The loss of Audacity

Today's post is in response to a thread actively going on since friday.  You can read the thread here.  Beware, it's past 25 pages as of today (it's only been three days!).

Here is the gist of what happened, based on what i've read and what i surmised as the truth.

Audacity is a guild on the Ravenholdt server, hordeside.  they're a fairly good raiding guild that has cleared normal content in approximately a month.  They were in direct competition with another guild on that server who used to get server firsts since Wrath called Shadows and Dust (now i love the name of this guild because it reminds us that we're not special snowflakes but just shadows and dust... taken from the Gladiator movie by Ridley Scott, but that's besides the point).   The core of the audacity raiding group took a break several months back to play League of Legends and basically neglected the guild. The guild leader promoted a great deal of people to Officer status and did not log back on the guild leader toon.  I do not know if he logged on alts just to level and chat and things, but he did not log on to the toon with the guild leader tag for over a month.  This allowed one of the officers to petition the GMs to make him the new guild leader.  after a successful guild leader switch, the new GL kicked everyone out of the guild, except maybe his alt or his friend.  then took as much gold, mats, gear, etc as they possibly can from the guild bank.  the guild bank looks like it had about 170K in gold.  The guild now sits as a stagnant level 25 guild with no activity. 

Now a bunch of the guildies who were kicked approached the ousted guild leader (possibly on an alt, or playing with them on another game, LofL, or by whatever means) to question why they were kicked out of the guild.  former guild leader logs back on to see that the guild has been taken from him and plundered.  then he made a thread about it on the wow forums, as linked above. 

Now i know how a guild can suffer from not having an active raiding group.  Mine was just the same for a while, but had solid members playing and contributing nonetheless. even still, there wasnt that much activity and zero progression as a guild.  even as a non-raiding member of the guild, i had a sense of belonging even if i did not participate in a guild first kill, or something similar.  i wanted to see my guild progress and be proud i was part of something that actually had success.  when my guild stopped raiding for a while, i felt no real desire to even log in or even felt good about my guild.  now, they're pushing to kill rags and hopefully enter into heroic version soon.  it leaves a good feeling.

The responses in the forums were basically split between two different opinions, while most ignore (or maybe accepted) the wrongdoing of the usurper.  One side believed that it was the responsibility of the GL to log on and actively lead the guild, otherwise, lose the guild to its members.  It is, after all, a group identity.  the guild was built by its people and that its leaders are there to constantly lead the people of the guild. the guild leader deserved to have his mantle stripped from him (no matter what happened after that).  The other side believed that the guild should not have to suffer such a "coup" or takeover like this and demanded Blizzard make some kind of restitution.  Hiatuses should be allowed and GLs should not be penalized for taking long times away, lest thieves break in and steal their stuffs, leaving the guild in a much worse state than before. 

I find clearly that playing a game like WoW is oftentimes involes taking on responsibility many do not want simply because many believe that this should just be a game.  However, it is a hobby for some (like other socially involved hobbies in real life, there comes a set of responsibilities attached and requires constant involvement, ie. reading club, bowling league).  Should one leader step down or stop being as active, another one should take their place. Since wow is a hobby of sorts, guild leadership often carries a heavy weight of responsibility that often negates the fun out of the game.  However, the responsibility or the act of doing the responsible tasks may, in and of itself, be just as fun for the guild leader.  Let the leaders lead and the followers follow.  And many derive fun from just killing things, or players.  And let those be the Raiders, or the PvPers, or the Members.  Of course, there are officers and whatnot, but lets keep things really simple for now.  The system works to a certain point.  Leaders find it fun to lead while followers find it fun to follow, and play the game at the same time.  Both consider this a game, however the leaders may find this game more of a hobby than the followers. 

Skip to the problem at hand, i find that the guild leader had not done everything he could have to prevent a takeover of his guild.  that is a fact.  i feel that the guild leader did a good job with the guild did well for the guild to notify his members that the "core raiders" will take a break and move on to do various things for a while.  this could have involved playing with alts, playing a new game, seeing the sunshine for once, etc.  but his intention was to keep his members, those who are not part of the core, interested in playing and staying in the guild until December when the next patch hits.  They had every opportunity to leave the guild and find a home elsewhere should they disagree with the path the guild is taking.  However, the members stuck around while the core just chilled somewhere, having some online presence but not really moving in any progressive direction. 

I feel there is nothing bad about the blizzard policy of replacing an inactive guild leader.  Whether or not guild leaders around the world knows about this rule is not the point.  When taking on responsibility to see the enjoyment of a group of people a guild leader decided they want to lead, that guild leader should understand all that goes into being a leader, including all of the rules blizzard has for replacing an inactive guild leader.  They have a responsibility to their guildies to do so.  So in the case linked above, blizzard has done nothing wrong.  they simply followed procedure.  whether it was known to others or whether it was for the benefit of "bad" people is irrelevant at this point.  the rules were followed.  that part is pretty clear.

However, i do not condone the actions of those who tried to take over leadership.  what they did was unacceptible, despicable, cruel and disgusting. They basically stole from the guild.  Although they themselves have stated that they took back what they believed they contributed from the bank, this seems very suspicious because not all the moneys can be accounted for.  Not only that, they took what others have also contributed, the others who were ousted/kicked, and called it their own because they somehow contributed to killing a mob that dropped a BoE.  They're basically saying they're owed the gold because they contributed some, but let them take other people's share too, because, well, they got kicked lol.  somthing like that.  let's not sugar coat what they did. it was stealing, showing that their responsibility was only to themselves. 

As unfortunate as this situation is, it shows just how people with no responsibility to the community can do when given nearly absolute power.  the phrase absolute power corrupts absolutely, and that with great power comes great responsiblity are key when analysing this incident.  here we see the evil that men can do to each other for the sake of gold and in-game materials.  in real life, we see a lot of this happening for tangible items like money, someone else's boyfriend, or status.  but in a game, even for something as small as in-game currency, we also see people stooping to such lows in order to get what they want.  And then they try to justify their actions.  i am not buying that.  claiming that the guild leader left is one thing, but then taking over the guild, kicking EVERYONE, then taking all the gold and items, claiming that your'e just taking back what you guys contributed, is totally different. 

For the guild that died and the people that made up its members, i hope everyone finds a new home. the loss of the guild is not just in gold or mats, but bank tabs, perks, acheivements, etc. all these things can be replaced with further hard work. sure, it's not the original guild, with the original acheivements, experiences, victories, hardships, etc.  but at least you can start anew and rebuild, this time with a better understanding of the dangers involed in being part of this game and its community.  i am pretty sure it wont be the same. it really will not be. it's much like going back to an ex that has cheated on you, it just will never be the same as it was.  good luck.

Resolution thread here.