able to raid 3 nights a week and be in BT/Hyjal.

The reality is that "catching up" at this point would require more than we can give. While I think that we can still see some of the cool things BC has to offer (anyone up for just devoting ourselves to TK and killing Kael before TL can figure it out?), I think that it's important for us to look at the big picture and see that in the long run, we're going to be in a great position for "progression" when the starting line gets reset with the expansion.

As for the flame war with TL... I had no idea that one snarky comment would turn into what it did. I know that not everyone approves of my methods--but at the same time, I hope that you all appreciate that I wasn't going to let Falein's attitude go unanswered. For a guild that geared him up and taught him how to play his class (we still have the best hunter on the server), he was particularly grateful.

Piernuda's lolresponse to me was really the fuel for the fire. The C*ntspawn comment...fish in a barrel. The "this fucking says here" line from Piernuda...incredibly ill-considered and all I needed to go to realm forums. I can't imagine how insecure she had to feel given how easily I dismissed her authority over a "progression" guild.

For those of you who ever take a game theory class...this is a good example of escalation with an undeterrable party. You really don't want to choose "escalate" with them.

It's good to know that they're a time bomb that is ticking towards implosion. Anyone want to bet on a date? When we beat them to killing Kael? (That'd be so awesome. Very improbable, but awesome.)

I'm also amused that our demise is being rumored. I'm happy if we're giving people something to talk about. Because the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

Finally, on a more personal note...I'm really happy to see that we're still killing stuff without me. The past two months have found themselves with a lot of personal demands. I hope that it means something that I live the "casual" part of the guild. I encourage all of you to do the same.

As far as my leadership goes--I've always felt that leaders work best when they take care of big-picture stuff... basically provide a vision. When you start micromanaging too much, you go from leading to dictating. I'm comfortable doing the former, not the latter (insert evil dictator joke here.) I'm honest enough to realize that I'm not your prototypical GM (and even less so raid leader) and that if I took a different style of leadership, that we might be a boss or three further than we are right now. (Maybe.)

I also realize that being a leader means disagreeing with people and basically not acting on what they bring to you. I'm pretty sure that Thrash hates me because I refused to change in a way that was beneficial to him. It's easy to call someone like that stubborn and a poor leader...and within his paradigm where a guild's success is measured by progression, I would be lucky to receive more than minimally passing grades. I think what ate him and Yurmom/Imdone/Falein... and even Eviscerate to some extent...up is that I know this, and they're smart enough to know that I'm smart enough to know this. Some people can't live with someone making a conscientious choice that so materially differs with them.

Basically, I'm trying to provide an insight into how I'm looking at things both in the short-term and the long-term. I make no bones about who I am and what I think the guild should be...and that we're going to stick to the values that we created the guild to serve.

While a change in values could get us further as far as in-game content goes now, it would also come with its costs that some of our best and most loyal players aren't willing to bear. If we take a look at the big picture--who we have now and the fact that you can log on and play a game with people who choose to play it because of who they play it with--there's every reason to think that we'll have a lot of "progression" success in the expansion. This is where my vision is focused. Anything we do between now and then is simply gravy.

Your conventional WoW leader might look at % of raids attended...who hasn't downloaded Omen (I see that every time I look in the mirror)...tons of boss fight videos...raiders' specs...etc. I look at this sort of big picture stuff. Contrary to popular opinion in guild chat (I know they're all jokes), I try to lead...and not to dictate.