Time to move on

Now that all that nastiness is behind us its to to more on. I've been thinking about this much over the last few days and I would say our biggest problem is that this is not GW1. Yes I know you're thinking "no duh Ratche" but what I mean is we came into this game expecting the guild to go on with business as usual in GW2, we didn't take into account that not only has the game changed, they way we have to approach it as a guild does. I am more then guilty of this, along with looking at GW1 with rose colored glasses. Don't get me wrong AoL in GW1 was great, I wouldn't have stuck around for 5+ years if it wasn't but the basic differences in this game means we have to change how we approach gw2 guilds.

Some things we should keep in mind when we decide what to do: The game structure itself lends to more solo action. In gw1 the only people you could talk to out in the field were in your alliance and now they have map chat everywhere. Also with the ability to be in more than one guild. All of these things lead to a less close knit guild. Also lets not forget that even at it's best we had maybe 25 really active people in AoL and I think that may be a bit generous, we remember it as better but it never really was.

So that begs the question what do we want to be? I think the core of AoL has always been casual, somewhat silly at times, friendly gaming. This has been our strength, and why when we get the kind of people who want to stay, here is what I propose:

1. OUr next big thing seems to be guild membership and I'm going to do a total 180 on what I've said before. we have alot of inactive/quiet members, but as long as we don't need the room it doesn't hurt anyone. That is where gw1 differs from the nature of gw2, with map chat and repping different guilds. What I would suggest is when we recruit, we spend a few minutes talking to the person, explain what AoL is, and what we want to see from members (something to be discussed in a different thread because this is already getting long)

2. I think we need to make the ability to get onto mumble, even if you don't talk a requirement for parties, If we are going to be successful at things like guild bounties, it's going to take alot of planning and trying t do it through chat doesn't work. also we may have to consider getting our own vent/mumble if we do start getting the kind of activity we would all like, Liar is great but if we start getting 20-30 people on at a time using their stuff, then we need to have our own.

3. I also think getting on to the boards is a requirement. If we want to do these things, or anything major we are going to need alot of planning and the only way to get that done is to come here.

4. I think we need to invite Neo back. while we all agree that posting Dayle's personal info is wrong, I think after dealing with Dayle the last week I can see where the frustration came from. Neo is a founder of our guild and even if he is not active he gets a place somewhere.

5. There are other things but I'm going to finish this with the whole "legendary" thing. I don't know what the deal with that was, it sounds like it was a condition for Dayle to turn over the reins. Personally I don't like it. I've been with AoL longer than anyone active and I can only think of 2-3 truly legendary people, and as much as I like them most of the people are not what I would call legendary. I would suggest we turn that rank into the hall of fame, which I feel more correctly represents what it is, because for some reason it just rubs me the wrong way as it is. I think it looks pretentious. especially considering all of them are inactive. Just thinking how I would see something like that if I joined another guild.

6. as I've said their are a few more things that could be brought up but I think this is a good start and I'd like your opinions on this stuff and anything else you feel is important.


Anyway I wanted to say more but I think this is probably more than enough for a start I would suggest an officer mumble meeting, where hopefully we can find a time we can all get together.

Finally I want to thank all of you for what you've done for AoL, and for being a pretty great bunch of guys. I personally wanted to strangle Dayle this week and for those of you who put up with him, I applaud you. The good thing about all of this is it got me thinking, and I don't want to presume but Beau, I think you don't really want to be leader, and after all this I think I do. I'm not trying to push you out, if you want to lead then I am happy to follow you!!!!!!!! (more != more sincere) But if you don't want to lead AoL I would be happy to do it.

Finally (again) I have no hard feelings against Dayle, I want him in AoL and if anyone gets rid of him, as long as I have the ability I would invite him back. He and I have been friends for years, and 1 bad week doesn't change that.

@Legendary
Beau just renames it to "Honorary Members" and it makes sense, and I, for one, am fine with it.

@Forum use
I think this will be more naturally occurring due to guild missions, but-as I've told Beau yesterday-we need to get officers to start event sign-ups on the forums and proclaim these events to the guild (e.g. Fractals, guild mission times, WvW, pent/shelt farming, etc.).

@VoIP
Zero proposed "C3" or some such program to use, free, instead of Mumble.

P.S. I love to hear that this past week hasn't shunned off Dayle as a member in your eyes!

one requesti had was to keep legendary as it was

well i want it to read so that people who dont know us know that we were old aol payers

I don't want to take if from you if you want it Beau, I can support you. Basically either way. Dayle, the legendary is pretentious, hall of fame works better in my opinion, because lets face it, I can think of maybe two or three people I could consider legendary, and most of the people you chose don't deserve that title. Akroma, Kiera, and maybe Vogo.

I agree that Legendary as a name is bad, but the idea of it is good. It should be Hall of Fame. As for whether Ratche or Beau leads the guild, I support AoL. Both are great members of the guild and either will lead the guild in a great way. AoL forever!

I don't see what's wrong with calling it Honorary Member...

Hall of Fame sounds more like a location, not a rank name.

Honestly I think the current name is fine. It matches the theme. We could also call it Honorary Warband.

I like it Beau but we're getting side-tracked. Lets head back to your officer thread and iron out that stuff.

I don't think legendary is an appropriate title. Maybe...Emissary? Envoy? Something spiritual or whatever. The only people deserving of the title should be folks who no longer play the game (Vogo, Akroma, Kiera, Amer etc.)

But it is time to move on I think we're at a point where we need to look at how we can use the tools at our disposal to make the best guild possible - forgive me for not reading your responses careful (I just wanted to jump back in after my absence) - I think being able to organize guild missions as well as being able to be a member of more than one guild should be something we think on - we can't confine ourselves to what we're used to.